Here the author of “Treasure Haunt”, in competition at the Indiecinema Film Festival in the Animation & Videoclip section
The short film Treasure Haunt was one of the most appreciated and also the most moving and touching works among those screened during the special event that Indiecinema Film Festival dedicated to the Animation & Videoclip Competition, last September 26th, at the Caffè Letterario in Rome.
For this reason the festival staff has decided to propose it again today, 9 October, again at the Caffè Letterario, within a lively evening which will then culminate, after the screening of the shorts, with a cabaret and stand-up comedy performance entrusted to artists emerging people of Italian capital. Before this juicy appointment, however, we wanted to test the waters overseas by interviewing Carlos Lerma, director of Treasure Haunt, who lives in the United States but is originally from Mexico!
A life and artistic journey between two different countries
Hi, Carlos, what did mean moving from Mexico to the United States for your life and your artistic career?
In short, it meant that my career could finally start. Back when I was in Mexico I did 11 short films. Some live-action, some animated. I believe those films were my “pre-film school” in a sense. I learned on my own how to make a short film from scratch, do almost every job with whatever equipment I had lying around, but also to market it, which is something that people often overlook when promoting a short film on the internet. — It was incredibly scary, but at the same time it was the one thing I knew I needed to do to get my career started. I came to the United States in 2022 from Monterrey, Mexico. And I’ve not stopped since.
In “Treasure haunt” the style of your animation seemed lovely, traditional and poetic to us. What can you tell us about it? Do all your works for cinema have this imprint or have you also experimented with something else?
My biggest inspiration in animation has been Gravity Falls, God I love that show. Even in the film, with the book the main character has, it is very Gravity Falls coded, and I can’t believe people have not been mad at ita t all. I don’t see that as me copying it, but more as an homage or reference. Kinda like an “aha!”
Animation and passion for both storytelling and drawing
Do you have any role models, works or authors in animated cinema that you have felt influenced or inspired by in some way?
I’ll say Pixar for the most part. I don’t have a specific person in animation I look up to persay, however, a life goal of mine is to make a Pixar short film. They are notorious for packing a punch of emotion, beautiful visuals, and music; which I absolutely love.
However, you are not only a film-maker, but also a poet, a writer and an illustrator: what can you tell us about these other activities?
According to my Mom, I learned to read and write rarely early as a toddler. I wrote all the time. When my parents took away my DS for pretending to sleep, I’d stay up and entertain myself by writing about it—just for me. Kid-written essays on why homework sucks, the kids are mean, or how I wished to live in space. I’ve always kept a record of my life, sometimes for fun, and at other times as a defense mechanism. Somehow that morphed into a possible career I wanted to make for myself. As a kid, I also wanted to be a cartoonist. So with animation, or the books I do, it was a natural fit for me to take on that mantel.
Emotions, music and future prospects
In your short movie the viewer does not see the face of the loved one, whom the protagonist went to visit. You’ve already said it in other interviews, but could you also tell the Italian public the reason for this choice?
My films are my diaries. Most of my films have been made with a specific person in mind. It could be out of heartbreak, love, longing, happiness, or anger. This one in particular was made with a person in mind, yes, but I’ll keep that secret to me. I have two reasons for this. One, I wanted the people that watched it to be able to imagine whoever is special to them in the film. I want that whoever watches this puts themselves in the shoes of the main character and make this about their life. Two, I knew if I showed the face I had no choice but to draw the person I was imagining. I had to. If I did show the face of the person, and it was not of the one I was thinking of, I think I’d be lying to myself.
How did your collaboration with Holden Reid Magee for the music come about?
Me & Holden have collaborated on a myriad of short films now. It all stemmed from him reaching out when I was at the very earliest stages of my career, and I think he was too. We both met for tacos and talked about what we could do together. I pitched Holden Faraway Fiesta and Firefly, and he said yes for some reason. Holden is an incredibly talented, patient, and incredible person to work with. I’m eternally grateful he has helped me because I don’t know how projects I did with him had turned out had he not worked on them.
Finally, from a production point of view, how demanding is it to create animation works like this in the United States?
Very, I use an iPad Pro, my MacBook and my hard work and time. Hours away just moving my right hand up, right, left, down to make this short film happen. Making short films in both live-action and animation, you see the areas were you could impove, but also the areas you are very good at. But good is not enough to be successful. I’d say the most demanding thing as of now to do has been to find an animation style that sticks to me. But yet again, I did not have a hard time doing that here in the US, because I already had gone through that jounrey when I was making short films before film school!
