Jordi Torrent
Comment: IMDB cannot be used as a source.Almost none of the claims in the draft are sourced.I realise that this is a translation of the Spanish Wikipedia article, but it does not meet the requirements for a biographical article in English Wikipedia (and possibly not in the Spanish language version either – I don't know what their requirements are.) bonadea contributions talk 13:44, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
| Jordi Torrent | |
|---|---|
| File:Jordi Torrent.jpgJordi Torrent.jpg | |
| Born | San Hilario Sacalm (Gerona Province) |
| 🏳️ Nationality |  Spain |
| 💼 Occupation | Film director, screenwriter and producer |
| 🌐 Website | www.duendepictures.com |
Jordi Torrent (Barcelona-Sant Hilari Sacalm) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, and producer based in New York since 1984.
He has directed three feature fiction films. "East On the Compass"[1] (2005), “The Redemption of the Fish” (2013), and “Third Week” (2024), as well as numerous documentaries, including “Invisible Heroes: African Americans in the Spanish Civil War” (2015), “Las Cantigas de Santa María: A Medieval Spanish Mirror” (1999), and “Monuments in Love: Miralda Honeymoon Project” (1992). Alongside his work in audiovisual production, Torrent has extensive experience in the field of Media Literacy.
Education
He completed secondary school at the Escuelas Pías de Sant Antoni in Barcelona. He earned degree in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona in 1980, where he attended courses taught by José María Valverde and Xavier Rubert de Ventós.
After graduating, he moved to Paris, where he pursued postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne University and the École Pratique des Hautes Études (1981–83). . In Paris, he attended courses taught by Jean Rouch and Éric Rohmer, whose influence has been highly significant in his audiovisual work.
Personal Life
His family originally comes from Sant Hilari de Sacalm (Girona), where his grandfather founded the town’s first movie theater around 1920.
Torrent has lived in New York since 1984, where he married American art director Flavia Galuppo in 1988. He collaborates with her on many of Duende Pictures’ productions and on all of his personal projects. Flavia Galuppo is the art director on all feature films directed by Torrent.
Career as an Audiovisual Creator and Film Director
In the late 1970s, he began making experimental films on Super 8 and came into contact with several experimental filmmakers in Barcelona, including Eugeni Bonet, Juan Bufill, and Manuel Huerga. His first completed film, “The Changing Woman and the Monster Slayer,” was screened at numerous festivals, including the 1979 London Experimental Film Festival.
In 1982–83, he attended video-art workshops with Joan Logue at the American Center in Paris, where he produced the videos “Quiet Days at the American Center” and “Moebius Business (on TV),” the latter having been selected in multiple international exhibitions and festivals and receiving an award at the 1983 Andorra Video Festival.
As a media creator, Torrent has directed television programs, documentaries, and feature films. Notable documentaries directed by him include “Monuments in Love” (which won an award at the 1992 Tokyo Film Festival) stands out; centered on the Honeymoon Project by Catalan artist Antoni Miralda; “Santo Domingo: Portrait and History,” a documentary on the Taino culture of the Dominican Republic; “Will Eisner: Two Interviews”, conversations with the graphic novel author Will Eisner; “Jonas Mekas: A Portrait” a video portrait of the renowned filmmaker and poet Jonas Meka; “Raul Ruiz: Miscellanea Explained,” produced for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston for Raul Ruiz’s multimedia installation; and “Invisible Heroes. African Americans in the Spanish Civil War,” a documentary highlighting the role of African Americans in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, co-directed with filmmaker and writer Alfonso Domingo.
Torrent has written and directed three fiction feature films. His first feature, “East on the Compass,” shot in Barcelona, premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in 2005 and, among other screenings, was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York for the program “Another Spanish Cinema: Cinema in Catalonia, 1906–2006.”. His second feature film, shot in Venice (Italy), “La redempció dels peixos,” was selected by several festivals, including the 2013 Milan International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Film and Best Director; actress Samanta Silvestri won Best Actress for her performance in the film. His third feature, shot in New York, “Third Week”, has received awards at various festivals, including the Best Film Award at the 2025 Close:Up Reykjavik Film Festival.
Career as a Producer
In 1989, in New York, Torrent founded Duende Pictures, the production company through which he and his partners have provided production support services for films and cinematic projects. These include “The Golden Boat” by Raúl Ruiz, “Mi vida sin mí” by Isabel Coixet; “The Keeper” by Joe Brewster; “The Dominion of the Senses,” co-directed by five Catalan female directors and produced by Carlos Benpar; “DownUnder” by Tim Young; “Miotte by Ruiz” by Raúl Ruiz; “Edipo” by Raúl Ruiz and “Asesinado por el Cielo” by Marc Benería.
Duende Pictures has also provided production support for television programs and advertising campaigns for a variety of companies, including OvideoTV, TVE, WNET, WGBH, Ficciones del Sur, La Zamfoña, Imatco, Tacsa, Iberia Airlines, Chase Bank, Pepsi-Cola, AXA, British Telecom, Telefónica, Campofrio, Tiger and Amena.
Career as an Audiovisual Curator and Festival Organizer
In 1976, he joined the Cuc Sonat collective[2] and participated in its many activities, organizing film screenings and music concerts. With Cuc Sonat, he collaborated in organizing Spain’s first Punk concert (December 1977, Aliança del Poble Nou, Barcelona).
Starting in 1981, he actively participated in the promotion of “video art”,[cita requerida], organizing numerous video art festivals in France and Spain. In 1982, he became part of the team managed by Guadalupe Etxebarria that organized the First and Second San Sebastián Video Festival within the broader framework of the San Sebastián Film Festival (1982–1983).
