After she graduated magna cum laude, she landed jobs as an assistant director on many music videos, commercials and films.
Then, she was hired to work on the Spike Lee-directed music video for Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us" which was filmed in a favela.
[a] The experience opened her eyes and she became determined to make films about the dwellers of these poor neighborhoods to help raise social consciousness in Brazil.
In 2001, Lund was invited by Fernando Meirelles to co-direct Golden Gate (Palace II), a short film about two young boys in a favela.
[2] The success of that film was the springboard for the television series City of Men, a continuation of the story told in Golden Gate.