Gustavo Milan
“ON YOUR RADAR” IS A WEEKLY GRAD FILM NEWS SEGMENT THAT FEATURES A STUDENT PICKED AT RANDOM.
GUSTAVO MILAN IS CURRENTLY A 3RD YEAR STUDENT AT GRAD FILM. WE ASKED HIM A FEW QUESTIONS, AND HERE’S WHAT HE HAD TO SAY:
1. Where do you consider home and what is it like there?
I consider my home to be in São Paulo, Brazil, the place where I was born and raised. I think I was lucky to be part of a generation of kids (maybe the last one) that could still walk back home from school after classes were finished.
Nevertheless, at least three times a week, instead of going back home I’d walk straight to my grandfather’s house: a place I could explore my imagination at its full capacity.
I spent endless afternoons in his house either playing with rusty objects that I’d find inside the cabinets and drawers or exploring the rooms as if I was in some sort of dangerous mission.
I recall a very precious feeling of safety and amusement for that house. Looking back now I realize my grandfather’s house was an incubator for the filmmaker I became. I guess this is what I call home.
2. What is currently inspiring you as a filmmaker?
I get distressed whenever I feel my learning curve as a filmmaker is shrinking. That can happen when I let fear overcome my will to experience different things. Very often when I look at my films I have the same thought: “the person who did this film is not who I am anymore”. It’s a rather disturbing thought. It feels like you are always chasing yourself…. I don’t know if this feeling will ever change, maybe it won’t, but it definitely keeps me moving forward in persecution of my own voice as a filmmaker. Thematically, I’m currently interested in the limits of reality and imagination. What is the sacred? And how can I trust the basic elements of cinema to express it?
3. What has been your most rewarding experience at NYU Tisch Grad Film so far?
To live among such an inspiring group of people: my beloved classmates and faculty. They really make me believe the monster under my bed can be tamed.