In 1981, she graduated from the Paris film school Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC), now known as La Fémis.

Two of her films of the 1990s – Chronique d'une banlieue ordinaire and Une poste à la Courneuve – brought Cabrera early recognition.

[4] Political engagement spans Cabrera's diverse filmography, which includes documentaries, fiction works, and films combining the two genres.

[6] Cabrera's first feature-length work of fiction, L'autre côté de la mer, addresses questions of assimilation in contemporary French society.

Much of the film, which takes place during the SNCF's 1995 general strikes, records actual railroad workers at night and in winter.

[14] Folle Embellie in 2004 represents a venture into period fiction; the film is set in June 1940 amid Axis bombing campaigns.

[16] Le Lait de la Tendresse Humaine is Cabrera's film that most explicitly addresses issues of motherhood.

[17] Quand la ville mord was Cabrera's first literary adaptation; its plot comes from a novel by Marc Villard which was part of the "Série Noire" crime fiction collection.

[20] Cabrera has also acted in three films: Un petit cas de conscience by Marie Claude Treilhou, Douches froides by Antony Cordier, and Belleville-Tokyo by Elise Girard.