Margarita Cadenas

Margarita Cadenas (Caracas, Venezuela), is a director, producer and screenwriter of Venezuela, based in France.

Biography

Margarita Cadenas was born in Caracas, Venezuela. After earning her diploma in social communication in the Catholic University «Andres Bello” (1977), very young she quickly started her career as a high-level journalist. She became a reporter for Venezuelan television and wrote for several newspapers. Her talent was spotted and she was asked to present the 20: 30 news for national television Canal 8 (1977-1979). She then went on to interview local political players. She left for Great Britain in 1979 where she specialised in production and directing with the British Council and BBC London. With this experience under her belt, she directed and produced her first work of fiction “Cindy” or a Cinderella turned punk, and a documentary about Venezuela called “Land of Grace”. She then moved to France (1981) where she worked as a journalist once again, acting as Paris correspondent for VENPRESS, a press agency and private television RCTV. At the same time, she was an official for Venezuela at the UNESCO conference on politics and the flux of information and communication (Vienna 1981). She worked as a communication attaché to the Venezuelan Ambassador in France and UNESCO. Between 1983 and 1986, she was an assistant director at SFP (Societé Française de Production) working with directors like Claude de Givray, Gabriel Axel, Philippe Monnier, Michel Boisrond, Jean-Jacques Goron. After this experience, she created her first production company, Alta Mira (1986) They produced “Troisième Sous Sol” by Patrick Meadeb, “Barlovento” by Fina Torres and film ads. Between 1988 and 1995, she continued her work producing more than 60 Publicity films, shot in South Africa, Argentina, Venezuela, England, Denmark, Spain and France. She worked for various companies like 50/49, Son and Lumière et Movie Box as a executive producer for publicity agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, Young & Rubicam, Grey, RSCG, Léo Burnett UK, Mc Cann, and title producer for directors like Peter Suschitzky, Eric de La Hosseraye, Costa Kekemenis, Christine Pascal, Jaime de la Peña and Roch Stefanik. In 1995, she began to produce works of fiction and created the company MC² PRODUCTIONS. In 1996, TF1 broadcast her first television series., “Barrage sur l’Orenoque” This French-Spanish co-production was followed by “Marie et Tom” a French-Canadian co-production in 2000. Meanwhile she was developing her first feature projects. With MC² Productions she coproduced with Village Roadshow Productions a film by Tassos Boulmetis entitled “A touch of spice” (2003). She produced for the French Television "Chuao, la vallée merveilleuse" (2006) by H. Becerra and G. Jacquemin. Her career as an auteur also got started when wrote her first television series "Barrage sur L’Orénoque” (1996) and as director with the documentary “Au-delà des apparences" on the controversial anthropologist Jacques Lizot witch she also wrote and produced. She went back to her native country in 2007 and started to publish articles and pictures in her page History and Voyages in the Daily “El Expreso”. Writer, Producer and Director of the short films “Mascaras” (2009) featured in the Cines Unidos Circuit in Venezuela. Writer, producer and director of the Documentary “Macondo” (2009) : about the living house of Miguel Otero Silva, a famous writer, poet, and owner of the daily journal “El Nacional”, an icon of journalism in Venezuela and Maria Teresa Castillo, a fighter for women’s rights. After an expedition to the Amazon that she organised for a book to be published on the mythology of the Yanomami Indians, she wrote the long feature film “Cenizas Eternas” which she has also produced and directed (2011).

Barrage sur l'Orénoque (Dam on the Orinoco)(1996)

Written and produced by Margarita Cadenas in 1996, tells the story of a French engineer, who arrives in Venezuela to work on the construction of a dam on the Orinoco River. She is involved in various situations, many of which are particularly linked to the environment. During her struggle, she meets a Franco-Venezuelan adventurer who lives with a love story.

Au-delà des apparences (Beyond appearances)(1996)

Written and directed by Margarita Cadenas, led by MC ² Productions in conjunction with RCTV, Cinesens and A. Kerjean. Based on the different schools of anthropology and the passion of anthropologists by the Yanomami Indians, from the sixties, this documentary lets us go to meet Jacques Lizot since its arrival in the Venezuelan Amazon, in 1968, where he lived most of twenty years until his return to his country of origin France.

