In 1986, the government stopped funding the National Cinema Institute, and many filmmakers found themselves unemployed.[4] Noronha started working as an independent filmmaker, and was one of the founders of the first video cooperative of the Mozambique directors guild, Coopimagem. In 1991, she created Así na Cidade (Once upon a time in the city), a documentary film about child-soldier war refugees who sell newspapers in Maputo. This same year she gave birth to her daughter, and decided to realize her dream of studying psychology at the Polytechnic University in Maputo.