Matilde Landeta

Pioneering feminist Mexican writer-director. In films from the 1930's as a continuity girl. In the 40's turned to directing and writing films.

Matilde Landeta was one of the first woman filmmakers in México, along with Adela Sequeyro. Both wrote the movies they directed, and both could only make a few in a film industry strongly controlled by their male counterparts. At first Matilde's family opposed to her aspirations, but her brother Eduardo Landeta, an actor in early sound movies, introduced her to director Fernando de Fuentes, who gave her the opportunity to be the script supervisor of his «Revolution Trilogy» (comprised of «El prisionero 13», «El compadre Mendoza» and «¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!») In this capacity and later as assistant director, she worked in 75 movies, including two classics of the «golden age» of Mexican cinema, Emilio Fernández's «Flor silvestre« and Julio Bracho's «Distinto amanecer«; the comedy «El cocinero de mi mujer» by Cuban director Ramón Peón, and the horror drama «La herencia de la Llorona», one of the few films directed by Mauricio Magdaleno, Fernández's frequent screenwriter. As she had no support to become a director, Landeta founded her own production company called Tacma and made her screen adaptation «Lola Casanova», a historical drama based on a novel by Francisco Rojas González. But she had "disobeyed" the industry rules, so she was boycotted and the release was delayed for a year. Although people's reaction was good, the film was removed from the cinema in five days. But she went on and adapted another novel by González Rojas, «La negra Angustias», that many consider her best film. A story of the Mexican revolution, it starred María Elena Marqués as Angustias, the young daughter of a generous bandit, who is rejected for living with a witch and for refusing men's harassment. When she kills a charro who tried to rape her, Angustias runs away, joins Zapata's troops, becomes a colonel and, following her father's steps, fights for justice for women and peasants. Landeta completed her trilogy of female melodramas in 1951 with «Trotacalles», starring the tragic Czech star Miroslava. She was offered a job supervising the content of foreign films being shot in México, and doing shorts for American television. In those years she and brother Eduardo wrote the script for «Juvenile Court», a drama about street boys, which she sold to the National Film Bank of México, under the agreement that she would direct it. But the accord was broken by the industry: the project was given to Alfonso Corona Blake as his first directorial assignment, the title was changed to «El camino de la vida», and they tried to erase the Landeta brothers' names from the writing credits. Matilde sued and won the case, but she was not allowed to work in the film industry in México.

The director continued working in shorts for many years, but in 1975 film critic Jorge Ayala Blanco rediscovered «La negra Angustias» during the preparations of a retrospective of films directed by women to celebrate the International Women's Year. Ayala Blanco wrote the magazine article "Matilde Landeta, nosotros te amamos" (Matilde Landeta, we love you), which led to a revival of the filmmaker's oeuvre. After decades of being ousted of Mexican cinema, she was first the subject of Marcela Fernández Violante's documentary «Matilde Landeta, pionera del cine nacional»; and then she directed her last two films: the documentary »El rescate de las islas Revillagigedo», produced and co-written by actress Elda Peralta, whom she had directed in «La negra Angustias» and «Trotacalles»; and the romantic drama «Nocturno a Rosario», starring Ofelia Medina.

Matilde Landeta won the Ariel, the Mexican top film prize, for Best Screen Story for El camino de la vida, and received the Lifetime Achievement Ariel in 1992.