Biography
Born in Santiago de Chile, she worked at La Moneda Palace alongside Salvador Allende. After her partner, Miguel Enriquez, was killed by the military, Carmen Castillo—then pregnant and wounded—was forced to leave Chile and sought refuge in France.
She has directed numerous documentaries, primarily for French broadcasters TF1, FR3, and the Franco-German channel Arte. Her debut film was Los muros de Santiago (1983), followed by Estado de guerra: Nicaragua (1984). La Flaca Alejandra (1993) earned the Golden FIPA at Cannes, along with awards in Geneva, Monte Carlo, San Francisco, and New York.
Subsequent works include La verdadera leyenda del Subcomandante Marcos (1995), Inca de oro (1996), El bolero, una educación amorosa (1999) which won First Prize at the Annecy Festival, Viaje con la cumbia por Colombia (2000), María Félix, la inalcanzable (2000), El Camino del Inca (2001), El astrónomo y el indio (2002) awarded First Prize at the Paris Scientific Film Festival, José Saramago, el tiempo de una memoria (2003), Mísia, la voz del fado (2003), and El país de mi padre (2004), which received Second Prize at Fidocs in Santiago de Chile.
She also directed the fiction film series Tierras extranjeras for Arte between 1994 and 1999.
Her latest film, Calle Santa Fé (2007), was screened in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section and was scheduled to be shown at the San Sebastian Film Festival in the Zabaltegi category. She authored the scripts for Inca de oro and Color Habana, both completed, as well as Hasta luego and La montaña azul, which are currently in pre-production.
Carmen Castillo has published several books, including Un día de octubre en Santiago (1980), Ligne de fuite (1987), and Santiago/Paris, el vuelo de la memoria (2000), co-written with Mónica Echeverría.
