Vanessa Alzate
Vanessa Alzate was born and raised in New York City. Over the years, she has explored multiple genres of media, such as Documentaries, Music Videos, Experimental, and Fictional Narratives. A common theme found in her projects is giving her subjects a voice. Alzate’s documentary Taking Life One Beat at a Time profiled a high school music teacher dedicated to helping artists find their passion. An experimental short, A Rose, explores the artistic journey of a young woman who is closed off to the idea of love and one day opens her heart to another woman. As an artist, Alzate has always had a passion for visual storytelling. From a young age, she explored digital and film photography, video editing, and screenwriting and then found a passion along the way, cinematography. Spring of 2022, she worked as the Director of Photography on a hybrid live-action short Walking in Place, exploring dissociative disorder. This film is currently being submitted to the festival circuit. Vanessa Alzate’s current project is a Capstone Student Film Break Free, a mental health awareness narrative about a young woman troubled by her mind and who feels detached from everyone around her including herself. This film is scheduled to premiere at the Fifth Floor Film Festival on May 16, 2023.
Artist Statement
Growing up in a traditional Hispanic household, I have been restricted and yet empowered.
I came from a family who didn’t know how to identify and handle mental health issues present in their children, because in their culture it was seen as a weakness. From a young age, I struggled with mental health, and for a time it held me back from being who I want to be. There were times I felt alone, living in the traditional stigma that I needed to be normal. Getting older, I realized I didn’t have a role model, so I decided to become my own. I looked up to myself and from that moment, I aspired to be the best version of myself. This inspired my ambition for creating art. Art was my escape from my dysfunctional world. I found hope and the strength to overcome my hardships from film and accept who I am. Seeing characters pushed into a corner and forced to overcome their struggles and find happiness inspired me to do the same. Creating art is my passion and I want to be able to show the world. My medium of art is film. Being able to tell a story through my perspective and my lens, and to have the opportunity to give hope, or even give strength to someone else is all I ever wanted. Art is powerful. I want my art to help someone, the same way it helped me. My whole life I felt pushed into a corner. Now is the time to overcome my struggles and be able to create something beautiful.