Today we’d like to introduce you to Case Esparros.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Case. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a 23 years old artist and filmmaker working out of Los Angeles. I was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Making films is primarily where my heart truly is, although you might catch me doing other things, I like to work a lot and be as creative as possible. I don’t think it’s wise to define yourself to one thing, it all lives in the same universe, but I still think of myself as a filmmaker first.
I think growing up in New Orleans has really influenced the way I think. I have so much love for that city. I want a jazz funeral when I die. It’s like no other place on earth. Everything about New Orleans is bold and beautiful. It serges itself into your psyche at a young age. It’s a city of character. I left New Orleans when I was really young before Katrina but I never stopped going back. Seeing the aftermath and horror of Katrina really changed how I think. You don’t forget the end of the world.
I moved to the suburbs of Pasadena, California. Life from there felt more mundane, you know? I switched from public schooling to private Christian schooling. I was really living the American dream. As the years went by it wasn’t “Leave it to Beaver” anymore but more like David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.”
I started making movies simply out of suburban boredom, to pass the time. I remember watching so much films as a kid too. My Dad introduced me to the Marx Brothers and I remember really understanding what they were about. It was three brothers on screen being outrageous, there was such a poetry to it. I have two brothers too so I felt a kinship to the marx brothers. Also, my Mom would watch so much TCM Robert Osborne was like an uncle. Hitchcock was my first favorite director. Probably when I was 9 Hitchcock’s “Psycho” was on television and it changed everything for me. I grabbed my Dads camera and filmed a parody of it with my brothers called “Freak-O.” From then on my brothers and my cousin who lived down the street made about like 40 films mostly comedic parodies of other films, some even feature length. We were the neighborhood Marx brothers. The flame of making films was always there in me at a young age.
Schooling was hard for me, I was a horrible student. I suppressed a lot of my drive to make films just out of survival in school. Our art programs were pretty much paint by numbers, but they made sure I never missed weekly mass. I was internally suppressing myself and doing a lot of dumb things. I had really rediscovered myself through creatives in music and punk rock. I really saw music and punk as the ultimate freedom of expression, it was the one thing that seemed intellectual to me amidst schooling. I didn’t feel so alone anymore with a Beefheart record on.
I moved to Chicago after high school because I just needed to start over to discover my voice. That’s where I started making my short films. I felt such a creative freedom in them, it was there where I really started developing a voice. I had then moved back to Pasadena to earn my BFA at Art Center College of Design.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There are many obstacles and challenges when making a feature film. The money isn’t there, the weather is never good, the shot is out of focus. I don’t think a single person can say they made a film and it was easy. It’s one of the hardest endeavors one can venture on, but as Rainer Werner Fassbinder once said, “A film is such a challenge to make it is impossible to do it without love.” If you truly love what you are making nothing will stop you from making it. You will always find a way.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
My debut feature film is entitled, “King Baby.” It is set to premiere at Zebulon in Los Angeles on August 3rd from 4-6 PM. It’s the film I always wanted to make. It’s a second coming story divided into three acts. A meditation on belief and exploring religion as the sublime in the wretched image. “King Baby” is a story about hope. No more sorrow! I always promised myself I wanted to have a feature film by the time I was 23 because Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys wrote all of Pet Sounds when he was 23. I have completed this promise. This is my first feature film and I’ll have many more to come. I am just getting started this isn’t the last of me, I’ll rearrange the DNA of cinema.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t do anything differently because everything that happens is perfect. Every mistake is perfect and everything that is not perfect is perfect, you know? You have to take everything that happens to you good or bad, absorb it, grow from it and create about it. As long as you were being yourself the whole time.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 6263754142
- Email: caseesparros@gmail.com
- Instagram: caseesparros
Image Credit:
Personal Photo: Taken by Emily Falls
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
