René Antonio Fortunato is a Dominican

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

  film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, and producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

. Fortunato is best known for his historical documentaries

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 on Dominican government and politics. He began his career as a producer in 1985 with the production of In the Footsteps of Palau (Tras las huellas de Palau). Later in 1988, he gained national and international acclaim with the success of his third documentary Apirl, the Trench of Honor (Abril: La Trinchera del Honor). Fortunato was awarded the Pitirre Prize for Best Caribbean Documentary in the 1990 San Juan Film Festival.

Early life

René Fortunato was born in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. He studied Social Communication at the University of Santo Domingo from 1982 until 1985. Simultaneouly, he worked for several Santo Domingo television firms and stations in different aspects of television and film production. From 1978 to 1987, he published numerous articles about film and television in Dominican newspapers and cultural supplements.

Career

Fortunato's first film In the Footsteps of Palau, was a 20 minute short that told the history of the first Dominican filmmaker Francisco Palau. Palau was active in the 1920s and was a seminal figure of Dominican filmography. His second film Frank Almánzar: Images of an artist, was debuted in 1987 and was about the Dominican visionary Bauhaus-trained engraver, illustrator and cultural animator Frank Almánzar. Then in 1988 he achieved national and international fame due to the success of his full-length documentary April, the Trench of Honor. The documentary won Best Documentary of the Caribbean region, in the II International San Juan Film Festival. The documentary is an account of the political situation in the Dominican Republic from the death of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo

Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina , nicknamed El Jefe , ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, otherwise ruling as an unelected military strongman...

 in 1961, to the election of Joaquín Balaguer

Joaquín Balaguer

Joaquín Antonio Balaguer Ricardo was the President of the Dominican Republic from 1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986 to 1996.-Early life and introduction to politics:...

 in 1966. Particular focus goes into the 1965 civil war and the subsequent U.S. military invasion. After the success of his documentary, Fortunato went on to make documentaries about Trujillo, Balaguer, and Juan Bosch

Juan Bosch

Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño was a politician, historian, short story writer, essayist, educator, and the first cleanly elected president of the Dominican Republic for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of Rafael...

, which bridge Dominican history and politics from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Filmography

• 1985 : Tras las huellas de Palau (In the Footsteps of Palau)
• 1987 : Frank Almanzar: Imágenes de un artista (Frank Almánzar: Images of an artist)
• 1988 : Abril : La Trinchera del Honor (April, the Trench of Honor)
• 1991 : Trujillo: El Poder del Jefe I (Trujillo: The Power of the Chief I)
• 1994 : Trujillo: El Poder del Jefe II (Trujillo: The Power of the Chief II)
• 1996 : Trujillo: El Poder del Jefe III (Trujillo: The Power of the Chief III)
• 1998 : Balaguer: La Herencia del Tirano (Balaguer: The Inheritance of Tyranny)
• 2002 : Balaguer: La Violencia del Poder (Balaguer: The Violence of Power)
• 2009 : Juan Bosch: Presidente en la Frontera Imperial (Juan Bosch: President at the Imperial Border)