Héctor Ríos

Héctor Ríos was one of the most important names in Chilean cinema in its history.

Héctor Ríos is remembered for his transcendental work as director of photography in major films such as El Chacal de Nahueltoro, Los Testigos and La Frontera. Films where his work behind the lens was fundamental to his praised results.

In addition, in partnership with Pedro Chaskel, he directed three important documentaries: Aquí vivieron (1964) Venceremos (1970) and Entre ponerle y no ponerle (1971); plus a short film with illustrations called Érase una vez (1965). All of them were works with a deep interest in making cinema an art that reflected social injustices with a conscious and transforming zeal.

Born in the port of San Antonio on November 23, 1927, Héctor Ríos studied electronics at the Universidad Técnica del Estado during the 1950s. Unsatisfied, he drifted almost spontaneously to photography and lighting, obtaining a scholarship that allowed him to go to Italy and be admitted to the prestigious Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma, where the influential Italian neo-realism was boiling. With such training and a wealth of experience he returned to the country to join the incipient documentary movement that was stirring up the waters of filmmaking in the early 1960s. In 1964 he entered the Universidad de Chile's film department where he directed several documentary works, before making the work that would make him famous in 1968: the photographic direction of The Jackal of Na…