Alberto Arvelo Mendoza

A cello and an eight-millimeter camera: these were the choices that a teenaged Alberto Arvelo gave himself when deciding the direction his life would take. Ten films and over thirty international festival awards later, the camera has emerged victorious.

Born in Venezuela, Arvelo has developed a cinematographic body of work recognized for the profound social and human burden of his characters and by the visual power of his films. Two of his most emblematic works, One Life and Two Trails (1997) and A House with a View of the Sea (2001), form part of an exploration of the South American Andes.

A House with a View of the Sea tells a story of discrimination and injustice suffered by a widowed father and his son in the midst of loneliness and hardship in the Andes. This film was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and received 18 awards in more than 50 international festivals.

As a professor at the National School of Cinema in Mérida, Venezuela, Arvelo also initiated an original film movement known as Cine Átomo, focused on creating real opportunities for young Latin American directors. The concept stems from the idea of producing uncommon, ornate, reflective and humane movies with only essential crew and production components. The first movie produced using the mechanics of this movement was Habana Havana (2004), directed by Arvelo. The film was given the Venezuelan National Film Award and a dozen international awards.

Arvelo's Cyrano Fernández (2007), is an inspiring adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand's classic French play. Arvelo's film preserves the essence of the love triangle, depicting it in the complex and breathtaking environment of a slum in Caracas. Although the camera won in the end, music is still very much a part of Arvelo's life.

In 2010, Arvelo directed the stage portion of a multimedia opera of Cantata Criolla for the LA Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and starring Helen Hunt and Édgar Ramírez. His documentary To Play and to Fight (2006), which premiered at the AFI Festival of Los Angeles, dives into the lives of several children in the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System. Empowered by renowned classical music figures such as Plácido Domingo, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simón Rattle, and Gustavo Dudamel, this documentary recounts the phenomenon of El Sistema, one of the most moving and renowned social projects in the world.

Arvelo's connection with El Sistema goes back to his career as a cellist in the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. To Play and to Fight became the most viewed documentary in Venezuela. It was followed by another, Dudamel: Let the Children Play (2010), which focuses on the propagation of El Sistema around the world and the rise of Dudamel as one of El Sistema's most prominent musicians.

Arvelo directed The Liberator (2013), based on the life South American independence hero, Simón Bolívar. Arvelo teaches screenwriting and filmmaking at the National School for Audiovisuals in Merida, Venezuela, where he lives with his family.

Cohen Media Group