Luis Mandoki

Luis Mandoki studied fine art long before he decided to become a film director. His education took him from his native Mexico to California, where he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. He moved to England, enrolling in the London College of Printing, and later made his first film while attending the London International Film School. The short would win an award at the International Amateur Film Festival being held at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976. He returned to Mexico to work at the Conacine, the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, and the Centro de Produccion de Cortometraje. He gained international acclaim with his 1984 effort, "Gaby: A True Story," a dramatized, biographical account of a writer suffering from cerebral palsy. This success led to a trip to Hollywood and a string of American films, starting with 1990's romantic drama "White Palace" with James Spader and Susan Sarandon, a remake of George Cukor's "Born Yesterday" with Melanie Griffith in the Judy Holliday role, a gaze into alcoholism with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia in the relationship drama "When a Man Loves a Woman," and an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks ' romance novel "Message in a Bottle" in 1999. Mandoki directed four more features in the United States before returning to Mexico for 2004's war drama "Innocent Voices." He has turned his attention to political documentary in his homeland with "¿Quien es el Señor López?" and "Fraude: México 2006," about the Mexican presidential election of that year.