Diego Andrés Murillo
Directing
Biography
Artist/self-taught filmmaker: director, writer, editor, producer. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Graduated from both Media Studies (Andres Bello Catholic University) and Digital photography (Roberto Mata School). In 2016 I migrated from my native country out of necessity and unexpectedly stayed in NYC when an opportunity appeared, it has been my home for the past 9 years. To combat diasporic conditions, I co-founded EL FANTASMA, a Venezuelan film collective/studio that now has over ten premiered shorts and two completed features. My films usually entail speculative fictions that tackle topics such as individual/collective migration (Venezuelan), dystopian imaginations, historical re-imagining, and repressed desires, emotions & malaises as consequences of political/collective environments. These works have screened and won awards at film festivals including Locarno, Brussels, Sitges, Cinélatino Toulouse, Tacoma Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Uruguay Film Festival, Chicago Latino FF, among others. I’m a recipient of the Jerome Production Grant and the Venezuelan National Film Fund, and I have participated in programs such as Locarno Open Doors, Locarno Spring Academy, Tres Puertos Lab and the CineQuaNon Residency. I was recently an invited artist at the University of Iowa Cinematic Arts department.
Known For
A machine-voice makes a "sad film of his homeland" for a dying patient to ease its passing: footage from Kennedy's visit to Venezuela in 61' creeps through montage errors, and a seemingly endless poem comes alive one last time.
We Keep on Looking for You
A family painting triggers in the "The Young man" memories of his mother, the countryside, and his last lover, while doubt brings him closer to violence.
Kampos
In the midst of winter, a Venezuelan woman exiled in Brooklyn deals with daily work, a recurring appearance and unsettling messages from back home.
Antelope
An omnibus film made under the creative eye of Radu Jude, with the help of Cătălin Cristuțiu and the support of the Ticino Film Commission, RSI and Majid Foundation. Eleven directors from all over the world worked with the archive material provided by RSI to create their own films, which merged into this collective work that reflects on the meaning of images from the past to give them a new light.
Find a Film!
After his mother falls ill, filmmaker Humberto González Bustillo flies back home to be by her side. Before his return, he remembers his childhood, and in turn recounts the colonial interests in Venezuelan lands, together with the continuous oil crisis.
Aphorisms of the Lake
A Venezuelan government official is sent to Switzerland to work on a project, strangely descending into sickness as unsettling events unfold back home.
Transatlantic Malaise
A Venezuelan city is emptying. A labor less priest struggles with a sonic sleep disorder while trying to safe-keep his meek buffalo from being taken. As the intentions of the remaining ones become more desperate, the priest’s malaise becomes more alive.
Sound is the Body
Hera; a teenage girl blinded by rage, manages to convince her best friend; Clara, of smashing the windshield of a brand new SUV belonging to Emiliano, a corrupt military who lives in the same building as them, as a way of retaliation after watching a video online that shows him torturing young protesters.
Wrathful
A long-lasting lockdown. The last days of a grandmother. In between, a speculative film diary: a distant homeland, a grieving state possessed by light.
Perhaps Hell Is White
The director leaves his native country and adapts to new territories. Inside his work routine in a New York City restaurant, messages from his family come and go, shattered pieces of lost paradises.