Growing up in my hometown of Honduras and my journey to America have greatly informed my present work, as well as the kind of stories I want to tell in the future. Life at home in Honduras was never easy. Every several months my father would abandon us to be with his mistresses. I saw how my mother suffered trying to keep the family together when my father was absent. Our situation became so desperate that I had to scavenge garbage dumps for food. One day, as I walked through the rubbish, I found a bag of molded bread. I picked the bread up, cleaned the mold off and ate it. That evening I had food poisoning. That crisis is what made me decide to run away from home at the age of 12. My goal was to come the America. Along my journey, I got kidnapped by a group of Cartel human traffickers for two years. I was rescued by a group of Brazilians and brought to Ohio. During my kidnaping, I witnessed atrocities no child should ever see, but I also witnessed the complexities within human beings. This is the kind of humanity I tap into when writing my own stories as a filmmaker. Empathy is one of the key words in my artist’s philosophy. Now that I am 24 years old, I am able to reflect upon my life stories and create characters with layered, authentic emotions.
My approach to making films is mainly influenced by real life stories, dreams, music and other filmmakers. I often dream in cinematic sequences and my visual style is derived from these abstract images I see in my imagination. Music also plays an important role
when I write scripts. Music inspires the mood and tone for many scenes. Filmmakers that influence my filmmaking style are Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Michelangelo Antonioni. The movies of these filmmakers are what I refer to when thinking of frame composition or when developing my own directorial vision.
I want to build upon my aesthetic approach as I develop in my career and as a filmmaker. I want to go to graduate school and enhance my skills in the craft and business side of filmmaking. I want to build and cultivate a network of film professionals and other emerging artists to help my artistic career. In the long term, I want to own my own film production company that will allow other artists of different ethnicities the freedom to make movies and tell their own stories. The determination that gave me the strength to leave my native homeland is what drives my passion to pursue filmmaking. I will continue pursuing my goals in film and doing everything in my power to share my stories with the world.
