Josefina Molina | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 November 1936 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1966 - 1998 |
Josefina Molina (born 14 November 1936) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. Her 1989 film Esquilache was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.[1] Her film Teresa de Jesús won several awards, including the Antena de Oro (1984), and the TP de Oro (1985, Best National Series).[2]
Born in Cordoba in 1936, she studied Political Science and in 1962 she funded an experimental theater group in his native city directing a numbers of plays. By 1968 she had begun directing her first television documentaries for the series Aqui España Here, Spain. During the period of her apprenticeship in television, Molina also pursued studies at the Escuela Oficial de Cine EOC, completing her degree in 1969 as the first woman in the history of the film school to receive a degree in film direction.
Molina first feature length film was Vera, un cuento cruel (1973) (Vera, a cruel story), a Gothic horror story. She continued to work on television directing more than forty dramatic programs for state television. At the same time she worked on the theater directing a stage adaptation of Cinco Horas con Mario (Five hours with Mario) (1979) adapted from a popular novel written by Miguel Delibes. She then scripted and directed a Cinéma vérité film involving the play's leading actress, Lola Herrera, and her real life estranged husband, Daniel Dicenta in Función de Noche (1980)(Evening Performance). The film, which bared many of the intimate details of the couple's life, underscored certain feminist themes related to the legacy of Francoist culture on the social formation of Spanish Women. Though Molina previously had dealt with women's issues in her television dramas an adapting Ibsens's A Doll house, and the documentary: La Mujer y el deporte (Women and sports0, her films began to focus more on women's themes.
One of Josefina Molina most successful works was her highly praised television docudrama , Teresa de Jesús (1984), a biopic of of the sixteen century Spanish saint and doctor of the church. In 1988 she directed Esquilache a historical film for which she received a Goya Award nomination as best director. Her following film Lo mas natural (1990) The most natural thing had a feminist input. La Lola se va a los puertos (1993) (Lola goes to the ports), starring the singer Rocío Jurado was her last feature film. In 1998 she directed Entre naranjos, an adaptation of the eponymous novel written by Blasco Ibáñez a made for television project. Since then Molina has retired from directing.
A pioneer in Spain of films directed by women, she funded CIMA (Asociación de mujeres cineastas y de medios audiovisuales), an association of female filmmakers together with Inés París, Chus Gutiérrez, Icíar Bollaín and Isabel Coixet of which she is honorary president.
In 2011 the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave her an honorary Goya Award
En 2012 es nombrada Hija Predilecta de Andalucía.3