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Take a Peak: Claudia Medina

Visual artist expands horizons
Claudia Medina
Claudia Medina

Claudia Media is a noted Powell River filmmaker and visual artist also known for her social activism and advocacy. Medina’s inspiration for making films originally came from her family’s Mexican and Italian cultural tradition and her connection to her heritage. Medina is also exploring visual installation and will present a show called Future Forests: An Audiovisual Immersive Experience, with Megan Dulcie Dill at Space Gallery during Blackberry Festival.

What makes a good documentary film?
It has to have a compelling story and good characters; people who you want to connect with so you feel a strong relationship to them.

Who are your influences?
My first love is fiction, so I love making fiction films; but they are a lot bigger and more involved process. My influences are definitely people like Nettie Wild, who is probably one of the best filmmakers out there. Alanis Obomsawin, who is a Mohawk filmmaker, is also brilliant. On a fictional level, I love the work of Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky and Alejandro Jodorowsky; that kind of mystical yet visceral, almost magical style.

What films are you working on now?
I have two films waiting and gestating for me, and I’ve always wanted to make a fiction film here in Powell River because I’ve made them elsewhere. I’ve made them in Mexico, Italy and Vancouver, but I haven’t made a fiction film here. I’m trying to build a story that would fit into this place and what my relationship to this place is.

Tell us about your installation at Blackberry Festival.
It’s something that I’m starting to explore more and more, which is basically creating immersive spaces with video and sound. A lot of them have to do with ecological connection and the idea of how we are related and how we understand ourselves related to ecology. The idea is to create spaces that envelop you with digital materials, like a narrative with a beginning, middle and end.

For more information, go to enmedia.ca.