Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Damiana Acuña. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Damiana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

My first check as a hired film director came from a national commercial for a major brand, right as I was graduating from the American Film Institute’s Directing Program.
 I got an email from a lovely creative producer from a renowned production house, out of nowhere, to pitch me for the campaign. He had found my reel online, which I had put together with the few short films I had directed and had tried to get on as many websites as possible. 
This all happened as I was boarding a plane from Mexico City, where I had waited out half of the pandemic storm, back to Los Angeles where only a few days later I found myself directing that large union commercial. The company Jack Taylor reached out from was Merman, who now represents me both in the USA and the United Kingdom and is home to a group of people who have become my dream team to work with. 
Needless to say that when that first paycheck got to me, I had to sit down and take that moment in. Take in that feeling of hope and the reassurance that hard work pays off, that no matter how dark and uncertain the path before me often seemed, I was being encouraged to keep walking it.

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

I am a Mexican born and raised storyteller. Back in my home country, as I was writing and directing my first short films, I shadowed commercial directors at some of Mexico’s most renowned production houses, working on 30+ hour long shoots on a weekly basis, trying to learn and absorb as much as I could from every single step of the process of bringing stories to the screen. 
With the help of the FONCA-CONACYT scholarship, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a Master of Fine Arts Degree at the AFI Conservatory and over their two year long program I sharpened my skills and understanding of the art of narrative filmmaking. 
Since then, I have directed a number of short films including Lux Noctis which won the Oscar®-qualifying Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at the Florida Film Festival and was considered for the 2023 Academy Awards Best Live Action Short Film category and Campos de Oro which was commissioned by the National Basketball Association and won First Place at their Film For Fans initiative, a couple of music videos and several commercials for top brands like Walmart, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. 
I am proud to be a working director (which is ironically one of the hardest things to achieve in our industry). To be hired to bring my unique vision and sensibility to branded projects, whilst actively developing narrative film projects, including my first feature with which I recently attended Cine Qua Non’s Script Revision Lab. 
My poetic, visual storytelling focuses on female led, magical realism, both dark and luminous narratives that hunt for the sublime through the mystical and the profound.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

In this industry, people hear about you and your projects when you are at your highest, either on set, attending a film festival, winning an award or getting published, mentioned or cheered in some sort of way. But the reality is that 90% of our time is spent in the dark, far from any sense of reward or achievement. 
For a director to find themselves stepping unto a set, they need to have worked tirelessly for weeks, months or even years on that specific project to reach that point of stepping out of the shadows. 
The minute we wrap, a large cloud of uncertainty looms over us, posing the question when we will get to find ourselves on set again? When will we get to do what we love again? 
We are constantly presented with projects and opportunities that more often than not, do not materialize for us. On a weekly basis, I get to pitch for projects that could change my life in a heartbeat. Change it drastically from a financial standpoint, change it geographically where I could find myself traveling across the globe for a number of weeks for a shoot and change it professionally where locked gates could suddenly swing open. This makes our everyday life a rollercoaster and our schedules a living organism where nothing is ever set in stone. Planning a trip or getting a friend’s wedding invitation comes with the underlying knowledge that at the very last minute, you might need to cancel because when that opportunity finally presents itself, that ray of sunshine that you’ve been waiting for for weeks or months, you have to go full heartedly all in. 
The stereotype of artists having nothing but free time could not be further from the reality I have always known. My work is not limited to a 9 to 5 window and does not carry with it the security of a monthly check and my free time is not yet really free, for it is always at the service of the next project and opportunity knocking at my door.

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

The first professional set I ever stepped on was a commercial shoot that went on for 33 hours with no breaks, no cuts for lunch, no chances to sit down (back then it was frowned upon to be caught resting rather than actively on your feet). I worked at that rhythm for a few years, under a system that only later I realized was patriarchal and pyramidal. It was not until I moved to Los Angeles that I was exposed to a much more humane environment, with regulations in place keeping work hours and conditions more reasonable (not that I believe these to be great or ideal yet but considering where I was coming from, they were an evident improvement). And at the AFI’s program I learned about true collaboration which not only benefits the projects themselves but the experience of everyone involved in a film. 
So I unlearned the dictatorial and exploitative system I had unconsciously absorbed and have consciously embraced and promoted a circular, collaborative, nurturing, supportive, kind and respectful way of doing things that has given me much more than the archaic one. 
I place great focus and care not just on the quality of what is shot and taken to the screen but on the process and the people that are a part of it. I have witnessed this industry suck the life out of so many people around me and I want to help turn this and our industry around. Help this shared passion of ours to fuel and renew us and make us grow rather than wither.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.damianaacuna.com
• Instagram: @damianaacuna

Image Credits
01: Still from Lux Noctis (short film). 02: Still from Lux Noctis (short film). 03: Still from Lux Noctis (short film). 04: Still from Campos de Oro (short film). 05: Still from Campos de Oro (short film). 06: Still from Ángela Aguilar’s “Ahí Donde Me Ven” (music video). 07: Still from Ángela Aguilar’s “Ahí Donde Me Ven” (music video). 08: Still from Walmart “The Line” (commercial).