Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paul X Sanchez IV. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Paul, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Because I put all of my heart/brain/emotion/empathy and experience into almost every project I work on…Every project I work on is intensely meaningful. And because of that, intensely emotionally fraught. So let’s talk about my most recent project, a project that just this week was a finalist in the Bluecat competition…a television pilot I wrote called: LATIN “X”.
The title doesn’t just refer to the lead character’s race, but also his lack of identity as a mixed-race, darker skinned, youth in an all White town. The “X” also refers to his becoming a straight-edge punk rocker in a time where not only his race could bring him physical harm, but becoming a punk AND a kid who rejects alcohol and drugs, who open flouts the forces of peer pressure, further “others” him and puts him in harm’s way in society at large… while simultaneously and ironically forging a unique sense of identity.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It was not long after that that a long lost uncle came to visit—my uncle Jerry, my Sirius Black. Jerry was originally from Darien but escaped it as soon as he was able and was now an NYC Punk Rocker and an experimental filmmaker and a documentarian! We were instant compatriots…he would take me into the city, and we would see punk and proto-punk bands from Jayne County to Pere Ubu to Mission of Burma and sit with the likes of Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, on weekends Jerry and I would make experimental films. I went directly from imitating Star Wars to personal/experimental/rebel films that broke the form.
To this day I feel like I have both of these extremes in my work.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I was straight-edge since birth (no alcohol or drugs), but another thing that saved me was becoming a vegetarian. I felt that since I couldn’t control my external environment, I could control my internal environment. So, originally for health reasons, I became a vegetarian, and soon after, vegan.
Later I went to SUNY PURCHASE for Film and then AFI for what I call, “finishing school for Directing”.
Have you ever had to pivot?
So not a pivot, per se, but an addition. As well as being a filmmaker and an educator, I have just started a non-profit, with a few other like-minded souls, to fund climate documentaries. We call it simply: The Climate Documentary Fund. And our goal is to fund films that educate and will have a serious impact on climate change. The fund also will fund the filmmakers so they can focus on making the film and not rent. What’s interesting to me is that early on in my life, I became a vegetarian/vegan because I couldn’t change my external environment…and now I am starting the Climate Documentary Fund so that I finally can.
