Shaped
in Mud
A documentary portrait of André Dos Santos — a man whose life has been sculpted by circumstance, resilience, and the quiet refusal to be erased.
Feature documentary · In production · 2026
Some people are made by the world.
Some are made despite it.— Title card from the film
01 · The Subject
A man, glimpsed — in motion, mid-thought, between moments.
André was born to a city that didn't notice him. The film does not narrate his life. It sits beside it. It listens for the small refusals — a door left slightly open, an eye catching afternoon light, a hand pressed into wet earth.
We follow him through three years and one apartment. No voiceover. No explanatory text. Only André, and the warm grain of 16mm that holds him without flinching.
Directed by Brume Mukoro · Cinematography on 16mm Kodak Vision3 500T · Edited in Lisbon and Brooklyn.
Visual lineage
Moonlight
Barry Jenkins, 2016
Palette and the patience of light on skin.
13th
Ava DuVernay, 2016
Observational stillness. Faces given time.
16mm Portraiture
the documentary tradition
Warmth, grain, and the dignity of imperfect frames.