A scene from Summer of Goliath. | Photo courtesy of Nicolas Pereda.Photo courtesy of Nicolas Pereda.

Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts will soon add to Vancouver’s film pedigree by welcoming a filmmaking talent to their faculty. Nicolas Pereda, 32, a Mexican film director and writer, will join SFU as an assistant professor. With five feature films to his credits, Pereda’s work has been shown in prestigious festivals worldwide, including the Venice Film Festival. There, he was awarded the 2010 Orrizonti Award for Best Film for his latest feature, Summer of Goliath.

Pereda was born in Mexico City in 1982. Intent on studying arts, he moved to Toronto at the age of 19 to attend York University, where he settled on film as his principal mode of storytelling. He left York with a Master of Fine Arts, and later found himself as a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. Despite his wanderings, Pereda has remained faithful to his first home. Almost all of his films are set in the lushness of Mexico, and his scripts are usually in Spanish.

“It just feels natural to make films in a country, in a culture where I grew up, and also in my first language. It’s also that I met a group of people that I like working with, and they happen to be in Mexico,” says Pereda.

Pereda with his cast on the set of Summer of Goliath. | Photo courtesy of Nicolas Pereda.

Bringing the story back to the people
While it is difficult to live and work in different places, he finds excitement in meeting new faces, and learning radically different cultures. Perhaps it’s this wealth of exposure that feeds into his style of filmmaking. His work is known for steep human interaction, and the intimacy of family structures and communities. It’s centered on his fascination with social issues, family dynamics and power relations. Despite the complexity of the subject matters, he confesses he presents them without a concrete agenda, citing his interest in their ambiguity.

Agenda or not, he certainly has found success with his methods. His films have had audiences not only from Mexico, but in Toronto, Rotterdam, Venice and Jeonju as well. The most notable film is his latest, Summer of Goliath, and it may be his most haunting.

“It is a film that presents a kind of violence that I think anybody can relate to, and [is] at the same time, difficult to define. For example, I interview a child who supposedly killed his girlfriend. There are several layers of violence in the scene: First, the killing, second, the other kids who don’t believe his innocence, and third, the director, myself, who puts kids in a very difficult position,” says the young filmmaker.

Returning to the classroom

Nicolas Pereda will be an Assistant Professor at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. | Photo courtesy of Nicolas Pereda.

The importance of formal education isn’t lost on Pereda, and he credits academia for his ongoing film education; classrooms are safe environments to critique and analyze others’ work. Therefore, with his new responsibilities as an assistant professor at SFU, he’s determined to bring out the voice of his students.

But rousing students’ minds won’t be the only activity keeping him busy in our city. Pereda already has plans for new projects.

“I’m working on two films about domestic labour in Mexico City. I’ll spend the next semester in Vancouver writing them,” he says.

While Vancouver plays host to a growing number of films, it nonetheless remains competitive and crowded, often leaving young artists discouraged. He has this advice for any aspiring filmmaker:

“Experiment. Filmmaking is probably the most conservative art form. It would be nice if young people broke from traditional forms and developed new and/or interesting film languages.”

Nicolás Pereda joins SFU this fall. For more information, visit www.sfu.ca/sca/about/news.

For details on Summer of Goliath, visit www.fandor.com/films/summer_of_goliath.