Profiles: Catalina Villar | Proimágenes Colombia

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, she has lived in Paris since 1984. There, she studied film at La Fémis, where her final film, Séjour, won an award at the Larissa Festival in Greece. She went on to study medicine and earned a master's degree in social psychopathology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
 
She has contributed to French television, creating short documentaries for the Strip-Tease series on France 3 and producing 52-minute features for ARTE, including the documentary Los padrinos de la droga (The Godfathers of Drugs, 1995). Her works for ARTE, such as Totó la Momposina, una voz para Colombia (Totó la Momposina, a Voice for Colombia), and Bienvenidos a Colombia (Welcome to Colombia, 2002), were shown at festivals in Nyon and Montreal. She also produced the portrait of Patricio Guzmán, una historia chilena (Patricio Guzmán, a Chilean story, 2001) for the Historia channel.
 
In 1998, she made her debut with her first documentary film, Diario en Medellín (The Medellín Diaries), which received numerous awards, including the Feature Film and Audience Award at Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland, the Découvertes de SCAM Award in France, and the Best Film Award at various international festivals. Her repertoire also includes films in France focusing on refugees worldwide, such as La Legende de la Mere Perdue (The Legend of the Lost Mother, 2005) and Invéntame un país (Invent Me a Country, 2005), selected by the Ministry of Culture to commemorate 60 years of human rights.
 
Her first documentary short films include A Vue de Nez (At First Glance) and Fantôme dans la Ville (Ghost in the City). Other productions include La Nueva Medellín (The New Medellín, 2015), Maux d'enfants Mots d'adultes (Children's Pains, Adults' Words, 2016), and Camino (Path, 2017).
 
Upon her return to Colombia, she collaborated with Claude Massot on El Espectador (The Spectator), a production nominated for the Césars in the documentary category. In 2023, she completed her most personal film, Ana Rosa, a documentary based on the story of her grandmother and her experience with lobotomy. It was part of the official selection of Cinéma Du Réel, where it won the Louis Marcorelles French Institute Award and the Best International Film Award, among others.
 
In addition to her filmmaking, she has been involved in the Varan workshops in Paris and other places, including Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Portugal, and Albania, since 2000. She also teaches at institutions such as La Fémis, Lussas, EICTV, Pompeu Fabra, and Univalle.
 
She has worked as a script doctor for various organizations, such as Maison du film, SCAM, Moulin d'ANDE, and l'ALCA-Bordeaux. For her educational work, she produced a DVD of Rithy Panh's work. She has also been a member of international juries at documentary film festivals such as Nyon, Marseille, Santiago de Chile, Biarritz, BAFICI, and 100% Colombie Documentaire (Paris).