Leonardo Henríquez

Birthplace

Mérida, Venezuela

Biography

Leonardo Henríquez did studies on publicity at the New York Institute of Advertising between 1970 and 1973. He studied direction and film technique from 1974 to 1978 at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinema Francais of Paris, France, and then, took part in a workshop on the most advanced film and video techniques, at the FEMIS institute of France. First, he achieved prestige as editor in Diego Risquez´s films Orinoko, nuevo mundo and América, tierra incógnita, Alberto Arvelo´s La canción de la montaña and Candelas en la niebla. As screenwriter he was involved in some projects as Bordeline and Tierna es la noche. His main films as director are the short film Borderline and the feature films Tierna es la noche (1990), Tokyo-Paraguaipoa (1996), Sangrador (2000) and El infierno perfecto (2006). The filmmaker put aside his camera and his director chair to devote himself to writing Días misántropos, an audacious narrative proposal and an incisive look to his fellow country men, in which the theme of coexistence or its absence in today’s world is the main subject. According to Henríquez, the novel is the most simply and the less expensive way to express his believes about the political, social and even economical development of Venezuela, since the cinema of author, according to the filmmaker's opinion, seems not to have a place in contemporary Venezuela.