We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fabio Santos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fabio below.

Fabio, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2013 I was in college studying Computer Graphics and Multimedia Engineering, which was then sold to us as a creative field, but it was nothing more than a paintbrushed IT degree with mostly programming. I then decided, in my second year, that I wanted to quit college and pursue filmmaking making my own path. I was self-taught since my high school years and managed to get some connections through the early YouTube community and got the opportunity to travel to the US (I’m from Portugal) and work on a feature film as a production assistant. That choice, as a 19-year-old, was evident to me, but not to everyone around me. There was a big push from friends and family to forget that idea and follow the pre-made, safe path of college and a regular job. That’s when, for the first time in my life, I decided it was time to make my own choices and follow my own instincts. I went to the US, alone, to meet a filmmaker from Michigan/Indiana. Fast forward to 2024 and I couldn’t be more validated by the choices I made. Working on that feature opened a lot of opportunities. I started working in a film festival (River Bend Film Fest) that is held there and travel for it every year. From there I decided to create my own festival in my hometown, Lavra, in Matosinhos, near Porto, using what I learned from River Bend to make a very similar sister festival that managed to create synergies between 2 different continents.

With the festival up and running, that entrepreneurial spirit started to grow more and more and I then opened my own production company, FacS Studios, a name I’ve been using since my high school days. We not only produce cinematic content (short films, short docs, etc), but also do event coverage, promotional videos, music videos and other related content creation.

Sometimes, when I look back, it’s hard to wrap my head around how that ONE CHOICE shaped my life and helped me go from a frustrated college student to founder of a non-profit, a film festival and a production company/advertising agency.

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.

My name is Fabio Santos and I’m a filmmaker from Portugal. I have started a non-profit, Anartem, in 2017, in order to bring filmmaking to my hometown with the creation of the Ocean Coast Film Festival. Currently, we also organize the Moinho Cine Fest in a nearby town, with the direction of André Almeida Rodrigues.

I got into filmmaking mostly because of my love for movies. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Inception have always been great inspirations for me and what brought that curiosity to know more about movie making. I started off during high school, doing some VFX and publishing it on Youtube. That caught the attention of Tim Richardson, a filmmaker from the Michiana Area, in the United States who then became one of my best friends and trusted creative partners.

I’m a lover of the world and what happens in it, so I try to learn as much as possible about a plethora of different subjects, trying to enrich my personal knowledge with that self-taught, entrepreneurial spirit that has been a constant since my high school days.

Currently, my main focus is in my company, FacS Studios, that works as a multifaceted bridge between cinema (with the creation of short films and docs) and content creation (social media, internal communication, etc) for a diversified portfolio of clients (corporate, governmental and private).

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are new resources nowadays that also help make that learning process easier, like courses (Masterclass, Skillshare and similar) and Youtube videos (great source for learning when you know what you are looking for). Along with those, books still are and always will be a great way to learn and keep your mind sharp. My advice is to try to learn not only about those things directly related to your craft, but also about other topics that can make you grow as a human being and as a creative that has a voice that can have the power to do great things, but also very bad things if not properly nurtured.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think one of the hardest things nowadays is learning how to live in a community. People are more polarized than ever and unwilling to talk to each other and find common ground. Art is a great catalyst of discussion, it opens people up and makes them more willing to hear and be heard. Whether we like to or not, we are not as independent as we often think, and with the black-and-white thinking society sometimes forces on us, it’s almost as if the opposite of independence is dependence. I don’t see things that way. I think the term interdependence describes it perfectly. We are free as individuals but need each other to make something greater than ourselves and to push society to evolve in a self-sustained way. It’s a responsibility we have to each other as a species.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.facstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fabioacsantos/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabioacsantos/