Gabriela Samper is known in Colombia for her work with children's and puppet theater, but she is also known as an innovative documentarian for her ethnographic films that promoted the idea of 'national development' and the preservation of Colombia's varied cultural roots. She was born to a wealthy family in Bogota. Before attending Columbia University in New York, Samper traveled extensively in Europe. She has also lived in Trinidad, and occasionally in the U.S. She did not become a filmmaker until 1963, after her third marriage and the birth of her fifth and final child. It was with her new North American husband, Ray Witlan, that she founded the Cinta Limited film production company. Samper's efforts to chronicle her cultures were abruptly thwarted when she failed to recieve a much needed Guggenheim Fellowhip in 1970. She was further hindered in 1972 when she had to spend five months in prison for her alleged involvement with the urban branch of the National Liberation Army, a leftist guerrilla group. After her acquittal, she went to Cornell University for a year. In 1974, she died of cancer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide