is an award winning
director and producer,
who has dedicated her career
to the craft of
documentary storytelling.

As a Producer, she’s collaborated with the industry’s top Directors and Executive Producers including Academy Award Winners Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi (Free Solo, Meru), Emmy Winner Judd Ehrlich (The Price of Freedom, We Could Be King), Tribeca Film Festival founder Paula Weinstein (Blood Diamond, The Perfect Storm), Pagan Harleman (Showtime’s ‘The Trade’), Matthew Galkin (CNN’s ‘Inside Man’) and Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken).

The Price of Freedom, the most recent film she produced, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021, screened in hundreds of theaters nationwide, scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was picked up by CNN FILMS for national broadcast without commercial interruption. The film explores how the NRA, originally a nonpartisan sporting enthusiasts’ organization, evolved into a politically influential force that has shaped American policy and culture for more than five decades, and features interviews with President Bill Clinton, Congresswoman Lucy McBath, Former NRA President David Keene, Senator Chris Murphy, Activists Nicole Hockley, X Gonzalez, and Fred Guttenberg, and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

In 2019, Elena made her feature length directorial debut with the sci-fi documentary, I AM HUMAN, (together with Taryn Southern). The film follows three of  the worlds first ‘cyborgs’ as they receive brain-computer interfaces.  After world premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, it went on to receive numerous awards (including Best Director from Oslo Film Fest) and praise from publications such as Wired, The Verge, People, CBS News, The Big Think, and Forbes.  The film can be viewed on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and other platforms.

Elena’s unique identities as a tri-lingual, first generation Brazilian-American, native Nantucket Islander, and proud New Yorker, all come together to inform her craft. She strives to promote social justice, racial equity, historical reckonings, feminism, and climate justice in all of her work.  In 2021 and 2022, Elena is a selected speaker at the prestigious Conference of World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado.

 While studying film at Vassar College, Elena followed four undocumented teenagers as they navigated the path to college. This work became her first short film, which won Best Student Documentary at Cannes. 

She resides with her husband, Kenneth, and her adopted cat Missy, in Brooklyn, NY. She speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish.