Profiles: Jorge Alí Triana | Proimágenes Colombia

Director, screenwriter, actor, and teacher with more than 55 years of experience in theatre, film, and television. He has developed works nationally and internationally, receiving national and international awards and recognitions. In the 1990s he conducted his work mainly between Bogotá and New York, where he began his career as guest director of the Repertorio Español stage group.

He was born in Bogota on April 04, 1942. He studied Film and Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts - AMU Prague. In 1968 he founded the Teatro Popular de Bogota, Centro de Artes Dramatic y Audiovisuales (TPB) where he directed more than 50 theatrical montages, highlighting the adaptation to theater of works by writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. In 2010 he founded the production company Dramax from which he directed the development and conception of audiovisual and theatrical projects. He is currently part of the Repertorio Español of New York as guest artistic director.

He began his professional career in his childhood in 1954 with the theater group Grupo Escénico Infantil doing scenography and in a Little Red Riding Hood play for the Teatro Colón. As a director, he began his film career with the feature film Las cuatro edades del amor (The Four Ages of Love (1982) in which directors Alberto Giraldo Castro, Luis Alberto García, and Antonio Montaña participated; later came Tiempo de morir (Time to Die) (1985) a Colombo-Cuban co-production that won the Golden Tucán for Best Film, FIPRESCI Award and CIFEJ Award of the Unesco Youth of the Rio de Janeiro Festival in 1985, winner of the Special Award at the 3rd Bogota Film Festival: National, Tropical and Caribbean and Best Feature Film Exaequo, Manuel Murillo Toro Medal of Merit for Communications - Focine Award from the Ministry of Communications in Colombia in 1986.

His third feature film Edipo Alcalde (Oedipus Mayor) (1996) is a co-production between Spain, Mexico, and Colombia based on a screenplay by Gabriel García Márquez with which he managed to become selected in the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival in 1996; With Bolivar soy yo (Bolívar it’s me) (2002) he received in 2002 the Audience Award for Best Director at the 6th Latin American Film Meeting in Peru, he was awarded the Golden Ombú for Best Film and the Silver Ombú for Best Ibero-American Film at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Toulouse Festival. His most recent work for the big screen was This smells bad (2007) based on the novel by Fernando Quiroz.

He is also director of the short films Dad de comer a los hambrientos (Feed the Hungry) (1982), Y todos los días lo mismo (And every day the same) (1983) and Enterrad a los muertos (Burry the Dead) (1984). 

The TPB contributed to the construction of the capital theatrical culture and there he began directing several plays until 1993, including Julius Caesar (1969) by William Shakespeare; Death of a Salesman (1972,1982 and 1983) by Arthur Miller and I took Panama(1974, 1980 and 1983) by Luis Alberto García. His prolific career in the world of theatre deserves an entirely separate chapter.

He directed Y se armó la mojiganga, based on the novel "A la diestra de Dios Padre" by Tomás Carrasquilla; Joe Maseroff's Cabaret for Teatro Nacional de Bogota; Adiós a la maldita primavera based on the novel by Alonso Sánchez Baute; La fiesta del chivo (2003) based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel for the Spanish Repertory Theatre in New York and the National Theatre in Bogota with which he won the ACE Award for Best Director of the Latin ACE Awards in 2004; Death of a ArthurMiller traveller for the National Theatre of Bogota; El quixote (2006) based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra for the Spanish Repertory Theatre in New York; Doña flor and her two husbands(2008) based on jorge Armando's novel for the Repertory Español Theatre in New York and the Teatro Arlequín in Bogota; Pantaleón y las visitadoras (2009 and 2014) based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel for the Teatro Repertorio Español in New York and the Teatro Cafam de Bellas Artes in Bogota with which he won seven awards at the Latin ACE Awards in 2010; The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother based on Gabriel García Márquez's novel for the Gala Theatre in Washington D.C., the Repertorio Español Theater in New York and Teatro Nacional from Bogota; Y así pasen 100 años a work to commemorate the 100th years of the Social Foundation; Chronicle of a Death Foretold based on Gabriel García Márquez's book for Teatro Nacional (2000) and the British Theatre (2011); Blind Date (2013) based on the novel by Argentine playwright Mario Diament for the Repertorio Español Theatre in New York with which he won the ACE Award for Best Visiting Director at the Latin ACE Awards in 2013 and No one Writes to the Colonel (2018) based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, this adaptation is made in conjunction with his daughter Veronica, premiered at the Repertorio Español in New York and he was the director of the central show of the Bicentennial independence Bicentennial Symphony that took place at Plaza de Bolívar.

