We were lucky to catch up with Laisa M. Dos Santos recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laisa M., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My next personal project will be my directing debut but more than that, is a story that is very meaningful to me and will honor the memory of my grandma, Dona Neném, and her compassion with everyone around her. Being Latina and telling stories about the Latino community really resonates with me, with my values and my work. The project started as a feature film concept and after a year of conversations and restructuring, I decided that it would make more sense to me and to my grandma if we turned it into a documentary.

This one will for sure be my biggest pride and joy. It will be not only a family reunion but also a one-way trip to memory lane for all the Maria’s in the world. I want to share my grandma’s life story and show how she became one of the kindest people I have ever met. The way she used to see life to the way she treated everyone around her is truly inspiring and I know that around the globe there are other Maria’s with completely different stories but that changed people’s lives somehow.

The idea is to take the production around Brazil to get to know these other ladies and introduce Brazilian culture through a Brazilian perspective to everyone. It’s important to honor those who started all.

Laisa M., before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always been involved in art since I was a kid because my mom is an artist and a few family members are somehow involved in music and photography as well. My house is full of art pieces made by my mom and that have always inspired me in a way. My dad was the one who encouraged me in taking photography classes and actually start working with it. I started working professionally as a photographer in 2016. I would be hired to photograph events, concerts, weddings, birthdays, family photos.. all kinds of jobs. During that time I was still in college and also working in a photo lab and producing two TV shows. I was doing it all and cinematography appeared in between all of that. I started to get even more interested and began working as a Director of Photography, Camera operator and 1st Assistant Camera in short films, feature films, documentaries, commercials, music videos…

Art for me was always a way to express myself, show what is going on inside my head and put out there all my hopes, dreams, feelings…everything. Is a way to connect to people and myself. Writing used to be the main art form in which I felt I could express my whole personality and insecurities but that changed when I discovered photography. Observing other people and connecting with them was very important for me to understand the path I wanted to take in my projects and how creative I could be with camera angles, colors, frames, lenses…

Something that is a huge part of who I am and the message I want to share with the world is that I’ll always support women in everything I do. Not only on film sets but in every career, specially the ones dominated by white men. I come from a background where women don’t really have that much power and are not heard. Growing up and seeing situations like that really built my personality and beliefs. I’ll always advocate for this cause and make sure that everyone knows that our opinions matter and that we need to be heard. Filmmaking needs to be equal and we must evolve and make it also a safe space for all the female professionals. My directorial debut will be exactly about this topic.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2019 to focus on my career and discover my identity as an artist, so I started to learn more and more about Cinematography and doing projects that were completely out of my comfort zone. I have met some incredibly talented industry professionals and artists during my time here and I’m very proud of the projects I was able to be a part of and how much I grew as a Cinematographer. Right now I have three projects on post-production and doing pre-production for two other short films happening soon. One of them is actually about the pressure of being women and the anxiety society puts on us as human beings.

Being Latina is also something I’m very proud of and we need more latino stories going to the big screen and also more representation within the latino characters. That’s another important point for me because we need to promote films that don’t put Latin America in a box and only creates stereotypical secondary characters. Our culture is so diverse and it needs its recognition.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

My opinion has for sure changed over the years and I feel that each step I take in my career makes the answer for this question more concrete in my head. I used to think that inspiring others and showing them that everything is possible was the most rewarding aspect of being an artist. I still believe its a very important matter and that we all should encourage people, specially kids, to be more involved with creativity and the different forms of art. We as a society should be more open to the “not so traditional” work paths and understand that they have the same value as the traditional careers.

I realized year after year that I would like to do more than just say or show, I want to act and have something concrete that could create a bigger impact in people’s lives. ONGs, social projects, industry meetings and workshops. Being in direct contact with people, getting them closer to their dreams is what moves me and having a platform and connections as a creative person really helps. Very cliche but I do want to make a difference and I have always been like this, since I was a kid. I care about people and their stories, so If I can showcase those stories in a big screen, I will. And I will make everyone be heard loud and clear.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Every year I get to work in many projects from very different creative areas and artistic point of views. Commercials, music videos, narrative films, documentary work…almost everything. Every time I understand more about the stories I want to tell, the visuals I want to achieve and how a project can change someone’s life for the better. I’m fortunate to get to experience different work environments and meet incredibly talented people that not only make me a better cinematographer but also open my eyes to possibilities that weren’t on my mind before.

The last 4 years made me realize even more how much I want to tell stories about real people. I’m a very sensitive person, not only that, I’m a very sensitive creative woman and I connect very deeply to people and their stories. I’m curious about their craft, how they accomplished their goals, overcame the struggles, the way they run their lives and how their work impact other communities. I like hearing real stories and telling them to bigger audiences that most of the times would never have the opportunity to get to know these people. Its important to give voice to the families and individuals that most of the times are overlooked by society.

I met some amazing people this year that should get the opportunity to showcase their talent and share their culture and stories to the world. Paralympic athletes that are way more than what the news give them credit for; Latino farmers planting amazing produces in the middle of California; families running business together for over decades… I love working on fiction films but I want to create a way for real life journeys to be heard and also not portrayed in the stereotypical way. An athlete told me this year: “we need to be recognized by who we are and how amazing we are in what we do”. I think that is my current goal in my creative journey and I feel that making documentaries is a way to contribute for that.

Contact Info:

• Website: laisamsantos.com
• Instagram: @laisamaras_dp

Image Credits
Laisa M. Santos