THRIVE: The courage to forge your own path

What does it take to stand by your convictions when life takes you somewhere unexpected? To get back up, change direction and find a new way forward?

These are the questions at the heart of THRIVE, an intimate, visually ambitious documentary project exploring the audacious spirit of women who have chosen to build extraordinary lives on their own terms.

For Nauan Barros, the project is deeply personal. Having pursued her own creative ambitions despite obstacles and encouragement to follow a more conventional (safer) career, she knows what it takes to stay true to a dream. It’s an experience many in the creative industries will recognise, and one that inspired her long-held ambition to tell the stories of women who have found the courage to forge their own paths.

Then, in November 2020, with the UK in lockdown and an impending house move proving impossible to organise, Nauan decided to escape to Fuerteventura for a few weeks. But travel restrictions meant that her short stay unexpectedly stretched to eight months…! Knowing no one when she arrived, Nauan gradually discovered a new community and signed up for aerial acrobatics classes, where she met Johanna. It was a remarkable moment of serendipity: a decision to leave the UK, circumstances that kept her on the island, and the unexpected time and space to develop the documentary series she had long dreamed of creating. In Johanna, THRIVE had found its first protagonist.

Johanna’s determination to make a difference had led her into politics in Vienna at just 16. By 18, she had secured a seat in the District Parliament. Later, working with refugees, she confronted the frustrations of trying to create meaningful change within established systems.

Rather than abandoning her convictions, Johanna found another way to act on them.

Moving to Fuerteventura, she began building a community around aerial acrobatics, eventually teaching aerial acrobatics and helping empower girls and women through movement.

Her journey embodies something central to THRIVE: that courage isn’t always about pushing harder along the same road. Sometimes it’s about having the conviction to choose another.

Through striking landscapes, expressive movement, original music and cinematic storytelling, the project aims to explore the emotional worlds behind these remarkable decisions. Rather than relying on conventional interviews, Nauan uses the island’s dramatic landscape and Johanna’s physical artistry to tell a more intimate, visual story.

Now Nauan and her team are crowdfunding to complete the pilot, with the ambition of securing backing to develop THRIVE into a documentary series.

The funding will support the finishing work that brings a film fully to life, including original music, colour grading, graphics, visual effects and sound post-production.

Looking beyond the pilot, Nauan hopes to take THRIVE to film festivals and develop further stories, including those of women navigating even greater social and economic constraints in different parts of the world.

At Blueberry, we’re delighted to support Nauan as she pursues this project. We believe in championing the creative ambitions of our talent, especially when those ambitions open up new perspectives and stories worth sharing.

THRIVE is a celebration of women who keep going, keep questioning and keep finding their own way.

The team is inviting supporters to contribute, share the campaign and help the first film reach the finish line.

Discover THRIVE and support the pilot.

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The crowdfunding campaign runs until 12 November 2026.