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

Lina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is the personal short film I produced last year. The last time that I produced a short was when I was in college – after leaving school and entering the corporate world I stopped producing personal projects. After many years, my husband had the opportunity to rent some professional cinema gear from his job and the idea to do a short film grew out of that. My husband and I had previously worked together on a large TV show production years ago, but we had never produced anything together. We discussed some ideas we had and decided to approach a good friend of ours who is a director, Danny Piñeros. Danny had a few ideas, he shared some outlines with us and we landed on one of them. At that moment I had no idea how many things would happen during this project.

We started developing the story, found the resources to produce it, and started hiring the crew we needed, and a month before we were due to shoot, my mom had a serious heart attack back home in Colombia. I had to travel on a moment’s notice to be with her, and it was a very long process – so much so that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to participate in the shoot. In the end my mom recovered and I was able to return to LA one day before the shoot and in it ended up being the highlight of a very confusing and sad time, a guiding light that helped me heal from that experience. Having the opportunity to learn from Danny, work with my husband, and create new friendships among the people that joined us in creating the short film helped me to gain a new perspective on life and solidify my love for film and filmmaking more than any project I’ve worked on before.

Since then we’ve been lucky enough to screen the film at over 15 film festivals around the country and internationally, many of which we’ve had the opportunity to travel to and attend in person.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an experienced Producer, Post Producer, and filmmaker at heart whose visionary perspective and ability to work across languages, cultures, and countries have allowed me to contribute to prominent global projects across a variety of formats, collaborating with studios including Netflix, Disney, and Fox Entertainment.

I started my career in the entertainment industry in my home country of Colombia. After many years of being passionate about movies, and my mom pinning articles about famous filmmakers to our cork board at home for me, I went on to study Audiovisual Communications at university, and had the opportunity to learn from some of the best local talent. Soon I was working on a number of international productions that were shooting in Colombia, and eventually I made my move to Los Angeles, where I’ve lived since 2017.

My biggest purpose in my profession is to help projects see the light of day, guide them from development to exhibition, and help people remember that key to the art of filmmaking is enjoying the process – after all we are all connecting through our creativity rather than just assembling the pieces.

What sets me apart from others is definitely my passion for film, and the way that I see my career. I don’t see it as just a 9-5 job, I see it as an ecosystem that I have to nourish – I’m constantly at screenings, panels, events, reading scripts, analyzing case studies, and connecting with people. It’s something that is central to my identity, and the lens through which I see my life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative, for me, is absolutely the human connection. The most beautiful thing about filmmaking is witnessing and being a part of the union of the talent and the creativity of so many different people. It is a combination of all the historical art forms, and the result of creating a safe space for everyone to express themselves.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think society would do well to remember that from childhood, all of us are storytellers by nature. If we can learn to nurture that in our young people, and broaden our definition of what creativity is, we can raise a generation of artists who were never confined to only coloring inside the lines, or only singing in a prescribed way, but who are able to find their own unique voices through art. In a world of endless copies, the best artists will always be the ones who are undeniably themselves.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Voyager12_
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linasanchezsal/

Image Credits

for the portrait – Photographer: Mariangela Quiroga