We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Agatino Zurria a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Agatino, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
In hindsight, I have to say that I’ve learned this about myself: Everything I like or want comes to me at a later time than I expected. This is my tempo, the way I move and my mental process creates that way…it takes time, so there’s no use on rushing things. I learned I wanted to be a filmmaker very early in life. I was just learning to read and write when that happened, and I was watching a film with Barbra Streisand, I think it was Up The Sandbox, in which she played someone who woke up from dreams and imagination very often, so that we never knew what was real. As I was watching, I remember telling my mother “I wanna do that”. My mother asked me what?: I wanna make what they are making. Oh, she replied, so you wanna be a Movie Director!
From then on, I ended up studying Mass Communications in hopes of moving towards movie directing. Mind you, that was the era pre-digital, pre-cell phone and pre-personal computer. When the world got all that, and I finally moved from my country of origin (Venezuela) to the USA, I finally started making my short films, one after the other. And then music videos, and web shows and commercials.
Now I try to remember what actually stopped me from doing that for so many years? Well, the advent of digital technology helped me be more hands on on my own career, but I have to say that once I started, I haven’t stopped. It is like those traffic jams on a speedway that last 30 minutes…and when you finally get to the point that started the traffic jam, there is nothing going on and you start running at the speed you need. Conclusion: It is the Mind that blocks us from doing what we want. No amount of people saying “You can’t” or “No’, no amount of “No money enough” will stop you from doing what you need to do. And you will…sooner, or later.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Well, I was born to be a Film Director. Because it took me too long to get there, I developed artistic abilities, from my two grandfathers and my mother and I have been a plastic artist. But then I also wrote, I wrote stories and I am still writing screenplays. When I started my career as a Film Director with my first short film “The One-Way Journey of Marialma Centeno” back in 1994, I realized I wanted to be involved in the editing too, because you know, sometimes Editors don’t get what you are trying to say, and others they take their sweet time to finish your project which is not usually their priority…So I learned to edit and I have done it ever since. I have also become a camera man because sometimes it is very difficult to bring one to a project in the time you need it. So I am a Film Director, Screenwriter, Editor, Camera Man, Plastic Artist, Multi-lingual Translator and Content Developer. All of that I’ve done with pleasure and as part of my skills and what it is fun for me to do creatively and work-wise. I am also a good listener and love to give audiences and clients, what they are looking for, but I always explain why I made my decisions, which are not simply just “Because”. They have a reason for being and all of that is in the best interest of the work I am doing for myself and others.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I always said that I need a plan, a goal and a mission, so that I can change it later on if I need to. If you don’t have any of them from the beginning you are not walking anywhere. I see myself producing my own material and that of others with a very particular voice: a voice of honesty, personality, and to find what is original and new in each thing I do. I love to sit and watch films that take me to places I’ve never been, and I’m not talking only geographically, but also story-wise, morally. I want to be able to create the basis for new ideas that are born from old ideas, so that we can remember. I think we love to remember. That’s why we go on trips, or meet new people: to remember moments that influenced us. That’s exactly my goal. And my mission is to achieve this and not fall in the process.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
There are two rewarding aspects: one during, one at the end. During, you are enjoying the process of creating, of changing, of bringing ideas from nothing, or sharing them with the team that you put together to make something. The journey is very rewarding because it makes you grow. It is like traveling to a new country and getting to know people and places and aromas and sounds… All is new, all is an opportunity to do something extraordinary.
At the End: I always watch my work many times after it is done, and I see how it influences others, and I ask myself how I got to make something. I sometimes surprise myself, because when you are creating, you are changing, your thought process is changing, you are never the same person after you finish your work. And so, if you sit and watch it, 5, 10, 20 years from the moment you finish it, sometimes it is like something new, like a mystery: you end up learning more about your self.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.azcafilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azcafilms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/azcafilms
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agatino-zurria-592240232/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/zurria_agatino
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQTWe92Ai_GSv89Xj6ZwjA
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/agatinozurria