Por Lorena Mora-Mowry

Hace poco tuvimos el placer de entrevistar a Joel Juárez un cineasta reconocido en Hollywood por su extraordinario talento y por mostrar el mundo desde una perspectiva muy única.

Les invito a conocer en nuestra audio entrevista los sueños y los logros de Joel Juárez Sánchez.

Joel es un director importante para la comunidad Latina, es por eso que les invito a conocer más sobre  su trayectoria artística a través de los videos cortesía de Youtube.

Information about Joel Juarez Sanchez in English

Joel Juarez Sanchez was born in Acapulco, Mexico, Joel Juárez Sánchez immigrated to Southern California, at the age of ten. Here, in the new world Joel took advantage of every opportunity to nurture his love affair with filmmaking. As a precocious teenager, this accidental tourist turned filmmaker first showed signs of early promise when he shot his high school art-history tour of Europe on Hi-8 video. Upon his return, Joel immersed himself in four straight weeks of intense obsessive post production. Despite the makeshift tools at his disposal Juarez turned the first profit of his career by selling an edited video production of the tour to his classmates. This is the story of a young artist finding his calling.

While at Occidental College Juarez received a scholarship to make La Libertad, a documentary on El Salvador’s 1994 democratic elections. His final project, Desafinado, was an experimental film about a man trying to cope with the myriad forms of discrimination he faced on a daily basis. After graduation Joel worked in Hollywood on TV spots and other minor productions. Turning his attention to UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Joel was selected from more than 700 applicants to be one of the chosen few invited to study at the prestigious graduate program for Directing.

At UCLA, Joel has established himself as one of the emerging talents among the new filmmakers. With films like:

• Fairy Dust, an idiosyncratic story of a young boy who realizes he will not remain forever young after he loses his first tooth, and sets out to kill the Tooth Fairy.
• SinAzul, a visually compelling film about a young woman in need of her grandmother s folk wisdom following the trauma of a recent miscarriage.
• Eating Insects, a documentary on the eating habits of the Zapotec indigenous people in different regions of Mexico.

Pelea de Gallos, a black comedy about a man desperate for a replacement rooster when his wife cooks one entrusted to him by a ruthless mob boss.

Joel Juárez has rightfully become what the Los Angeles Magazine called an “Auteur-to-watch”. He is fascinated with the eccentric characters, and rich imagery of his cultural heritage. As a writer-director, his films encompass the sometimes dark and troubled exploration of the self.

Director Joel Juarez Sanchez on Youtube

Tags: Cineastas Latinos, Joel Juarez Sanchez, Viva Hollywood