Today we’d like to introduce you to Leire Aguilera Kelly.
Leire, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in the colourful, yet chaotic Mexico City where there is a story happening on every street corner. However, I was always in the bubble of a private school where the biggest drama was always something that now seems insignificant: an unrequited crush, a failed exam, or whether you were selected to be a part of the big sports events or not. I won’t complain, I loved my little bubble, but it was a tad unrealistic.
Once I stepped out of it and into the real world, instead of taking baby steps, I threw myself like a kid on a waterslide (as the Mexican expression says). As soon as I graduated high school, I moved to Vancouver, Canada, to pursue my long-life passion for film and photography at the beautiful University of British Columbia. I was following my father’s footsteps but also running away from them as I longed to create a name for myself. Of course, it is not that easy. I took classes in dramatically different fields, which allowed me to explore many interests and curiosities, before fixating myself on only film. But, after a year and a half, I felt nothing but lost. So I flew back to Mexico to reboot and I stumbled upon the most inspiring photography teacher and friend whose enthusiasm and poetic love for photography had me enamored with the craft once more.
Being reminded of my passion in such a way, and part of my heart still being in Vancouver, brought me to enroll in a one-year film production course at the Vancouver Film School. I learned that working together with other artists in a smaller community was a better fit for me than a large research university. Also, I realized that words are not necessary to transmit a substantive message or provoke emotion and I was eager to develop my language in the visual medium since words have not been my strongest suit. As long as I could hold a camera in my hands and tell a story, I felt empowered.
At the end of the intensive year, one of my teachers brought me back from dreamland and told me to reconcile myself with words and work on that relationship because having the technical skills to tell stories did not make me a storyteller.
With newfound confidence (mostly not knowing what I was doing but giving it a shot) I jumped at the opportunity to write and direct a music video for a friend. I had to face the horrors of the white page and then leading a whole production. It was a short month of almost no sleep, three days of nervous gastritis, and an amazing crew that gave me the strength to believe in myself and enroll once more in a different university in a different country with a brand new major: Theatre Arts. There I found ironically more loneliness and hardship, but also more encouraging people who pushed me to own my talents, exploit them to the fullest, and trust my instincts. Two years later, I finally have my degree, a long list of talented people to collaborate with in three different countries, various notebooks with exciting projects to be developed, a ridiculous, giant fear to put myself out there, but an even bigger desire to create and do it anyway.
Has it been a smooth road?
To say there were bumps in the road is an understatement. But what’s the fun in a smooth ride? The biggest challenge of all has always been leaving my home country, my family and friends, my language, my culture. It is hard. Extremely hard. I moved to a country where I had to speak and study in a different language every day. I had to be at the same level as a native speaker would be but with double the effort. It was not terrible since studied English and German in school, but I dealt with not only a different language but different customs, foods, culture. It felt, and still feels, very lonely. The fact that you have to translate everything in your head is exhausting. Still, having had this experience I have realized that I am very lucky. It is extremely enriching and challenging in a good way. It is fascinating to take a new culture in, meet people with different backgrounds, and as long as your ability to change your perspective from how lonely you feel and how different you are, to how incredible it is that a language opens a door to other worlds, minds, places, you are ahead of the game.
My heart breaks every time I leave home, but after the first time that I left so eager to leave it behind I learned to appreciate and miss it. I learned to love my language, my heritage, my culture. It has definitely been the reason behind other people’s judgment because I have an accent, I sometimes can’t choose the right words, or I sometimes am too quiet because I am scared to say the wrong thing. But I embrace my country, I embrace being a woman with endless bursts of emotions, I embrace my rolling “r”s and I embrace how brave I have been to keep trying even though I sometimes feel like I swim against the current. As for my struggles and mistakes, my fears and insecurities, I embrace them too. All of this keeps molding me as the artist and person I long to become.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
For now, it is just me, my creativity and imagination. Wherever that leads me. I like to work on projects that fill my heart with joy, projects that I can learn from. I don’t like to put myself in a box; I am a filmmaker, a theatre director, a writer, a photographer, an athlete, an aspiring musician (even if just for myself), an artist.
I have always been a team player. Ever since I was a kid, I was passionate about playing team sports, I still am. I am always wanting to collaborate in other people’s work and help them make their vision come to life as well. Apart from stories I’d like to tell, I love helping people tell their stories. I have been finding ways to create safe spaces for people to explore their voices without judgment, so they feel heard. Working on my own has never been very satisfactory. For me, the beauty of art comes when the painting is not only one colour, but many creating an exciting piece. I am a firm believer that two (or more) minds work better than just one. That is why I love film and theatre.
As for other art forms that may seem rather lonely, such as photography, I have found a way to make them collaborative too. I have found inspiration from photographers who completely immerse themselves in people’s lives and stories in order to capture them in a photograph, such as Graciela Iturbide and Nan Goldin. Their portraiture is so intimate and personal. I would love to take my work to that degree of human relationship. Another way to collaborate is with your audience! Just as Amanda Palmer and Sophie Calle do. It is a different approach to human interaction and collaboration, but just as moving and inspiring. All of the artists I look up to have one thing in common: they are raw, honest, and bold. Those are the qualities I am cultivating myself to add to my artistic endeavours.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The industry is already changing. I am so happy to see many empowered women directing, in the camera teams, writing, photographing, taking charge. It is very inspiring. I hope the industry will expand more beyond the United States and reach countries with different stories and worlds, as I explored when I moved out of my home country. I also hope people in the industry remember they are artists and fall in love again with their craft instead of fame and fortune.
The world is vast and full of marvels, and it is beautiful because of its diversity. We should embrace that! Give someone a hand to help them climb, instead of making them fall as you climb on your own.
Contact Info:
- Website: lakfilm.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lei.lak/
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/leilak?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=creatorshare&fbclid=IwAR2gJoaQcFjkZw-R7TX18CGlq_2D10-1eP6WV7cnzT5WOKUk7_8vWUiSoKE
Image Credit:
Liam Aguilera Kelly, Constanza Domínguez, Duy N Bui (DB).
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