WORLD SHORT FILM AWARD INTERVIEW

= NOTAS / ENTREVISTAS =

Saludos!! Hace unos meses, nos informaron que mi corto "Edén" resultó ser uno de los cinco finalistas para el World Short Film Award of the Year (New York). Por este motivo los organizadores realizaron una entrevista a su servilleta que fue publicada en su website. Es de las entrevistas que más me he divertido respondiendo así que quise compartirla. Esto es un extracto.

What was the last thing you read?
The Divine Comedy (once again).

Favorite places, countries?
San Sebastián (Spain), Paris, Carcassonne (France) and Guanajuato (México).

What is your favorite food and drink?
I love mexican food (chiles en nogada, mole, tacos), also argentine meat, the pintxos from Donostia, french and italian food. I love desserts (strawberries with cream and all kinds of milky cakes and pies). There's no drink in this world I like more than a cold Coca-Cola.

Do you like Holidays?
Totally, I like them a lot. I don't believe in many things left, but if there's something I believe in after all, it's Christmas.

What is your life's biggest challenge?
To keep the ability of being creative. To keep enthusiastic even during not-so-good times. To never lose the interest and the ability to be surprised by small details. Basically, to remain alive at least until I actually die. ;-) (Not as easy as it sounds).

If you could travel through time, in which period of history would you like to live?
I would go back to the 90´s with a new ability to really appreciate how wonderful they were. I would also like to go to the medieval times.

Globalization: good or bad?
Culturally incredibly good since this is the first attempt to create a common denomination that may define us all as the "human kind" beyond the idelogical differences but yet, keeping our own identity. Economically, a disaster for some countries.

What would be a "perfect moment" for you?
A kiss from the person I love. To watch an aurora boralis display. To watch a tear dropped by someone after watching a film I made.

What is Film for you?
Storytelling and emotion sharing.

What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
The need to tell stories about worlds that are not necesarily like the one I live in. The possibility to create new worlds where magic does exist and where impossible things can actually happen.

When did you start making films?
When I was 12 yeas old. It was an adaptation of Charles Dickens´ "A Christmas Carol".

What was the last film you saw that you liked?
Eraserhead.

If you could send only one film out to the Universe to tell aliens who we are, which film would that be?
The Wizard of Oz. :-)

As a cultural ambassador of your country: If you wanted to show one film made in your country, which film would that be?
Luis Buñuel's "Los Olvidados". Or "Pan's Labirynth" eventhough it was not shot in my country, it is considered a mexican production.

The one characteristic a film director must have:
Being extremely sensitive to every single detail surrounding him. Every sound, smell, sight, texture, taste. A film director must be able to find beauty and poetry in every detail.

For me short film is:
Stories that don't need so many minutes to be told.

Filmmaking is like:
Creating worlds with their own rules, looks and communication dynamics.

In terms of the filmmaking process, which is the best part of making a film for you?
The incredible experience of watching the images, moments and characters that were only in my mind at first comming alive. Then they're not only drawings of a storyboard. That's the moment when it all becomes real, it stops being a project and becomes a true fictional reality.

In terms of the filmmaking process, which is the worst part of making a film for you?
That very moment when the film stock is running out, the spotlight is broken, someone is injured and the sun is fading away when there are still 6 shots I need to shoot. That´s the worst of it.

Who do you like to work with? (Producer, Actor…)
Meryl Streep!

What is your biggest dream as a filmmaker?
There are many of them. To make a lot of movies, mostly good ones. That making movies is what I do for living. But specially to create a style of my own, a visual and dramatic style that defines all of my work and which I could be identified for. And of course, to work with Meryl Streep. ;-)

Imagine that it is 2020 and you are a very successful filmmaker. What would be "success" for you in your film carrier?
To keep on. Shooting a good film every year or two. Being profitable for my producers without compromising my style and need of expression due a commercial request.

What do you think about the future of Film?
Due the constant change of technology, not only films but most of entertainment industry is going to have to change as well as a part of this evolution. Digital media has brought to us the posibility to shoot many more movies every year but also has changed the way they're screened, the way they're watched and the way they sound. We all need to be prepared, both as an audience and as filmmakers to deal with these constant changes. And above all this, we must be prepared to remain
creative and propositive. The art itself as a need of communication is not changing at all, only the tools we use to make it.