Paula Palacios
Paula Palacios was born in Madrid in 1983. Already at the
age of 5 she discovered her passion for art and began
studying flamenco dance. Later in her life she attended the
National School of Drama Cristina Rota in Madrid. In 2004
she moved to Paris, where she finished her studies at the
Cinema department in the French University of Paris 8.
There, Ms. Palacios co-directed her first short movie
Papouasie Dream, as well as actively participated in the
cultural life of the city.
In April 2006 she opened her own production company in
Paris – Palacios Films (www.palaciosfilms.com) The
following year she produced and directed her first
documentary Women without a Pause, a 52’ film about the
different ways to live menopause around the world
(www.womennopause.com). Being unique in its genre with its sociological insight, the
documentary has gained popularity and has won several awards at international festivals.
Paula is not only limited to directing and in 2010 she participated as Director of Photography in
Bara, l’hôpital de la réconciliation. This documentary was shot in Soweto, Johannesburg, and
it was released to the French channel Public Sénat briefly before the South African Football
World Cup.
In 2012 Palacios Films in co-production with Al-jazeera Documentary Channel released a
Trilogy about the Hadzabe tribe of Tanzania, The Last Hunter, produced and directed by Paula,
at the same time that she directed her first feature length documentary about the difficult
situation of women refugees in Eastern Europe: New Walls (www.newalls.com). She cooperated
with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Spanish Women and Health
Foundation and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ukraine. By the end of 2012 Paula Palacios
finishes the direction of a 52’ documentary film about Islam in Ethiopia.
Her new feature length documentary Ali’ens (Somalis in Transit) (www.ali-ens.com)
produced by Aljazeera Documentary Channel with the support of UNHCR will be released in
2013, as well as a documentary about the Zanzibar Revolution, The Shortest War in History.
In addition, Ms. Palacios has participated in other documentaries as camerawoman, as jury
member at the international film festivals and has organized documentary trainings at the
international level.