Clemente de la Cerda

Clemente Felipe de La Cerda Martin (13 October 1935 – 13 December 1984) was a film director from Venezuela. He directed one of the highest grossing Venezuelan films, Soy un delincuente (I am a criminal), in 1976.

With his next film "Reincidente" (Repeat Offender) in 1977, made by request of TV producers, he achieved what became in the first sequel in national cinema. His 1979 film El Crimen del Penalista (The Crime of the Lawyer), filmed in Dominican Republic, to avoid problems with national authorities, was based on the murder of the well known lawyer Ramón Carmona Vásquez at the hands of the special task group GATO led by former head of the PTJ, Manuel Molina Gasperi.

The 1979 film Compañero de viaje (Traveling Companion) was based on the book by Orlando Araujo. He also directed the 1980 telenovela Elizabeth.

In 1982 he directed Los Criminales (The Criminals), based on Rodolfo Santana's play, who also write the script and, two years later Retén de Catia (Catia's Jailhouse), based on a book by Gustavo Santander, under pseudonym of Juan Sebastián Aldana. Both were two strong critics of Venezuelan society and politics, well received by the audience and box-office hits, who were attacked by the media, intellectuals and high class society, because he failed to follow the rules, and to show a part of the country that they're not recognized at their own. His films were also criticized because he always based his films on the lives and troubles of ordinary people.