Hannah Chequer-Queiroz ’12

I was born on Vitoria, a small island off of Brazil’s eastern coast and my education has always had an international flair to it: I briefly attended boarding school in Switzerland; started college in Sao Paulo, Brazil; lived in Tokyo, Japan; and then transferred to AUP.   

One of my friends had been studying at AUP for a year and I soon discovered that AUP was the perfect balance of an American education with a European location, that I’d been searching for. After researching its Film department, AUP was my top choice, and the campus tour I went on after being accepted showed me that this was a place that I could really call home.  

Despite knowing that I wanted to study Film, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of course options. I remember bringing a giant list of classes that I wanted to take to my first meeting with my Academic Advisor, Natalie Debroise, who was incredibly helpful, and I soon saw that no matter the class, each professor demanded the same, high level of excellence; I was in good hands. 

I learned a lot about myself through learning about other people. Diversity is a concept that is discussed and respected a great deal at AUP and empathy is a skill that we’re expected to exercise. I loved the sense of community and the safety I felt here gave me the confidence to take greater risks, academically and professionally, and still pushes me to go further than I would have imagined. There were things I thought I could never do but that I soon realized were well within my grasp. I learned to let go of a lot of my preconceived notions, which I think is crucial to pursuing a career in the arts.

I can honestly say that studying cinema in Paris is an unforgettable privilege. My favorite thing to do when it rained was to find shelter in the art museums and use my free student pass to peruse the collections. I also loved practicing French: I lived with a Parisian host family for a while, who gave me a very comfortable home environment, which also made it easier to focus on my studies. My professors always knew about the latest exhibits and shows and I loved our group outings, which allowed me to visit unexpected locales both in and out of Paris.  

I still speak with my best friends from AUP on a daily basis and even if we see other infrequently, it feels like no time whatsoever has passed. AUP’s faculty are always ready to help and are still happy to hear from me. My senior advisor, Professor Alice Craven, helped me a lot after graduation, as did one of my all-time favorite professors, Lawrence Pitkethly, a.k.a., the Complete Encyclopedia of Film History (Human Edition).  

I currently live in L.A., where I mostly work as an independent producer for film and television. My first job here was with a webseries called Emma Approved, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, which won a Primetime Emmy for Interactive Programming. I received a Lady Filmmakers award for a script that I wrote and my senior thesis became the subject of a course study at the Federal University of Espirito Santo in Brazil, where I went to discuss some of my ideas with the class. I’m now producing a series that I acquired in Brazil, written by the same director whose work got me to the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, where some of my AUP classmates were also working. I’ll soon be taking the first steps towards creating my own production company, which will promote cultural diversity in filmmaking and give a greater platform to new talent.  

My night job? Plotting to find work in Paris so that I can come back!