It wasn\u2019t the first time I had stood in front of a class to teach, but it was the first time a group of university students sat down in front of me to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let\u2019s start at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It happened at the Panamerican University of Guatemala, in the capital.
I had traveled from Uruguay to direct an audiovisual production. Just a couple of days before the shoot, I learned that the producer had arranged something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Israel, I just spoke to the university.
\u2014University?
\u2014Yes. The students are in the middle of exams, but they said we can still make it happen.
\u2014Make what happen? Which university? I have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.
\u2014The dean saw one of your short films and liked it.
\u2014Oh, great. And?
\u2014He thought it would be a good idea for you to teach a class there.
\u2014A what?
\u2014A masterclass.
\u2014But which short did you show him?
\u2014The one where a guy is having breakfast at a caf\u00e9 and a waitress shows up with a mysterious box.
\u2014Oh\u2026 the absurd comedy.
\u2014That\u2019s the one.
\u2014And when would this class be?
\u2014Tomorrow.
\u2014WHAT?!
\u2014Tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That afternoon I put together my \u201cmasterclass\u201d: The Art of Storytelling<\/em>. When I arrived at Universidad Panamericana, a welcome breakfast was waiting for me. I started with a question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Who has a professional camera?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone raised a hand except one student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Who already knows how to make a short film?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every hand went up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Who has made five short films?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Four? Three? Two?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only a few hands went up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was when I realized I needed to focus on the importance of starting with the resources at hand. The greatest risk for many who know \u2018everything\u2019 is not giving themselves permission to try when the path ahead doesn\u2019t look ideal. Not taking the leap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As soon as I left, I began thinking about the experience. I had come prepared to talk about how to make a film. We ended up talking about finding the courage to make one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel Mirenda<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It happened at the Panamerican University of Guatemala, in the capital. I had traveled from Uruguay to direct an audiovisual production\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelmirenda.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It was all very sudden, but a wonderful challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The room was full of students from every year: some just starting out, others about to graduate. And a few professors, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n