Dinorah de Jesús Rodríguez (born April 28, 1957) is an

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting Non-narrative film, non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many e ...

artist based between

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, and

La Habana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Placetas Placetas () is a city in the Villa Clara Province in the center of Cuba; before the change in the country's government in 1959 the province was called Las Villas. The town is also known as because of its wild Lauraceae, laurel trees. Placetas is ...

, Cuba, just prior to the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

. She emigrated with her family to the United States by way of Spain in 1963 at the age of six and grew up in an immigrant, working-class family in the United States. Rodriguez became interested in

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical Film gauge, gauge of Photographic film, film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm film, 8 mm and 35mm movie film, 35 mm. It ...

making while studying journalism at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

from 1975 to 1978. From the beginning of her filmmaking career, she was drawn to experimental genres, inspired in the hand-crafted work of

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, ...

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American experimental filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage cr ...

and

Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish-Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...

. In 1978 Rodríguez moved to California and studied with the iconic lesbian-feminist experimental filmmaker

Barbara Hammer Barbara Jean Hammer (May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019) was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Ham ...

who was teaching a workshop at the Los Angeles

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic de ...

at the time. Rodríguez also studied with Warren Sonbert another experimental filmmaker, who was teaching at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

and invited her to audit his class. Following 10 years of independent study, Rodríguez earned a B.A. in Film Production from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

School of Creative Arts in 1988, studying under the guidance of such visionary experimentalists as

Trinh T. Minh-ha Trinh T. Minh-ha (born 1952 in Hanoi; Vietnamese: Trịnh Thị Minh Hà) is a Vietnamese filmmaker, writer, literary theorist, composer, and professor. She has been making films since the 1980s and is best known for her films Reassemblage (film ...

and

Marlon Riggs Marlon Troy Riggs (February 3, 1957 – April 5, 1994) was a Black gay filmmaker, educator, poet, and activist. He produced, wrote, and directed several documentary films, including '' Ethnic Notions'', '' Tongues Untied'', '' Color Adjustment'' ...

. Rodríguez's practice of manually altering 16mm film includes scratching into the emulsion to enhance or dialogue with the image already printed on the film. The artist also hand-colors and paints on film using inks and dyes. Her use of appropriated materials turns up in her remakes of commercials and other moving image collage pieces. She is frequently recycles old

celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day ...

footage into new works and experiments with damaged cameras and equipment, expired film stocks and found footage. Among her earliest influences, and one that she attributes with having inspired the spiritual and aesthetic direction of her work, is Maya Deren an experimental filmmaker who worked in the United States during the 1940s and 50s. Another artist that Rodríguez claims as an inspiration is the "father of video art"

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" ...

. Rodriguez's more contemporary influences include

Isaac Julien Sir Isaac Julien (born 21 February 1960Annette Kuhn"Julien, Isaac (1960–)" BFI Screen Online.) is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Early life Juli ...

Pipilotti Rist Pipilotti Elisabeth Rist, birth name ''Elisabeth Charlotte Rist'' (born 21 June 1962 in Grabs) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art. Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abst ...

Lorna Simpson Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became one of the first African-American women to exhibit at the Venice Bien ...

and

Bill Viola William John Viola Jr. ( , ; January 25, 1951 – July 12, 2024) was an American video artist whose artistic expression depended upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human ...

Film making

Rodríguez's hand-crafting techniques create very vivid and subliminal effects that speak to the human subconscious. Her work affects the subconscious mind by using the same visual tactics used in advertising and mass media. An open bisexual,Rodríguez, Juana María. Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings. New York: NYU Press, 2014. frequently engages sexually explicit themes in her work. Rodriguez is a rape survivor and feminist activist, practicing a form of public installations that she terms "Artivism," a practice she has been engaging in since the 1980s. Among the many awards and recognition she has received for her work, she won the 2009 FAN Knight New Work Award in the amount of $50,000 for her project ''Elusive Landscape'' that involved multiple hand-crafted 16mm film projections exhibited in outdoor locations across the city of Miami and projected directly into trees and foliage. Rodriguez's works have been exhibited internationally in film festivals, museums, galleries, TV, public outdoor installations and multimedia performances. Known for her many multidisciplinary collaborations, Rodriguez has worked on projects with a variety of international artists. Her public installations create a sense of community that brings many people together for public and communal view.

Critical attention

Rodríguez's work has received critical attention from scholars interested in found footage and cinematic appropriation, Afrosurrealism, and Latino media arts. Her work has also received sustained critical attention by her sister, Juana María Rodríguez, a professor of Gender and Women's Studies at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

who writes extensively about several of her films in the book ''Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings''. Stills from Rodríguez's film, ''XXX,'' are featured on the cover''.''

