The Gran Canarian film director Armando Ravelo (41 years old) announced this Monday that he is retiring from cinema and public life after recognizing the veracity of the accusations against him by the multidisciplinary artist Koset Quintana, which she explained on her social networks. that he encouraged her to have sex and offered her drugs and porn when she was 15 years old and he was 31, although the director has denied that they can be considered sexual violence.
Quintana, who has confirmed his testimony to EL PAÍS, decided to make his experience public after the publication last Friday in this newspaper of the investigation in which three women accuse the filmmaker Carlos Vermut of sexual violence.
Ravelo, however, denies having committed sexual violence against her and has warned in the local press that he will take legal action against anyone who accuses him of abuse or assault.
More information
Three women accuse film director Carlos Vermut of sexual violence
In a post on Instagram, Koset Quintana explains that the events date back to 2015, when he began exchanging text messages with Ravelo.
According to the artist's story, they both met when she was 14 years old “because she taught a film workshop at a video store.”
From that moment on they had “a sporadic conversation.”
During these contacts, the creator “just wanted to be seen” so that they could count on her, but he “not only” encouraged her to have sex with him, but also talked to her about “drugs and porn.”
A testimony that, she claims, “for many years” has “made her angry not to publish”: only after denouncing Carlos Vermut has she gathered the courage to do so.
In her publication, Quintana in turn accuses the Government of the Canary Islands of subsidizing and giving space to this type of people, as if there were no “legal people” and with good ideas in the world of culture.
In response to Quintana's post, other women have made public similar behavior by Ravelo.
“Dear, we have had different experiences, but I know what it is with this person,” Lanzarote actress Marta Viera responded on the same social network.
“Sadly, I discovered it after it devastated me inside, luckily and without really knowing how a part of me saved me and I was able to get out of the black hole I was in.”
Also the theater and film actress Sigrid Ojel ("I know that character well" and "I would never work with such a person again") or the reporter and presenter Minerva Santana, who confesses that the filmmaker took her to "the darkest time" .
The Canarian filmmaker, Armando Ravelo, accepts his unethical behavior, but claims to have never committed a crime #TN1Canariashttps://t.co/rz70ZkBsJE pic.twitter.com/uuEMuJOMp1
— Televisión Canaria Noticias (@RTVCCanarias) January 29, 2024
Armando Ravelo explained this Monday to the Efe agency that at that time "he was very high and believed he went unpunished" and not only has he acknowledged these facts, but he has indicated that "he has assumed that this complaint will have implications for his career" and that , therefore, he has decided to take them himself and retire from cinema and public life, “from life as he knew it.”
He recognizes that he had “reprehensible” behavior and understands why he reported himself.
He encourages, in fact, anyone who has suffered a situation like this to do the same.
In his statements, the director claims to have overcome that stage after going to therapy, which led him to “do a lot of harm to many women” with whom he had “long-lasting relationships.”
Furthermore, he emphasizes that when he met her in person she thought that Koset Quintana was an “adult,” so she believed that she was joking with him when she told him that she was a minor.
In statements to Cadena Ser, he stated: “I know I left many bodies along the way.”
“We are in a time when men have to review our behaviors.
I assume all the consequences.
“Fire purifies.”
As a filmmaker, Ravelo is the author of a dozen short films and two feature films,
The Skin of the Volcano
and
Once Upon a Time in the Canary Islands
, both with historical themes related to the islands.
With the latter he was nominated for a dozen Goya nominations, although in the end he was not included in any.