Marcelo Martinessi (Asunción, 1973), studied communication before going to the London Film School. His work revolves around memory, identity and human rights in his home country. He has also researched on the relationship between cinema and literature, adapting short stories. Karai Norte (2009) is a black and white record of an oral narration collected during the 1947 Paraguayan civil war and El Baldío (2013) evokes the hundreds of disappearances over the course of the long Paraguayan dictatorship. He has developed cinema workshops for children living on the streets of Asunción creating with them Calle Ultima (2011). His work has been shown at the Berlinale, Clermont Ferrand, Locarno and many other festivals, winning several international awards. In 2010 the government of Paraguay (first democratic socialist government to win elections after 62 years of a one-party authoritarian regime) gave him the task to set up the first Public Television of the country. The new culturally oriented TV station showed national and regional films, shorts, documentaries, music and art videos. He left the role of Director of the Public TV station during the 2012 coup d’etat. With his first feature film project The Heiresses he has recently participated of the Cinéfondation – La Residence – (2014) and Torino Film Lab (2014 Script and Pitch).
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