Aaron Soto

Aaron Soto was born on February 10, 1972 His parents had a diverse cultural background, his father, Jorge Soto Fuentes, arrived at the border with experience in journalism and publicity, but more than a communication expert, he was a con artist at heart. Aaron Soto grew up listening to different tales from Mexico City, from the cinematographic learning that his father had in film school with teacher Luis Buñuel. With a family of 9 children, Soto's parents didn't have the opportunity to teach cultural activities to their son, even tough Aaron had showed since little, his creative side by drawing, writing and dancing. Therefore, Soto found by him self, in the bookshelves of his house, fantasy, metaphysical, esoteric Literature and a great variety of books about film. In that time, he found a book that would leave him amazed, it was the adaptation of the script of " El Topo" from Alejandro Jodorowsky; Soto was only 7 years old and such an eccentric tale was far from his understanding but that book and the conceptual music of the 70's that his brothers listened like David Bowie, Pink Floyd or Led Zepellin helped him get the knowledge that in the media there was something more: Art. Thanks to the border with the US, and as a member of the TV generation, Soto grew up watching all kinds of programming in his living room. He experienced the mixed culture from both worlds with weekend b-movies marathons, to Bruce Lee movie series in the American channels; from the weekly show of "Chespirito" comedy hour, to "El Santo" wrestling movies in the Mexican local channels, but it was in the 80's near his adolescence that Soto found his true passion: Horror films. In the Hollywood era of "slashers" and Spielberg fantasy, Soto found in the local video stores, another side of the movies that lacked exhibition, one of them, the spaghetti zombie "The Gates of Hell" by Lucio Fulci. So strong was the impact on him, that he soon became an expert in genre cinema, and by the age of 15, he had already gathered a huge collection of VHS movies. It was then that he started to experiment with all kinds of domestic cameras, VHS, super VHS, hi super 8 and 8. Soon he would start having ideas and writing screenplays to produce in the future, he wrote everything in old notebooks, studying, acquiring magazines, books, and movies from across the border. By the time he reached the age of 18, he had a great amount of projects under his sleeve. In 1998, he decided to register in the only cinema workshop available in all the Baja California state , a course supported by Conaculta/Cecut. His intention was to obtain the equipment, orientation and to meet people like him, but in the first class he noticed that the teacher had no idea who David Lynch was; Soto realized that he had to continue being his own teacher until he could pay for Film School in California or in Mexico City. But when he applied to the Communications Career at the University of Baja California, his admission was rejected! This was a sign for Soto, so he invested the money in buying a regular digital camera and producing his first short film; so after making two short films without formal instruction, the advice of a friend push him to cross the border into the United States and to try to apply in the Telemedia department in Southwestern College in San Diego California. In 2000, with a pair of trailers that Soto had made at home, he was accepted immediately in South Western College, San Diego. Once inside, he had the opportunity to learn the new digital technology and edit 3 of his short films, while filming in Tijuana the weekends and editing in US the rest of the week, he was able to make it by working on occasional adds for local TV, or working as a food vendor across the border. Between all this, "Omega Shell" was born, the sci-fi short film made with a 200 dollar budget, that would become a classic of the Tijuana/San Diego border film scene, obtaining a cult status years after. "Omega Shell" clearly showed the influences that Soto had from the movies he grew up watching like the frenetic energy of Sam Raimi, or the organic interests of David Cronenberg, the panic images of Jodorowsky and the Cyberpunk force of Shynia Tsukamoto, the interest for these subjects led to a surprise recognition by the critics and festivals in both sides of the border. Soto's career had begun. The expert in genre cinema and film critic for KPBS, Beth Accomando, called "Omega Shell" "the most innovative short in years", this would catch the public and media attention; soon, Soto had exhibitions in important museums of south California, including in the Jolla Museum of Contemporary Arts and in the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego; he also won the Experimental VideoFest in Mexico and was officially selected in the Latin American Film Festival in La Havana Cuba, his work was transmitted by Fox TV, published in The Independent Magazine, The Visual Arts Foundation in Bestfest 01, San Diego Film Critics Society and more. In 2002, world's best music director, and avant-garde visionary Mark Romanek called Omega Shell "the best short film from the young work I've seen" . With this, the self-taught Soto had proven that the future of movies in Mexico, would come from the province and that film school only worked like a manual for scholars but it wasn't a guide for art and creativity. After the success of "Omega Shell" he continued with two experiments in genre cinema, "Before The Cradle" and "Forgotten City", he was noticing the little attention for the film directors of the border in his own city, so he started to work supporting other film makers who had to make way for them selves as he did by creating a series of presentations of independent filmmaking in both Sides of the border, something that was only possible for the institutionalized or academic scholars of the system. Soto's idea was "Cinema inc.", an event that showed the quality of the short filmmakers that lacked the support from an organization, with no attention, or connection to the system, just a casual event, far from trying to be a festival, and without aims of profit. In 2002, with great success, the forum "Gallery Now" in Lemon Grove California, hosted the debut of "Cinema Inc., an evening of independent video and film", with an attendance of 500 people. From thereon, Cinema Inc. had an impressive series of presentations including in Ensenada, Mexico DF, Mexicali, Los Angeles, San Diego and of course, Tijuana, successfully showing to date more than 40 short films from various artists of the region, mostly from self-taught artists. By 2004 Cinema inc. continued with its success by having several exhibitions, including " A night of horror short films from the border " and the acclaimed series: "Women on the verge of a film breakdown" at the Media Arts Center in San Diego. In 2003 been a great fan of genre cinema, Soto stared a weekly screenings of sub-genre movies on the Tijuana Cultural Center (Cecut), he introduced for more then 2 years cult classics and bizarre cinema form around the world, such as Eurotrash, gore, giallo, J horror, midnight movies and more. Then he have the premiere of his nunsploitation short "Ashes" in La casa de la Cultura, with 500 people in attendance, afterwards Soto got his first contract for a feature film for straight to video distribution, but at the end of the shooting he's art was compromised and he sold his masters to save his name. "This is not my film anymore, i don't want my name in it"- Soto comments. In 2004, Soto went from being a genre short filmmaker to a mainstream hit with his short "33 1/2", obtaining multiple recognitions and national awards in Mexico, including a Special Jury Award in the International Morelia Film Festival and winner for Best short film fiction at the National VideoFest 04. Also, Soto edited his short film "Panic Interview" based on its dreamed encounter with Alejandro Jodorowsky, the man who inspired him as a child, and with whom he maintains casual communication. "That was my dream come true" - Soto comments. Since then, Soto focused in collaborating in different projects with multidisciplinary artists from the border: the music video "Ulysses" from "Murcof", the acclaimed "Nortec", musician, Fernando Corona, plus the production of different visual projects, most of the time supporting gratuitously with its own equipment, like the video "Blue" from famous rock band A Perfect Circle directed by Tj's own Joseph Perez, assisting in the audio mix for "Poly-Ester" by Teri Carson, an official selected artist of the Telluroid Film Festival, and editing and photographing the short film "Color Drip" of Tijuana's producer Cathy Alberich, selected at the National VideoFest 04, whom witch he started a working partnership and evolved as his partner in life.