I sketched the evening that the filmmakers met their subjects for the MYgradion film series. I was therefor excited to see the end results of these films that had to be shot and crafted over just 2 days.
At the filmmaker meet an greet, one filmmaker, David Yanovich, found out that because of a mix up, he didn’t have a subject to work with. He was asked to just hang out since sometimes a filmmaker might just not show up. Sure enough someone didn’t show and David was matched with a subject. This was his first time crafting a short documentary. He worked with Idrees Khan and created the film, Ties to Trinidad.
Of the 13 or so films I was most excited to see the film about Stella Abelaez by Michael Elliott called The Path to Healing. I had met Stella at Disney Feature animation back in the 1990s. Of all the films shown at the screening, the film about Stella was the only one that had me wiping away tears and yet feeling absolute joy at the end of the journey. It was a five minute emotional roller-coaster. At the end of the screenings, the audience got to cast their vote for the best film of the series.
The winner of the best short film was Culture to Canvas, a film about artist Nelson Cardenas by Ariana Castillo. I met Nelson at an art opening of his large paintings on wood of healthcare workers wearing masks which were shown during the lull after the second wave of the pandemic at the Orange County Regional History Center. I liked the work since so few artists have documented the pandemic. At the time of that opening the number of COVID infections was far lower that they are today. Today we are coming down from the 9th wave of the pandemic and about every 45th person is infected. People have been groomed to think repeat infections are the new normal. I was the only person masked person at the screening.
In this film I got to see some of the amazing paintings Nelson created about his emigration experience from Columbia. One painting of three men lying in the trunk of a car really stood out. He paid particular attention to the detail of one of the men’s stylish cowboy boots. Nelson and his mother had to squeeze into the same trunk with the men. Part of me is thinking that just this aspect of his story could be crafted into a powerful short animated film. The seed is planted, we will see if it will grow.