On My Radar: Juliana Curi

What is the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?

It’s not recent, but I only came across this work recently. It’s a 2022 international project, Save Ralph, for Humane Society International — a global movement to ban animal testing for cosmetics. It’s a stop-motion short film featuring Taika Waititi and Ricky Gervais.

I love when advertising is truly focused on social impact — that’s also the focus of my own work. I always say that social impact doesn’t have to be that low-budget, institutional kind of documentary. It can be disruptive and sophisticated, both narratively and in its execution. And this piece is a perfect example of that for me. 

What website(s) do you use most regularly?

Atmos Magazine is a nonprofit media organisation focussed on the intersection of climate and culture, with a unique perspective on re-enchanting people with nature. I go there to follow global climate movements while also observing how the natural world is the most sophisticated form of art and intelligence.

I also regularly follow Mídia Ninja — a Brazilian independent and collaborative media network that proposes new ways of doing journalism outside the logic of traditional media, with a strong connection to social causes and not tied to economic power. My work carries a strong social perspective, so I rely on independent media to stay grounded and keep a more balanced sense of what’s actually happening. 

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought?

I recently subscribed to the Criterion Channel app. I’ve been revisiting films that shaped me and discovering other classic gems. It keeps me close to what led me to become a director in the first place.

What product could you not live without?

Coconut water to refresh, and red nail polish to lift my spirit. 

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

It Was Just an Accident, one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and it brought me back to Iranian cinema. I rewatched Taste of Cherry after decades, and once again was amazed by the sweetness, rawness, poetry and disruption of Abbas Kiarostami.

I’m now immersed again in his filmography — The Wind Will Carry Us, Where Is the Friend’s House? — and also obsessed with his creative process, especially the film he shot in Japan without speaking a single word of Japanese (Like Someone in Love). His cinema is a major reference for me. 

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Any filmography made by or about Indigenous causes helps illuminate possible paths forward, at a time when collapse threatens to swallow us. Many of the world’s remaining, intact forests are on Indigenous lands — supporting Indigenous causes is essential to preventing the climate crisis from escalating.

So, I’ll be a bit biased and say Uýra – The Rising Forest, my feature film, haha. It’s a biopic of Uýra, a young Indigenous trans artist who uses her art to teach Amazonian youth how to fight for their territory. Uýra shows us that at the root of all struggles is the fight for Mother Earth.

But also, I would say The Pearl Button by Patricio Guzmán. Guzmán connects the colonial past and the death of Indigenous peoples to the more recent violence of the dictatorship, marked by deaths and forced disappearances. It’s a powerful reflection on the cyclical nature of violence and the importance of memory. 

What’s your preferred social media platform?

I’ve been migrating to Substack, moving away from short-form content that feels cognitively exhausting and towards longer, more in-depth reading. 

What’s your favourite TV show?

I love how The Morning Show portrays contemporary women navigating the most pressing issues of our time. 

What’s your favourite podcast?

Radio Savia is a Spanish-language podcast that travels across Latin America, interviewing women who are guardians of ancestral knowledge, sharing wisdom that is no longer part of our contemporary daily lives, from sacred plants to Day of the Dead rituals. It feels like stepping into another time. 

What have you been most inspired by recently?

Carnival. Being in Brazil this year for Carnival, after many years away, was deeply inspiring. There’s something powerful in its political and symbolic dimension. In a productivity-driven world, it’s magical to see an entire country pause and dive into a collective, playful experience — people dressing up and taking to the streets at 9am on a Monday.

To see public spaces, so often marked by violence, taken over by celebration. It represents a collective sense of life. It really feels like a slap in the face of this burnout society. 

If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?

Latinoamérica by Calle 13. It’s a song I can listen to when I go for a run in the morning, to energise before a shoot, or to connect with deeper feelings of belonging and Latin American ancestry. Totó la Momposina, Susana Baca and Maria Rita — three powerful Latin American female voices — are also featured, and it’s always moving when their voices come in so powerfully. 

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

The shocking gap between male and female directors in this industry. We’ve seen important progress within agencies, with women occupying key positions, and we’re also seeing women and diverse voices gaining more space in cinema. But in the advertising film industry, opportunities remain extremely unequal — especially for high-budget projects. 

Who or what has most influenced your career?

Social cinema and, more generally, social movements have shaped and continue to guide my perspective. They exemplify how film can influence and shape society, and that’s what drives me as a film director and as a human being.

From Italian neorealism, with powerful films like Bicycle Thieves [below], to Brazil’s Cinema Novo and the Mexican Muralism movement, all the way to contemporary directors and artists like Ana Mendieta, Grada Kilomba, Lucrecia Martel, Ryan Coogler, and Alejandro González Iñárritu.