Born in São Tomé and Príncipe in 1982, Silas Tiny emigrated with his family to Portugal at the age of five. He grew up in a village near Lisbon and, while still young, devoted himself to painting and was self-taught for many years. After various professional experiences as a postman, warehouse worker, and call centre employee, he enrolled in the National School of Cinema in Lisbon, where he graduated.
While still in his degree program, he made his first feature documentary, Bafatá Film Club (2012), in which he reflects on the effects of post-colonialism in the city of Bafatá, in Guinea-Bissau — the homeland of the legendary African leader Amílcar Cabral — and the passage of time in this place, through an old deactivated cinema, watched over by the ghostly figure of its former projectionist.
After an absence of nearly thirty years, he returned to São Tomé and Príncipe for the first time in 2014. This reconnection with his roots led to a profound reflection on his own identity and later to the making of the documentary, The Song of Ossobó (2017). A journey through his personal and collective memories of São Tomé and Príncipe, scrutinised by the history of slavery and forced labour on plantations. Presented in the National Competition of DocLisboa, it subsequently had a commercial premiere and was screened at various festivals.
In 2020, he completed Equatorial Constellations, his third feature documentary, which addresses the humanitarian airlift between São Tomé and the breakaway Republic of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70) and the memories of the children who passed through it, with various elements, actors, and witnesses. This film had its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest in 2021, where it won the Special Jury Award, and has been screened at various national and international festivals.
At the beginning of 2023, he founded his own production company, Ossobó Filmes, to produce his projects. He is currently developing two documentaries and his first fiction feature film.