In 2005, she received a M. Phil in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art with a dissertation on Cinema, Archive and Memory that accompanied the making of her first long feature essay documentary film Natureza Morta (Still Life).
[1] In 2014, she received a PhD in Fine-Arts Video from the University of Lisbon, with a thesis on Archive footage and Decelerated Movement, a theoretical work that accompanied the making her second long feature essay documentary 48.
A turning point in De Sousa Dias's cinematographic work was her contact with the material gathered in archives of the Portuguese political police (Arquivo Pide/DGS) while preparing her documentary Processo-Crime 141-53 (Criminal-Case 141-53).
[5] The first film she made that can be considered as a direct reflection of the experience was Natureza Morta (Still Life) (2005), a Portuguese French co-production, only consisting of archive footage and sound, that deliberately renounced on the usage of spoken discourse.
[8] In 2017, she finished her film Luz Obscura (Obscure Light) that was awarded with a Special Mention at the International Festival Documenta Madrid of the same year, for the "unique aesthetical and narrative approach".