Bio

Michael Bendeck is a Honduran-American filmmaker, born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. While in college he took an interest in photography and began to make short films with a digital camera and editing his shorts on a VCR. In 2004, he was accepted into the film program at the University of Central Florida.

During his years in the program he worked in different short films like Cronofobia (2006). This was his first festival short film, screened at the AFI Latino Showcase. In August of 2007, he released Rock Honduras, his first feature documentary in Honduran movie theaters. This project was cited in the spanish magazine Zona de Obras.

In 2009, he released El Rock Show, a local comedy tv show where he featured local political parodies and satirical shorts. In this tv show he first introduced El Paletero’s character which years later would become a feature film. In 2009 he worked as a camera assistant in the honduran film Amor y Frijoles (Love and Beans). Later in 2012 he debuts as Director of Photography in the sci fi thriller El Xendra. In 2013 he was a camera assistant in the Puerto Rican comedy franchise Mi Verano con Amanda 3.

During the years of 2012-2014 he organized the International Short film festival Cor3. The festival promoted local and international short films, local visual artists and live music in the caribbean paradise of Roatan (2012, 2013) and in the capital city of Tegucigalpa (2014).

In 2015 he began pre production of what would become his first feature film El Paletero. The film debuted with great reviews and acceptance on September 15, 2016. He is currently in production on a feature documentary about the Honduras political and social crisis.

Currently Michael works as an Senior video editor and cinematographer for AJ+ in Washington D.C.