Biography for
Miguel Coyula More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

31 March 1977, Havana, Cuba

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Maverick filmmaker who has been working outside of the mainstream (both commercial and art-house) almost as a one man crew since he made his first short at age 17 with an old VHS camcorder. This short granted him admission at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (EICTV). Since then he has gathered many awards in his country with cutting edge shorts films such as: Bailar sobre agujas (1999), Nice Going (1999), and Clase z tropical (2000) among others.

In 2001, he was offered a scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York, where Coyula made his first feature: Red Cockroaches (2003) for less than $2000 over a two year period, which has won 20 awards at International film festivals and was hailed by Variety as "A triumph of technology in the hands of a visionary with know-how..." His last film is Memorias del desarrollo (2010), follow up to the Cuban classic Memories of Underdevelopment (1968), based on the follow up novel by Cuban writer Edmundo Desnoes, also author of the original. The film gathered 20 awards and was chosen as the Best Cuban Film of the year by the International Film Guide. In 2009 Coyula was awarded a John Simon Guggenehim Fellowship. He lives in Havana, where he is filming his third feature film.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ron Blair

Spouse

Suzana Dejkanovic

(24 May 2002 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark

His films are set on an alternative reality, with futuristic and surreal elements.

Cryptic storylines involving alienated characters

Strong, colorful compositions and sharp editing

Never uses the same shot twice

Trivia

He was threatened with expulsion from film school by his teachers, unless he made more conventional films.

His thesis film, Buena Onda (1999), was considered by a teacher one of the worse films in the history of the school. One year after a prolific round of Cuban and US Film Festivals, the same film won him a scholarship to study for 1 year at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York.

Personal Quotes

I think of the little pieces as a self contained film. Then, when the small pieces finds its shape; I start treating them as a whole of their own.

Some diva-type actresses complain that I make them look bad or older in my films, and they don't realize that I happen to make films, not plastic surgery.

I cannot deal with realism. If I wanted realism, I'd go and see a documentary. I feel compelled to build the reality the way I want to see it.

You can't buy talent with technology.

Where Are They Now

(September 2003) In New York writing the screenplays for 'Blue Road and 'Ocean', follow ups to Red Cockroaches.

(October 2005) He is in New York in filming "Memories of Overdevelopment" based on the new novel by Edmundo Desnoes.

(April 2012) Havana, Cuba filming "Blue Road" over several years