On television his work initially stood out with historical series that include titles such as Revivamos nuestra historia (Reviving our history) (1968); Crónicas de una generación trágica (Chronicles of a Tragic Generation) (1994). He directed great works of Latin American literature in the television series format with productions such as El Cristo espaldas (1986) by Eduardo Caballero Calderón; The Sins of Ines of Hinojosa (1988) by Prospero Morales Pradilla;  Kill the lion of Jorge Ibarguengoitia and Divine Punishment (1990) by Sergio Ramírez; as well as Comando Elite based on the book by Germán Castro Caycedo Objective 4 for the RCN channel; Hidden Truth (2019) co-directed with his son Rodrigo Triana based on the book A Hidden Truth by Germán Castro Caycedo. 

His career includes the direction of the telenovelas La Espina (The Thorn) (1991); Dos rostros y una vida (Two Faces and a Life) (1992); Si mañana estoy viva (If tomorrow I am alive) (1993); the historical miniseries Pecado santo (Holy Sin) (1995); Otra en mí (Another in me) (1996); La luz de mis ojos (The Light of My Eyes) (2016) inspired by an original story by writer Alonso Sánchez Baute; Todo es prestado (Everything is loaned) (2016) based on the biography of singer Galy Galeano in which he co-directed with Carlos Mario Urrea; Desconectados (Disconnected) (2017) co-directed with Daniel Moure for RTVC Play;  Reportera X (Reporter X) (2018) for Channel 13 and Ciudad X (City X) for CityTV in which he was director of the second season.

He is also director of documentaries Cincuenta años al aire (Fifty Years on air) (2004 and 2006) commemorating the 50th years of Colombian television; Memoria, 200 años de vida Bogotana (Memory, 200 years of Bogotan life) (2008) commemorating the Bicentennial of Independence issued by Canal Capital; Vientos de libertad (Winds of Freedom) (2010) animated documentary commemorating the bicentenary of independence for RTVC and the television film No Morirás (You will not die) based on the novel by Germán Santa María (1997).

As a teacher he has worked in the Specialization in Film Program at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (1978), in the postgraduate degree in theater at Universidad Externado de Colombia (1978) and at the San Antonio de los Baños School, Cuba (1990).

In his career he has been deserving of a large number of awards. The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors Award for Excellence in Spanish Theatre seasons 2002 -2003 is unleashed; he was awarded the Victor Nieto Special Lifetime Award at the 56th Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI) in 2016. He has had several tributes such as that of the Filmoteca de Catalunya in 2015, at the XXXI National Festival of Colombian Music in Ibagué in which he was awarded the Recognition of Human Values and the Mayor of Ibagué gave him the Order of the City of Ibagué in 2017; a decoration of the order of the "Jan Masaryk" of the Czech Republic, in recognition of its outstanding role in the field of Colombian culture and the promotion of Czech film art in 2017.

Recently in 2020 he received an invitation to be part of the United States Film Academy that awards the Oscars every year and was awarded the National Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Stimulus Program of the Colombian Ministry of Culture, through which they highlight the work of those who have contributed to the enrichment of the cultural memory of Colombians. "A lifetime telling stories" through theatre, television, and film.

*Main photo: ANDINA/ Gustavo Sánchez

Last updated: September 2020.