Gonzalo Martínez Ortega(1934-1998)

He went to Moscow in 1960, where he studied philology, Russian language and literature in the Friendship of the Nations University, as well as acting and cinema and TV direction in the State Cinematographic Institute of the ex USSR. He also assisted Russian director Igor Talankin, in the soviet-american co-production Tchaikovsky (1970). He returned to Mexico in 1968. In collaboration with Guillermo Murray he adapted and assisted direction in the film Siempre hay una primera vez (1971), followed by the documentary Homenaje a Leopoldo Méndez (1970), and co-wrote, with Carlos Ancira a TV series based on the life of Dostoievsky. His debut as a director came in the film Tú, yo, nosotros (1971), which he co-directed with Juan Manuel Torres and Jorge Fons in 1970. One year later he directed El principio (1973), as well as wrote the script, which won the first place in the competition of the General Society of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM). The movie won four Diosas de Plata, eight Arieles and two Heraldos, in all of them for best film and best director, as well as the ACE award as best film of the year in Spanish in New York. In 1975 he filmed Longitud de guerra (1976), part of a trilogy that would have included "La guerra sin gloria" and "Pascual Orozco 1910". With this film he won the Heraldo for best film and best director and was nominated for the Diosas de Plata and the Arieles. In 1977 he filmed El jardín de los cerezos (1978) based on the play "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chejov. That year he also founded with the support of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (National Indigenist Institue) the program "Ollin Yoliztli, or audiovisual memory of indigenous cultures of Mexico", in which he worked photographing, recording and filming more than 20 native groups across the country. Some of these documentaries can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Later he went into TV where he directed and produced (some) El padre Gallo (1986), La gloria y el infierno (1986), La fuerza del amor (1990), and the historical series El vuelo del águila (1994), based on the life of mexican president Porfirio Díaz, and La antorcha encendida (1996).