INTERVIEW WITH DANIELA RIASCOS
Daniela Riascos, is a Colombian born beauty with a background in Media studies from NYU and Brown University. She recently graduated from Tisch with a BFA in Film & Television and has worked in editorial production both abroad and currently in New York.
Her visual identity reminds me very much of the fantastic artist, Floria Sigismondi who always saw beauty in things others would find too dark, and/or macabre.
Greatest inspirations or influences?
Mikio Naruses’ , When a woman ascends the stairs ,
Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Aventtura,
Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In,
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant and Maria Braun,
Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love.
Everything Quentin Tarantino has ever made
Ultimately , everything between love and pain - joy and woe.
What would be a dream project for you?
Well, every project starts out as a dream. It's spawned by the music you listen to, the people you meet, the places you visit and the experiences you come in contact with. These happenings provoke reflections and thoughts that inevitably - be it at the dentist's office, the subway or the editing studio - weave themselves into ideas worthy of intent. You know it’s a dream project when you witness those ideas become a reality at the hands of a talented team of people that you brought together. it’s a dream project when, once completed, you look back and realize that it’s been a product of ongoing inspiration, from that initial spark to the final cut, and beyond.
Most interesting film school experience?
The experience of making a bad film. You start off on what is seemingly the right track. You believe you have a winning idea and spend hours on end fine-tuning and honing it to apparent perfection. You convince people of its potential greatness. One thing leads to the other and you’re finally directing the set. Against all odds, you survive the shoot and view your film for the first time when it hits you: your film is less than stellar. In fact, its the antithesis of who you are as a filmmaker and what you like in a film. Although there are lessons to learn, there's not much to be proud of except for the fact that you succeeded in making an undeniably bad film. So, you muster the courage and tell your friends, family, cast, and crew - all of whom eagerly await the masterpiece - that you're still working on it. Eventually, the fear of the fact that you might actually "work" on it for ever is transformed into the driving force behind your next endeavor.
You recently directed and shot a video for Alexis Foxe, tell us more.
I always knew I wanted to work with Alexis. The opportunity presented itself when I was looking for a topic for my senior thesis at Tisch and went to one of Alexis’ performances. As I watched her sing, I knew that I had to do her first video about the dichotomies of love. Cynic’s lyrics and music reminded me of Octavio Paz’ saying, “ Love in the worst and in the best of cases, is a tragedy”.
