Born in the Netherlands on July 24, 1974, raised in Mexico City, and now living in New York City, Aridjis is the daughter of the Greek-Mexican writer, Homero Aridjis, and the American environmental activist and translator, Betty Ferber de Aridjis. Her sister is writer Chloe Aridjis. Aridjis left Mexico City when she was 18 to study Comparative Literature at Princeton University, and then she earned an MFA in Film and Television at New York University.
Career
Films
While at NYU she made several short films, including Taxidermy: The Art of Imitating Life and Billy Twist, both of which played at the Sundance Film Festival and dozens of other festivals around the world. An activist for many of Mexico City's street children, in 2003 she made the film Niños de la Calle, to bring attention to the epidemic. The documentary was nominated for two Mexican Academy Awards, and won the Best Feature Documentary prize at the Morelia Film Festival in 2003. Since making this movie in 2001, Aridjis has stayed in contact with the protagonists. In 2004, she wrote and directed her first narrative feature film, The Favor, starring Frank Wood and Ryan Donowho. The film, which is also her first English-language feature film, premiered at the CineVegas Film Festival in June 2006, where it won a prize. Ryan Donowho also won the "Best Actor" prize at the San Diego Film Festival for his performance in the film. The Favor was released theatrically in Mexico in 2007 and in the United States in 2008, and is currently airing on the Sundance Channel. Aridjis' second feature documentary, about a Mexican religious cult, entitled La Santa Muerte, is narrated by Gael García Bernal. La Santa Muerte premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2007 and has screened at festivals all over the US, Latin America, and Europe, winning the best documentary award at the Trieste Film Festival in Italy. Aridjis' second narrative feature, Los Ojos Azules, was shot entirely on location in Chiapas, Mexico and tells the story of a young American couple who travel there and have an encounter with a shape-shifting witch. The film premiered at the Morelia Film Festival and features an original score by J.G. Thirlwell. Her fifth feature-length film, the documentary Chuy, El hombre lobo is about a Mexican family with congenital hypertrichosis. It screened in movie theaters all over Mexico in 2015 and received glowing reviews.
TV/Episodic
In 2018 Aridjis staffed on Season 1 of the episodic series El Candidato and Season Two of , co-writing an episode with show runnerEric Newman. She is currently developing two dramatic episodic series of her own.
Music video
Eva directed the music video for New York band The Walkmen's hit The Rat
Teaching
Aridjis taught Screenwriting in the Graduate Film department at New York University.
Reception
Tony Award winner Frank Wood describes Aridjis as "one of those extremely intelligent but-not-dependent-on-irony people."
