FILMMAKING, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO ME

Filmmaking emerged in the late 1800s, with the Lumière brothers’ public screening of short films in Paris on December 28, 1895, marking the traditional birth of cinema, but key inventions like Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope (early 1890s) and Muybridge’s sequential photography (1870s) laid the groundwork, leading to narrative storytelling (Méliès, 1902) and the silent film era that followed. That was only the beginning.

I took inspiration from an early stage of my life, drawing on filmmakers such as George Lucas (Star Wars) and Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window). The quality that always stood out in film was its vibrancy; it had a positive effect on me, allowing me to feel hope and creativity in the craft as I grew up. The numerous styles and atmospheres conjured in people’s minds by watching a 90-minute film is why I feel this industry is essential.

Every day I watch at least one film, which helps me relax and also become a spectator of another story. When I was 8, I wrote a 20-page novel of fiction called ‘Knight’. I printed 30 copies at home and gave each of my classmates a copy of the novel (I also wrote a sequel). My love for storytelling most likely came from reading; At 11, I read the whole of ‘The Hobbit’, which advanced my love for the art of imagination.

In recent years, my fantastical storytelling has made room for something I believe is more important: Current problems in the world. They inspire me to make a difference. I love the film ‘Pan’s Labryth’ because of its fantastical mythology and storytelling that capture the Spanish Civil War, and because its unreal qualities deepen its serious subjects. Not everything has to be based on realistic events, but the blend of dreamlike scenarios and real life is what makes pure art.

Until now, the work I take inspiration from the most is David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. Mulholland Drive is what I consider a perfect film, but if you watch it too many times, you might go mad! This is the reason it’s flawless: every scene can be taken in a different way, opinions can be small or tall, and people will love and hate because of the lack of clarity, but that’s what makes true art. People watch films to be entertained, and Quentin Tarantino achieves that; the action and the revelation seep into viewers’ minds, making his films unforgettable. But a mixture of thought, action and revelation is what drives perfection. Christopher Nolan’s work appeals to me the most. Inception, The Prestige and Memento, everything about these films create a thought-provoking mashup of whys and whens and whats. That is, to me, why film is important: it touches the people you want it to touch. The question of time, the places of wonder in the world, and what’s to discover next. The journey of film is one that I’m ready to take on.