Miguel Martinez

I remember the first time in my life when I felt a sense of purpose. That time was immediately after the final shot of Guillermo Del Toro’s "Pan’s Labyrinth". I was 14 and grandfather had just died and I needed some time to process. Instead of staying at home with my family, my dad and I drove around town for a bit and ended up at a rundown movie theater; he thought it would be a nice bonding experience. The screen faded, the curtains went up and people slowly began to ooze out of the theatre. My father leaned over to me to ask me what I thought; I was in stunned silence.

I realized I had stories to tell. In these stories, I can reshape my broken family into whatever I wanted. My characters are all dealing with their own family trauma through cathartic horror and get to learn about themselves in the process. I want to bring in my own Mexican culture’s take on this theme and tell our stories about life/death in meaningful ways. I can bring that perspective and I think this is the right space to do it in. Maybe someday, I can help somebody else deal with their trauma the way these filmmakers helped me deal with mine.