Jorge W. Atalla

Jorge Wolney Atalla Junior, (June 10, 1969), film director, holds a degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree in business from the Business School Lausanne, Switzerland, moved to New York to study film at the New York Film Academy in 1999 after a one year intensive film program. In 2000, Atalla returned to Brazil and began filming his first feature-length documentary, In Cane for Life (A Vide em Cana), which portrays the difficulties of working in the sugarcane fields. The director practically lived with hundreds of workers over a period of six months to be able to capture the essence and human nature of the cutters. The film screened at 56 film festivals in 11 countries and won 14 awards and nine were for best documentary, including a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy. In 2002, Atalla began working on the documentary Sequestro. The director spent the first two years looking for partners and sponsors for the project, but as the type of crime covered in the documentary was at its peak, few had the courage to accept the challenge. After receiving the necessary permits from the mayor's and governor's office to make the film, came the grueling period of convincing the Anti-Kidnapping Division to let him into their circle. He spent the next year just talking to the officers. Filming finally began in late 2005 and ended in May 2009. Atalla lived six years in the United States, seven years in Europe and one in Japan, speaks fluently English, Potuguese, French, Spanish, Italian and some Japanese. Atalla is also President of the Brazilian Red Cross, São Paulo State Branch. Two degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu JItsu, an airplane and helicopter licensed pilot.