Natalia Leite is an award-winning Brazilian writer and director. Her feature film debut Bare premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 and was released in US theaters by IFC and by Paramount Pictures. She is a frequent contributor to Vice Media and a co-creator of the web seriesBe Here Nowish. Her second feature film, M.F.A., premiered at SXSW in 2017 and was nominated for a Grand Jury Award. Her work has been described as having “a bracing, assertive style” and as “cementing the reign over highly stylized, sexually progressive dramas”.
Early life
Leite was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. She later studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2006, Leite moved to New York City where she began writing, directing, and producing her own microbudget short films, which have screened in festivals internationally and began her career showcasing drawings, photography, and art films in galleries.
Career
Leite has directed documentaries for Vice Media, including the show Every Woman, where she lived and worked as a stripper in a truck-stop in New Mexico, which she discovered while location scouting for Bare. Leite co-created and starred in the web-series Be Here Nowish along with Alexandra Roxo. The show is about two sexually progressive NY gals who ditch their down-and-out lives for LA in search of a spiritual awakening. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 to positive reviews. Frequently collaborating with Kyp Malone, Leite starred in the music video "Million Miles" for TV On The Radio. Malone then went on to create the original score for the feature film Bare. Leite has been a guest panelist at New York Women in Film and Television, Apple Store Talks, and Independent Filmmaker Conference. Leite's directorial debut, Bare, stars Dianna Agron, Paz de la Huerta, Chris Zylka, and Louisa Krause. Bare premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 to positive reviews and was bought shortly after by IFC for domestic theatrical distribution and by Myriad Pictures for international. Upon its premiere, Film Journal wrote "An award-winning director, Leite's portrait of Sarah's quest for identity is riveting for its storytelling and its direction." Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times wrote "Director Natalia Leite brings an emotional intelligence and sensitivity to Bare." Bare tells the story of a young girl in Nevada who becomes romantically involved with a female drifter who introduces her to a life of stripping, drugs, and psychedelic experience, and teaches her what happens when real life catches up with dark fantasy. The film played the closing night at Frameline in San Francisco and had its international premiere at the British Film Institute in March 2016. Leite's second feature film M.F.A. premiered at SXSW in March 2017 and was nominated for a Grand Jury Award. The film stars Francesca Eastwood, Clifton Collins Jr., and Peter Vack. M.F.A. is a psychological thriller centered around rape crimes in a university and one art student who seeks revenge. The film holds a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Personal life
Leite is gay, and often deals with sexuality in her works.
