Héctor Ríos was one of the most important names in Chilean cinema in its history.

Héctor Ríos is remembered for his transcendental work as director of photography in major films such as El Chacal de Nahueltoro, Los Testigos and La Frontera. Films where his work behind the lens was fundamental to his praised results.

In addition, in partnership with Pedro Chaskel, he directed three important documentaries: Aquí vivieron (1964) Venceremos (1970) and Entre ponerle y no ponerle (1971); plus a short film with illustrations called Érase una vez (1965). All of them were works with a deep interest in making cinema an art that reflected social injustices with a conscious and transforming zeal.

Born in the port of San Antonio on November 23, 1927, Héctor Ríos studied electronics at the Universidad Técnica del Estado during the 1950s. Unsatisfied, he drifted almost spontaneously to photography and lighting, obtaining a scholarship that allowed him to go to Italy and be admitted to the prestigious Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma, where the influential Italian neo-realism was boiling. With such training and a wealth of experience he returned to the country to join the incipient documentary movement that was stirring up the waters of filmmaking in the early 1960s. In 1964 he entered the Universidad de Chile's film department where he directed several documentary works, before making the work that would make him famous in 1968: the photographic direction of The Jackal of Nahueltoro.

After continuing to work on various documentaries of the time and on feature films with directors such as Charles Elsseser (Los Testigos) and Raúl Ruiz (La Colonia Penal), the 1973 military coup forced him into exile. He first went to Peru where he filmed El enemigo principal with Jorge Sanjinés, a great Bolivian filmmaker and one of the greatest in the continent. Later he would settle for a decade in Venezuela where he developed a wide professional work in long and short films and also as a teacher. He published his only book there, Técnica fotográfica en el cine.

Back in Chile, he returned to the foreground with the photography of La Frontera, Ricardo Larraín's first film, where he now makes clear his mastery of color filmmaking. Again he works with Raúl Ruiz in the film El Infierno and directs two new documentaries, one dedicated to his friend the late actor Pepe Duvauchelle and the other to the admired writer Francisco Coloane.