Find here the original link to the article: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-luis-quijano/
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luis Quijano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Luis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I always like to think of legacy in two ways: my personal legacy and my professional legacy. They’re very different from one another but they go hand to hand in my everyday life.
For my personal legacy, I’m hoping to build one full of relationships and meaningful connections. I’d like to be remembered as a good person, as one that always tried to help whenever it was possible, as one that was kind, honest, gentle and a good worker. Above all, I’d like to be remembered as someone that lived his truth and in kindness no matter what.
For my professional legacy, I hope to be remembered as an artist and filmmaker that always tried to convey truth and a unique perspective through my characters and stories. I hope to be remembered as a filmmaker that made his Latinx peers proud and took part in the collective to create better stories, better representation, and better ideas of what a Latinx individual can be, do and achieve. I hope that I’m remembered as a filmmaker that defied expectations and that always pushed to create films that entertained, and moved audiences around the world.
I’m working on both, living as fully as I can day by day. Only time and effort can decide whether my legacies will live on to be the way I’d like and I believe this will be defined long after I’m gone but I’m at peace knowing that it’s something I work on everyday.
Luis, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a filmmaker born in Mexico but based in Los Angeles since 2015 after I moved to study a BFA in Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA. Just one year prior to that, I co-directed my first short film in Mexico City with two great filmmaker friends – Fabio Colonna & Regina Fernandez – called “Me Gusta Más Crudo” and the whole creative process of producing and shooting it motivated me to move to the United States. During film school in Los Angeles, I met many other filmmakers from all around the world, with many different perspectives and unique voices that I believe only expanded my curiosity, knowledge and creativity in my filmmaking process.
After graduating, I went right away into a festival circuit with my short film “Caminante, Caminante: La Leyenda del Huay Chivo”, screening the film in various festivals in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Canada, among other countries. I’m very proud of what I achieved and learned from this short film and I’m forever grateful to every single member of the crew and will always cherish all the people I met during the screenings and the memories of attending the festivals.
I’d like to say that I focus and specialize in the horror genre but, lately, I’ve been exploring some of my comedic sensibilities (in what I now see as a way to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic) in other projects that I’ve also been in festivals with and these experiences not only introduced me to a newer creative process but also assured me that I can do more than just horror. However, at the end of the day, I do love horror films and I believe there’s no better feeling than watching a good horror film with an audience in the big screen and that’s what I want to give back to audiences around the world.
As a Mexican, I am very proud of my Latin American culture and heritage, so most of my projects have been about Latinx characters or starring Latinx actors. My goal as a filmmaker is to elevate our voices and present new or more interesting ideas of what we can be and what we can do, with no limits whatsoever.
As of today, I just finished shooting two fun projects. The first one was a new episode for the web series “Pop Around The World”, a series of travel episodes for the toy company “Original FUNKO” in which a host takes the audience through a trip in a given city and meets an avid Funko collector for an interview. I direct and co-write the Mexico episodes with my sister Lu, who’s the host of the episodes. We just shot at Izamal, a beautiful Magic Town in Yucatán and we can’t wait for you all to watch the video. The first three episodes are available on Youtube in Original Funko’s official channel.
The second project is a series of music videos for Mexican independent artist Mo Rivas. This highly collaborative project is just starting as the whole project consists of 5 music videos, and we’re currently in post production of the first two videos that we shot in Mexico City. The remaining three will be shot early next year in Los Angeles. Each video has a cool concept that I’m excited to share soon!
As for my future narrative directorial work, I’m currently in pre-production of a new short film called “Avem”, just two months away from filming. It’s a body horror film that deals with themes such as immigration, anxiety and belonging; a project that will take me back to my horror roots and love. I’m also in development of two feature films: one is the feature length version of my “Caminante, Caminante” short film, and the other is called “The Bugs Inside”, a political body horror film.
