After studying film in the Escuela Internacional de San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba and later animation in France, this Venezuelan director returned to her native country and founded with other Latin American film-makers the Empresa Multinacional Andina “Sudaca Films” in 1990.

 

Upon gaining international recognition for various shorts, Mariana Rondón released her first full-length film in 1999 titled At Midnight and a Half. Her second film, Postcards from Leningrad (2007), gathers autobiographical aspects about the director based on her life as the daughter of guerrilla members of the FALN (Armed Forces for National Liberation for its abbreviation in Spanish).

 

Her third film, which caught the eye of international critics and festivals due to its treatment of race identity issues, queer issues and local Venezuelan political issues, Bad Hair, was released in 2013. In an interview about the film with Spanish newspaper, El país, she comments:

 

Llevo mucho tiempo asfixiada por esos pequeños gestos, por esas cosas que pasan en la vida diaria venezolana, cómo el contexto social se ha metido en las familias, los amigos, creando una pequeña violencia que puede parecer chiquita, pero que suma y suma… Es una película contra la intolerancia, que apoya las pequeñas rebeldías. No sé si quedó claro en la pantalla todo lo pesimista que soy, y si dejé alguna rendija a la esperanza. (cultura.elpais.com)

 

 

 

Thomas J. Shalloe

Arizona State University