Diego Mondaca (Oruro, 22 March 1980) is a Bolivian film director, producer, and screenwriter whose work moves between documentary and fiction, with a strong focus on social, political, and spatial realities in Latin America.
Born in Oruro, Mondaca initially studied Biology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz. His interest in cinema was sparked through his work as a writer for the magazine Rebelión, where an interview with Jorge Sanjinés motivated him to pursue film studies. He later trained at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV in Cuba, graduating with a specialisation in documentary filmmaking.
He directed, wrote, and produced the documentaries La Chirola (2008), his graduation film, which premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and Citadel (2011), filmed inside the San Pedro prison in La Paz and also premiered at IDFA. In 2020, he released his first fiction feature, Chaco, for which he won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Director and received several international nominations. As a producer, he participated in the documentary Cuando ellos se fueron (2019) by Verónica Haro. Mondaca has also worked as assistant director with Jorge Sanjinés on Insurgentes (2011) and with Werner Herzog on Salt and Fire (2015).
Alongside his filmmaking career, Mondaca is a lecturer in the Film Programme at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. He has also been a visiting professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, collaborated with the Bergman Chair at UNAM, and contributed to the programme La Ciudad y las Letras at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Since 2016, he has been the founder and programmer of Cineclubcito Boliviano, a project dedicated to the dissemination of Latin American cinema.
His films have screened and been recognised at major international festivals including IDFA, IFFR Rotterdam, FIC Valdivia, É Tudo Verdade, Visions du Réel, FIC Gijón, Film at Lincoln Center, AFI, La Casa Encendida, Documenta Madrid, Biarritz Film Festival, and FICUNAM. His projects have received support from institutions such as the World Cinema Fund Berlinale, IBERMEDIA, Fundación TYPA, DocBSAS, and Visions du Sud, and have been developed in prestigious residencies and labs including Jerusalem Film Lab, Sam Spiegel Film School, Rotterdam Lab, Cinemart, and IDFA Summer School.
Mondaca cites Jorge Sanjinés and the Grupo Ukamau as central influences, alongside Beatriz Palacios and the critical work of Luis Espinal Camps. His cinematic references also include Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento, and Eduardo Coutinho.
