Profile
Helio San Miguel was born in Madrid. He has a Ph.D in Philosophy, and an MFA in Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Helio is the writer, producer and director of the feature documentary Agnes Heller: Philosopher, Dissident, Activist (https://www.agneshellerfilm.com/, 2025). This film tells the story of eminent Jewish Hungarian philosopher (and New School professor) Agnes Heller, whose cinematic life and influential work are a model of ethical and political commitment, and relentless activism that speak to today’s world issues. She suffered the Holocaust, repression under the Communist regime, and political attacks under Hungary’s populist government, while keeping an inspiring optimism until her tragic death.
Helio has also written and directed Blindness (http://vimeo.com/12328515), an award-winning 32-minute fiction film selected in over thirty film festivals including New Filmmakers New York and the European Film Festival.
Helio has edited and contributed to books and journal in both English and Spanish. He is the editor of World Film Locations: Mumbai (Intellect, 2012) and co-editor of World Film Locations: Barcelona (Intellect, 2013), both part of a series of books that explores the visual representation of cities in cinema. He is also the co-editor of El Nuevo Bollywood (Secuencias, n. 36, 2012). He has contributed to (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Intellect, 2014), Ciudades de cine (Cátedra, 2014), World Film Locations: Rome (Intellect, 2014), World Film Locations: Madrid (Intellect, 2011), The Cinema of Latin America (Wallflower Press, 2003), and Tierra en Trance (Alianza Editorial, 1999). He has also published "The Rise of Technology," included in El Pensamiento Cientfico en la Sociedad Actual (Madrid, 2006).
Helio has been awarded academic project grants in 2014 and 2011, and is a member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS).
Degrees Held
-Ph.D. in Philosophy
-M.F.A. in Film
Professional Affiliation
-Society for Cinema and Media Studies
-European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS)
Recent Publications
FILMS:
-Agnes Heller: Philosopher, Dissident, Activist. (https://www.agneshellerfilm.com/,). Writer, producer and director, 2025.
-Blindness (http://vimeo.com/12328515), Writer and director.
PUBLICATIONS:
• “Bollywood, an Alternative Mode of Representation,” as part of a book to be published by Editorial Dykinson, forthcoming.
• World Film Locations: Rome, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2014. Contributor with the chapter “Rome and Neorealism”, and with the analyses of two individual films, Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945), and The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987).
• “The New Ethos of Gay Culture and the Limits of Normalisation”, in "(Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema", Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2014. Book chapter.
• Ciudades de cine [Cinema Cities], Cátedra, Madrid, Spain, 2014. Book chapter on the cinematic depiction of Mumbai, India.
• World Film Locations: Barcelona, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2013. Co-editor and contributor.
• El Nuevo Bollywood [The New Bollywood], Secuencias, No. 36, Madrid, Spain, 2012. Co-editor, and author of ”The Eternal Spell of Devdas,” an essay on the many film adaptations of Devdas, an early 20th century classic Bengali novel whose numerous versions illustrate the evolution of Indian filmmaking. This volume also includes my translation of “Nationalism and Globalization in Contemporary Indian Cinema: The Development Motif as an Identity Marker,” specifically written for this volume by professor Dipankar Gupta.
• “On Location: Mumbai”, The Big Picture Magazine (thebigpicturemagazine.com), Issue 18, November-December 2012, pp. 30-33.
• World Film Locations: Mumbai, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2012. Editor and contributor. Main contributors: Ranjani Mazumdar, Lalitha Gopalan, Alberto Elena, Mayank Shekhar, and Nandini Ramnath.
• World Film Locations: Madrid, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2012. Contributor with two of the six main chapters (“Madrid: Unexpected Dream Factory” and “Embracing Normalcy: Madrid Gay Cinema at the Turn of the New Millennium”), and analyses of six individual films: The Sixth Sense (El sexto sentido, Nemesio Sobrevilla, 1929), The Last Horse (El ultimo caballo, Edgar Neville, 1950), Death of a Cyclist (La muerte de un ciclista, Juan Antonio Bardem, 1953), El Cochecito (El cochecito, Marco Ferreri, 1960), Thesis (Tesis, Alejandro Amenábar, 1996), and Second Skin (Segunda piel, Gerardo Vera, 1999).
• Directory of World Cinema: Spain, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, and Chicago, USA, 2011. Translator of the interview with director Jaime Rosales.
• Lucía, directed by Humberto Solás. Universia, 2009. Author of the DVD commentary.
• El Pensamiento Científico en la Sociedad Actual [Scientific Thought in Modern Society], Ediciones del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Madrid, Spain, 2006. Contributor with “El ascenso de la tecnología” [The Rise of Technology]. Book chapter.
• The Cinema of Latin America, Wallflower Press, London, and Columbia University Press, New York, 2003. Contributor with the essay on Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Rio, 40 Graus [Rio, 100 Degrees F.] Book chapter.
• Tierra en trance: el cine latinoamericano en cien películas [Land in Trance: The Latin American Cinema in 100 Films], Alianza Editorial, Madrid, Spain, 1999. Contributor of eleven essays on the following films: Rio, 100 Degrees F. (Rio, 40 Graus, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1955), Death of a Bureaucrat (La muerte de un burócrata, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1966), The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (Las aventuras de Juan Quin Quin, Julio García Espinosa, 1967), Lucia (Lucía, Humberto Solás, 1968), Jackal of Nahueltoro (El Chacal de Nahueltoro, Miguel Littín, 1970), The Smoking Fish (El pez que fuma, Román Chalbaud, 1977), ...And God Created Them (Dios los cría, Jacobo Morales, 1979), They Don’t Use Black Tie (Eles não usam black-tie, Leon Hirszman, 1982), The Wedding (La boda, Thaelman Urgelles, 1983), Vampires in Havana! (¡Vampiros en La Habana!, Juan Padrón, 1985), and Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y chocolate, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, 1994). Eleven book chapters.
• “So Many Cinemas: The Motion Picture in India,” Secuencias, No. 8, Madrid, Spain, April 1998. Book review.
• “Orson Welles. Una España inmortal. España como obsesión,” Secuencias, No. 2, Madrid, Spain, April 1995. Book review.
• La ciencia y su público: perspectivas históricas [Science and Its Public: Historical Perspectives], J. Ordóñez (ed.), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain, 1990. Translation into Spanish of R. E. Ryder, “The Experiment as Spectacle.”
• “Cine científico: una aproximación a su origen y aportaciones” [Scientific Cinema: an Overview of Its Origins and Contributions], Sylva Clius, No. 8, Madrid, Spain, September 1989.
• Via Lucis, by Samuel Hartlib, Sylva Clius, No. 4, Madrid, Spain, April, 1988. Translation from Latin into Spanish and commentary.
Research Interests
FILM / MEDIA: Film analysis and aesthetics; Latin American and Indian cinema; silent cinema; Western European and American cinema.
PHILOSOPHY / SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY: Impact of technological innovation; technology as an engine for social and political change; methodology of science; 16th to 20th century philosophy and history of science and technology.
Awards And Honors
• Faculty Research Fund Grant, Provost Office, The New School, New York, 2023.
• Faculty Research Fund Grant, Provost Office, The New School, New York, 2015.
• Academic Development Fund, Provost Office, The New School, New York, 2012- 2013.
• Academic Project Grant, Provost Office, The New School, New York, 2011-2012.
• Graduate Research Fellowship, Department of Science and Research, Ministry of Education, Madrid, Spain, 1989–1993. This is Spain’s most prestigious graduate scholarship.