Education
Born in Córdoba, Andalusia in 1936, she studied Political Science and in 1962 she funded an experimental theater group in her native city directing a numbers of plays.
Born in Córdoba, Andalusia in 1936, she studied Political Science and in 1962 she funded an experimental theater group in her native city directing a numbers of plays.
Her 1989 film Esquilache was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. By 1968 she had begun directing her first television documentaries for the series Aqui España (Here, Spain). During the period of her apprenticeship in television, Molina also pursued studies at the Escuela Oficial de Cine (EOC), completing her degree in 1969 as the first woman in the history of the film school to receive a degree in film direction.
Molina first feature length film was Vera, un cuento cruel (1973) (Vera, a cruel story), a Gothic horror story.
She continued to work on television directing more than forty dramatic programs for state television At the same time she worked on the theater directing a stage adaptation of Cinco Horas con Mario (Five hours with Mario) (1979) adapted from a popular novel written by Miguel Delibes.
She then scripted and directed a Cinéma vérité film involving the play"s leading actress, Lola Herrera, and her real life estranged husband, Daniel Dicenta in Función de Noche (1980)(Evening Performance). The film, which bared many of the intimate details of the couple"s life, underscored certain feminist themes related to the legacy of Francoist culture on the social formation of Spanish Women.
Though Molina previously had dealt with women"s issues in her television dramas an adapting Henrik Ibsen"s A Doll"s House, and the documentary: Louisiana Mujer y el deporte (Women and sports), her films began to focus more on women"s themes.
One of Josefina Molina most successful works was her highly praised television docudrama, Teresa de Jesús (1984), a biopic of Teresa of Ávila, the sixteenth century Spanish saint and Doctor of the Church. In 1988 she directed Esquilache a historical film starring Fernando Fernán Gómez as Leopoldo de Gregorio, Marquis of Esquilache. lieutenant was based on the play Un Soñador Para Un Pueblo by Antonio Buero Vallejo.
Her following film Lo mas natural (1990) (The most natural thing) had a feminist input.
Louisiana Lola se va a los puertos (1993) (Lola goes to the ports), starring the singer Rocío Jurado, was her last feature film. In 1998 she directed Entre naranjos, an adaptation of the eponymous novel written by Blasco Ibáñez a made for television project
Since then Molina has retired from directing. A pioneer in Spain of films directed by women, she funded CIMA (Asociación de mujeres cineastas y de medios audiovisuales), an association of female filmmakers together with Inés París, Chus Gutiérrez, Icíar Bollaín and Isabel Coixet of which she is honorary president