Margot Benacerraf (born August 14, 1926) is a Venezuelan director of Moroccan Jewish descent. Benacerraf was one of the first Latin American filmmakers to study at IDHEC (''Institut des hautes études cinématographiques'') in Paris.

Work

Benacerraf's two best known films, the 1950s documentaries '' Reverón'' and '' Araya'', are considered "landmarks of Latin America narrative non-fiction". ''Reverón'' illustrates the life of the well-known Venezuelan painter

Armando Reverón Armando Reverón (May 10, 1889 – September 17, 1954) was a Venezuelan painter and sculptor, precursor of Arte Povera and considered one of the most important of the 20th century in Latin America. While his mental health deteriorated throughou ...

. ''Araya'' portrays the day-to-day work of the workers of the salt mines of Araya, a village in the east of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Cannes International Critics Prize with

Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...

's ''

Hiroshima mon amour ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (, lit. , ), is a 1959 romantic drama film directed by French director Alain Resnais and written by French author Marguerite Duras. Resnais' first feature-length work, it was a co-production between France and Japan, and ...

''. Benacerraf founded the Nacional Film Library in 1966 and was its director for three years consecutively. She was a member of the board of directors of

Ateneo de Caracas Ateneo may refer to: Cultural institutions * Ateneo de la Juventud, a society of Mexican writers, philosophers and intellectuals * Ateneo de Madrid, a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain * Ateneo de Ponce, a nonprofit, ...

, and in 1991, with the help of the writer and patron of the Latin American cinema

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

, created Latin Fundavisual, the foundation in charge of promoting Latin American audio-visual art in Venezuela.

Awards

She has received several decorations among them National Prize of Cinema (1995), the Order Andrés Bello (in two occasions), the Order Simón Bolivar, Order of the Italian Government, Bernardo O’Higgins Order of the Government of Chile, among others. In February 1987, Ateneo de Caracas inaugurated a movie theater named after her. In 2019, the Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts (VAEA) awarded Benacerraf the

Paez Medal of Art The Paez Medal of Arts is a decoration awarded by The Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts (VAEA) that is presented once a year to an individual or group that has had an impact and contributed to excellence, growth, support and the prolifera ...

2019 for her life work.

Filmography

* '' Reverón'' (1952) * '' Araya'' (1959)

References

External links

*
IONCINEMA.com Interview with Margot Benacerraf
1926 births Living people Venezuelan women film directors People from Caracas Venezuelan people of Moroccan-Jewish descent 20th-century Moroccan Jews {{Venezuela-film-director-stub