José Martí

Biography

Before José Martí ever stepped in front of a camera, Barcelona’s fog-draped alleys had already swallowed him whole—he surfaced in 1915 as the shadowy guide through Los misterios de Barcelona, the city’s first true crime flick. Four years later he traded gaslight for gilt, slipping into the sequined labyrinth of Los arlequines de seda y oro (1919), where every thread of gold stitched another secret. Finally, in 1922, he slipped on the mask of Don Juan himself, starring in the earliest screen version of Don Juan Tenorio and sealing his name in the flicker of silent celluloid.