Meet Santiago Camarena | Writer – Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Santiago Camarena and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Santiago, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
From an early childhood I’ve been very interested in storytelling and as a I grew older I started to see how stories affect our daily lives and our perception of the world. The very first films I made were stop-motion with MegaBlocks Halo figures and also Lego’s that I had; as time passed and I became more mature I became interested in telling stories with real people and real locations.

Art has always been medicine to my soul and I realized that I wanted to be the one to prescribe it, if that makes sense. I want to help people as they walk through this life with my art and also to make them ask questions about their day to day activities or relationship with people so that they can improve some aspect of their lives.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is all about bringing up questions for an audience to reflect on or to give sort of a sedative to enjoy more this life. One of my hobbies is philosophy and so I try to implement it in my stories in the most accessible way so that someone may discover something that will help them on their day to day. Right now I’m trying out all of the different film genres so that I see which one is able to transmit my intentions with this art in the best way possible. I’ve done comedy, drama, romance and now I’m writing a horror, and all of them include in some sort of way characters that are questioning their reality or interactions with people. My films can be enjoyed without analyzing them but if you look deeper and truly hear what the characters are saying you’ll realize that there is something else going on.

Films have been a central part of my life, they’ve helped me socialize, understand myself and the world more, they’ve made me interested in other subjects I would’ve never paid attention too, etc… and I hope that in the future I can return that favor and continue to influence people with this art as it has influenced me.

As an artist I understand there’s a social responsibility and I’m doing my best to improve with every project that I do. I have to say that it’s not easy and you need to motivate yourself to do even the most basic things but at the end is worth it, because even if you fail you learn, that’s when you learn the most actually, and I’ve learned a lot recently.

Right now I have a lot of projects in post-production, none of my content in my YouTube channel is recent and I’ve been debating if I should delete all those videos because they are not the best I’ve done at all, but they’ve been part of my progress and I think it’s important to share it with people because I know that when I see someone grow as an artist and improve with every project it motivates me, and I hope to motivate someone else with my progress. I’m excited to share all the newest projects I’ve made with the world soon!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely go hiking, I went to Mt. Baldy recently and it was an amazing experience, I would go to the tours such as Universal and Warner Brothers, in terms of food I truly don’t have any specific recommendations, the only one that comes to mind is Mercado. I would definitely go to The Vista Theater for a classic movie-watching experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my success to my family and all the artists before me for showing me that pursuing our dreams is worth it.

Instagram: @writing.santiago

Youtube: writing.santiago