Matilde Landeta

Matilde Soto Landeta (20 September 1913 – 26 January 1999) was a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter, the first woman to serve in those roles during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (1936-1956). Her films focused on the portrayal of strong, realistic female protagonists in a patriarchal world.

Early life Landeta was born on 20 September 1913 in Mexico City to a wealthy family, the daughter of Gregorio Soto Conde and Matilde Landeta Dávalos. After the death of her mother when she was three years of age, Landeta moved to San Luis, Potosí, where she was raised by her aunt and grandmother. She then moved back to Mexico City where she continued her studies in a monastery for Dominican mothers. Her love for film was born when she watched the film Old San Francisco during a trip to the United States.

Growing up in San Luis, she would play theater with her brother and friends, going so far as to hitting the other children if they didn't memorize their lines. Born with the soul of a director, she knew that once she embarked on her film making career, she would direct.

During the Mexican Revolution, when she was about six years old, she witnessed a group of women and children scavenging for rice that had fallen on its way to her grandmother's estate. Having seen this, Landeta begged for her grandmother to feed the poor some of their stored rice. This led her to realizing the social class differences in Mexico. This experience left a huge impression on her and grew up aligning herself, and her films, toward the "Left." Her goal was to show the poverty happening in her country. Due to her gender, she had to prove that she was capable of doing the job when applying for the position of assistant director. She was forced to reach out to the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Produccion Cinematografica in order to get the job.

The struggle for Landeta to become a director was an arduous task that included union opposition and financial problems. At the time, women were rarely allowed to work in departments outside of makeup or wardrobe, but she had an edge that allowed her to become a script supervisor- she could speak English. In 1945 she became an assistant director and worked with some of the best directors of the time. These included Emilio Fernández, Julio Bracho, and Roberto Gavaldón. Her exclusive contract with Films Mundiales during Mexico's Golden Age of Cinema allowed her to learn all aspects of film making by working on some of the most well known films of the time. However, distribution companies boycotted her film, once she was done shooting it. An entire roll of filmed negatives were lost by the studio and Landeta was forced to wait for the release her film over a year after it was completed. Even then, the studio premiered her film as a B-movie on a Tuesday during Semana Santa.

In her third film, Trotacalles Landeta deals with the topic of infidelity. Here, a rich banker named Faustino is cheated on by Elena. When asked why Faustino doesn't redeem the fallen Elena, Landeta responded with her trademark regard for feminine strength. "In general, in films made by men, the men redeem the women. They forgive their transgressions and move forward with them to the point they turn them into saints. I don’t believe this is true. Women redeem themselves when they want! There is no man that is capable of redeeming them. Instead of making a history of selfless women, I wanted to create a history of women who had done something in life. I wanted to make my films about women I know and feel are true."

Awards and recognition Landeta won an Ariel Award in 1957 for Best Original Story for the film El camino de la vida which she co-wrote with her brother Eduardo. The film also won the 1957 Golden Ariel, the Silver Ariel Film of Major National Interest and Best Direction and two other awards in 1956 in the Berlin International Film Festival under the name of Alfonso Corona Blake.

In 1975, Landeta was recognized for her film La negra Angustias in the Women Directors category for the International Women's Year. This was the first recognition she received including many others such as: the Italian Festival de Cine Femenino that paid homage to Landeta and showed her films in 1987; the Ariel Awards that gave her an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992 and many more between those years. Landeta also taught at the Instituto Cinematográfico, the first film school in Mexico; and she presided the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of México twice.

1979: Special prize for Directing in Radio, Television and Film for meritorious service to the Mexican film industry. 1983–86: President of Awards Commission for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Mexico. 1986: Tribute; Kitchen of Images film festival, Mexico City; "Tribute to female pioneers of film' Havana Film Festival. 1987: Tribute; Feminist Film Review, Incontri Internazionale del Cinema, Sorrento, Italia. 1988: Tribute by Collective for Living Cinema, New York. 1989: Retrospective of Latin American Women Filmmakers, National Film Theater, London. Films des Femmes Festival, Créteil, France. 1989–1990: Included in the series " Révolte, Révolution, Cinéma" in the Centro Georges Pompidou, París; paid homage to on a variety of occasions throughout the 1990s.

In 2004, the Matilde Landeta Cultural Association was created to award screenwriters annual scholarships.

Filmography Her first and second feature films were adaptations of Francisco Rojas González's novel Lola Casanova (1948) and La Negra Angustias (1949). She also co-wrote and directed Trotacalles (1951)