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

Hi Zair, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I had been a working actress in Latin America for a while before I had the opportunity to produce my first feature film in Havana, Cuba in 2015. The movie “Habana Instant” with which we won Montreal International Film Festival, the Ecumenical Prize and was also official selection at New Orleans International Film Festival among others, taught me everything I didn’t know about producing. I was very terrified at first because I had no experience producing, but the project and the journey were so magical that it all came up great. Not only I had a team that supported me and had my back, but I also experienced something I wasn’t expecting: The Cuban community where we filmed was so caring, supportive and generous that by doing the movie I also learned about real human connection and the spirit. I learned that to make things happen all you need to have is a strong desire and commitment to overcome obstacles and the belief that you will make it happen. While filming in Cuba, we were tested with so many obstacles that we often take for granted, and the most difficult tasks were sometimes the simple things: not having a printer, let alone internet, to print or share the call sheets; or electricity shut downs that would make us drive to a different neighborhood to charge the camera batteries and save the days. “Habana Instant” is certainly the first most meaningful project I had in my path as a producer. I also played one of the leads in that movie and the story we portrayed is so human and profound that it will always stay in my heart, specially to remind me that “everything is possible”.

Zair, 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?

I started my career as an actress in Venezuela, where I was born and raised. I did mostly telenovelas but also movies and theater plays. In 2010, I moved to Colombia in search of better creative opportunities. I worked there as an actress for two years, and this is the moment when I started feeling the need to explore more: What’s happening behind the cameras? Can I tell my own stories vs only playing the roles that I nailed through an audition? What does it mean to color correct, edit or distribute a movie? Those questions and the need to learn and get involved in something bigger than just being an actress brought me to produce and act in “Habana Instant”. After such experience, I moved to New York, and started my producing journey along with acting. I also studied acting at HB Studio and gave it a shot to writing. My first writing creation was a short format theater play. It got selected at NY Sea Theater for a “short plays” season. We won 4 Latin American Theater Awards with that play and soon after, I transformed the script into a TV Series: “The Flowers” (Amazon), which we self produced in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The Series empowered Latinos and specially Latinas while it also empowered me along the way. I’ve continued acting, producing and writing in different formats, languages and countries, such as: “The Other Side of Things”, a short film which was official selection at Dances with Films and won the Georgia Latino International Film Festival in 2022; “El Elixir del Amor”, a Mexican feature film that we filmed this year and is currently in post-production, “Rumba Love” a feature drama that premiered in theaters in the US in 2021, and is currently on Showtime, just to mention a few. Moving forward, I want to continue building my craft in all these areas, growing and working on my mission through the filmmaking process.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to give people opportunities to create and expand their creativity and talents and to make them feel seen through the filmmaking process. To be a bearer of joy! An example of empathy and an expansive force of love. All through my work as a creator, as a producer, writer and actress! To aim for greatness and live to my standards and to have a growing mindset that allows me to keep learning and expanding my talents, opportunities and mission.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn (and it is still a work in progress, just as life is) to seek external validation or to label something I did creatively as successful or failure based on random feedback, economic results or scope of fame, or recognition, etc, etc. What I have come to understand and make peace with, is the fact that every creative experience, endeavor or risk artists take during their careers and journeys only represent progress and they add up to their life experiences, knowledge, wisdom and growth. As artists, we get validated if we have accolades or applauses so we have the tendency to always measure our success and worthiness through that lens, when in reality, that “failure” you had a year before your current “success” is probably the main reason why you are getting the accolades today. So being able to see a bigger picture, and to understand that all that matters is the journey, with its ups and downs, and that the boring or difficult moments allow us to better savor the exiting and good ones are some of the biggest lessons worth learning and internalizing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zairmontes.wixsite.com/my-site
• Instagram: @zairmontes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/nFbZFxKZph5is6c1/?
• Twitter: @zairmontes

Image Credits
Eduardo Fermin