Francis Luta is a Canadian filmmaker, born in the Philippines. He was a graphic designer in Toronto Canada before moving to Germany to work as an installation artist intern for art duo GodsDogs. During this time he worked two part-time jobs as an art director for Michael Janssen and Loop Raum. A year later he was back in Toronto, exhibiting his first-ever solo art show Trichophilia in 2011. His colorful career continued with as the art director and curator for Eastern European art gallery Bezpala Brown before shifting his attention to videography. His film credits include ‘Seeing’ in 2014, produced by Oscar-winning cinema lens company Cooke Optics and ‘The Hammer Band: Music Child’, which won Best Music Video at the Toronto Short Film Festival. Since then he’s worked on several projects. His most recent is the feature-length documentary Alone Across the Arctic. It will make its official release on Apple TV+’s Earth Day lineup and is set to stream on April 21st. We had the pleasure to speak about the film and his career to date.
You have a very diverse resume which includes being originally trained as a graphic designer, moving to Berlin to work as an installation artist and an art gallery art director, to becoming a videographer. Can you tell us about your journey into filmmaking?
I’ve always been curious about filmmaking as early as 10 years old and I had it at the back of my mind as I was pursuing the arts and design. I also worked and collaborated with different types of artists for a collective that I founded called ‘Powerhaus’. I curated a group show for us to showcase works from our respective mediums under one theme. Some created oil paintings, acrylic, collage work, sculptures, musical performance, and contemporary dance. I took that opportunity to explore video work and framed it as a short film. That’s where it all starts—short films. I took everything I learned up to that point and put it into moving pictures. No matter how you get it done, for example, my first scripted “short film” was shot with a VHS camcorder. After that, the journey didn’t start until I made the conscious decision to follow the filmmaking path and set aside everything else.
In 2015 You directed a short documentary The Hammer Band: Music Child which won Best Music Video at the Toronto Short Film Festival. Please share your experience working on this project and how it impacted on your career.
While I was working as an art director for Bezpala Brown Gallery, I met world-renowned violinist Moshe Hammer. He was somehow affiliated with the owners of the gallery and we became friendly. The creative wheels started turning and I pitched the idea to Moshe about a short film idea about the organization he founded ‘The Hammer Band’ —which brought children and youth from troubled neighborhoods under its wings of musical respite. Professional musicians banded with Moshe to teach the children how to play classical instruments and each year they would perform to a crowd of happy and hopeful families from communities that have been exposed to gun violence in the past. It was a rewarding experience to work with Moshe Hammer, the promising young children, alongside my partner Jeremy Benning on this project and I hope to re-visit this one day to see where they are all at.
What’s your approach to filmmaking and how do you decide which projects to work on?
The beauty (and scary thing) about freelance filmmaking and being an artist is I get to choose and create the projects I commit to. It’s not always lucrative so that’s where you need a side hustle to feed your true passion. My approach is like journalism. It’s investigative, lots of research, collecting data and footage.
Please tell us more about Alone Across the Arctic and how you got involved with this project.
Alone Across The Arctic is a modern-day explorer’s greatest feat. It’s about the test of the human spirit and stamina. It’s about setting a goal for yourself and tackling them. It’s about doing something to the very best of your ability when you feel you are at your prime. Adam Shoalts, The Explorer, invited me to make this film after we had successfully made a short film together in 2015 entitled ‘Explorer’.
What was your approach in the making of this film and how did it differ from previous projects?
My approach is the same as any creative projects I involve myself with: Go fully in, stay consistent in my vision but with a collaborative nature, become a bit of a journalist, research the subject and the surrounding topics, line all my ducks in a row first and then have fun with it and let the artist in me burst out like it’s the last thing I do.
What other projects are you currently working on?
My rowing enthusiast sister Jo introduced me to her friend who is part of a team of women who would be the first to ever cross the Atlantic ocean. Depending on what happens with this pandemic, that could be the next adventure project I will tackle. I am open for more things to come my way so bring it on!
Where can our readers find out more about you?
Alone Across The Arctic STREAMING
Alone Across The Arctic THEATRICAL
Alone Across The Arctic INSTAGRAM
My work: https://vimeo.com/francisluta
https://www.picturehausfilms.com/
My IG: http://instagram.com/francislutaI
Images courtesy of ProjectFourPR, Photo Credit: Hill Peppard
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