Between 1985 and 1990, he was curator of audiovisual programs at Exit Art in Nueva York. Among the many programs he organized at Exit Art, notable examples include “Samuel Beckett: The Media Work,” “Raul Ruiz: Works for/about French TV,” “Spain: Video Now,” “International Forum of Super8,” and “Films with a Purpose: A Puerto Rican Experiment in Social Films.”
In 2008, within the framework of the United Nations, he created the PLURAL+ video festival, a short-film festival produced by young people focusing on migration and the prevention of xenophobia. The festival, a project developed in collaboration with UNAOC and IOM (UNMigration), was coordinated by Torrent for 10 years and continues to be held annually.
Career in Educommunication and Media Literacy
Between 1990 and 2007, he worked as a media education consultant for the New York City Department of Education, where he created media literacy programs and developed educommunication workshops for students, educators, and parents. Many of the videos produced during these workshops were selected for numerous national and international festivals, including the “Chicago International Children’s Film Festival,” the “National Inner City Youth Video and Film” festival, the “Reel Teens” festival, the “Barcelona International Television Festival,” and the “Shortie Washington Festival” in Washington.
Between 2004 and 2008, he served as co-director of “ Media Overseas Conversations”, a series of international conferences that debated and explored the interaction between youth, media, and education. The annual conferences were held in collaboration with the Museum of Broadcasting in New York and the Children’s Television Observatory in Barcelona. Between 2007 and 2019, he managed the entire media and information literacy program of UNAOC at the United Nations. There he created the youth video festival PLURAL+, a festival focusing on migration and social inclusion. At UNAOC he also created PEACEapp, an initiative for digital literacy through video game design as an opportunity for intercultural development and the empowerment of participating youth (local residents, refugees, and migrants). Between 2014 and 2018, he organized four PEACEapp workshops (Nairobi, Algeciras, Tangier, and Tunis). Also as part of UNAOC’s activities, he created the first website promoting international data collection and information exchange on media literacy. In collaboration with UNESCO, he organized media literacy workshops for educators, as well as the creation of an international network of universities developing activities and promoting professional exchange around Media and Information Literacy.
Publications
Torrent has published articles in media outlets such as El País, El Món, Casablanca, Video Actualidad, Media Literacy Journal, Paideia, Liberation, and EuropeNow.
He has also co-edited, among other books, “Opportunities for Media and Information Literacy in the Middle East and North Africa[3]” “Youth Media Voices,” and “Mapping Media Education Policies in the World.”
Filmography
Titles
| Año | Película | Rol |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | The Changing Woman and the Monster Slayer (Short Film) | (DSP) |
| 1983 | Moebius Business (TV), (Short Film) | (P) |
| 1984 | Jonas Mekas (TV Documentary) | (DSP) |
| 1986 | Will Eisner (Short documentary) | (P) |
| 1987 | Film Spectators Are Quiet Vampires (Short Film)[4] | (P) |
| 1988 | Allegoria (Documentary) | (Associate Producer) (P) |
| 1990 | Raul Ruiz[5] (TV Documentary) | (Coproducer)(DGP) |
| 1990 | The Golden Boat | (P) |
| 1990 | The Dice[6] (TV Series) | (Coproducer) (P) |
| 1992 | Monuments in Love[7] (TV Documentary) | (DSP) |
| 1995 | The Keeper[8] | (P) |
| 1996 | El Domini del Sentits[9] | (Production Manager) (P) |
| 1999 | Cosas que olvidé recordar[10] | (Production Manager) (P) |
| 2000 | Disney Has Taken ABD Away from You[11] (Short Film) | (P) |
| 2002 | Miotte vu par Raúl Ruiz[12] (Documentary) | (Associate Producer) (P) |
| 2003 | La Mia Vita Senza Me[13] | (Production Manager) (P) |
| 2003 | The Homeless Dog[14] (TV Feature Film) | (P) |
| 2004 | My Friends at the Farm | (DSP) |
| 2004 | Edipo[15] (Documentary) | (Associate Producer) (P) |
| 2005 | L’est de la brúixola[16] | (DS) |
| 2009 | Asesinado por el Cielo[17] | (Consultoría de Producción) (P) |
| 2013 | La Redempció dels Peixos[18] | (DSP) |
| 2015 | Héroes Invisibles. Afroamericanos en la Guerra de España[19] (TV Documentary) | (Co-Director, Co-Producer, Co-Screenwriter) (DSP) |
| 2024 | Third Week | (DSP) |
- P: producer
- DS: director and screenwriter
- DSP: director, screenwriter and producer
References
- ↑ "East On the Compass". digitalia. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
- ↑ "Barcelona underground años 70 Cuc Sonat en el Club Helena". libreriaelastillero.com. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Opportunities for media and information literacy in the Middle East and North Africa. Yearbook 2016. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media : Nordicom, University of Gothenburg. 2016. ISBN 978-91-87957-33-8. Retrieved 2026-04-16. Search this book on
- ↑ Film Spectators Are Quiet Vampires (Cortometraje)
- ↑ Raul Ruiz
- ↑ The Dice
- ↑ Monuments in Love
- ↑ The Keeper
- ↑ El Domini del Sentits
- ↑ Cosas que olvidé recordar
- ↑ Disney Has Taken ABD Away from You
- ↑ Miotte vu par Raúl Ruiz
- ↑ La Mia Vita Senza Me
- ↑ The Homeless Dog
- ↑ Edipo
- ↑ L’est de la brúixola
- ↑ Asesinado por el Cielo
- ↑ La Redempció dels Peixos
- ↑ Héroes Invisibles. Afroamericanos en la Guerra de España
External Links
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