The Gran Canarian filmmaker Armando Ravelo was accused yesterday of sexual harassment by the artist Koset Quintana, who met the director when she was 14 years old and who, when she was only 15, received sexual advances from him. This is not the only complaint that has emerged in recent days, since the testimonies against this filmmaker are added to the accusations of sexual violence against the director Carlos Vermut by three women workers in the film industry.
After the accusation against Ravelo became known, more actresses declared in the comments of the publication that they had experienced similar situations with the filmmaker from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also a writer, so this case reminds the
Koset Quintana was 14 years old when he met Ravelo, in a film workshop. The director, who was 31 years old at the time, began talking to him on social media. Based on the complaint published on Friday, January 26, by the newspaper El País, where Carlos Vermut is accused of sexual violence, the artist, now 23 years old, decided to give her testimony, where she shows that the filmmaker spoke to her about drugs, porn and made sexual advances toward her, while she was a minor.
Her testimony was joined by that of other actresses, who have accused Ravelo of similar behavior. The director of The Skin of the Volcano (2021) and Once Upon a Time in the Canary Islands has admitted the conversations with Quintana, saying that his attitude was out of place and that “he has had very ugly attitudes towards women” although thanks to therapy he has corrected his sex addiction. He also pointed out that he thought the age of her interlocutor was a joke. Aware that this will affect her film career, she has decided to retire. Ravelo admits that, at that time, he was involved in toxic situations of which he became aware some time later and apologized for the “a lot of damage” caused “to many women.” In any case, he denies having exercised any sexual violence or physical contact against Quintana, but he does deny “reprehensible” behavior that he understands should be reported.
The testimonies against Armando Ravelo come after accusations of sexual violence against Madrid-born Carlos Vermut. The director, who won in San Sebastián with Magical Girl (2014), is accused of having taken advantage of his position in the cinema to attack the complainants. After this, the Spanish Film Academy has announced that it will make visible the demand against abuses in cinema at the next Goya, on February 10 in Valladolid, so that “sexual violence and abuses of power have no place in the world.” of cinema or in Spanish society as a whole.” The institution condemns “any abuse and reaffirms its total rejection of such acts, as well as its solidarity and support for the victims who report such abuses and the need to continue reporting any situation of this type.”
These cases are in addition to that of producer Javier Pérez Santana, who was arrested after being accused of sexual assault during last year’s Feroz awards party.