Artist Statement

I make films that interrogate inequality and structures of power as they relate to one another and unfold in daily life. Although I do not consider my artwork as strictly personal, the images and stories I create are deeply connected to spaces, processes, and communities I observe and am a part of. I first encountered visual art in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I was born and raised and where I developed my interest in photography. By exploring the visual narratives of this place and its people, I learned about the power embedded in making and circulating images and how they build or erase meaning, ideas, and memories. As time passed, the camera became a close companion to wander around with. I gradually moved from an enthusiastic collector of images to a trained documentarian building personal and collective archives. My still images started to acquire movement while I learned the language of cinema. The observations through the lens turned into sources of reflection and intentional exercises to make sense of the world and communicate with others.

Non-fiction cinema has become central to my work as a cultural anthropologist, artist, and community organizer. I do believe this field is a fertile soil for collaboration and dialogue and a remarkable medium for making complex processes intelligible to others. To me, form and content are integral components for conveying meaning, and it is in the playfulness of the former that the latter can be effectively accomplished. I engage with films that push against simplistic depictions of people and the situations they are in, and resist narratives that reinforce ideas of victimization or dependency of those represented in the screen. I often find myself going back to Trinh T. Minh-ha’s famous call for ‘speaking nearby’ rather than ‘speaking about’ people portrayed in the films, as well as reflecting upon Jill Godmilow’s sharp critique about the contradictions of the liberal documentary practice. The radical work of these artists has marked both my understanding of non-fiction film and cinematic encounters with people and environments. Working as a solo artist or collaborating with others, I am committed to crafting stories that challenge conventional ways of seeing and stimulate other forms to relate to the unfamiliar to others. I am convinced that the power and beauty of the moving image can help do that.

February 2022.