While in exile after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, he lived in Paris, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and moved with his family to the United States in 1980.

Rodrigo Dorfman also has worked locally in North Carolina creating short documentaries with NC Arts Council (Heritage Awards), the Wake County Magnet Schools, Duke University, North Carolina Humanities Council, Duke Music Dept.,El Futuro, National Farm Worker Ministry and NC Field.

[citation needed] In 1997, Dorfman worked with his father on Prisoners of Time, for which he won a Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award.

[12] During the creation of the Mural, Rodrigo Dorfman befriended the great civil rights warrior Ann Atwater[13][circular reference].

[14] Rodrigo Dorfman also worked on Mayor Bill Bell's Anti Poverty Campaign by creating a video to educate employers on the Second Chance program, facilitating the hiring of formerly incarcerated folk.

[17] Rodrigo was commissioned to collaborate with Nia Wilson (SpiritHouse) on an essay/dialogue The Sweetness and the Spoil, Durham stories of Resistance.

[23] With creative producer Peter Eversoll, they adapted the series to a feature documentary which was broadcast nationwide on PBS on Season 4 of REEL SOUTH.

[24] As a multimedia producer he has created a series of online documentaries: Gnawa Stories;[25] Kid Gloves for handling abducted children;[26] American Shadows for POV.

[27] Rodrigo has contributed to Andre Codrescu's online journal Exquisite Corpse and the Durham Herald-Sun's bilingual page "Nuestro Pueblo"; he was the Triangle's Spectator Magazine's film critic (2000–01) and a commentator for WUNC radio.