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Alumna's Documentary, “Ulises' Odyssey,” To Be Screened at W&L

“Ulises’ Odyssey,” a documentary film that was written, directed, and produced by Washington and Lee University alumna Lorena Manriquez, will be shown on Monday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater at Elrod Commons.

Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at W&L, the screening is free and open to the public.

Manriquez, a 1988 graduate of W&L, is an independent filmmaker. “Ulises’ Odyssey” is her most recent documentary but first feature documentary.

The filmmaker will be available on Tuesday, March 27, at 11:50 a.m. in Leyburn M-47 for a Q&A about her career.  Students can also meet with her individually and discuss career plans by making an appointment with Career Services, also on March 27.

“Ulises’ Odyssey” tells the story of her family under the Pinochet regime in Chile and, more specifically, how Manriquez is torn between the story she learned as a girl in Chile and the truth she begins to unravel as a young woman in America. Her father was a former army officer and avid supporter of Pinochet, and her uncle, Ulises, a former union leader and leftist, who supported democratically elected President Salvador Allende. After 30 years of exile in Switzerland, her uncle’s return to Chile leads her to a transformational view of family and history.

The version of the film is the fine cut still in post-production and is 83 minutes in length.  It will be shortened for broadcast to one hour. This showing is the first work-in-progress screening of the long-format version.

Manriquez has more than 16 years of practical experience in civil engineering. She has managed engineering studies for a variety of projects, including railroads, roadways, bridges and port and harbor facilities. The aspects of civil engineering for which Manriquez has been responsible are supervising subsurface and groundwater investigations and special instrumentation studies, geotechnical data evaluation and design and preparation of geotechnical reports and specifications, among others.

After receiving her B.A. from Washington and Lee, she attended Virginia Tech to obtain her M.A. in civil engineering. From 1995 to 1997, she attended the Fine Arts Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.

News Contact:
Julie Cline
News Writer
jcline@wlu.edu
540-458-8954

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