Irene Mercadal Albornoz
“ON YOUR RADAR” IS A WEEKLY GRAD FILM NEWS SEGMENT THAT FEATURES A STUDENT PICKED AT RANDOM.
IRENE IS CURRENTLY A 3RD YEAR STUDENT AT GRAD FILM. WE ASKED HER A FEW QUESTIONS, AND HERE’S WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY:
Where do you consider home and what is it like there?
Home for me is Chile. I love living in NY, but I’ll always miss Chile. My version of Chile includes mountains and rockclimbing, swimming in a lake near my hometown, moving by bike in Santiago (and the city’s incredible music scene), the fearless Chilean people who are not afraid of change, and speaking in Chilean Spanish -what a pleasure it is to speak your native language.
What is currently inspiring you as a filmmaker?
Literature. Being so much at home has meant it’s hard to get your senses on many art forms, and in general, on activities that feed the soul. So I’ve been reading a lot, especially literature. The explorations and variations of the form you find in novels and shorts are really exciting: it’s such an old form and there are masterpieces in such a huge spectrum of genres and styles. As a filmmaker, it makes you want to experiment and push the boundaries.
What has been your most rewarding experience at NYU Tisch Grad Film so far?
I will always remember kindly our MOS shoots. It was such an exciting time. I shot on film for the first time, and we faced some crazy challenges with the freedom of the one who doesn’t know enough yet to fear any limitations.
That said, each project at NYU has been a beautiful process on its own. Second year production period was a very rewarding experience because you work on so many different films, you learn a ton, and you get to know and grow closer to so many amazing people. And my spring narrative crew was the sweetest -some people called us “the chill crew”. Definitely staying within my thoughts.
I’ll always be looking forward to more projects with all these incredible people I got to be classmates with!