Valeria Sarmiento (born 29 October 1948) is a film editor, director and screenwriter best known for her work in France, Portugal and her native Chile. She has worked both in film and television, directing 20 feature films, documentaries and television series'. She is the widow of Chilean film director Raúl Ruiz (1941-2011) with whom she collaborated for decades as regular editor and co-writer. She has also edited films for Luc Moullet, Robert Kramer and Ventura Pons and is a Guggenheim Fellow (1988).
Biography Sarmiento was born in the Chilean municipality of Valparaíso and was first exposed to film at the age of five, becoming familiar with the work of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and others. She rarely saw French films due to censorship but, thanks to what she refers to as a "moment of magic", was able to watch Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960) at the age of twelve. She went on to study film and philosophy at the University of Valparaíso and married filmmaker Raúl Ruiz in 1969. In 1974, the couple were forced to move to Paris due to the 1973 Chilean coup d'état of Augusto Pinochet.
Sarmiento made her directorial debut with the documentary Un sueño como de colores (1972) about a group of Chilean women dedicated to striptease. Her later work as a director, usually in melodrama, romantic drama and costume drama, has also often featured strong female characters who face machismo and sexism. Her debut feature Notre mariage (1984) was a Grand Prix winner for Best New Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, her 1991 film Amelia Lópes O'Neill was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival and her Napoleonic war epic Lines of Wellington competed for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.
A symposium on Sarmiento's feminism was held at Stanford University in May 2008, the Cinémathèque Française ran a Sarmiento retrospective in October 2018, and a Ruiz/Sarmiento retrospective will take place at the Filmoteca de Catalunya in October 2025.
Filmography YearTitleRole Director Screenwriter Editor Actor1972Un sueño como de coloresYesPoeísa popular: la teoría y la prácticaYesYesLos minuterosYesYesThe ExpropriationYes1975Dialogues of ExilesYesYes1977Dog's DialogueYes1978Genèse d'un repasYesThe Suspended VocationYes1979Le mal du paysYesYesGens du nulle part, gens de toutes partsYesYesYes1980La borgneYesGunsYes1981The TerritoryYes1982On Top of the WhaleYesEl hombre cuando es hombreYesYes1983Les minutes d'un faiseur de filmYesThree Crowns of the SailorYesCity of PiratesYes19847 faux raccordsYesNotre mariageYesYes1985Voyage d'une mainYesYesTreasure IslandYes1987Brise-glaceYes1990The Blind OwlYesAmelia Lópes O'NeillYesYes1994Viaggio clandestino - Vite di santi e di peccarotiYes1995Wind WaterYesElleYes1997Le film à venirYesGenealogies of a CrimeYes1998L'inconnu de StrasbourgYesYesCarlos Fuentes: Un voyage dans les tempsYes2000Love Torn in a DreamYes2001Savage SoulsYes2002Rosa la chinaYesYes2003That DayYesA Place Among the LivingYes2004EdipoYes2005The Lost DomainYes2006KlimtYes2008SecretsYesYes2010A Closed BookYesMysteries of LisbonYes2012Lines of Wellington (conceived by Ruiz, shot by Sarmiento)Yes2013Maria Graham: Diary of a Residence in ChileYes2017The Wandering Soap Opera (shot by Ruiz in 1990, completed by Sarmiento)Yes2018The Black Book of Father DinisYes2020The Tango of the Widower (shot by Ruiz in 1967, completed by Sarmiento)Yes
References
Bibliography Bruno Cuneo and Fernando Pérez V. (eds.) Una mirada oblicua. El cine de Valeria Sarmiento (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2021) Elizabeth Ramírez and Catalina Donoso (eds.) Nomadías. El cine de Marilú Mallet, Valeria Sarmiento y Angelina Vásquez (Ediciones Metales Pesados, 2016) ,
External links
MUBI's Sarmiento page 2012 cineuropa interview 2018 Film Comment interview