INTERVIEW: Filmmaker Evens Angulo-Duvil heads to the Renaissance Black Film Festival
“I’m a guy who doesn’t like to wait for opportunities, I just kind of want to make it myself and then see where I can take it and wherever the chips may fall, they’re gonna fall.”
Evens Angulo-Duvil describes his latest project as, “a love letter to the Capital Region.” After receiving a grant from the Capital Region Arts Center in 2023, Evens took the opportunity to interview individuals, business owners, and agencies from Albany, Renssselaer and Troy to find out what makes Upstate New York home for them and to highlight the community overall. Evens then animated those interviews, bringing them further to life, and turned them into his film, The Aura of Upstate. The film was accepted into the Second Annual Renaissance Black Film Festival, which takes place this week, October 24-27, at the Renaissance Hotel in Albany. I spoke with Evens about his relationship to animation, the experience of developing the film, and what he hopes people will take away from the project.
Dana: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me and congratulations on getting accepted into the Renaissance Black Film Fest. When did you first receive the grant from the Arts Center?
Evens: I received the grant last August, from what I remember.
Dana: And had you already started making the film or was that sort of a passion project already or was it strictly for the grant itself?
Evens: It was strictly for the grant itself. They had given me from August to December to get the project done, and with animation being a medium that takes a lot of time, especially if you do it by yourself, it wasn’t enough time for me to make the most out of it or for it to turn out how I wanted it to. So by the time I reached December and initially presented what it was, I wasn’t happy with the outcome. I took a little bit of a break just because I was drained from working on it those three months and then I started working on some other personal passion projects. Then around September of this year I saw that the Black Renaissance Festival was holding submissions so I was like, “alright, let me go back to this project. Let me try and finish it and turn out how I want and then submit it.”
Dana: Got it. And what’s your background with animation? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Evens: Yeah, sure. Basically, I knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was ten years old. I remember watching the premiere of this cartoon show on Nickelodeon and for some reason it just resonated with me and I was like, it’s really cool how someone can have an idea in their head and now it’s shared with millions of people around the world who are watching it and I was like, that’s what I want to do.
Dana: Do you remember what the show was?
Evens: It was the most random show because it has nothing to do with the type of material I like creating or type of subject matter. It was called Fanboy & Chum Chum – it didn’t last long. I don’t know why [it resonated] because it’s not a show that stands out to me. I would never put it into one of my top favorite shows that I enjoy watching, it’s just for some reason when I was watching it, it just kind of clicked for me that that’s what it took to get it from point A to point B.
Dana: Did you go to art school or was animation something you just decided to do?
Evens: Yeah, I went to school at SUNY Fredonia, which is right outside of Buffalo, for animation and illustration with a minor in creative writing.
Dana: I also saw that in some of your descriptions for The Aura of Upstate, you say you interview people primarily about what mark they’re leaving on the community. I’d like to ask you, what do you want people to take away from the film when they see it?
Evens: To not necessarily overlook Upstate New York. I feel like any time we bring up New York, the first thing we go to is the City and everything else is kind of left to the side. I want people to take the fact that we do have a rich community of people who are at least trying to bring something to Albany.
Dana: Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m a lifelong resident of upstate New York and it definitely does feel like Albany is sometimes the butt of jokes; people say it’s “boring” or there’s nothing to do and that’s just so untrue, there’s an amazing community around here.
Evens: I will say we don’t do as good of a job at marketing what we have.
Dana: So what do you think the thing you’ve learned the most from interviewing people around the area is? What do you think you’ve gained from talking to different folks?
Evens: I definitely gained a different level of respect for Albany. Before working on this project, I lived in Upstate New York for a long time but I was kind of always in and out; I was always traveling somewhere else during the summer and during my college years I was five hours away, so I never got to really explore Albany, Troy, or Rensselaer like that. So this project kind of helped me expand my own mind as to what we have here.
Dana: What would you say are some of your favorite spots in upstate that you’ve highlighted?
Evens: I definitely loved going to Saratoga State Park, that was beautiful. I really enjoy going to any of the Collectiveffort events in Troy. They do a great job with trying to bring creatives together and it’s always good vibes, good people.
Dana: So you briefly touched on how you have some other projects that you’re working on. Do you want to shout those out at all?
