Eva Aridjis

Eva S. Aridjis, born 1974 in Holland, Netherlands while her father was serving there as Mexico's ambassador, is a Mexican filmmaker. She later attended the American School Foundation in Mexico City, Princeton University, and New York University. She has made many prize-winning short and feature-length films.

Biography

Born in Holland on July 24, 1974,, raised in Mexico City, and now living in New York, is the daughter of writer Homero Aridjis and Betty Ferber de Aridjis, an environmental activist & translator. Eva Aridjis left Mexico City when she was 18 to go study Comparative Literature at Princeton University, and then she got an MFA in Film and TV at New York University (1996-2001). While at NYU she made several short films, including "Taxidermy: The Art of Imitating Life" and "Billy Twist", both of which played at the Sundance Film Festival and dozens of other festivals around the world. An activist for many of Mexico City's street children, in 2003 she made the film "Niños de la Calle" ("Children of the Street") to bring attention to the epidemic. [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117921403?categoryid=31&cs=1] The documentary was nominated for 2 Mexican Academy Awards (Arieles), and won the Best Feature Documentary prize at the Morelia Film Festival in 2003. Since making this movie between September and December 2001, Aridjis has stayed in contact with the protagonists. Eva wrote and directed her first narrative feature film entitled "The Favor", starring Frank Wood and Ryan Donowho, which had its premiere at the CineVegas Film Festival in June 2006, where it won a prize. The film will be released theatrically in various countries and on TV/cable/DVD in 2007. She is currently finishing up a feature doc about a Mexican cult entitled "La Santa Muerte" (Saint Death), narrated by Gael García Bernal, and resides in New York City.

Miscellanea

*Eva wrote, directed and co-produced "The Favor", her first English-language feature film.
*She is American on her mother's side and Greek-Mexican on her father's.
*Her sister is writer Chloe Aridjis
*Tony Award winner Frank Wood describes Aridjis as "one of those extremely intelligent but-not-dependent-on-irony people."
*A graduate of New York University (NYU)
*Eva directed the video for New York band The Walkmen's hit The Rat

External links

* [http://www.dickrussell.org/articles/evaaridjis.htm LA Times Article]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0034754/ IMDB Profile]