EMILY ESPERANZA

CUT ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Emily Esperanza

Emily is the whole package, she’s a director, writer, editor who’s killing at the music video scene right now. We are thrilled to be showing her visually arresting film ‘day/night’ which she directed in collaboration with Abby Young this year at CUT. She runs her own production company called Nowhere Films. Learn more here: http://www.emilyesperanza.com

How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away? As an artist, you are never truly done with a project or finished with a story. It is virtually impossible to reach the level of perfection that many strive for – technically or conceptually. And if an artist does achieve a personal sense of fulfillment in accurately conveying intention or technique, there is no guarantee that the audience will receive the information or like it. Many artists create different iterations of the same piece, over and over again, utilizing similar thematic elements, inspirations, or motifs. One could say that each iteration is just a new effort to say the same thing, perhaps getting closer or further away to succeeding each time. But I find that beautiful. That no matter how many times we, as artists, try to speak through our work, it will never be finished or perfect. Yet with every project there comes a point to make peace with imperfection, with continuity errors, with potential conceptual misinterpretation, and move forward. Learning how to recognize that point in a project is visceral exercise, it is not quantifiable or sensible, it comes from within. It’s something the artist must learn to acknowledge and act on. Art and film are vehicles for passion and insanity, and allowing the perfection-oriented and rational mind to govern passion makes for many unfinished projects.

When you feel inspiration is waning, what do you do? How do you stay fresh? I haven’t had that problem in a while. Some things I enjoy which help with this include spending time in nature, reading, watching films by myself, travel, exercise, meditation. It is important to stay rested and creatively activated to keep an open mind.

What is one mistake everyone makes regardless of experience? Allowing one’s self to become stressed, forgetting to breathe deeply.

As a filmmaker, how important is collaboration in your work? Collaboration is absolutely the pinnacle of strong and inspired creative work. Finding a group of individuals you absolutely respect, trust, and can work with artistically is a very rare privilege and is something I’ve been very lucky to find.