We were lucky to catch up with FELIX RAMOS recently and have shared our conversation below.
FELIX, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I’ve had 3 meaningful projects in my filmmaking career. My first was my first film STREETS OF SELF DEFEAT. I wrote, produced, photographed, directed and edited this short film in 2004 at the age of 26. I had just lost my father that year and I needed an outlet by which to grieve and express my relationship with my father. So I chose that subject matter to be my first entry in my filmography. I employed the talent of my youngest brother Mario to play the lead and made a tone poem of which I explored my relationship with my father as well as where my brother was in his life sprinkled with my own regrets and desires for a better life. My second meaningful film was a film that I credit with resurrecting me from my filmmaking grave. SHOOTIN’SHOTS was made in 2015 at the age of 37. I employed my 6 year old son to play the main role as it was about a boy’s discovery and passion for basketball. I had not filmed anything prior to that for 5 years. I thought I had given up but not so. My son’s passion for basketball resurrected my passion for film.
The last meaningful film was IN THE DEFENSE AGAINST TYRANNY made in 2018 at the age 40. It was a tremendous year and one filled with sadness. It began with the passing of my father in law Sherman Sanders. As I began Pre-production my wife became pregnant with our 3rd son. My wife and I financed the $100,000 budget by taking out equity in our house, taking out our 401k money, personal loans and credit cards. We filmed in Fall over 12 days on a pressure filled production but miraculously we were able to film everything we needed. Maybe not everything I wanted but definitely everything we needed to make a film. In December my 3rd son was born with some terrifying complications to not only him but my wife as well. For a moment I thought I was going to walk out of the hospital alone. But God! My son was born and my wife and I took him home a day later. Praise God!
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.
I first realized I wanted to be a filmmaker at the age of 11 after watching Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING. I’ve told that story many times so I won’t go down that road. By the time I was 18 and just about to graduate from High School. The dream was still there but I had been raised in a working class house that struggled to make ends meet and going to college to be a filmmaker seemed impractical and selfish. Selfish because the family needed help and it seemed like I was wasting precious time and resources to go and dream a dream that wasn’t likely to happen. I never had the greatest of self confidence and without support from home I let my fear and my sense of obligation to my family discourage me from pursuing my childhood dream of telling meaningful stories. It wasn’t until after my father passed away in 2004 when I was 26 that I began my film career. I wrote, produced, photographed, directed and edited my first short film STREETS OF SELF DEFEAT. It was a life changing experience. To actually live out what I had been dreaming about for the past 15 years was not just invigorating but transcendent. I never knew what it felt like to actually breath with purpose and joy. I went to the Los Angeles Film School at the age of 29, fear and doubt crept in again but with the encouragement of my wife I pushed through. I made 4 short films while I was in film school. Life after film school wasn’t filled with the opportunities I thought would be there. Feeling the pressure to provide for my growing family I took work in other fields that kept me away from film work and before I knew it 5 years had passed. At 37 the groanings of that 11 year old’s dreams began stirring again and I could not repress them anymore. I wrote, produced, photographed, directed and edited another short film SHOOTIN’ SHOTS with my 6 year old son about his love for basketball. That film resurrected me from my filmmaking grave. I went on to make 4 more short films and then in 2018 came the dealing with the elephant in the room. A feature film. I was 40 years old with another son on the way and I was about to embark on the greatest challenge of my life which was the making of my first feature film. IN THE DEFENSE AGAINST TYRANNY was an 85 page Political Thriller that was shot over 12 days on a shoestring budget of $100,000 completely financed by my wife and I. I finished with Post-production on February 20, 2020 two days after my 42nd birthday and a few weeks before the COVID Pandemic. All of my work went to a screeching hault as the world stopped as well as my ability to find a Distributor. Depression kicked in plus personal tragedy found it’s way to my door in 2021 and I felt like quitting (again) feeling Ive wasted my life chasing a child’s dream. 2022 came with quite a surprise. IN THE DEFENSE AGAINST TYRANNY made it’s theatrical premier at the TCL Chinese theater and found a Distributor. The film will be released via Streaming in July of 2023.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I feel like artists aren’t appreciated the way they once were. Especially, in my field of choice which is cinema. So much is made of this idea of “entertainment” or “content” that we’ve lost creativity and the power of telling original and provocative stories. The industry is focused on only one thing (profit) and only one type of audience (those seeking entertainment solely). But the rest of the audience, those that seek education, enlightenment and /or emotional catharsis from their cinema are left out. For the most part because the financiers are narrow minded thinking they can only make money with movies starring fast cars, dinosaurs or super heroes. It’s a shame because on a planet of 6 billion people you would think that you would want diversity of “entertainment” if you really wanted to make as much money as possible. Thus, the filmmakers that are interested in making more artistic cinema that speaks to a large audience are not financed therefore we as a society are all the less for it. It is all a form of control. We are being dumbed down so that we will not question or want something better of our lives. And those in power that sit on their plantation porches continue to keep us with our heads down as they get stronger and stronger. Art is freedom. We must preserve it.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Living life as an artistic person can be one filled with illumination but also terror. Let’s stick with the illumination. Navigating through life with an artistic perspective can open your senses to such wonderful things as the sound of birds singing their songs or the understanding that though we as a species are imperfect we do have a glorious ability to sacrifice for one another. It is a way of living that presses you to search out deeper meaning to most aspects of existence. You’re never satisfied with the simple, superficial explanations to why we think, speak and do the things we do. We are the listeners and the one’s screaming out to be heard as we spend our lives analyzing behavior and desire. We are the prophets of today crying out in the wilderness that our human condition is not as bleak as we believe it to be. That there is still so much good in this world if we just come out of our caves and embrace the light instead of the darkness. It can at times be a tremendous burden to be artistic. But, it is a necessary burden to bare if human beings are to continue to grow and become magnanimous beings that radiate light and not vacuums of darkness. 
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felixigoriramos/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felix.ramos.5036
- Youtube: @felixigoriramos2512
- Other: https://www.imdb.me/felixigoriramos
Image Credits
No credits necessary.