Today we’d like to introduce you to Ana Farré Moutinho.
Hi Ana, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in London to a Portuguese father and a Spanish mother. Despite all the languages in the house, I didn’t speak until I was four years old – but I haven’t really stopped since. All the time I spent not talking, I’m told I spent observing others very closely and mimicking all types of non-verbal communication (like my parents’ tone, or people’s body language). I think those early development years are a huge part of why I am so drawn to film, music and performance today.
I initially wanted to act but then I got on a film set for the first time on a commercial project and actually understood what the director did for the first time. I realized then that I wanted to be behind the camera and found my way into advertising/PR production to get my foot in the door. I juggled creative director/writer/producer roles for a number of brands and content types for around five years before I started my current graduate programme at Chapman University.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Most of the time, I have been my biggest obstacle. You really have to embrace a fake it til you make it mentality, I think – confidence is the way to achievement, not the other way around. I try to remind myself that almost anything that is difficult is simply an opportunity, but that’s certainly easier said than done. Yoga helps…!
Another big struggle is finding good collaborators – not just people you can work with, but people who will make you better and vice versa. A lot of people will look at your work and try to make it into something they want to make, very few people will be able to understand you as a person and artist and guide you toward the final version of what they know you want to make. It takes time to figure out what you want in a collaborator and I am definitely still learning that about myself.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m still figuring out what ‘my work’ is about and what I want to specialize in artistically. I know that my passions lie in directing and writing and that even within the film I am always thinking about music. Songs are where I get a lot of character, scene and emotional ideas from. When I listen to music, I am always imagining some kind of scenario in my head – a script I am developing right now came from an electronic song I have on repeat. I would absolutely love to get into directing music videos as it would be so much fun to explore visuals purely through an emotional lens and to use a song’s structure to inform the arc of the piece.
I am most proud of a short film I wrote and directed which we are currently still editing, called ‘Baby Steps’ – a drama about a woman’s experience with IVF. I had a great team who pushed me to be better on it and it has been exciting to see my own growth from when I first started at Chapman compared to now. I’m still finding my voice but with this film, I feel I am getting a lot closer to understanding myself better as a person, artist and professional.
I was recently told I have a reputation for being ‘serious’, which I found quite funny (especially as it’s come from people I have never spoken to). I do take my work seriously, but with every project, I learn more and more how you have to not take yourself so seriously in order to allow your best work to come through. No one really knows what they are doing, so embrace that.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
My biggest takeaway from the lockdowns and the media frenzy was the importance of practicing some kind of mindfulness and learning to uncouple thoughts/information and emotion. Covid was arguably the most stressful period of my life in many ways, and as a result it taught me how unproductive the feeling of being ‘stressed’ is. Allowing stress to put you in a state of anxiety is totally paralyzing. I’ve found myself able to remain calmer and therefore more productive as of late by simply labeling thoughts as ‘thoughts’, and making a conscious effort to not allow them to turn into an all-consuming emotion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vimeo.com/afmcreative
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peliculana/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anafm1/
Image Credits
Rutvij Reddy, Zhen Li