I’m open to collaborate with other filmmakers in any way, shape, form. I like to keep myself busy and meet new creative minds. Know that if involves a Latinx story or Latinx talent, or the horror genre, I’ll be extra open to meet and talk.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
To me, the most rewarding aspect is definitely sharing the art with an audience. Making a film takes a lot of money, time, and effort, and I believe that it’s a miracle and a huge achievement to have a film released, no matter the scope of it – whether it’s a short film, a music video, a commercial, a TV episode or series, a feature film, etc. Of course the bigger the scope is, the harder it gets, but the money, time and effort still have to be there in order to create.
I believe I make films to share with others and to be able to get the audience to live and experience other worlds and other lives just as I have with other films. To have someone connect with the story you’re telling and your characters that most of the times are also a reflection of yourself in some ways, is very special and exciting. I’m always going to remember this particular moment when two audience members kept raising their hands to ask me questions during a Q&A after the screening of my short film “Caminante, Caminante: La Leyenda del Huay Chivo” for the Latinx & Hispanic Cinema event of New Filmmakers Los Angeles at the Academy theater. One of them couldn’t ask the question he wanted but they both approached me after the film. I remember walking to the back of the theater to exit and they both rushed from the other side to catch me before I left. They shared with me how they connected with the film, what they liked and also what they didn’t like and what they thought could’ve been better or wasn’t clear. It’s always helpful and rewarding for me to talk with audience members that liked or didn’t like my work. Of course it’s easier when they like it and the conversations are easier to digest, but honesty is always appreciated and it’s what we should all be looking for as filmmakers.
Making films is also a team effort, it’s not an individual achievement. So to share the film and to have all the team watch it or at least know that the film is finished and showing somewhere is always fulfilling. W can feel the effort was worth something and we get to share our work with others. It’s unfortunate that many films don’t get to reach an audience and they remain unfinished or unreleased, so the life of a film should always be celebrated.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Yes! I’m honestly not an avid reader but I’ve been trying to read more this year and so far it’s been an improvement both in how much I’ve read and how much I’ve enjoyed doing it. I want to recommend three books.
The first book is one of my favorites. It’s called “My First Movie: 20 Celebrated Directors Talk about their First Film”, edited by Stephen Lowenstein. It’s a compilation of interviews by directors such as The Coen Brothers, Pedro Almodóvar, Mike Leigh, Mira Nair, Ang Lee, and others, about the process of making their films. I like it because it’s such an enlightening and informative read that shows how volatile the industry is and how there’s not one way of making your first film. The directors talk about the emotional journeys of making the films from getting the idea, to raising the money and finding investors, to casting it, shooting it, editing it and releasing it. For me, it was a reminder to keep going no matter what, to put all the effort in what I do and to believe in what I want to create and achieve, because it will eventually happen unless I stop.
The second one I want to recommend is called “Sapiens – A brief history of mankind” by Yuval Noah Harari. It’s a book that narrates the journey of the Homo sapiens and the history of humanity from the Stone Age to modernity, talking about our origins, our first encounter with politics, social order, religions, instinct, pleasure, good and evil, among other topics. It’s very informative and provocative and helped me ground myself and give myself some perspective of my past and how I am the way I am. It invited me to reflect on my mortality, my traditions and my humanity. I don’t agree or believe in everything the book says but I’ve always find it helpful to question what I know and I’m always open to unlearn certain things. It was recommended to me by one of my best friends and who I believe is the most intellectual and smartest of them so I knew the book was going to be one to challenge me and it definitely isn’t an easy read, but it’s a read that I recommend.
Last, but not least, I want to recommend “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson. It’s one of the books I read more recently and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a funny but thoughtful book that shows you a new approach to life, you can take it or leave it. Like “Sapiens”, I don’t agree with all the terms and concepts in the book, but there’s a lot to learn from them. It’s a self help book that argues it’s not a self help book but I felt its approach was more realistic and not full of positivity that other books employ in order to motivate its readers. It’s about taking accountability of your actions and also the actions of others, finding the value in our sufferings, understanding why we feel certain emotions, that failure is more than alright, and that at the end we’ll die, among other topics. I found it to be very engaging and comedic read. It’s a book that I felt I needed to read at that exact moment and it was a perfect recommendation by another dear friend of mine.