Ciro Durán

Ciro Durán December 16 1937 January 10 2022 was a Colombian filmmaker screenwriter and producer with an extensive career that began in the 1960s He is best known for his documentaries Gamín 1978 and La Guerra del Centavo 1985 and for his feature films La Nave de los Sueños 1996 and La Toma de la Embajada 2000 his last directorial effort He is considered one of Colombias most outstanding filmmakers of the 20th century Ciro Durán studied high school at the Colegio Nacional José Eusebio Caro in Ocaña He began university studies in Chemistry and Mathematics at the National University of Colombia in Bogota but the theatrical environment eventually led him to devote himself to film In Caracas where he lived from 1961 to 1967 he studied Film and Theater with the renowned theater director and filmmaker Román Chalbaud His debut as a director and producer was in 1962 when he shot the mediumlength film La paga in Venezuela based on an original script about the peasant struggle As a result of this production Durán was hired in 1968 to direct the ColombianVenezuelan coproduction Aquileo Venganza entirely filmed in Villa de Leyva Colombia a western framed in the Thousand Days War about land dispossession From there he moved to Bogota where he produced several internationally awarded documentary shorts such as Corralejas de Sincelejo y Tayrona codirected with Joyce Ventura After several years working on the issue of abandoned children in 1978 his production company released Gamín a feature documentary that follows the lives of several minors living on the streets of Bogota from the youngest to the oldest Gamín was awarded several prizes such as the Donostia prize for best director at the San Sebastian Film Festival and was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival It was also shown in cinemas and television channels in France the United Kingdom and Germany among others After making Children of Two Worlds made in Germany GDR 1979 and a second feature documentary in coproduction with Germany The Penny War and Comment vont les enfants Carmelo codirected with JeanLuc Godard AnneMarie Miéville Lino Brocka Rolan Bykov Jerry Lewis and Euzhan Palcy Durán went on to make fiction feature films including the Paramount Pictures production Nieve Tropical with Madeleine Stowe and David Carradine La nave de los sueños and La toma de la embajada a political film about the seizure of the Dominican Republic embassy by the M19 guerrilla group He has also been a juror in several film competitions such as the Leipzig Film Festival 1978 Moscow 1981 Montreal 1984 being considered today as one of the most outstanding Colombian filmmakers of the twentieth century On January 28 1997 Durán returned to Convención and Ocaña after many years of absence to present his film La nave de los sueños which was screened at the Leonelda Cinema in the presence of José Antonio Amaya Martínez