Art Barkley

Born

2003-11-24

Died

2025-07-28

Birthplace

durazno, uruguay

Biography

Art Barkley (November 24, 2003) is an Uruguayan director and screenwriter, born and based in the city of Durazno. Self-taught, his vocation for cinema led him to specialize through practice and collaboration with key figures in the field. His main training was carried out alongside Uruguayan screenwriter and script doctor Gabriel Pérez. In 2023, he took part in Espacio Ateneo, a training and discussion group focused on alternative models of film production, distribution, and exhibition. This participation resulted in the development and production of his medium-length film Otro Día / Carta Abierta, produced by Ouroboros with Camilo Argimón as lead producer. The project is currently in post-production. In 2024, he made the short film Tu Pelo Tu Cara, an autofiction work premiered and distributed in the same year within Uruguay’s alternative circuit. Otro Día / Carta Abierta was made through an alternative production framework. For one year, Art Barkley worked with actors Olivia Opizo Korondi and Facundo Rosa to portray Alma and Bruno, two characters navigating the end of their romance. Through rehearsals, re-enactments, games, and other filmic experiments, Alma’s memories were shot—these constitute “Carta Abierta.” The project concluded with two blocks of shooting with a traditional crew during the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025, thus completing what was needed for “Otro Día.” In the editing process, these two universes—the diary-like filmic record and the traditional fiction narrative—interweave to create a dialogue between Alma’s memories and the re-fictionalized recreation of her life. Art Barkley is a member of the audiovisual collective Álamo, alongside other independent filmmakers.