Venezuelan director and producer Elia K. Schneider died yesterday in Los Angeles of cancer, her husband and producer José Ramón Novoa informed. She directed four feature films including Glue Sniffer / Huelepega: Ley de la calle (1999) and A Dot and a Line / Punto y raya (2004).
Born in Caracas, she graduated in Psychology from the Catholic University Andres Bello (UCAB) and earned an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating she worked as a theater director in numerous plays, working extensively at La Mama Etc. in New York City.
In 1999 Schneider directed her debut feature Glue Sniffer telling the story of Oliver, an eleven-year-old boy who is thrown out of his house by his drunken stepfather, and must fend for himself on the streets of Caracas, where he gets caught in the middle of a drug war between mobster Mocho and two cocky young rivals Pelao and César.
Winner of numerous international awards, including the Glauber Rocha Award at the Havana Film Festival and the Best International Film Award at the New York Latino Film Festival, Glue Sniffer was originally censored by the government in Venezuela, but was a huge box office success when it was released. The film was selected as the Venezuelan Oscar entry for best foreign-language film.
She followed the success if Glue Sniffer with the dramatic comedy A Dot and a Line about two military men—one from Colombia and one from Venezuela—whose countries are fighting each other. The two end up becoming friends, and help each other stay alive during a series of unusual adventures. The film also met success in the international film festival circuit winning over 30 awards including top prizes at the Bigota, Gramado, and Los Angeles Latino film festivals.
Her third film Desautorizados / Un-Authorized (2010), about a theater writer who lives inside a story he is creating, was nominated for the Golden Goblet Award in the Shanghai Film Festival. In 2015, Schneider directed her last film Tamara (2015), telling the story of a lawyer’s journey to overcome his fears and the social boundaries in order to become what he always dreamed: a woman like any other. The director was awarded the Nueva Vision Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Additionally, Schneider produced and cast six films by her husband—Agonía (1985), Sicario (1994), Devil Gold (2001), The Boss (2006), A Distant Place (2008) and Solo (2014)—and was associate producer of God’s Slave (2013), directed by her son Joel Novoa Schneider. In addition to her film work, she was also a part time faculty member of the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles.
