Yago Leonard was born in 1981 in Sant Adrià de Besòs, on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. He attended a two-year course on image and sound in the neighbourhood of La Mina, where he was taught by professors from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Afterwards, he continued his training independently and became a self-taught filmmaker.

He has written and directed several short documentaries such as Renacer, Gitanas y Alberto (Gypsy and Alberto Reborn), which was broadcast on TVE. He was also selected as a finalist in the TVE El tren short film competition. Parallel to this, he organised and designed the video La Mina que yo quiero for the La Mina neighbourhood consortium, made videos for the magazine Estate Andaluzas and Antonio Orozco’s album Cadizfornia (2006) as well as for the Curt Ficcions festival (2003–2010).

He also worked as an assistant set decorator on the film La Monja (2005), produced by Filmax, and as an assistant engineer with the theatre group La Fura dels Baus on the performance Imperium (2007). In 2010, he made a film for the town of Sant Adrià de Besòs called The New Sant Adrià.

In 2011, Leonard directed the documentary Jacques Leonard, el payo Chac, which was based on the life of his photographer grandfather. The film was produced by Curt Ficcions Curt Produccions SL in international co-production with TVC (Televisio de Catalunya) and TVE. Currently, he is in development with two projects: writing a screenplay for a feature film about Jacques Rosario and a documentary on the extermination of Roma in Nazi concentration camps.

References

https://www.filmin.es/director/yago-leonard

Filmography

2011 Jacques Leonard, el payo Chac