We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Juan P Soto. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Juan P below.
Juan P, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Watching films is my main source of inspiration, admiring other peoples work makes me excited about doing projects. Normally the moment I get stuck creatively I sketch people, observe life, and eventually watch films again. is hugely important to understand others, see their flaws but their strengths too, talk to people you love but also strangers. It makes imagination fly higher.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a film writer and director, currently my team and I just finished a short film “Luna Azul” about Two Venezuelans, Laura a catholic novice nun, and her Ex-Fiancé Carlos meet again, in order to resolve the traumatic past that separated them.
Cinema has a very interesting way to be. it has its beautiful sides but can be scary or self-reflecting. When you direct or write a script most of the time (at least in my perspective) is very personal, it becomes a therapy session. You destroy yourself and build your way up again, is so horrible and daunting sometimes that you just give up on it. But that same week you go to the theater (or turn on that tv at your house) and the moving images you see onscreen become like a piece of music, it makes you cry, laugh, it gives goosebumps and leaves you thinking. that is what makes it exciting, it reminds us why are you going through that process. Discovering and fighting with yourself is very hard but exciting, like any other good art, is part of the Human Experience.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Patience, effort and most importantly, Honesty.
In my most recent project I was led by these three words, the idea for my first short film “Luna Azul” was created years before but I never let go of the spark that created that idea. I knew that at some point I was going to do something with it, then it came the right time around 2018 to develop it but it was not quite there yet. I was especially nervous about it because I decided it was going to be my first short film, that is where effort came in. The project itself stayed for months untouched because I was afraid of the story, it was very personal and grasped emotional nerves I did not liked to even think about, but because of how personal it was I knew it had to be told. After months in development finally I had a solid draft by the end of 2020. The short film team did a huge work creating the campaign for the fundraising (that’s how we financed the film) and we were able to shoot it and finish it. All that effort and patience my team and I had would have been worthless if the project did not have the most important aspect, Honesty. That is the only way to create a piece pure art like music, painting, and writing.
Cinema is an impure form of art, it includes all of them, so it must be the most honest piece of art. And since the spark of that idea for the short film, all the way through finishing it I needed that honest spark around it. The theme, the feeling if I can describe it in words can be only found in that honest thought, I had years ago and wrote to not forget.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
Out of the million things they have done for me, I think support me as an filmmaker is the best one so far. I have many friends and even family members whose parents do not support what they do, so I acknowledge and admire my parents so much because of that. That is one of the things I’m most privileged of I think.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://juanpsoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juanpsotoa/?hl=en
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12001587/
Image Credits
Photographs taken by Varun Puri
