Almudena Carracedo

Almudena Carracedo
Born
Almudena Carracedo Verde

1972 (age 52–53)
Madrid, Spain
Education
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, and screenwriter
Awards

Almudena Carracedo Verde (born 1972) is a Spanish filmmaker. She received an Emmy Award in 2008 for Made in L.A., which was praised by The New York Times as "an excellent documentary about the most basic human dignity."[1] In 2019, she received the Goya Award for best documentary film for The Silence of Others.

Biography

Almudena Carracedo was born in Madrid and earned a licentiate in audiovisual communication at the Complutense University.[2] She continued her training at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She and Robert Bahar are co-owners of the Brooklyn-based Semilla Verde Productions Ltd.[3]

In 2009, after the success of their documentary Made in L.A., she received the Estela Award from the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and in the following years she obtained scholarships from several organizations that support film and documentary production: United States Artists (2009), Sundance Institute and Time Warner Foundation (2012),[4] Creative Capital (2012), and a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts (2015).[3]

Carracedo and Bahar next set out to film a documentary about the silenced victims of Francoist Repression in Spain.[5] The result, titled The Silence of Others, which they had worked on for six years, premiered in the Panorama section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival in 2018, where it received the Audience Award and the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Peace Film Prize.[6] In August 2018, it was nominated for a European Film Award.[7]

In 2024, Carracedo and Bahar's documentary You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack [es], on the La Manada rape case, premiered on Netflix and in Spanish theaters.[8]

Carracedo has been a juror at numerous festivals, including the Valladolid International Film Week (SEMINCI), Silverdocs, and the Santiago International Documentary Festival, as well as a delegate of the documentary section at the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media [es].[9]

In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Carracedo teaches classes and workshops at several universities, and is a part-time lecturer on documentary production at New York University in Madrid.[2][10]

Awards and recognition

  • 2008: News and Documentary Emmy for Made in L.A.[1]
  • 2009: NALIP Estela Award for Made in L.A.
  • 2019: Goya Award for best documentary film for The Silence of Others[11]
  • 2019: School Jury Prize at the Spanish Film Festival in Nantes for The Silence of Others[12]

Illinois Wesleyan University recognized Carracedo with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2011.[13] During a subsequent visit to the campus in 2019, she expressed her outlook as a filmmaker:

Telling people to fight for their dreams is too simple because there are so many people who don't have the luxury or the privilege to fight for their dreams. In parts of our lives, there are moments where we have to fight for our dignity, whether it's at work or at home with our political views, our sexual orientation. I think the films are examples of endurance that help people see that yes you can – que si se puede.[13]

Filmography

  • Rotation (1996; experimental short film) – director, producer, director of photography[2]
  • Welcome, a Docu-Journey of Impressions (2002) – director, producer, director of photography
  • Made in L.A. (2007) – director, producer, director of photography
  • The Silence of Others (2018) – director, producer, director of photography
  • You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack [es] (2024) – director, producer, writer, director of photography

References

  1. ^ a b Webster, Andy (4 September 2007). "When a Fight for More Money Is Also a Battle for Dignity". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Almudena Carracedo" (in Spanish). Asociación Española de Cine Documental. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Almudena Carracedo". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Seven Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellows Selected for 2012". Los Angeles, California: Sundance Institute. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  5. ^ Piña, Begoña (18 August 2018). "El cine que viene: asesinos, súper villanos, marionetas y un poco de música" [Upcoming Cinema: Murderers, Supervillains, Puppets, and a Little Music]. Público (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  6. ^ Bachiller, Carmen (2 March 2018). "'El silencio de otros', retrato 'en presente' de la lucha de las víctimas del franquismo" ["The Silence of Others", a Portrait "in the Present" of the Struggle of the Victims of Franco's Regime]. elDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  7. ^ "Los documentales españoles Al otro lado del muro y El silencio de los otros optan a los Premios de Cine Europeo" [The Spanish Documentaries On the Other Side of the Wall and The Silence of the Others are Up for European Film Awards] (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 16 August 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  8. ^ Carracedo, Almudena; Bahar, Robert (23 April 2024). "A brutal rape case convulsed Spain. We made a film to let survivors know they are not alone". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  9. ^ Huelbes, Elvira (13 September 2018). "Las mujeres de cine siguen empeñadas en buscar reconocimiento" [Women in Cinema Continue to Seek Recognition]. Cuartopoder (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  10. ^ "Almudena Carracedo". New York University. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  11. ^ "El silencio de otros" (in Spanish). Goya Awards. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  12. ^ Written at Paris. "'Petra', de Jaime Rosales, gana el Festival de cine español de Nantes" ["Petra", by Jaime Rosales, Wins the Spanish Film Festival of Nantes]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona. EFE. 7 April 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  13. ^ a b "Renowned Spanish Filmmaker Returns to Campus For Screening". Bloomington, Illinois: Illinois Wesleyan University. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
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