I actually dropped out of school like when I was 15 years old. I didn’t like school and I left and decided I wanted to make movies right before I left school, that was what I decided. And so, on my own I studied for many years from when I — well, from 15 to 18, 19, about that age I guess, while I was saving money to make some short films. And then I always had this — I knew of this film school in Cuba, that was founded by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and some other Latin American artists and intellectuals. And many filmmakers went there to teach and things like that. And what I did was I went for only a summer workshop, but it was the only — I consider it the only real academic teaching I had before making movies. And it was really — I was used to really not liking school and not liking teachers and not liking that system, and there I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the process of this workshop and the teacher, this documentary filmmaker woman, Belkis Vega. It was actually a documentary filmmaking workshop, because I wanted to make documentaries before deciding on fiction completely.

And it was really interesting for me, and I — I met a few people that have been kind of key people in my life, to later be able to make the films that I ended up making so far. And I think that’s probably one of the strong things about school, is who you meet I guess, the friends that you make there. And if it’s a stimulating process, it’s a plus, a big plus, but in general, I just learned on my own really, reading books and watching many movies for many years, at least one movie a day for many years. ((Self Financing)) That was my diet let’s say. And that’s how I was basically — it was basically a self taught thing to make movies. ((One Foot In History))