We recently connected with Kevin Alcantar and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I used to feel like I got a comparatively late start in my current career field. I didn’t set foot on a set as part of the crew until my late 20’s and I think if you had asked me then, I would have told you I wish I had started sooner.. On the first TV show I ever worked on, I had an instance where a 21 year old crew member made a comment insinuating that I was too old for the entry-level position I was in. Earlier that year, I had switched gears in my career going from working at a non-profit organization to diving head first into entertainment. One of the driving factors was a feeling that perhaps I was running out of time to follow my creative dreams. So hearing something that explicitly poked at that insecurity about my age was difficult. Our society places a lot of pressure on having your life figured out at a young age and I wasn’t immune to that mindset. We have 30 Under 30 lists that conveniently neglect to mention the class background of those listed.

After college, I had a really hard time finding a job in a creative field that didn’t completely exploit me. My first internship was at a now defunct art gallery which in hindsight was just looking for an eager kid to provide unpaid maintenance work. I would unclog toilets, mop floors, and patch up and re-paint walls to get the gallery ready for the next show. I stuck around because even if I didn’t have my own work exhibited there, I wanted to be in the vicinity where art was. I’m sure there’s a metaphor in there somewhere. My parents had pulled so many stops so I could go to college and, although they never explicitly demanded it from me, I felt a strong sense of responsibility to make their sacrifices “worth it.” Returning to live in South Central with my parents after college compelled me to look for any job that would provide financial security from both a desire to start helping at home and to save face.

I landed a job at a non-profit law firm that provided that financial security. I initially planned to stay only a year or two while I got my life in order to pivot but some unexpected life challenges compelled me to stay longer than I initially expected. Making art fulfills me like nothing else, and the more I drifted away from it, the less I felt like myself. I was taking on small graphic design gigs and art classes to maintain a connection with my creativity but I knew that these were all stopgaps. At some point, I realized this job wasn’t just shielding me from harm, it was also keeping out many things that could make me feel creatively satisfied but would require taking a risk. All the best things in my life have come from embracing risk, but it’s hard to take those leaps when your livelihood is at stake.

I don’t believe you need to struggle to make good art. In every creative field I’ve dabbled in, I have encountered rich kids who have had their artistic endeavors and careers effectively subsidized by their parents. While definitely an indicator of their privilege, I think to me it also shows that without the worry of rent, food, and general cost of life, most people would seek out the arts. I am extremely grateful for all the jobs and internships I’ve had on my way to doing the things I do now. Each one provided stability and new perspectives that I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise and allowed me to seek out creative outlets without feeling like the ground was going to completely collapse under me.

Kevin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Kevin Alcántar and I am a writer, director, producer, and multimedia artist. I am from South Central Los Angeles and many of my stories are directly inspired by the people I grew up around. Growing up in a historically marginalized neighborhood in a city that is often described as the world’s 5th largest economy was an absurd reality to me. One moment, you’re walking to school, hoping the cops don’t harass you just for existing. The next, your road home is blocked off because some star studded event is taking place at the Shrine Auditorium or the Coliseum. To me, it is no surprise that I gravitate towards work that explores the interplay between what you dream and what your reality is and the sometimes blurry boundaries between the mundane and absurd.

More than “authenticity,” which I find to be an overused and empty buzzword, I hope to make things that are honest to my experience and my values. Two shorts I’ve made, “Birthday Dinner” and “All Meat Diet” were partially informed by my own life experiences, as well as those of my co-creator. “Birthday Dinner” is a psychological drama about a troubled woman who gets invited to a private birthday celebration by a vengeful mother that at its core is about grief but also about the masks we wear to maintain human connection. It’s a heightened version of the difficulty children sometimes go through in trying to get their parents to see them for who they are and not for who they expect them to be.

“All Meat Diet” is about a young man who in his attempts to become his best self is drawn to a toxic and intoxicating community of gym rats. When I was younger, I struggled with my self-image and that led me to partake in physically harmful behaviors in an attempt to contort myself to a specific image of masculinity. Sharing the film with friends and family has allowed me to connect with many other men and masculine-presenting individuals who have had similar experiences, which in turn has allowed me to find community from such an isolating ordeal. That is far more important to me than any accolade.

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

I’m glad I unlearned the notion that networking is necessary for having success. Networking is the bane of my existence. I’m very grateful to have found people with whom making art feels like I’m getting away with something and you don’t really find that in networking. The most successful and favorite collaborations I’ve had have been with friends and people I’ve genuinely connected with. I’m more interested in meeting people who are where I am at and finding ways in which we can build and rise together than trying to get some wealthy person to notice me.

At this point in time, I am mainly looking for co-conspirators, not mercenaries. When you make something personal and meaningful that is “your baby,” you need people that you can trust will also care for it like it is their baby. That is easier with peers who you already vibe and mesh well with. I don’t hold pollyanna ideas about what it means to collaborate in entertainment arts. There is, of course, a place for work-for-hire and for transactionary collaborations but one of the benefits of working small is having much more creative control over what you want to say and make. I personally can always tell when someone is pitching me a project that they don’t feel strongly about. You want people who will share ownership of your vision and advocate effectively for it from a place of honesty. Community is a core value of mine and I’m committed to continuing to nurture and grow it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

At the risk of sounding too philosophical, I think the act of creating meaningful art is akin to a religious experience. The power to make something that can reach across time and space to make someone you’ll never meet cry, laugh, grieve is immensely powerful. Every story, every painting, every table and building ever made was an idea first so to me that means that the realm of imagination is a real and accessible place. Being able to reach into the dreamscape and turn those visions into reality is our most Promethean ability.

I think as a society we’ve become too removed from the processes that create the world around us, whether it’s the industrialization of the food we eat or the labor that generates wealth. That extends to the art and entertainment we engage with. We don’t fund the arts and yet we “consume” more and more of it. Writing, directing, painting, drawing, sculpting: all of them make me feel assertively alive. The art itself is the reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kevinalcantar.com
• Instagram: @kevinphilia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vulpes.Urocyon

Image Credits

Portrait by Samuel-Moses (@samuelh.moses) BTS Set Photos by Michael Notrica/MiNo Photo (@michael.notrica) Pre-Production Photos by Hae Ji Cho (@hjichan) Film Festival Photo by Rebecca Pontieri Painting Photo by Kevin Alcántar