Nazareno Alba is a filmmaker publicist, writer and scriptwriter who studied film direction at Cyevic Buenos Aires, Argentina and further went onto get a diploma in film scripting at Sindicato Arezine. His focus has been advertising direction and writing fiction film script.
Karla: Hey, after a year of not talking, now we have entered in an intense conversation.
Naz: I know, but I do not remember having more bad times than your histrionic laugh in a bar.
Karla: Well let us continue with this flow for the interview.
Naz: Done.
Scroll down to read the full interview.
Mexico taught me that I can be happy wherever I go, the only thing that I do not have to deny is where I come from. The world is a beautiful planet full of circumstances, colors, food, personalities and it will always be like this.
Hello Naz, tell us a little about yourself! What are your origins, current residence and what do you do?
My origins are my own, not any third parties. I come from a town in the province of Buenos Aires that everyone knows as "The Sleeping City." It is the place where people who work in the city sleep. It is the last train station in The Great Buenos Aires. My mom is a teacher and my dad is a radio host. They both grew up in that place. We never went to the capital. I needed a little escaping from there and that is how ended up in Buenos Aires, where I studied and lived for 10 years before moving to Mexico.
Why did you choose Mexico to live?
If I tell you the truth, it was because of my father. My father always talked about the reason why he had not succeed and my mother went from a rural school teacher to a director. He was always a radio host and nothing more. One day I heard him say; "If I had taken them to Mexico City, my story would have been different." Since I was little the idea stayed with me, something intrigued me about this place and I had to come to discover it myself.
Mexico taught me that I can be happy wherever I go, the only thing that I do not have to deny is where I come from. The world is a beautiful planet full of circumstances, colors, food, personalities and it will always be like this. Here I learned to be aware of where I come from and where I am going. This country gave me this, the opportunity to be able to push myself, work a lot, have a proper house and not worry so much about money. Here I have been able to develop. I have a roof, food and my passion (Tell stories where I come from).
Is telling stories, your dream as a filmmaker?
I never say that I am a filmmaker. I define myself as a writer who cannot write, who knew that he was going to starve and understood that he had to make films. The only thing I do know is that before I understood that there was a career in studying film, I was writing. In those days, I wrote and sold cleaning products.
I needed to quickly put into words those parties, sex, alcohol, drugs, women, men, Narcos. I used to go out and then I would throw up the poems that indeed are not poems, but they were just my thoughts.
Speaking of writing, tell us about the “Los No Poemas” NOT POEMS.
The history of the Los No Poemas is very good and I think that it saved my internal writer a little. It all started with my novel Rojo Trash (Red Trash). I was in Buenos Aires and a person who invited me to Guadalajara Mexico to the book fair promised to print my novel. This person payed my plane ticket and I had no idea that a surreal experience lay ahead of me.
Periodists made notes about me, like if I was a renowned writer. I was next to Vargas Llosa, Javier Velasco and I just thought I DID IT. My mind could not process what was happening in that moment. After having been in this unreal scene, with famous writers and having dinner at a Sheraton, I returned to Argentina, expecting the promise of a novel, that never got printed. It broke my soul. The Not Poems project was born from this sadness. At that time I decided to emigrate to Mexico City and in-between the sensation of not knowing anyone, being at parties where people snort cocaine, alcohol and smile, I started writing again.
People who just laugh and show you the cavities in their teeth. All these images of the LONELY ME. All those things that I would have downloaded before in a novel. This time I needed something different, I needed to quickly put into words those parties, sex, alcohol, drugs, women, men, Narcos. I used to go out and then I would throw up the poems that indeed are not poems, but they were just my thoughts. At first I started documenting them. A year after being in Mexico, I decided to shape it on social media, and I began to force myself to write. The poems, the emotions and the feelings were so intense, that everything
What is more important to you, success or recognition?
I want to be successful. Recognition is not given to me by anyone, but myself. Before money, fame ... For me, success means to be able to speak the same language as many people. Fame, fame are many likes on IG and a golden bikini right?
Sometimes I write brutal stories, which have nothing to do with my life, but when I create a character I need to open my soul and make it hurt.
You feel that you put a lot of yourself into each project you do or that you disconnect your emotions and it is something less personal?
It's a great question. I live each work in a highly personal way. Sometimes I quote myself aloud and cry, my voice shakes. I am a sensitive guy, not a badass. When I read excerpts, I know very well where that character wants to go and where he comes from. Sometimes I write brutal stories, which have nothing to do with my life, but when I create a character I need to open my soul and make it hurt. Understand the character. Each character is a reality I could have been into. They are lives that I could have but I decided to take another path. It always hurts and in turn fills me with pride. When I write, I am in another universe.
Artists and creators are perfectionists. When you do a project and then see it finished ... do you think you enjoy it or the opposite? What's on your mind.
When I finish something, it's like seeing the tip of an iceberg. It is tremendous, what I show almost superfluous because it could go much more deeper. When someone goes to see a movie at the cinema, the movie ends and the person goes home and goes on with their life. But whoever creates that world lives for that space and time until it ends. Creators live in the history they make. It does not mean that if I write a story about thieves I am going to rob a bank, but more about the relatability to the suffering of a thief, planning and surviving all the things that are happening with the characters. You stop belonging to your world. You are going to eat something, and you think “Let no one find out what I am planning or they will put me in prison”. Every story is a relief when it ends.
How do you see yourself in 10 years?
I visualize myself not famous, but being successful in the stories I tell, and telling them how I want to. I imagine myself with a group of people, with the same people from the first project until the last. I would love to continue with a team of people that love what they do.
What do you think of the word art?
I think that the complex of the artist is to never recognize himself as an artist. You call me an artist and the first thing that comes to mind is Dalí.
Do you believe in yourself?
It is the only thing I believe and trust. It's funny because a lot of people have a partner and things like that. I accept myself to fail and I am usually surrounded by people, but I do consider myself a person who lives very quickly. Only few people go at this same speed and to the same place.
To conclude this interview. Tell us what do you enjoy the most about what you do?
The failure. Because the day that I stop failing. SHIT, it's going to only be success.
Join Nazareno on his artistic journey by following him on Instagram.
The No Poems instagram
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