Manuela Serra studied cinema at the Institut des Arts et Diffusion (IAD), in Brussels, Belgium, from 1971 to 1974. She worked as assistant editor (archive material, events from 1974-75) for the film Deus, Pátria, Autoridade. She was a founding member of the Cinema Cooperative Virver, until she left in 1981. By that time, she’d worked as a producer and assistant director for several medium-length films and for Rui Simões’s film, Bom Povo Português. Between 1979 and 1985, she produced, directed, and wrote the screenplay for her first work, O Movimento das Coisas In 1990, she began writing the screenplay for a second film, “Swell”, which ended up not being approved.