Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonardo Pirondi.
Leonardo, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m 20 years old. I’m from São Paulo, Brazil; where I was born and raised. At the age of 18, my parents and I moved to the North of Portugal, where I spent a semester before coming to California; where I currently attend CalArts and make films like never before.
My interest in moving images began at a very young age, I grew up watching Star Wars and a lot of American cartoons dubbed in Portuguese. At the age of 12, I began to make videos for the internet, testing, experimenting and exploring the tools of video making. When I was approximately 14 years old I start to dig into the classics, where I learned a lot, Hitchcock, Chaplin, and old Classic Disney Animations. Later I learned with Godard, Glauber Rocha and Kurosawa that a more different and independent cinema existed and it was wonderful.
When I was in high school I started making what I would call short films, experimentations with sound and image. I decided that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. Now I’m currently making films like never before, I’m currently making most non-fiction and experimental films.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I would say that my biggest challenge that I see myself overcoming the most is to deal with myself; I’m constantly putting pressure on me of always creating a better film and wondering if my idea is going to be accepted into the world and if my film will reach its audience. Although, recently it’s getting easier to deal with these things.
Besides that, I can say It has been a smoothies road. I came from a very supportive family that encouraged me to do and work towards the things I was passionate about. My mother had a ceramics studio at home and I went to a school that allowed me to think critically, paint, create music, photography, and theatre. I had all the tools and opportunities to be an artist, and at the end of the day I chose to work with the film/video medium and I couldn’t be happier about it.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
To live in society is to think outside of my perspective, rethink the structured elements, and be critical about the status quo. In my work, I strongly rely on my feelings towards something, facts or perspectives on subjects through moving images. I can frame mostly landscapes, objects, and people into the narrative or non-narrative films that may or may not come from a personal background.
Aesthetically, I love to orchestrate different visual mediums in the same film. I’ve always been a fan of the diversity of video, 16mm film, still, images, pages from books, and computer generated images; There is something on crafting these type of films that better transports what’s on my mind in a more accurate way to the real world while.
Capturing the world around me has always been part of my life since a young age with photography and making videos to the internet. Now I work making experimental documentaries focusing on landscapes, ethnographic films, and the relationship between people and space. My work is just a natural reflection of my desire to capture what I feel and see around me and translate my sensibility and emotions into the screen.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up making ceramic pieces in my mother’s studio, I went to a school that allowed me to create and explore all kinds of art mediums from painting, music, to theatre. So I am an artist before I was a filmmaker. At school I was pushed to question, to think about the structured world around me and denormalize the normal, and at home, my parents always had to deal with my stubborn way of questioning why I had to do stuff, why other kids didn’t have the same privileges than me, and why things were they were. Looking back my parents say they had to learn a lot to satisfy my desires and questions about the status quo. When I look back I remember always feeling that a lot of times I was seeing things that the majority of people considered immutable. So I think the film is just the way I express what I am thinking, feeling about the world around me, sometimes in a very therapeutic way. Filmmaking is like crafting a dream and projecting it to people is a beautiful act of letting the dream you crafted for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: leonardopirondi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrpirondi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leonardopirondi/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrpirondi
- Other: https://vimeo.com/leonardopirondi
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