[Curiosities] Venezuelan filmmaker Margot Benacerraf dies

[Noticias ALEJANDRO]

The Venezuelan filmmaker, screenwriter and cultural promoter, Margot Benacerraf, died this Wednesday at the age of 97, her family reported in a statement released this same day.

The statement states that "with deep sadness we announce the death of Miriam Margot Benacerraf Coriat", which confirms that the filmmaker's funeral will be this Wednesday at the Beit Yossef villa, in San Bernardino.

Margot Benacerraf was born on May 14, 1926 in Caracas. She studied Philosophy and Letters at the Central University of Venezuela. She then trained in cinematography at the Institute of Higher Cinematographic Studies of

 

 

According to scholars, Benacerraf was a pioneer in Venezuelan cinema. She founded the National Cinematheque of Venezuela and numerous festivals, dedicating most of her life to the dissemination of cinema in the country and the region.

In 1959, she received the Higher Technical Commission Prize and the International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) at the XII Cannes Festival for her film "Araya" (1959). She had already participated in the Croisette with her short Reverón in 1953.

The Venezuelan Minister of Culture, Ernesto Villegas Poljak, regretting the event, said that "Margot, [was] an archetype of the Venezuelan woman filmmaker, not only did she brilliantly fulfill her job, immortalized in the films Reverón and Araya, the latter deserving of the Prize Cannes in 1959."

Villegas Poljak highlighted that Benacerraf "also dedicated her life to the training of new generations and the preservation of Venezuelan film heritage, being the founder and emblem of our Cinematheque."

She also recalled that the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, conferred the Francisco de Miranda Order on her in 2018.

He expressed, in that same direction, his wishes that the remains of Margot and "lover of the Venezuelan affirmative, be taken to the National Pantheon, as happened with the master painter of Macuto in 2016. Do they deserve it? In spades. Honor and eternal glory!"

 

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