Jairo Pinilla

Jairo Pinilla is an outstanding Colombian film director, considered the father of horror, suspense and science fiction in Colombia. That is why he is called Colombian Ed Wood or Colombian Steven Spielberg since he has used special effects never before used in Colombian cinema. Born in Cali in 1944, he has lived in Bogotá since he was 4 years old. From an early age he felt attached to the cinema. He studied Electronic Engineering at the Industrial University of Popayán specialized in electromechanical computers in Mexico with the North American company Burroughs Enterprise, in his spare time he visits the Churubusco studios where he meets the 60s Mexican film stars forging friendships with various personalities from the Mexican cinema and knows first-hand all the technical and artistic part of the cinema of that time, he decided to return to Colombia and make films, his first short film "Que mago" he made with reversible Black and White film and without sound, where we found for the first time time in Colombia special effects in a short film; Making this film, Pinilla begins to put his ideas into practice, then writes and directs "Date with the Times" A Co-production of Asofilms and San Pablo Films, the short film was awarded in Milan Italy. His first two feature films were: Funeral siniestro (1977) one of the first movies of the horror and suspense genre in Colombia and Area maldita (1980) where he ventures into the police action genre and is the first to incorporate special effects in the shootings; He also filmed an adventure and suspense film with special effects: T-O: Triángulo de oro - 'La isla fantasma' (1985) shot in international locations (Panama), on the high seas, first colombian film dubbed in English and fighting scenes with martial arts, explosions and earthquakes, being this way the most successful of his career. On regressions and psychological horror stories: Extraña Regresión (1985), he has made several shorts of the comedy genre and suspense comedy among others. The first film in digital format in Colombia began filming in 2005: ¿Porqué lloran las campanas? (2005) filmed in Medellín. His style is characterized by taking natural actors. It is a characteristic feature to include cameos of himself in his own films, another characteristic is to double the dialogues to English and Spanish in all his plot productions. The Spanish magazine "Zona de Obras" launched in its Issue 49 of 2008 a section dedicated to Ibero-American cinema with an interview with Jairo Pinilla that included "27 hours with death for the first time on DVD the mythical film by Colombian director Jairo Pinilla". He was the guest of honor at the 46th edition of the International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia Sitges 2013, in the Brigadoon section in collaboration with the Colombian film festival Zinema Zombi Fest allowed to present a retrospective of Jairo Pinilla's films representing Colombia in the Genre of horror and suspense. In 2006 the film director Ciro Guerra carried out his thesis work on Jairo Pinilla, a work he called: Sinister documentary. Since 2013 One Man Band Studios an audiovisual company, has collected information for the creation of "La Pesadilla de Pinilla" a project that is online through the YouTube platform about the life and work of Jairo Pinilla.