University of Denver Fall 2023

“It’s just such an amazing opportunity to come here and learn, [to] be able to work and apply all the knowledge that I’ve gotten.”

Débora Rocha from Brasília, Brazil

DÉBORA ROCHA A lifelong storyteller, Débora Rocha spent her time at the University honing her skills, earning a bachelor’s degree in film studies and production. Growing up in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, Rocha looked to American cinema for inspiration. “I grew up watching [Hollywood movies],” she says. “If I go there, I can learn how to do it from them. So, I always knew that I wanted to come here to study.” Before she was set on filmmaking—in fact, before she could read or write, Rocha says, she has been coming up with stories. “Since I was a really young kid, I would tell my mom those stories that I made up. I'd be super excited,” she says, often telling her mother, “Please, you need to write it down!” And once she discovered film, she knew that was how she wanted to tell her stories. Looking to learn the ins and outs of the film industry, Denver was not the first city to come to mind. “I was thinking about going either to New York or Los Angeles,” she says. “Those are places where people make movies.” But with family in Littleton, she visited DU and fell in love with the film production program. Throughout her four years of film studies, Rocha explored all sides of production: scriptwriting, cinema tography and editing. She directed a short narrative film, “Party Quest,” and edited and produced the short documentary, “Behind the Beat,” which explores Denver’s bass music scene, among other projects.

Minoring in marketing and theatre, Rocha says, helped to round out her education. “That was such a good com bination for a film major,” she says. “From marketing your story and knowing how to advertise, how to sell your ideas and how to pitch it, to the construction of emotion and understanding how people make stories.” Since graduating, Rocha landed an internship with PopShift, an organization that specializes in connecting storytellers throughout the film industry with experts and people with stories to tell. “I think it's so exciting because you get to see, the background—how things work—and understanding how things come to be,” she says. Hoping to leverage her skills to work in the film industry, she’s looking forward to opportunities to produce and edit in the future. Looking back, Rocha says, her four years on campus were full of unique experiences and opportunities. “Even though I'm 22, and I don't feel like I'm exactly a complete grown up, I still feel like I've done so much growth after I moved here,” she says. “And it's just such an amazing opportunity to come here and learn, [to] be able to work and apply all the knowledge that I've gotten.”

Photos by Wayne Armstrong

FALL 2023 • UNIVERSITY of DENVER MAGAZINE | 29