Marie et Tom (Mary and Tom)(2000)

Produced by MC ² Productions in conjunction with RDV Productions, TF1 and Téléfictions Canada. It tells the story of a woman of extremely small stature that leaves France to go to work in Canada and start a new life. There found a rich young man, heir to a great fortune, in whose hand is love. It was distributed in 2002 in France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa.

El gusto de la vida (A touch of Spice)(2003)

It is a bitter-sweet comedy and nostalgic about the awakening that occurs to leave the country of origin, and, more importantly, shows how the kitchen can give us a valuable lesson about life itself. It was written and directed by Tassos Boulmetis and produced, Village Roadshow Productions (Australian company producing films such as The Matrix, Analyze This, Training Day, Mystic River, Happy Feet, among many others) and Smallridge International ANS. Margarita Cadenas worked as an associated producer for Roadshow Productions. t was distributed in Europe, Latin America, United States, Canada, Australia. Awards in the 44e International Festival of Thessaloniki: Best Film, Best Director (Tassos Boulmetis), Best Screenplay (Tassos Boulmetis), Best Cinematography (Takis Zervoulakos), Best Set (Olga Leontiadou), Best Music (Evanthia Reboutsika), Best Sound (Dimitris Athanassopoulos), Best Editing (Giorgos Mavropsaridis) Award Dewars of the public to the best Greek film. Special Award of Excellence from the Association of Film and Television Technicians Greeks.

Chuao, La vallée Merveilleuse (Chuao, Grand Valley)(2006)

Produced by Margarita Cadenas, under the direction of Hamilton Becerra and Gaël Jacquemin. Chuao, a small Venezuelan town, nestled between mountains and sea. The inhabitants of this place are the direct descendants of African slaves brought over three centuries ago by Spanish colonists to grow cocoa. They manufactured today, totally organic and artisan, the world's best cacao. Currently, the project of a highway that would link to Chuao with the rest of the country, concerned about its inhabitants.

Máscaras (Masks)(2009)

Written, directed and produced by Margarita Cadenas, is a series of four short films of 75 seconds each. The concept of each of the shorts is to give a first impression that invites you to discover that behind every story.

Macondo (2009)

Written, directed and produced by Margarita Cadenas

Macondo was a place of universal dimension, without a doubt! In a few weeks, Macondo was torn down: the marvelous place and the surrounding vegetation.But not the ideas that saw life there nor the capacity of the reflections.

Macondo represented, above all, friendship, freedom, creation and beauty, the beauty of emotion, the spirit, human beauty…

Oblivion is not the victory over wrong, nor is it victory over nothing. If it is a veiled way of laughing at history, the memory remains….

Cenizas Eternas (Eternal Ashes)(2011)

Eternal Ashes tells the story of a mother, Ana, and her daughter, Elena. Although they are separated, in the space and time, they remain united forever. Written, directed and produced by Margarita Cadenas.

Filmography

• Cindy (Fiction)
• Venezuela, Land of Grace (Documentary)
• Barrage sur l'Orenoque (1996 – Feature Film)
• Au-delà des Apparences (1996 - Documentary - 52 minutes)
• Tom and Marie (2000 - Fiction)
• El gusto de la vida (2003 - Feature Film)
• Chuao, The Valley Merveilleuse (2006 - Documentary - 52 minutes)
• Masks (2008 - Short - 04 minutes)
• Macondo (2009 - Documentary - 60 minutes)
• Cenizas Eternas (2011 - Eternal Ashes)(Feature Film - 110 minutes)

External links

• Margarita Cadenas at the Internet Movie Database
• Ficha en IMDB de Barrage sur l'Orénoque (inglés)
• Barrage sur l'Orénoque en youtube
• Chuao, La vallée Merveilleuse (francés)
• [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5su9o99D-k/ Chuao, La vallée Merveilleuse en youtube
• Documental venezolano sobre Jacques Lizot y los yanomami
• Máscaras en youtube
• Macondo en youtube
• Cenizas Eternas en IMBD

Persondata
Name	Cadenas, Margarita
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death