Itzel Martínez studied Communication at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Since 2000, she has developed collaborative documentary projects, exploring different working methods and their audiovisual possibilities. She is based in Tijuana, where she runs the creative label Cuarto Propio and is the founder and Programming Director of BorDocs Foro Documental, a documentary forum focused on the northern border of Mexico.
Alongside her filmmaking work, she has taught at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and the Universidad Iberoamericana. She currently works in public relations at the post production studio AIA Post and Color and previously worked under the Polen label from its creation in 2010 until 2013. Her professional development includes participation in training and development programmes such as DOCULAB at FICG, DOCS Forum at DOCS DF and MoreliaLAB at FICM, as well as various workshops in cinema, research and visual arts.
Martínez has received several forms of institutional support, including the Jóvenes Creadores grant from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes and development funding from IMCINE through the Fondo para la Producción Cinematográfica de Calidad. Her documentaries have been screened at numerous festivals, including three editions of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Ambulante Gira de Documentales, the Latin American Film Festival Utrecht and the Festival Internacional de Mujeres en el Cine y la Televisión.
Her documentary Que suene la calle received the Jury Award at the San Diego Women’s Film Festival, as well as an Honourable Mention and the Premio Signis de la Comunicación at the Encuentro Hispanoamericano de Documental Contra el Silencio Todas las Voces. Her feature length documentary El hogar al revés was selected for the Official Selection of the 12th Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia.
