Meet Jesus Andres Lugo Gomez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesus Andres Lugo Gomez.

Jesus Andres Lugo Gomez born February 7, 1987 in Leon-Guanajuato, Mexico is a film director, cinematographer, film editor and producer based in Atlanta, GA.

Andres Lugo is a Daytime Emmy award-winning filmmaker (2016), Lone Star Emmy Award Winner (2015), recipient of the Sarah Jones Legacy award (2018), film editor of Domingo, a narrative-fiction short film by Director Erika Oregel and the documentary short film Hombres de barro by Director Luis Abraham Gonzalez Rocha screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Short Film Corner section supported by the Guanajuato International Film Festival in 2017 and 2015. Co-Founder of Cine Colectivo Guanajuato A.C., a non-profit group created in 2011 in Mexico to develop workshops and laboratories on filmmaking (KINO-Labs) that allow new filmmakers to create independent short and documentaries films using small crews under the philosophy of non-competitive collaboration. This learning of making cinema in a low-budget concept has allowed him to create synergy with artists from different countries under the premise “with less is possible to do more”, collaborating in more than seventy short films in places such as Quebec, La Habana and Mexico. Since 2004 to date, his filmography represents credits such as producer, writer/director, director of photography/camera operator, editor/post-producer and actor.

In 1998, when Andres’s father taught him to play guitar and to read music, he began gaining confidence in tuning his ear and started writing and composing personal songs, years later the financial situation on his family was getting worst and his mom advised him that if he wanted to conclude high school he had to find a job. It was during the process of working as a waiter in a restaurant and finishing his studies with better grades when he felt a strong desire for drama arts.

Andres Lugo started his artistic path in parallel with his studies in English language when he applied to the Artistic Education Center (2004-2007), years later at the University Center of Theater (CUT) in Mexico City (2007), and in between his studies at the Scenic Arts Center of Leon (2007-2010) he started exploring different performing technics such as butoh dance, contemporary dance, classic dance, circus arts, and having roles as an actor in TV series, theater plays and short films.

The images coming out from a Super 8mm film projector on his childhood on his grandmother’s house was an experience that Lugo keeps as a meaningful moment, that memory came back during his studies in Communication sciences at the University De La Salle when he learned to mix different chemicals in the darkroom to create photographs. Subsequently, Lugo started combining his experience in the creation of those analogue images with the technic of the observation method that he started to develop with absolute fascination during the courses of anthropology and ethnography by his mentor Efrain Delgado.

After finishing his degree in Communication Sciences at the University De La Salle in 2014, Andres Lugo decided to move to Dallas, Texas in look for better opportunities for his professional career in the film industry. His first feature work in the United States was not on film but for television audiences, the project demanded him to create a whole second season for a nationally syndicated TV show “SuperLatina with Gaby Natale” on PBS´ Vme network for the AGANARmedia company, including eight-episodes/24-minutes-long-each. Lugo was developing an unknown craft and a challengeable path but only defending himself with the only practice that he had developed in Mexico: making short films, documentaries and his experience dealing with different cultural visions from other artists. Months later, his work as producer, co-director, cinematographer and editor started to be recognized with several awards for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences including Outstanding Entertainment Program and Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish language program that allowed him in 2017 to get a green card.

By own words of the CEO and Executive Producer of the company Andrés O. Suárez; “After Jesus Andres Lugo Gomez joined our team as an editor, photographer and camera operator, it became clear that his talents would greatly enhance the scope and quality of our work. Among many of the products our company outputs every year, the nationally syndicated TV show SuperLatina is the more demanding. Yet, shortly after coming onboard, Mr. Lugo Gomez took command of the entire 2015 season of SuperLatina, delivering what we believe is the best-looking episodes in the show’s 7-year history. Mr. Lugo Gomez has been and continues to be an invaluable asset, with a hard-to-find eye for detail and an impeccable taste as an editor. He is an outstanding filmmaker with a great future in the audiovisual arts”.

Notes on filmmaking:
In 2010, Andres Lugo finally makes his first short film under the name “Hierve” (Boiled, 2009), in which he makes a treatment about the relationship that happens in a marriage and their dysfunctionality as fear, a recurring theme in the choice on children’s games. His second short film “Prueba de acuerdos” (Proof of agreements, 2010) arises where betrayal on friendship becomes a daily pattern among young people. In 2011, the short film “Cause” is born, an audiovisual exercise that combines phrases with the reality of documented images and the pass of time that creates an effect-consequence in an inner-dialogue. Months later, the first short film developed during the first 48 hours project by Cine Colectivo Guanajuato A. C. is executed, “Saved (seguir viviendo)” (2011), a film that works based on the irony in which different signals are presented to a retired teacher from being stuck in nicotine and his constantly struggle to end his life.