Selected works

Films

*''A Trilogy: Ochún/Oricha – El Balance – Guerreros'' (1990, 28:00) *''Dolor y Perdón'' (1997, 03:16) *''(In Loving Memory...) for Soraya'' (1998, 05:07) *''L’anatomie du désir'' (2001, 05:25) *''Afterlife'' (2001, 04:14) *''Un nombre de mujer'' (2001, Film/Video, 06:25) *''Cortejo'' (2002, 04:27) *''female alchemy: a video symphony in seven movements'' (2004, 30:00) *''Dialogue in Space'' (2005, 01:32) *''Global Medea'' (2005, 03:48) *''you are the product of a sex tabú'' (2005, 02:13) *''Is It True Blondes Have More Fun?'' (2006, 0:59) A graffiti remake of a

Clairol Clairol is the American personal care-product division of company Wella, specializing in hair coloring and hair care. Clairol was founded in 1931 by Americans Joan Gelb and her husband Lawrence M. Gelb, with business partner and lifelong frien ...

hair dye ad from the 1960s. *''Telepatía'' (2007, 06:17) *''XXX: Is sex safe?, Cyberputa, and How Come You Don’t Trust Me?'' (2007, 03:01) *''o Amor'' (2009, 12:00) *''IN A GADDA DA VIDA'' (''In the Garden of Eden'') (2010, 05:18) *''SONAMBULA'' (2011, 03:25)

Installations

*''Image Party'' (2001) *''SET: A Set of Settings Unsettling Set Ways'' (2003) *''Everywhere, Marie'' (2005) *''XXX'' (2007) *''ephemera'' (2009) *''ellos y nosotros: them and us'' (2010) *''Elusive Landscape: Miami'' (2010) *''Ruins: Haunting Cafes Around the World'' (2011) *''Agua Florida: free-swimming fish'' (2012) *''mujer_cita_MIA'' (2013)

Multimedia

*''.Epar'' (1997, Multimedia Performance, 1 hr.) *''The Anatomy of Desire'' (2000, Film/Performance, 1 Hr.) *''Image Party'' (2001, Interactive Installation/Performance) *''IPO'' (2004-2007, Multimedia Performance Series) *''Swallowing the Moon'' (2007, Multimedia Performance, 30 min.) *''Cabaret Unkempt'' (2006, Multimedia Performance, 1 Hr.)

Achievements

Awards

*San Francisco Festival 2000, San Francisco, CA, Project Grant, (1990) *Miami Light Project, Miami, FL, Here and Now Project Grant, (1998) *Tigertail Productions, Miami, FL, Artists’ Access Grant, (2001, 2003, 2010) *Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Consortium, FL, Artist's Enhancement Grant, (2004) *

Atlantic Center for the Arts Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists' community and education facility located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The complex was designed by the Boston-based firm Thompson and Rose Architects. Atlantic Center ...

, Residency Fellowship, (2005) *Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Individual Artists’ Fellowship, (2005, 2010) *FAN/Knight New Work Award, Funding Arts Network, Miami, FL, Project Grant, (2009–2010)

Distinctions

*Resident, 16mm Film Production Intensive, Los Angeles Women's Building, (1978) *Travel Fellowship Finalist, Fulbright Foundation, (1992) *Media Arts Fellowship Nominee, Rockefeller Foundation National Video Resources, (1993) *Media Arts Jury Panelist, South Carolina Arts Council, (1997) *Juried Artist, Art Center South Florida, Miami, Beach, FL (1997–2001) *Media Arts Jury Panelist, North Carolina Arts Council, (1998) *Media Arts Jury Panelist, New Forms Miami, (1998) *Media Arts Jury Panelist, Louisiana Division of the Arts, (1999 and 2000) *Nominating Committee, National Video Resources/Rockefeller Foundation, (2000, 2001) *Guest Curator, Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL, (2005) *Media Arts Jury Panelist, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Baltimore, MD (2007) *Artist in Residence, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL, (2001–2007) *Adjudicator, YoungArts, Miami, FL (2008–present) *Member, Board of Directors, Miami Beach Film Society and Cinematheque, (2009–present)

Prizes

*Big Muddy Film Festival, Honorable Mention for ''Afterlife'' (2002) *Black Maria Film Festival, 2nd Place/Jury's Citation Award for ''Afterlife'' (2003)

References

External links

Sol Island Media WorksBiography and CV
at University of Miami Digital Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Dinorah de Jesus 1957 births Living people American women experimental filmmakers Boston University College of Communication alumni Cuban emigrants to the United States Film directors from Florida American women film directors People from Placetas San Francisco State University alumni 21st-century American women