We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cristian Proa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cristian , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I think that so far MEPHISTO, my first feature film, is the most relevant thing I have done, but not the most important. Each project has its own strength and charm. I think art, in this case cinema. It is a medium that leads to awareness and introspection. It is a vehicle to heal and build in the invisible. The death of my grandmother led me to create this script, with the intention of it being a spiritual journey for the viewer. I wanted it to be a personal film, that’s why I directed it, produced it, wrote it and practically edited it. I feel honored to have been able to show it at the Venice Film Festival

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born on August 31 in Mexico City. I am a film director, screenwriter and writer. My interest in art began when I was very young. At first, with painting, Rubens and James Ensor had a profound impact on my childhood. Also the work of Gustav Doré. One day when I was 6 years old I came across the film “un chien adalou” by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí and it changed my life. I realized that I wanted that to be my job. But my professional opportunity to write and direct films came when I was 21 with the piece “despertar”.Since that moment I have only tried to create stories that connect with my heart, I do not do advertising or television. My career has focused on creating from the language of film and writing. I try for each project to have as its main goal, connecting with another human being and trying for that dialogue to transform us both, me as a director, and them as viewers.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

At the beginning of my projects, I sought to feel inspired. Over time I realized that inspiration does not exist as we imagine it. It is working with structure and absorbing everything that surrounds us, which then translates into an idea, that idea is born abstract, sometimes it is a color, a sensation, a sound. who you are, what you carry inside you and what you learned. It will give that feeling a way. That path is what you can contribute to your work.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I finish the Mephisto script. no one wanted to produce it. Everyone around me told me to give up on that idea. I should wait until another time or look for another project to develop, but I wanted and felt that THAT was the project I wanted to do, so I followed my intuition. I went to look for every place, every object, and try to build the dream of making films, along the way, many people joined in when they saw that perhaps it was possible. What I want to say with this is that no one is going to fight for your dreams, you have to grab them and show others that it is worth helping you make it a reality. because something in that dream of yours looks like them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cristianproadirector
• Facebook: Cristian Proa
• Twitter: @crisproa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfgF9q1bQyez07IFFePEQAg
• Other: @mephisto_film

Image Credits
Mephisto (in photos) Actress : Carmen Tinoco, Johana Blendl Directed and Writer by Cristian Proa Dp: Rodrigo Torres