
Erik Daniel Hernandez Cantú
Directing
Biography
Erik Daniel Hernandez Cantú is an American artist. He's been into the arts since the 2000's, primarily writing and making music before shifting more to film and photography in the late 2010's. His main artistic venture is creating the psychedelic band Prism Kisses, fronting it since 2012. Although he was born in New York, he spent most of his life up and down the west coast, spending his formative years back and forth between Fresno and Los Angeles, California, and his high school and adult life in Washington state, where he also created and dedicated most of his work. He returned to New York in 2023, currently residing in Rochester. His work is primarily influnced by 20th century avant-garde and involves mixing old and new technology/aesthetics, highly expressive visuals and themes exploring hauntology, sensuality, mental illness, history and culture. His films employ retro filmmaking techniques and are mainly influenced by music, New Hollywood, and the French "cinema du look" movement.
Known For

A short visual experiment resembling the inside of an opal.
Opalescence

A cynical person takes the viewer on a trip to Walmart to go Christmas shopping for relatives.
Christmas Shopping at Walmart!

A trilogy of shorts about two nutcrackers
Sire Nutcracker Complete Trilogy

An experimental short playing with the different video editing features on a flip-phone.
Stop the Process

A series of psychedelic blobs morph on the screen. A bit into the short, it seems as if faces and otherworldy images start to form.
Pareidolia
A student attempts to turn in an important paper a minute before it's due.
That's Bananas!

A girl spots a man wandering past. She begins to follow him. Shot to test out the Helios 44-2 lens.
Snow Scene

Two friends try and wait out an alleged curse put on them by a chain email.
When Chain Mail Attacks!

Montage of clips shot at a local college film club meetup.
09/01/2023

Footage of a girl riding shotgun in a car at night.
Test Drive

A hectic montage of absract imagery and various events and locations in Rochester, NY, shot over a week on super 8.
Year of the Dragon
The proof of concept video for the shelved film Identikit.