Mexican filmmaker Dana Rotberg has lived and worked as a director, writer and producer in Mexico, France and Bosnia & Herzegovina. She is currently living in Auckland, New Zealand.
While still living in Mexico Rotberg directed her first film, the feature length documentary ELVIRA LUZ CRUZ: PEMA MAXIMA (1985). It was awarded Best Documentary by the Mexican Film Academy and the Bochica de Oro Award for Best Latin-American Documentary, Colombia.
Following this she directed her first feature film INTIMIDAD (INTIMACY) in 1989, which screened at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. She went on to write, direct and produce her second feature ANGEL DE FUEGO (ANGEL OF FIRE). She is best known for this film as it was selected as the opening film for Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Director’s Fortnight) at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1992. The film was well received and went on to screen at film festivals around the world.
Following this success, Rotberg spent the next few years in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina where she co-produced two films that also secured the opening spot at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Cannes International Film Festival).
The feature length documentary MGM SARAJEVO. MAN, GOD AND THE MONSTER (MGM Sarajevo –Covjek, Bog, Monstrum) opened Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in 1994, and the Bosnia, France and Netherlands co-production THE PERFECT CIRCLE took the same opening spot in 1997.
THE PERFECT CIRCLE won the François Chalais Award and the Cannes Junior Prix at Cannes that year. After this attention the film went on to win many other awards: Special Jury Prize, Paris Film Festival, Best Director Award and Tokyo Grand Prix, Tokyo International Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize – Special Mention, Valladolid International Film Festival, Wim Van-Leer prize, Jerusalem International Film Festival.
She moved back to Mexico in 1997 and in 2000 she directed and co-wrote the feature film OTILA RAUDA which won the NHK Filmmaker’s Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.
Dana has recently written and directed WHITE LIED – TUAKIRI HUNA, adapted from the novella Medicine Woman by renowned New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera (Whale Rider). The film was released in New Zealand in June 2013.
Dana is a member of the European Film Academy and the Mexican Council for the Culture and the Arts.
Case Study: Cultural Integrity and White Lies – Tuakiri Huna: An Open Dialogue with Dana Rotberg & Kararaina Rangihau