“Principio de Nirvana” (The principle of Nirvana, 2011), a film about “trust” in estrangers and how an incapacity to learn about a Sigmund Freud´s theory becomes a skill. “Silvio” (2011), is a film produced in La Habana, Cuba during the KinoCuba movement based in a real story that addresses the constant struggle that a mother and father have to help their son to keep him with life. “Épreuve de foi (Proof of faith, 2012) produced in Québec, Canada by KINOMADA and his founder Yannick Nolin, is a film about “lost and recovery” that explores the meaning of the angst after having committed wrong decisions. In 2014-2020, “Del recuerdo me valgo para llegar a casa” (Memories from home) a documentary short film that explores loneliness as a form of love in adulthood (produced by Kinomada and Durango, Mexico government). “Fearless” (2019-2020) is a documentary short film in a stage of production. “Indocumentada” (Undocumented, 2019-2020) his first feature film. A film that´s born from nightmares, testimonies and real events. A film that finds the characters in deepest vulnerability, exploring the concept of love with a character struggling between doing the right thing or honoring his duty.

Andres Lugo is based in Atlanta Georgia and what he loves the most is the diversity of talent on different areas in the city, the networking events, filmmaking workshops, the film industry community, the different locations as source of inspiration to tell stories, and the most important: the Kodak film laboratory and Mr. Michael Brown and his team preserving the use of film and helping us as filmmakers to learn more about the craft.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it hasn’t. I can totally say that it hasn’t been an easy road but to be honest I think that the only way to keep ourselves alive and with the capacity of preserving reality and being humble in any stage that we are and to be in loved of what it belongs to us is by being constantly challenged during the process, never losing the curiosity that we as human beings receive as a gift in the moment of being born, that day will become the loss of curse.

Many of the struggles that I start with was the language, I was born in Leon-Guanajuato, Mexico and I took a course in English language before going to college for a whole year and when I came to United States it seemed like I didn’t know anything, I had to start studying the language again and I can say it was a constant battle. I remember when I was taking directions by my producers in Dallas, Texas for my first real job, they are from Argentina but the first days they were talking to me in English after the interview and I didn’t want to show myself that the language was one of my weaknesses, I was also being tested for the job and the first task was to develop content for television audiences, creating a whole second season for a TV Show including eight episodes/24 minutes long each so I couldn’t afford myself to give up. There have been many similar scenarios like these, but I see them as a proof of the real path in our lives, being constantly confronted to become better in our crafts, better human beings and better with what we do.

Alright – so let’s talk business. What else should we know about you and your career so far?
My production company is still in development and it is being built in parallel with my first feature film, what I want my business to be focus on is on helping other filmmakers to develop their projects and producing feature films and documentaries.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To be alive is already a success, to have a family that loves me is a fortune. To have God next to me in any moment of struggle is my best accomplishment. To be in love, to be surprised for little details. To feel pain, angst, doubt, sadness that make me realize every day that I’m human.

Every personal goal accomplished for minimal that this could be is an intimate success, but the seed of something bigger that is in process of development. Success is an ephemeral word that disappear at the moment of having it, as fast as the blink in an eye. Success is a personal intimate reward that we only know when it happens, but when success comes to visit our doors we need to be aware that something powerful will be coming for us and probably hitting us strongly so we need to be in constant training of our craft, of our minds and values to be able to confront it and to be ready probably for another success.

It´s very important to make mistakes and learning from them. It’s necessary to allow ourselves to feel and to be curious for everything. It´s more meaningful to fail than winning, we need to understand that we are humans and we are in constant growth so if we didn’t try we are not going to be able to experience, to learn, to know, to think… so my criteria is always taking risks and jumping into the unknown to understand more better the already known.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm6016284?ref_=hm_nv_mp_profile
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_andres_lugo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andreslugomexicanfilmmakers/

Image Credit:
Personal photo by Monique Morales, In the snow by Lester Harbert and KINOMADA, BTS short film Indocumentada by Alexander Pineros, working on Sony Venice camera by Kyle Ference, Andres carrying his Emmy by Hector Torres

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