Ángel Jesús Hurtado

1. Hello Ángel. Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about the team behind your film.

​

Hello, friends of the festival, and thank you very much for the invitation. I am Ángel Jesús, a filmmaker who recently graduated from Magdalena University. People who are interested in my work can find me on Instagram as @angeljesus_art, which is my personal account, and on the project account @lanochedeloscerdos.

All of us who were associated with the Night of the Pig are students or graduates of the University of Magdalena; most of us are from the Caribbean region, but we also work with people from the central zone of Colombia.

​

2. Your film, "La Noche De Los Cerdos" was one of the big winners of the first season of BR. Banshee 2023. Did you expect such a result?

​

We were very optimistic. A few weeks ago, before applying to the festival, we did a test screening with colleagues from the university's film program, and the energy was electrifying; everyone was talking about the sound power of the film, and they also perceived the montage as an exciting element and unpredictable. After that showing, I knew we had something good on our hands; it was experimental horror at its best.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. What motivated you to make your film?

​

I am a lover of horror movies, and weeks before writing the idea, I was very excited because I had just seen "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" from 1974. I was so excited that I thought about how fun it would be to do something like that! And then almost immediately I saw "Mandy", a 2018 film directed by Panos Cosmatos, and I was very fascinated; I wanted to replicate something like that as soon as possible.

After seeing those movies, I began to imagine a similar universe. I thought a lot about the importance of the color red, and from there I created the first artistic concepts for the completely crazy settings, characters, and scenes. I have always been a fan of Dario Argento's films, and “Suspiria” was also very important in the project because I wanted to feel that saturation on the screen; likewise, I wanted to feel that same intensity, accompanied by a shrill sound at times, where the unimaginable becomes tangible. The cinema itself was the trigger for everything that was subsequently created in the short film. So in the end, the movies nourished my mind, and finishing the short film was my biggest motivation.

​

4. What were the biggest challenges encountered during the production of your film?

​

Without a doubt, the shooting times were a challenge; there was very little time, and some of my producers doubted my decisions on many occasions. As a colleague, I understood them perfectly; it had to be a 3-day shoot that ended up becoming an experience of almost 3 and a half weeks. Also, the team saw it as a horror movie with a classic narrative, but for me, it was an opportunity to explore new limits of the audiovisual.

We had a lot of discussions about the focus of the film, but in the end, we struck a balance between the narrative and the experimental; the key was to focus on the horror elements and place them at the service of a specific situation without thinking too much about the story that way. Everything is better understood.

The base was a "girl lost in the cursed forest", Immediately we are in the action; there is no time to explain why; it is from the outset to run into a terrifying place and escape from something that surpasses any understanding until it reaches the limit. It wasn't easy to convince the team, but in the end, I think everyone loved the movie.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Why horror, and especially why experimental horror?

​

Since I was five years old, I have been consuming horror, terror, and science fiction films, which explains my love for these genres. At the end of the 90s, my parents worked a lot, and that allowed me to develop my own cinematographic intellect without restrictions. I clearly remember the terror I felt just thinking about going to the beach, and thanks to "JAWS" from 1975, I cannot forget the fear of the unknown thanks to "ALIEN" from 1979, just as it is impossible to forget the fascination of seeing unimaginable creatures come to life thanks to 1993's “JURASSIC PARK”, I consider myself lucky to have enjoyed mainstream cinema when it was still quality.

Experimental horror has been one of my priorities since I started studying film at the university. I wanted to ask myself questions within the genre that I was passionate about, and that implied embracing the error. Experimental cinema is about embracing error to generate new solutions. Horror requires more study; you have to watch a lot of horror movies to understand its essence.

I have tried during these years to combine what attracts me from all these genres, adding the challenge of a low budget, but if you succeed, it will be the greatest emotion you can have.

​

6. One noticeable aspect of your film, which greatly pleased the judges of our festival, was the evident passion of your team for the work. What kept them so motivated?

​

I consider myself a very passionate person. When I'm filming, I practically don't sleep; even in the first days, I wrote to the team late at night. I suppose my passion was contagious for most, and that made their work always stand out. It was the only way to keep the boat afloat because there was no money, and I think that passion is felt in the short film, in the detailed art, in the atmosphere that we built with the cheapest lights you can imagine, and even in the editing, you can see the dedication.

As a director, I also tried to get the best out of the actors.

If we had not had that passion as an added value, the short film would surely not be the same.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. How has the reception been for your film so far?

