Biography
Award winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Valiente explores narratives across the arts: describing his practice as interdisciplinary and multicultural storytelling. He studied and worked in New York for more than ten years and lived in Mexico City and the UK, while engaging in creative projects in more than twenty countries.
His work has received two Berlinale awards, an Emmy nomination, and nearly sixty honors. His films have screened at over 100 festivals, including Sundance and SXSW; broadcast on PBS, BBC, RTVE, and Canal+; and been presented at art centers such as MoMA and the Whitney Biennial. Selected projects include the video installation trilogy Multiple Portraits and You Are Mythical, a documentary connecting daily life with classical myths, which won awards at two Los Angeles film festivals.
New York Spin -described as "a part experimental tone poem, part heartfelt elegy for 9/11, and part paean to the cultural richness of Gotham"- focuses on six New Yorkers. Ronnie Scheib (Variety) called it "engrossing, imagistic portrait of the city [...] that should prove a welcome short addition to fest and arty cable lineups." Carole Dean (Roy W. Dean Foundation) praised its "filmmaking talent," and Deborah Cravey (Digital Media Center) said: "I'm fascinated by this project: concept, people, structure, everything intrigues me."
Cuba 15 was another standout success. The LA Times described it as "as delightful as anything I've seen upon a television screen," while Amy Taubin of The Village Voice praised its protagonist: "We learn more from her in 15 minutes than from a half-dozen feature documentaries." Valiente produced Cuba 15 by Elizabeth Schub, which won both the Jury and Audience Awards for Best Short Film at Berlinale (Panorama) and screened at more than 40 festivals. He also collaborated on projects produced by Steven Soderbergh and Spike Lee, and worked with NBC's Saturday Night Live, Time Warner, Vivendi Universal, and The Rockefeller Foundation. He co-produced Forgetful, featuring Ana Torrent and Gal Soler, which won 16 awards.
In performing arts, Valiente collaborated for three years on video design for The Days Before DDDIII by Robert Wilson, with text by Umberto Eco and music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, featuring Fiona Shaw and Isabella Rossellini at Lincoln Center. He also authored a PhD dissertation that became a book series on Wilson's creative process. He trained with The Wooster Group, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and Atsushi Takenouchi, and presented Kazuo Ohno's Butoh at Mexico's National Center for the Arts. In Madrid, he coordinated a theater-dance company inspired by Joan Brossa, and directed a theater company that pioneered the use of multimedia on stage in Madrid's university, premiering works by Bernard-Marie Koltès, Sergi Belbel, and Julio Cortázar.
Valiente has also held roles in higher education: International Relations director at New York Film Academy, program leader of BA (Hons) Contemporary Media Practice at Arts University Plymouth (UK), and European Project media director at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has contributed to edX MIT/Harvard University, and lectured internationally, including at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. He holds a PhD in Audiovisual Creativity and Production, and MAs in Cinema Studies and Journalism, and training in filmmaking, performing arts, and visual art in the US and UK.
