Patricia Riggen

Coming-of-age dramas, comedies about single parenthood, and real-world disaster stories lined Patricia Riggen's résumé, establishing her as a force of versatility. One consistency between her feature debut "Under the Same Moon" (2007) and her Chilean miner picture "The 33" (2015): Riggen told stories about the kind of heroes one doesn't often see on the big screen. Patricia Riggen was born on June 2, 1970 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Her earliest exploits in cinema were as an assistant director and executive producer on a small handful of Mexican projects, including "Perfect Target" (1997), "Adiós mamá" (1997), and "En el espejo del cielo" (1998). Riggen pursued a Master's degree in filmmaking at Columbia University, during which time she wrote and directed the short films "The Cornfield" (2002) and "Family Portrait" (2004). Riggen made her feature debut with "Under the Same Moon" (2007), a drama about a young Mexican boy traveling to America in search of his estranged mother. She contributed a segment to the anthology project "Revolución" (2010) and helmed the TV movie "Lemonade Mouth" (Disney Channel 2011) before directing her second solo feature: the dramedy "Girl in Progress" (2012), which starred Eva Mendes as a struggling single mother. Next, she mounted "The 33" (2015), a cinematic interpretation of the 2010 Copiapó mining accident. Lou Diamond Phillips, Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, and James Brolin were among the film's high-profile stars.