​

It has been very positive; this film is made for lovers of horror and the experimental, as is clear from the first seconds of the short.

But I must admit that I have been surprised by the reaction of people who are foreign to these genres; they have found a refreshing experience in The Night of the Pigs. Many people talk to me about the sound, and indeed, the sound generates a disturbing atmosphere, almost ritualistic, and it was more fun to see people leave the room as if they had gone through the portal of lights from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, That was incredible, and I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction of the public in Brazil.

In general, the public has received it very positively.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. What are your goals as a filmmaker?

​

I want to make movies until the end of my days; it is a profession where you have no limits.

Thanks to the cinema, I can get closer to my own truth every day, and if they ask me on the street, I will always say the same thing: "I am a horror film director who carries out experiments within the same genre." I dream in the medium term of being able to get out of the trunk of ideas a story based on a short novel called "El Barco de los Locos" by Vicente García Oliva. I would love it to be my debut, but obviously, it would give it a closer approach to horror; it would be a not-so-faithful adaptation of the story, where I want to pay homage to the classic "Freaks" from 1932.

​

9. Do you consider film schools essential in the training of a filmmaker, or can they be seen as optional?

​

They are totally optional, and I say this with great respect. Obviously, the university allows you to meet important people in the industry, but filmmakers are not made at the university; filmmakers are born in movie theaters. The best way to learn is to watch movies all day.

The university introduces you to people and shows you ways to sell your projects, but the artist is born inside movie theaters.

​

10. How do you view experimental filmmaking in Latin America, and particularly in Colombia?

​

Latin America takes experimental cinema more seriously every day, and that makes me very happy. Seven years ago, doing something with the term "experimental" was synonymous with nonsense; people in the film industry did not look favorably at experimental cinema. If you strayed from the principles of classic narrative, they would call you crazy, but mentalities have changed for the better.

Colombia has had exponents for a long time in this genre; it could be said that in the Caribbean, our greatest exponent is the great Luis Ernesto Arocha, a pioneer of experimental cinema in the country. We must also highlight the contribution of Gabriel García Márquez to Colombian experimental cinema, not only with his magical realism but also with the 1954 film "The Blue Lobster."

The fundamental thing is to lose your fear of experimental cinema. This genre is for the brave because you always walk a fine line where error is just around the corner, but I hope that sooner or later experimental cinema, together with another genre, will be able to create a work that captivates the majority of the public.

​

11. Do you believe that having to work with a very low budget can ultimately foster a filmmaker's creativity?

​

Absolutely, the low budget is something every day in Colombia, and I am speaking in general, that has allowed us to develop an overwhelming ingenuity, and in the cinema it is not the exception.

At the Universidad del Magdalena, which is in Santa Marta, a touristic and important city in the Colombian Caribbean, methods are being developed that embrace the low budget and manage to achieve an acceptable quality in terms of photography, sound, and acting, but there is no doubt that economically we cannot compete with many countries.

Just as we look at the North American budget out of the corner of our eye, in Africa they surely see us as privileged, and in the end only creativity will have to prevail in our works regardless of money. I remember something Francis Ford Coppola said in an interview—something like: "The next movie genius could be a guy with a random video camera, and with just his creativity, he could make the most sensational movie", and at the end of the day, no-budget cinema maximizes your creativity.

​

12. Which five films have inspired you the most to become a filmmaker?

​

These five films were key to becoming a filmmaker:

• Kill BILL VOL.1 (2003 de Quentin Tarantino)

• JURASSIC PARK (1993 de Steven Spielberg)

• TIBURON (1975 de Steven Spielberg)

• HALLOWEEN (1978 de John Carpenter)

• EL ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO (2001 de Guillermo del Toro)

 

These five movies are currently my favorites of all time:

• LOST HIGHWAY (1997 de David Lynch)

• TOKYO FIST (1995 de Shinya Tsukamoto)

• THEY LIVE (1998 de John Carpenter)

• SUSPIRIA (1977 de Dario Argento)

• POSSESSION (1981 de Andrzej Zulawski)

​

13. Who is your favorite film director? And if you could ask them one question, what would it be?

​

Right now, my favorite director is Shinya Tsukamoto; he's the best, his films make me love cinema much more, and I identify a lot with his work.

I would ask him about his directing methods and the way he builds his scenes during filming, but since it's just one serious question:

Do you think artificial intelligence will do to people what metal did to tetsuo?

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​​​​​​​​​

​

​