Life & Work with Isabel Santos

Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabel Santos.

Hi Isabel, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My story starts pretty stereotypically as an animator – I was crying in a movie theatre during a showing of Monsters University. I was so stunned by the detail, from Mike Wazowski’s visible pores to the jiggling gravity present in the animation of each character; it was mind-blowing to see the evolution of Pixar films as they developed more and more complex technology over the years. The sheer dedication and passion apparent to make animation happen was something I really appreciated and I remember deciding in that theatre, “I need to be an animator”. From then on, I would watch any behind-the-scenes video I could find. The Portland, OR-based studio, LAIKA, had released several videos on their youtube channel showcasing the fabrication process for Coraline. A woman pokes individual strands of blue hair into a gummy little silicone puppet. It just felt like my calling. I think at the time, I thought it was such an incredible and irreverent choice as an adult to be constantly told to be a doctor or lawyer and outwardly just say, “No, in fact, I’m literally going to make miniature wigs for puppets for the rest of my life.” Of course its also an immense privilege to be able to make that choice, so I’ve been very lucky to have had opportunities to pursue my passions. It’s nonetheless a scary decision to choose art school over med school so it wasn’t until I received urgent encouragement from teachers and almost everyone else around me that I actually took the leap and applied to art school and got in.

I came into undergrad certain that I would become a stop-motion animator. I made several very short animations but eventually realized that the sheer number of materials was too overwhelming. I wanted to focus on character design and the timing of the animation itself. The limitations of traditional hand-drawn animation – paper and pencil, seemed to really work for my vision. Over time, I realized there was something about the paper on the light table and the drawings as individual frames that was really compelling and motivating. Later, I had a bit of a crisis about filmmaking in general, not feeling like I knew what I wanted to make or that what I was making was really worth it. I felt guilty about contributing to the endless amount of content consuming people’s attention. It got to a point where I considered changing majors and becoming a textile artist. I took a rug weaving class and found a lot of connections between the repetition of weaving on a loom to the repetition of animating and spent a lot of time focused on one image rather than on thousands. This really reinvigorated me to continue in animation and I made my first film, Wavelet. I realized I wanted to make something more conceptual where the concern would be less on communicating a linear story and more on exploring the possibilities of animation through surreal actions and scenarios experienced by odd characters I created. But I had never seen anything that really did this in the way I was thinking until my professor showed our class Igor Kovalyov’s Andrei Svislotski. The film was incredibly validating and reassured me that it was worthwhile trying to figure out what it was that I could do with the medium. My graduation film, Dog Husband, was where I dove deeper into these ideas inspired by Kovalyov.

I graduated during the pandemic and still needed more time to explore animation and in addition, realized that teaching was a significant interest of mine so I’m currently working towards my MFA in Experimental Animation at CalArts where I’m continuing to focus on traditional hand drawn on paper animation.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve been very fortunate to have had a fairly smooth go of it so far. Most of the struggle has been an internal one. For a while at the beginning, I felt really lost in how to translate my visions into something that felt true and new to me. I was in a place where traditional linear narrative storytelling was not resonating and so I turned to more experimental work. Now I find the struggle is less a creative one and more one of time. As someone who wants to focus as much time as possible on personal filmmaking, there’s never enough time between working to support myself and regular life stuff.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Currently, I’m an independent animator making my own films. I work entirely drawing on paper with pencil, constructing films based around a cast of characters that I developed specifically for each film, all of whom have complex relationships to each other. My films combine comedic timing and visual gags with my core motivation of communicating feelings that are hard to explain like the psychological experience of being in a body.

I am known for my unsettling character designs and my sense of humor.

I am most proud of my most recent film SWIM! which is currently in the festival circuit. As well, I work on an episodic mini-series called BRB, I’m on my break with my friend and collaborator Pilar Garcia Fernandezesma for Adult Swim’s smalls program, which currently has two episodes out on their youtube channel.

I would say the way I construct films, combining personal experience and surreality, and when and how I reveal these things to the audience through the animation and editing of my films, is unique to me.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Hands down, the food. It’s such a privilege to live somewhere with so much delicious and diverse food. I’m originally from New York City, so I’m grateful to have just as much if not more incredible food here. Though I’m really not a fan of how much driving I have to do to get absolutely anywhere in LA. I really like walking but it’s hard to traverse LA on foot.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gooolagooon/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/isabelsantos