20 Cinema Tropical
January 10, 2022
The Colombian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and director of both film and television, Ciro Durán, passed away today at the age of 84. The cause of death has not been disclosed. He was best known for his 1978 documentary film Gamín, which played at numerous international film festivals.
Born in 1937 in Convención, Santander in the north-central region of Colombia, Durán began his career in cinema in the mid 1960s. Although he originally arrived in Bogotá to study chemistry and mathematics at the National University, the theatrical environment of the city caused him to fall in love with the arts and he consequently left for Caracas, where he studied film and theater under Venezuelan director Román Chalbaud.
Durán’s premiere was a medium-length film made in Venezuela titled The Payment / La paga (1962), in which he discussed the peasant struggle in his home country. As a result of this production, Durán was invited to work on the Colombian-Venezuelan co-production Aquileo Venganza (1968) which spoke to the aftermath of Colombia’s Thousand Days War and the contemporary situation in the country’s agrarian regions.
Themes of child welfare and abandonment began to catch the director’s eye after several years of producing short films, and in 1978, Durán premiered his critically-acclaimed, social issue documentary Gamín. A stark look at the lives of children who lived on the streets of Bogotá and an unflinching look at Colombia’s capital city, Durán received numerous national and international accolades for the documentary including the Donostia Award for Best Director at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Golden Owl at the Colombian Institute of Culture Film Festival. Gamín also participated in the Director’s Fortnight competition at Cannes and played in cinemas in France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
After directing two documentaries for German television, including Children of Two Worlds / Niños de dos mundos (1979) and The Penny War / La guerra del centavo (1985), Durán turned his focus to fiction, releasing his debut fiction feature Tropical Snow / Nieve tropical with American production company Paramount Pictures in 1988 starring Madeleine Stowe and David Carradine.
Subsequent fiction features include La nave de los sueños / The Ship of Dreams (1996) and The Taking of the Embassy / La toma de la embajada (2000) starring Mexican actor Demian Bichir and Fabiana Medina. Durán was a member of the jury at the 1978 Leipzig International Film Festival, the 1981 Moscow International Film Festival, and the 1985 Montreal International Film Festival.
DURAN, Ciro
Born: 12/10/1937, Convencion, Colombia
Died: 1/10/2022, Tobia, Colombia
Ciro Duran’s western – director, writer:
Aquileo venganza - 1968
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