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| Jodorowsky | |
|---|---|
| Name | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| Birth date | 1929-02-17 |
| Birth place | Tocopilla, Antofagasta Region, Chile |
| Occupation | Filmmaker, playwright, writer, poet, comics artist, actor, mime, psychomagician |
| Years active | 1950s–present |
Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean-French filmmaker, playwright, writer, poet, comics artist, actor, mime, and psychomagician known for avant-garde cinema, surrealist theatre, and esoteric practices. His work spans collaborations with artists and institutions across Latin America and Europe, influencing Pablo Picasso-adjacent surrealism circles, experimental film movements alongside Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, and graphic literature networks connected to Moebius and Hergé.
Born in Tocopilla in the Antofagasta Region, he grew up amid migrants linked to Eastern Europe and Ukraine. His family history intersects with Bessarabia and Moldova, and his upbringing reflected cosmopolitan ties to Santiago, Valparaíso, and the broader Atacama Desert region. During youth he absorbed influences from Alejandro Dumas, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Rimbaud, and the modernist circles informed by Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral. Early exposure to Surrealism and theatrical currents from Paris and Buenos Aires shaped his autodidactic education, along with informal studies of Kabbalah, Zen Buddhism, and alchemical texts associated with Hermeticism.
He co-founded mime and theatre companies that performed works in venues linked to Théâtre National Populaire, Comédie-Française, and alternative spaces associated with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and Nouveau Théâtre. Influenced by Marcel Marceau, Étienne Decroux, Antonin Artaud, and Jerzy Grotowski, he developed mime techniques intersecting with rituals referenced by Aleister Crowley and Carlos Castaneda. His troupe collaborated with actors and directors such as Fernando Arrabal, Roland Topor, Fernando Birri, and stages connected to Teatro Colón and Teatro San Martín. He toured festivals including Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Avignon Festival, Festival d'Automne à Paris, and productions tied to Teatro La Mama and Centro Dramático Nacional.
His early films screened at festivals like Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Locarno Film Festival, placing him among filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Luis Buñuel, David Lynch, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Pedro Almodóvar. Notable collaborators included composer Goran Bregović, cinematographer Raúl Arteta, and actor Brontis Jodorowsky who worked with performers linked to Isabelle Adjani, Marlon Brando, and Orson Welles. His unmade projects intersected with screenplays and development histories involving Frank Herbert, H.R. Giger, Philip K. Dick, Dune (novel), and production attempts with companies associated with Universal Pictures and producers working with David Lean. Retrospectives at institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, British Film Institute, Cinémathèque Française, and Filmoteca Española highlighted restorations alongside works by Ken Russell and Peter Greenaway.
He created graphic novels and comics in collaboration with artists including Moebius (Jean Giraud), Francoise Mouly, Enki Bilal, Juan Giménez, Georges Bess, Hermann Huppen, Olivier Ledroit, and Michael Wm. Kaluta. His comics were published alongside houses related to Les Humanoïdes Associés, Casterman, DC Comics, Heavy Metal, and Métal Hurlant, and engaged with themes paralleling works by Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Will Eisner, H.P. Lovecraft, and Philip José Farmer. He collaborated with editors and translators who worked on projects with Tintin-era figures like Hergé and contemporary graphic novel curators associated with Angoulême International Comics Festival.
His prose and poetry sit in dialogues with poets and writers such as Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda, Alejandra Pizarnik, Borges, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa. He published books and manifestos treated in university courses at Université Paris VIII, Universidad de Chile, New York University, and archives linked to Bibliothèque nationale de France. His esoteric and psychomagical manuals reference historical occultists like Papus and Eliphas Levi, literary figures such as Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Valéry, and contemporary thinkers like Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida.
His visual art engaged with painters and movements associated with Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein, Jean Dubuffet, and Takashi Murakami. Exhibitions at galleries and museums allied with Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires showed paintings, set designs, and mixed-media pieces alongside curators who have organized shows for Louise Bourgeois and Anselm Kiefer.
His family includes performers and artists connected to Brontis Jodorowsky, Adan Jodorowsky, and collaborators who have links to Salvador Dalí-era surrealists and contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenábar and Gaspar Noé. His influence is cited by directors and writers such as David Lynch, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Terry Gilliam, Lynne Ramsay, Harmony Korine, Sofia Coppola, Béla Tarr, Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Jim Jarmusch, and Mike Leigh. Academic studies at Harvard University, University of Oxford, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of California, Los Angeles analyze his interdisciplinary impact on film, theatre, comics, and esotericism. His works appear in film schools and festivals including Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI Southbank, and preservation initiatives by Cineteca di Bologna and FIAF.
Category:Chilean film directors Category:French film directors Category:Surrealist artists