Helena Solberg began her career with the Cinema Novo movement. Her first films, The Interview and Noon, were shot in the 1960s. Over the years, she directed and produced more than 17 feature-length documentaries about Latin America and Brazil. Her film From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today  received the prestigious National Emmy Award. In 1994, she directed Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business, which was released theatrically in the US and Brazil, was invited to numerous festivals, and won several trophies. She directed the feature film Diary of a Provincial Girl, a big winner at the Gramado Film Festival, where she received six Kikitos, including Best Film. In 2009, she released the feature-length documentary Palavra (En)cantada, which won Best Director at the Rio International Film Festival. In 2013, she released the documentary Our Stories, Ourselves, co-directed with David Meyer, which won Best Film at the 4th Cine Fest Brasil – Montevideo and Best Documentary at the Natal Film Festival that same year. He directed the documentary Meu Corpo, Minha Vida, about the issue of abortion in Brazil, produced in 2017. His most recent film is the feature film Um Filme Para Beatrice, a 2023 biopic. His work has been the subject of retrospectives at the CCBB in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, Pirenópolis, Madrid, London, and Scotland.