Gabriel Beristain

IMCINE - Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía

BIOGRAPHIE

Gabriel Beristain was born in Mexico into a theatrical dynasty -- his father, Luis Beristain, was a renowned lead actor of stage and screen. Gabriel worked as a documentary and newsreel cameraman throughout Europe, covering sensitive political, social, and ecological issues. Accepted by the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, he shot Jenny Wilkes’ Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Student Film, “Mother’s Wedding.” Having settled in England, The Berlin Film Festival honored him in 1987 with a Special Silver Bear ‘for outstanding single achievement’ in cinematography, for Derek Jarman’s “Caravaggio.” Subsequent work in films like the multi-part “Aria” (1987), as the sole cinematographer with two segments, one of them for legendary director Ken Russell, earned him an invitation into the British Society of Cinematographers in 1990 and, a decade later, he was invited into the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers. In 1991, after shooting “K-2” in the Karakoram, he moved to the U. S. to work in cult classics like “Blood In, Blood Out” and “Dolores Claiborne”. Cinematographer credits amount to dozens of motion pictures and TV shows and a hundred commercials and music videos. His was the look that launched Liv Tyler in her father’s Aerosmith videos, re-energized the filmography of David Mamet (The Spanish Prisoner) and Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2), and broke new ground in films like “S.W.A.T.”, “The Ring 2” and “Blade Trinity”. His work includes “The Invisible”, his second with screenwriter-turned director David Goyer (Batman Begins), and “Street Kings” with writer/director David Ayer, “Princess K’aiulani” shot in Hawaii and England for writer-producer Marc Forby, “And Soon the Darkness” for Marcos Efron and “There Be Dragons” by British film legend Roland Joffe. In addition, he has been responsible for Additional Photography for almost every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, culminating in serving as Director of Photography for Marvel’s “Black Widow.” His film-directing debut came about in the context of a 1995 work for the BBC series, with the award-winning docu-drama “Calling London.” In 1999, financed by the Univision network in the U.S., he directed “El Grito” aka “Bloody Proof” – a suspense thriller simultaneously shot in an English and a Spanish version with a stellar cast and impeccable production values. More recently he has shot episodes of TV hits “MacGyver” and “Hawaii Five-0” among other projects. Gabriel is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (since 1997) and the Directors Guild of America.

FILMOGRAPHIE