Evens: Sure, I have this one project that I’ve been working on on and off again for the last seven years titled Untainted. It was a pilot series I started my freshman year of college once I finally got my hands on animation software. The dream to this day for me is to be my own showrunner. I would say I’m a guy who doesn’t like to wait for opportunities, I just kind of want to make it myself and then see where I can take it and wherever the chips may fall, they’re gonna fall. I recently finished [Untainted] a month ago and after I’m done with this festival and promoting it, I’m going to shift over to promoting that so I’m very, very excited to release that after all these years.
Dana: I mean, that’s impressive, that’s a lot of work.
Evens: (laughs) Yeah and a lot of failures, a lot of bumps in the road along the way…
Dana: So how long did The Aura of Upstate take to make? I think I saw on social media it was about a year?
Evens: Yeah, about a year. After December, I took a break from it. You know how sometimes when you work on a subject for so long that you kind of just don’t want to look at it for a little while afterwards?
Dana: Yes, absolutely.
Evens: Yeah, so it was kind of that. I took a break from art for a little bit to clear my mind and then I started working on some other projects and then I went back to it around springtime, so it was about a year of it coming into fruition.
Dana: I saw on your social media that you were making a documentary alongside the making of The Aura of Upstate, is that right?
Evens: Yes, along with the animation I was going to make a documentary following the whole journey of making the project. I had never made a documentary before, I had no idea what I was doing, but that’s something I plan on releasing as well. I’ll probably put that on my YouTube channel. It’s still in the works so it won’t be for a little while – some time next year most likely.
Dana: That’s like a project within a project.
Evens: Yeah, I was extra, for sure.
Dana: Yeah and to your point earlier, it's easy to get burned out sometimes even on projects you care about. Taking a break, I know for myself and my own creative projects, you can sometimes gain inspiration from your other pursuits and it kind of feeds everything together.
Evens: Yeah, and you learn stuff working on other projects along the way.
Dana: I think that’s a common thread for artists, you have so many ideas and you want to pursue them all.
Evens: That’s a struggle, for sure.
Dana: Can you tell me a little about who or what your artistic influences are?
Evens: I have a – this is a little segue, but I’ll divert back to your questions… — pretty soon I’m going to get my LLC for my animation studio. It’s called Daydreaming Artwork Studios and that name kind of resonates with me because I tend to daydream a lot, all the time. I get a lot of inspiration from music, for sure. Regardless of the genre, I’ll play music in the background and I’ll just think of animated scenes in my head for a project that I’ve been trying to figure out, but can’t piece it together until I listen to a song. Or I’ll get inspiration from just life, experiences, my family. I’d say I have somewhat of a diverse background and I definitely would say I get a lot of inspiration from my family, for sure. And movies now and then. I’m not a big movie watcher, just because I don’t really got the time, but whenever I do sit down to watch movies, it’s less for the storyline and more for the cinematography to help me out with shots.
Dana: So for this film you made, how many people have you interviewed so far?
Evens: I believe it’s seven people. I don’t know if you watch animated shows, but there’s this show on Netflix that it’s inspired by called The Midnight Gospel. It’s like this trippy animated show where basically it’s based off a real life podcast by a comedian named Duncan Trussell and it’s co-created by him and the creator of Adventure Time and I love that show. It’s definitely one of those shows that I wish I had the opportunity to work on. Obviously, I didn’t get the opportunity to work on it, so I kind of fed that dream by making my own version of that where I interviewed my own guests.
Dana: It sounds like you really make things happen, which I think is great. The actual film festival is right around the corner, so you must be getting pretty excited. Your film is set for October 25th, correct?
Evens: Yeah, my film is being shown on the 25th at 9:00 a.m. in the morning block.
Dana: I think we’ve made it through all my questions, if people want to find your work where can they find you?
Evens: Okay, so if they want to follow the Aura of Upstate project, they can follow that Instagram at @the_aura_of_upstate. Now, if they want to follow my other projects and my regular work, they can follow my Instagram at @daydreamingartwork_studios. My YouTube is just DayDreaming Artwork Studios.
Dana: I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me!
Evens: Of course, thank you for helping push the project out. It’s really awesome. I’ve been dreaming about just being an animator and showing my work off to people and coming to the point where people actually want to interview me, this is all really cool to me, for real.
Dana: Yes, please keep me in the loop about your other projects and things and I hope to see you around! Thanks so much.
Evens: Thank you.
Tickets for the Renaissance Black Film Festival are on sale now and can be purchased at www.blackfilmfestny.com. The festival will take place at the Renaissance Hotel located at 144 State Street in Albany, New York. The festival will run from Thursday, October 24 through Sunday, October 27.
