Rodrigo Bellott
Rodrigo Bellott was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in 1978. He has a BFA in Film, Photography and Visual Arts with a minor in Art History from Ithaca College.
His first student film, DESTIERRO, was one of five films around the world nominated for a student Academy Award in 2001, and won several student film festivals. His next few shorts won several short film awards and were selected to over 50 festivals around the world.
While still attending college, Rodrigo wrote and directed DEPENDENCIA SEXUAL (Sexual Dependency), his first feature film. The film was finished in 2003 and had its world premiere at the 2003 Locarno Film Festival. At Locarno, the film won the FIPRESCI award, and since then, has received seven other awards on four different continents as well as tremendous critical reception at over 56 festivals. The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Time Out NY named DEPENDENCIA SEXUAL as one of the 10 best foreign films of 2003.
Rodrigo‘s second feature as director, WHO KILLED THE WHITE LLAMA? Debuts in Bolivia in 2006 and becomes the highest grossing box office success in Bolivian History. The film is selected to all major Latinamerican film festivals and wins several awards including best film in Miami, and Best director in Colombia.
In 2007, he directed the ACHAP GOLD for SIPA, one of the commercial ads he directed in Chile.
Rodrigo also teaches in the New York State School of the Arts since 2003 as well as several institutions and Universities in Bolivia.
PRAISE FOR
(Bolivia/USA, 2003, 105 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Five different teenagers in the U.S. and Bolivia strive to make sense of their sexuality, revealing what is universal about the human experience. These characters from diverse backgrounds — a rich stud, a poor Bolivian school girl, a Colombian boy visiting his Bolivian cousin, an African American college student and a secretly gay football player/model — have nothing in common except the desire to experience true intimacy. Their stories unfold and overlap as they become victims of their own sexual dependencies, self-perceptions and illusions. With unusual vitality and immediacy, director Rodrigo Bellott structures stories around issues of gender, rape and sexuality in which the characters struggle with their identities, reaching for ideals that represent everything they feel they are supposed to be, but are not. Winner of the Critic‘s Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, this stylistically ambitious film — Bellott uses a split-screen throughout — is the first Bolivian release since 1997.
“Its tenacious director, keeps true to a big vision … With its wild, worthwhile ending, ‘Sexual Dependency’ uncovers something macro about teenagers, who are usually studied only in microcosm.
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Ned Martel
The New York Times
“Bellot possesses the confidence to lay out seemingly predictable scenarios, merely to subvert them … Bellot may very well go from being a talent to watch to being one to envy.
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Darren D’Addario
Time Out New York
“Definitely worth seeking out … an ambitious undertaking that suggests very good things to come from its young director.
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V.A. Musetto
New York Post
“The strongest film of the AFI Fest … Sexual Dependency has the passion and scope of Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También.
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Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
“The Bolivian Titanic … a courageous examination of machismo eloquently expressed.
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Ana Maria de la Fuente
Screen International
“Bellot’s film stands out primarily out of his raw, highly improvised and no-nonsense treatment of his characters and incidents. Bellot is definitely a talent to watch.
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Toronto International Film Festival
