Ovidio Fernández
He was born in 1962 in Navia de Suarna - Lugo (Spain). In 1978 he went to live in Barcelona, where he produced his first works in Super8. In 1984, in Madrid, he studied audiovisual arts in the Centro de Enseñanza de la Imagen (CEV). Two years later he settled in Santiago de Compostela, where he worked with the audiovisual production companies CTV S.A and Espello Video Cine (A Coruña), while he studied in the Faculty of Geography and History. In 1989 he joined Television Española (TVE) as a graphic reporter, work that he has continued with until the present day. In the late 1990s he did a postgraduate course in direction of documentaries in the University of Santiago under the tutelage of Basilio Martin Patino.
In his professional career he has produced numerous documentaries and reportages that have been broadcast on the channels of TVE (La Primera, La 2, Canal Internacional, Grandes Documentales Hispasat, Canales Tematicos, 24 Horas, EuroNews, etc.) working in various areas but especially as a director of photography.
WORKS AS A DIRECTOR:
"SEGURA TORRELLA, PAISAXE E PAISANAXE" 1990. Script, direction and photography. Production: TVE SA. 15 minutes. A journey through the work of one of the best, and almost forgotten, Galician painters of the 20th century.
"KOMPOSTELA, CAPITAL BRAVÚ" 1997. Production: University of Santiago de Compostela. 45 minutes. An alternative view of the Galician capital, Santiago de Compostela, avoiding the stereotypes and officialdom.
-Finalist in the documentary section of the Premios de la Asociación Galega de Productores Independientes (AGAPI).
"NAVIEGOS, OS OUTROS ARRAIANOS" 2001. Script, direction and photography. Produced by TVE SA. 90 minutes. A subjective view of the River Navia in which the filmmaker goes in search of his roots and re-encounters the ghosts of the past.
-Jury Prize in the Festival Internacional de Cine El Riu of Barcelona (2002).
-Shown at the II Encuentro Hispanoamericano de Video Documental Independiente. (México, 2002)
-Shown out of competition in the Festival LaCinemaFe of New York (2002)
"AS MANS DUN POBO. AS XENTES DO MAR CONTRA A MAREA NEGRA" 2004. 52 minutes. Produced by TVE SA. Co-director and co-scriptwriter. On the 15th of November 2002 the agonising waiting ended: the first parts of the oil slick from the tanker Prestige reached the Costa da Morte. Two years later the TVE news team that had covered the catastrophe returned to interview those who had been most affected.
-Premio Mestre Mateo 2004 for best TV series, in conjunction with the documentary “SETE DIAS DE NOVEMBRO” which was also directed by Ovidio Fernández.
-Shown at the Festival Cineuropa 2004 of Santiago de Compostela
"TERRA, FIN DE CICLO" 2004. 54 min. Script, direction and photography. Marta personifies a generation of children and grandchildren of farmworkers who have left the rural world behind. In the villages, once full of life, only the old folk are left. Marta talks to locals and commentators as she searches for answers in these times of change.
-Shown in the Festival Cineuropa 2004 of Santiago de Compostela.
"BE WATER MY FRIEND!" 2010. Finalista do certame "Dame un minuto de auga" organizado por UNESCO etxea.
"SHOOTS FROM ABYSSINIA" 2012. 101 min. Script, direction and photography. Abdul, a 15 year old Ethiopian child who lives in Galicia, travels to his native land after 4 years in Spain. Before beginning the journey his father gives him a copy of “A History of Ethiopia” by Pedro Paez, the first European to see the source of the Blue Nile. A journey of initiation follows that reaches its climax when Abdul himself reaches the source of the river. A symbolic baptism in these waters fuses legend and reality.
WORKS AS A DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
“VERTIX” and “MAMAI FEDRA” 2008. Video-creations directed by the playwright Euloxio Ruibal