Elena Jordi

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Casals and the second or maternal family name is Baque.

Elena Jordi
Jordi in 1910
Born	(1882-11-20)20 November 1882
Died	6 December 1945(1945-12-06) (aged 63)
Occupation	Director · Actress
Spouse	Josep Capellera ​ ​ (m. 1901; div. 1904)​
Children	2

Elena Jordi (born Montserrat Casals Baque; 20 November 1882 - 6 December 1945) was the first woman in Spain to become a film director.^[1] She began her career as an actress and Vaudeville performer.^[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Jordi was born in the region of Cercs, which is mainly famous for the invention of the sewing machine (berguedana). She was the second of three sisters. Her father was a miner and a caretaker of the cement factories of Cercs. When she turned 18, she joined the cultural society of the bergandana.

Career

She began her career as an actress and Vaudeville performer. She also started her own theater company and became well known in Barcelona. She began acting in the Teatro Español de Barcelona (The Spanish Theatre of Barcelona). She was encouraged by an actor Domenec Ceret to begin her career in film. She started with La loca del Ministerio, which was her first studio films. In 1914 she built her own theatre Teatro Elena Jordi, but ended up in a failure.^[5]

Personal life

She got married in 1901 to Josep Capellera, a veterinarian. She had two daughters with Capellara, but the marriage was broken by 1904.

Filmography

• La Loca del Ministerio (actress) - 1916
• Thais (director) -1918^[6]

References

1. Cebrián, Lorena C. Barco (7 May 2019). Cambio generacional y mujeres universitarias.Genealogías, conocimiento y compromiso feminista (in Spanish). Midac, SL. p. 113. ISBN 978-84-13-24194-4.
2. "Elena Jordi - enciclopèdia.cat". Enciclopedia.cat. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
3. Irene, Mele Ballesteros (22 November 2018). "Elena Jordi y el Mito de Thais". ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
4. "La estanquera que fue reina del vodevil y primera directora de cine". Lameva.barcelona.cat. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
5. Vilaró, Jordi (2013). Dona i teatre al segle XXI: IV Jornades de debat sobre el repertori teatral català (in Catalan). Punctum. p. 53. ISBN 978-84-940694-4-4.
6. Guinea, Emilia Esteban; Rubiera, Claudia Lorenzo; García, Blanca Garrido (15 September 2019). El cine en 100 preguntas (in Spanish). Ediciones Nowtilus S.L. ISBN 978-84-13-05052-2.