Nicolás Echevarría
Nicolás Echevarría | |
|---|---|
 Nicolás Echevarría (left) receiving Arts and Literature National Prize 2017. | |
| Born | 8 August 1947 |
| Occupations | Film director Cinematographer |
| Years active | 1973-present |
Nicolás Echevarría Ortiz (Tepic, August 8, 1947) is a Mexican musician, painter, producer, director, screenwriter, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. Throughout his career as a director, he has created documentaries, television series, short documentary films, and feature-length films.
He received Mexico’s National Prize for Sciences and Arts in the Fine Arts category in 2017. He was recognized by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences with the Silver Ariel for Best Documentary for the short film Teshuinada, Semana Santa Tarahumara (1979). He was nominated on four occasions and in various categories for the short films Poetas campesinos (1980), Niño Fidencio, el taumaturgo de Espinazo (1981), for the feature film Cabeza de Vaca (1990), and for the feature-length documentary Eco en la Montaña (2014).
In 1973, he made his first documentaries related to the Indigenous world, including: Judea, Semana Santa entre los Coras(1974); La peregrinación del Peyote entre los huicholes (1975); Híkuri Tame (1977); and María Sabina, Mujer Espíritu(1979).
At the Rock Foundation in New York, he produced the television series American Patchwork Project (1983), in collaboration with anthropologist Alan Lomax for Columbia University and the BBC in London. He was also a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, as well as Mexico’s National System of Art Creators.
In 1988, in collaboration with Octavio Paz, he developed Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe, a documentary that recounts the life of the 17th-century Mexican nun, poet, and philosopher. In 1991, he filmed Cabeza de Vaca, his first narrative feature film, written in collaboration with Guillermo Sheridan and based on Naufragios, the chronicle by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. The film earned him a nomination for the Ariel Award in the category of Best First Feature.
Cabeza de Vaca represented Mexico at the Berlin International Film Festival and at the Academy Awards in Hollywood; it was part of New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and won the Makhila d’Or Grand Prize at the Biarritz Film Festival in France, as well as the award for Best Film at the Guadalajara Film Showcase.
Eco de la Montaña inaugurated the official Native section at the Berlin Film Festival and won the award for Best Documentary at the following festivals: the Chicago International Film Festival; the Lima International Film Festival; the RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Films (Watershed, Bristol); the Lessinia Film Festival in Italy; the Guadalajara International Film Festival; and DocsDF.
Selected filmography
- María Sabina: mujer espíritu (1978)
- Poetas campesinos (1980)
- Niño Fidencio, el taumaturgo de Espinazo (1981)
- Cabeza de Vaca (1991)
- Vivir mata (2001)
- Eco de la montaña (2014)[1]
References
- ^ "Film's official web page (Retrieved June 16, 2015)". Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2020.