Laura Amelia Guzmán (born May 7, 1980) and Israel Cárdenas (born February 15, 1980) are a husband and wife directorial team.
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Early life
Guzmán was born in the Dominican Republic to parents who worked as art directors. She initially worked as a cinematographer before turning to directing.
Cárdenas was born and raised in Mexico.
Filmmaking collaborations
Guzmán and Cárdenas began directing together in 2007 with their movie Cochochi.
In 2010 they co-directed the movie Jean Gentil which caught the attention of actress Geraldine Chaplin. After hearing Chaplin's warm praise of their film they decided to offer her a role in their next film Sand Dollars. After Chaplin agreed to appearing in a small role the couple decided to rewrite the male main characters to be women in order to give Chaplin a larger role. The film was chosen as the Dominican Republic's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2015 but did not make the short list.
In 2016 Guzmán announced she was directing a sequel to Sand Dollars called Noeli Overseas.