María Ruiz Vivanco

Biography

María Ruiz has worked for over five decades in the production, direction, editing, and sound of feature films, short films, music videos, documentaries, commercials, institutional videos, miniseries, and a wide range of cultural, artistic, informational, and entertainment content for both film and video. María enrolled at San Marcos University with the intention of studying biology. To support her studies, she took a job at the Mirai Studios laboratory, a production and sound editing house for music, advertising, radio, and television—where she discovered the world of sound production. She decided to leave biology and pursue courses in electronics to deepen her technical knowledge. In 1972, she joined Nova film studios, where she worked in the camera, lab, and editing departments. With the enactment of Law 19327, María began to engage in the editing and production of cinematic short films. She worked for nine years at Cinex Perú and later founded Películas del Pacífico, where she handled production, editing, and/or sound for directors such as Luis Figueroa, Juan Carlos Torrico, and Jorge Vignati. Since 1997, she has been teaching at the School of Film and Audiovisual Arts in Lima, and for the past ten years, she has been involved in film preservation, restoration, and cataloging of photochemical-based films.