Meet Ruth Zapico

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

Ruth, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

I am a queer immigrant woman who doesn’t have English as first language in a male dominated American environment such as the film industry therefore I have always had every head turn my way the minute I walked into a room. The looks of judgement used to cause a certain level of curiosity in myself.
I have grown up with this perspective my whole life. I never liked how it made me feel, and I realized that I needed to change how I felt about it because I knew that the looks were never going to stop unless I change who I am, which I was tired of doing and promised myself I would never do again. I will never compromise or diminish who I am for the comfort of others.
I had to learn to believe in myself and my vision, without looking for outside validation. The minute I started to see myself as the most valuable tool, everyone started to look at me that way too. When I raised my standards because I believed in myself, everyone saw me differently.
It’s not that I can, it’s that I deserve it because I know that I am going to get the job done, on time and with a level of professionalism that I even expect for myself.

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?

My life has always been designed with the purpose of pursuing my passion of being part of the entertainment industry since I very young. I left home by myself at the age of 13 years old and spent some time studying in Ireland. Later, at the age of 14 years old I decided to move to England to an art school and at the age of 15 years old I went to the USA for the first time with the idea of coming back to study Filmmaking as my career.
I have had to compromise many things, experiences, and even separate myself from home, my family and friends, and my culture. I have always had to figure life out by myself, deal with issues, and being resourceful by creating solutions. But all of this experiences have taught me these skills that I had to implement into my life:

– By being self aware it allowed me to be receptive and non judgmental to the feedback that my environment provide me; therefore, I was able to use it as a means of growth and further exploration. This ties very well with my leadership skills. I am very much a team leader. Because I don’t believe in hierarchy, I am simply driving the team to collaborate and create art. I value everyone’s input because everyone on the team is there for a reason which is the benefit of the productivity for the creative project. When I put together the team for a project I am very selective with the individuals that I choose to work with so that I can trust every decision from every single person that comes along with me.

– Personally being a humanitarian is one of the skills that not only gave me an entrepreneurial growth, but the biggest personal growth I could ever imagine. I used to get caught up in the finances and growth and expansion of the business which is important too but many times the biggest expansion is the growth that other human interactions are able to give you. Try always looking at people as humans because everyone will have their flaws and greatness and some have different capabilities than others, everyone just needs to find their pocket. Learn to treat people with love because how you care for others is how the world will care for you, how you view others is how the world will view you, and how you treat someone at your home is how someone else might treat you at theirs.

– Persistency is something that my parents taught me from a very young age. I have always had what you would call big “dreams” and aspirations for a little girl from a small town in Spain where the arts are pretty much non existent. But my parents didn’t allowed me to look at it as a dream, they always made me see it as my reality so that I would be already in that mindset of this where I am going so I have to do this and this to get there. Everyday I have to push and continue the fight and I am happy doing so because I am living the reality that I want. We all have a choice, so my suggestion is that you choose what you love and push for it just so you can find peace and be happy because life is too short to be doing something or be someone you are not.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Zapico Studios is open to all individuals, of all backgrounds in film, we are looking for stories to create, executive producers to believe in the projects and distributors to locate the works in the market.

If interested please don’t hesitate to reach us out at [email protected] or check us out on IG @zapicostudios.

Website: https://zapicostudios.com/en/

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zapicostudios.com/en/
• Instagram: @zapicostudios

Image Credits

Photographer: Irene Sirgo Blanco

Creative Director: Ruth Zapico