Comments on Cuarón

I'm amazed of Cuarón and González Iñárritu. It is so difficult to make a movie, and the made such complex films such as Gravity and Birdmand, that for me as a Mexican it is a joy to see these talented people being recognized. No one would believed some years ago that Mexican directors could make it in Hollywood. I'd love to see "El Negro" wining for "The Revenant". This really inspires me to do whatever I can to follow my dream (photography) and to dream big, really BIG. What else can I say? I'm amazed with the humility of Cuarón. Great example.

Personal academy awards

- Casablanca
   -Timless story, superb acting, great script marvelous dialogues

-  The Shawshank redemption
Powerful, touching story. Superb acting

- Skyfall
A nice twist to the Bond character with an interesting plot and complex characters all around.

- The Godfather
Brando. Pacino. Caan. What else? Copppola! Classic, classic, classic.

- The silence of the lambs
Incredible story, powerful characters, surprises. Superb acting.

- Rush
Great story, the characters grow with the movie and finally the "villain" (Lauda) becomes a really sympathetic character.

- Star Trek
Great Kirk and Spock casting. Powerful story, very moving in the end.

- Memento
Loved the complexity of the story

- Natural Born Killers
Pretty hard, but great story, great acting

- Rango
One of the best animated movies I've ever seen, everything is beautiful and I loved the problems of Rango to understand his own identity

- Guardians of the Galaxy
Funny, a nice twist on the heroe genre. The racoon is hilarious and Chris Platt is a very charming hero.

- Mad Max: Fury Road
Breathtaking cinematography, surprisingly good story, excellent acting by Charlize Theron

- Birdman
Incredible story, great cinmeatography, loved Michael Keaton acting


- Heat
For me, the best heist movie ever

- The exorcist
Powerful, terrifying, superb story about the ultimate fight of good vs evil

- Pulp Fiction
Loved the mix of the time, excellent story, memorable scenes.

- The dark knight
A great crime movie that happens to have Batman in the middle

- Inception
Love the layers and complexity of the story. DiCaprio surprised me.

- Matrix
Excellent story.

- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Dr. Jones character marked my childhood. This movie inspired me to become both a photographer, and adventurer and a teacher. 

- Whiplash
What a powerful story and characters.

- Gladiator
-Nice story, superb acting

- Back to the future
Very nice story

- The Lion King
Hamlet in the savannah? Right!

- The shining
How not to love/hate Nicholson+King?

- Toy Story
Surprisingly good story

- Toy Story 3
Touching story

- Die Hard
Great good fun

- Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood surprise me every time


Well, and many other favorites of mine:

- V for Vendetta
- Fargo
- The sixth sense
- Kill Bill Volume 1
- Sin City
- The Bourne Identity
- The king's speach
- Rocky
- Dr. No
- From Russia With Love
- Goldfinger
- Thunderbolt
- You only live twice
- Casino Royale
- Gravity
- Interstellar
- Iron Man
- The book of the jungle
- Mission Impossible (I)
- Inglorious basterds
- Michael Clayton
- Michael Collins
- The others
- Seven
- The Prestige
- The Green Mile
- Unforgiven
- Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
- Almost famous
- Road to Perdition
- District 9
- Super Bad
- Zombieland
- The Wrestler
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Paddington
- Rise of the planet of the apes
- Moneyball
- The strange case of Benjamin Button
- Ronin
- Dogville
- Black Swan
- 4 weddings and a funeral
- Tinker Tailor Sldier Spy
- Shutter Island
- Analyze this
- The Rosemary's Baby
- Up in the air
- Master and commander
- My cousin Vinny
- Wall Street
- Lethal Weapon
- The girl with the dragon tattoo
- Pirates of the Caribbean (I)
- Hellboy
- X-Men: First Generation
- The Town
- Amadeus
- Ratatouille
- Thirteen days
- Apollo 13
- Being there
- First blood
- Mystic River
- Philadelphia

TV SHOWS
Not many: House because of the powerful leading role, The West Wing because it has incredibly well written episodes, superb acting and an engaging set from the first season until the last one.

WEBISODES
Can't remember any I liked.

WHAT DO I WANT TO LEARN?
To be a good storyteller so I can make powerful photo-essays.

In your future or work, how do you plan to use your learning of writing scripts and making creative content?
I don't know. I want to use my learning in photography, but my goal is not becoming a writer or a director.

A story with three images

Work in progress...

FIRST ACT:



SECOND ACT:




THIRD ACT:

My biggest fear

I don't know if I only have ONE fear that is the biggest. It's more like a lot of fears that mix.

I deeply fear that I'm unable to raise my kids, and to overcome the handicaps that they have against them, specially with my oldest kid.

I fear that my marriage may broke, because of the illness of my wife and the challenges of my oldest son, while I have to carry all the weight and responsability of my family.

I feel fear of not succeding in photography, that people ultimately think that I'm a joke as an artist and that I've lost everything for a nonsense, instead of pursuing a lucarative and "succesful" career.

I'm afraid of loosing my kids, because now they are so young, but eventually they will have to walk their own path.

I'm afraid of being alone, the only person responsible of other, to be the driver.

I'm afraid of not feeling the presence of God to help me, because I fear to become a faithless man because I could not face the challenges and struggles I have to face.

A picture that illustrates my fear:

Cargo

a) What is THE PROTAGONIST’S 3D (doesn’t have to be in sentences) – DESIRE/WANT, DA OBSTACLES, DISCOVER/NEED/TRUTH?
To save his baby.


b) What’s his BIGGEST FEAR?
That his daughter be harmed.

c) Was the DISCOVERY the same as the DESIRE?
No, because he wanted to save his kid, but he discovered that he would not be able to do it, so he realized that he had to figure a way to keep moving and, eventually, save the little girl even being a zombie.

d) Was it a SIMPLE PLOT?  Explain.
Yes, its a pretty straightforward story.

e) Was the character COMPLEX?  Explain.
Yes, because he wanted to preserve his family but he knows he's infected and that, ultimately, he would become the worst enemy of her daughter.

f) Was the ending VISCERAL to you?  Why or why not?  If not, what was MISSING?
To me it was, because I'm a father and I relate to the man and his desire to save his daughter. For me it was very important the message "My name is Rosie" because he wanted to keep her kids being a person, not just a baby. For me it was very touching.

g) What do you think is the message the filmmaker trying to share? Was it effective?
It's a message about hope, parenthood, protection. For me it was very effective and touching.

h) Why do you think they chose the title “CARGO”?
I think the baby girl is a symbol of both hope, but also the only thing the man had: his family. Even if his partner and him became infected, the family remained through the kid.

What do I really want?

When I read the excerpt by Matthew Kelly "Do You Really Know What You Want?" mi vision changed a lot. In te beginning I wanted to answer "I want to be de best photographer in the world", but then I asked myself: "Why?" And I realized that I had to dig deeper.

I want to be a great photographer to express myself through photography, inspire other people, tell stories, think about issues... Photography is may biggest obsession. I want to understand it, to make it, to share it, to think about it. I want to publish my photographs, to show them in an international exhibition.

I want to be an artist to share my life, feelings, fears and dreams through art. Photography, writing... I want to connect with other people and inspire them.

I want to be a good father, so my sons may be happy grown ups.

I want to be a good husband, because I love my wife and we are struggling hard to overcome illness.

I want to be a good teacher, to pass what I have learn and to see in my students the best generation of Mexican photographers.

I want all this because the purpose in my life is to give, to share. Only when I work and when I give I fill truly happy and full.