Meet AG ORLOZ

We were lucky to catch up with AG ORLOZ recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi AG, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
I would like to thank you for this special and first interview of 2024. My best wishes to you and all readers for this new 12 months adventure. When I think deeply about the concept of “self-discipline” applied to all the stages of my life, it is important to mention that I have always been a voracious reader and a great learner/practitioner of the arts, since I was a child: it includes paiting, singing, acting, writing, creating songs, and coordinating artistic projects. As an anecdote, once, I had a very special experience that I barely share. At that time, I was in my second year of doctoral degree and was contemplating continuing it or pursuing a career in the arts, particularly acting and singing. After talking with a well-known director of the national Miss Universe pageant about several advices related to the entertainment business, when I left, I had the blessing of share a brief but meaningful conversation with a homeless man. When he was ready to leave, he told me the following: “all your dreams in art are going to come true, you’ll see.” In that moment, it was difficult to visualize it, but I believe in his words with all my heart.
It can be considered like a typical “everyday experience” but, at the same time, it was a transcendental moment in my life. For my surprise, when he left, I discovered that he had a t-shirt that on the back it included the following word in capital letters: DISCIPLINE. From a distance, he smiled at me. From that moment, I knew that the same discipline I dedicated to my doctoral studies was required in my genuine desire to create meaninful projects. Therefore, it is precisely the “matrix” or the concept that I share with everyone that ask me about how to begin in the arts: self-discipline. And I am not talking about something seasonally or applied only to some aspects of your life. It is relevant in everything you want to accomplish or complete (in my case, my doctorate was a priority as well as other artistic dreams, but the first has to be accomplished in an specific period of time) and also in what you are passionate about, such as something so wonderful as creative arts.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Thanks God, I am celebating my consecutive screening at the AMPAS Academy Screening Room (ASR), for the fourth time, as well as receiving the “Best Drama Short Film” award at the Vesuvius International Film Festival in Italy (2023).93 animated projects from around the World qualified for the 2024 Oscars, including my new sci-fi short film AËRC-02.

It should be noted that at the Academy there is no classification for best foreign short film (with one representation per country) or Latin American category. It means that in order to create and position four Latin and Caribbean short films that have already won international awards, consecutively, in the ASR, in different classifications such as life action, hybrid documentary/life action and animation, in a short period of 4 years, I had to work intensely, but it was very rewarding. Obtaining the “qualified” criterion on four consecutive occasions, in a selection of thousands of short films that compete in so many festivals around the World, many of them also awarded or created in companies such as Disney or Warner Bros., is a step that I celebrate with great joy.

My promise has been that our Latin and Caribbean artistic talents and our human capital can be appreciated at the Academy and can be seen by its voting members from the Academy Screening Room (ASR), particularly through short films that have already been awarded at international festivals, some of them screened in the city of Cannes, in the Cannes Festival. I have already achieved this goal, without government, federal or any other type of agency funds that can be able to appreciate our formula to create purposeful projects that have been valued and awarded abroad, in countless festivals, from 2009 to the present. I am an eternal learner and a young director on the path, so I m have a long way to go. Thank God, I feel very lucky for that.The countries, states and continents of official selection and awards for some of my films include France, India, Italy, Venezuela, Spain, Chicago, Belarus, Canada, New York, California, among others. Although most of the projects are in English and Spanish, I have also incorporated other languages in my scripts: French, Italian, Portuguese and Hebrew. This year, I screened one of my multi-awarded short films (Princëney) at the Grauman Theater In Los Angeles, an unforgettable experience.

I believe in social and humanitarian causes, one of my priorities as a filmmaker, writer, media psychologist and actor. For example, I began my steps in directing short films in 2009 and my first project in acting was 22 years ago, adding experiences in advertising, voice-overs, independent film, series, personal coach for reality shows and drama. Since 2009, I decided to direct significant short films related to climate change, diversity, marginalization in the social sphere, the stigma of HIV/AIDS and risk factors from a psychological point of view.

I must admit that these four last years were intense, but I celebrate the opportunity to be winner of the World Prize for Excellence in the Defense of the Planet, in Peru (2022) and to be nominated for the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Award at George Washington University (2023). I also earned an honorary doctorate in Education, as well as the prizes “Lideres de America” (2022), nomination to the Ponce Health Sciences University Hall of Honor award (2022), and two nominations to the Prince’s William Earthshot Prize (from Puerto Rico and UK), all, in the midst of the pandemic and post-pandemic experience. I can be more grateful to life for so much.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I will select one phrase: “nosce te ipsum.” Be able to discover this special qualities for yourself and put them to benefit the World. I will only add a challenge to this task: to help others to discover their potential and abilities, from their souls and wishes of their hearts.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
In the pre-production stage of my next project Andro/ÏD, I would love to be able to establish alliances with new colleagues from the artistic world. Since 2009, I have had the opportunity to include in my projects very special talents from Italy, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico and the United States. I long to be part of new projects, also as a lead actor, in addition to assuming the role of co-director with emerging or experienced directors. Everything that contributes to creating valuable projects that can have international significance, social relevance, and positive recognition, or can help to make my country and my colleagues from different parts of the world to be known by their talents, constitute my driving force in art. You can contact me through [email protected] or my verified accounts in Facebook and Instagram (Ariel Orama Lopez) and Twitter (AG_ORLOZ). Let’s create and celebrate life!

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