Why I Write

    Storytelling has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was eight, I wrote an action pseudo-blog series in a Power Rangers Facebook fan group and uploaded new episodes every chance I got. That was also where I got my first haters, and surprisingly, some fans, and it taught me about how storytelling, of any kind, can be used to reach and connect with people. That's my earliest memory of writing, and since then, I've never stopped. I've never wanted to stop, and, after so many years, I have no intentions of doing so. Ironically, though, I've never been much of a reader. It's often impossible for me to get through a whole book (willingly) without my mind wandering somewhere else and dropping it after a couple of chapters; so when I started using screenwriting as an alternative to novel writing, I became enamored. A way to tell and consume great stories without having to flip through hundreds of black and white pages? Sign me up!

    My name is Santi. I live in Florida now but I spent five years living in Montclair, New Jersey, and twelve in Lima, Peru. The most prevalent role that storytelling has played in my life has probably been giving me the ability to tell my story to any new friends I find and catch the old ones up with what's been going on in my life. As per advice from my best friends, Ryan and Marcela, I totally plan to write a TV show about my life. A "thirteen 45-minute episodes Netflix series" as they put it, but even though it sounds fun, it's far from my dream project.

   

    Every film instructor I've had has always said "write what you know", and lucky for me, my favorite genre is coming-of-age. Whether it is a fantasy epic set in space or a high school comedy-drama, I always love writing stories about young characters finding themselves and going through events that define who they are. If there's one thing that absolutely everybody has in common is that we all are, or have been, young; being young is silly and fun but also intense and dramatic, and that's the kind of field I like to work in.

    Directors like Edgar Wright and Greta Gerwig are some of my favorites because they know how to explore the fun and drama of being young. They do well in capturing emotion without forgetting about the good times. I want to make stories that will hit other people's hearts as much as films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World or Lady Bird hit mine. That is what I want to show in this portfolio, that I am capable of writing stories that I believe need to be told in a way that people will want to see them.