Synopsis: A Life in Technicolor is an enchanting journey through the movies!

Alex Ramirez

Bio:

Alex Ramirez (he/him) is an award-winning Mexican-American filmmaker, playwright, and educator based in San Antonio, Texas. He has received multiple art and filmmaking grants from the city of San Antonio and is the head of his own film production company, Mala Bruja Pictures. In 2021, he was named “Best Local Filmmaker” by San Antonio Current Magazine. He has been featured in many other publications for his film work such as KLRN The Beat, UTSA’s The Paisano, CultureSA Magazine, VoyageDallas, La Prensa Texas, and the San Antonio Express-News. He has served as a panelist for ¡Tú Cuentas! Cine Youth Festival, a judge for the San Antonio Film Festival, and formerly as the Education Coordinator on the Board of the San Antonio Film Society. He is the current Media Arts Director of SAY Sí, a creative youth development program.

Statement:

Every filmmaker makes a movie about making movies in some capacity. I guess it’s the kind of meta thing we as cinematic practitioners can’t help but come back to, allowing us to satirize, analyze, and philosophize the business we’ve chosen. For many years, I wanted to create a love letter to cinema in the same way Miyazaki created a love letter to aviation in The Wind Rises; airplanes are the driving force of the protagonist’s existence. Perhaps we share that distinction in our pursuits—Jiro in The Wind Rises, myself in making movies. This film is heavily inspired by the work of Miyazaki and Fellini and the nods are glaring. COVID-19 forced me to, as I’m sure it did to everyone, reevaluate the kind of work I wanted to make and, in turn, the kind of existence I wanted to lead. I needed color in my life and A Life in Technicolor is my attempt to produce that in the most monochromatic of times. Natalie, portrayed brilliantly by Josey Porras, is certainly the long lost cinematic grandchild of Chaplin’s Little Tramp and Guilietta Masina’s Gelsomina. Natalie’s journey touches on things both profound and universal for any artist during this troubling time—struggles with mental health, loneliness, the inability to create and only spectate. The cinematic universe Natalie conjures for herself is representative of what we artists hope to cultivate through our art—a safe haven from the vagaries of an uncertain world.