Biography

Marcos Villaseñor (Mexico City, 1979) developed from an early age a deep interest in film that would mark most of his life. As a teenager, he strived to see as many classic and important films as possible—in a country very much dominated by American industrial cinema—and to learn the basics of the craft out of as many courses as he could find—in a country that produced only a handful films a year. In doing so he developed a profound sense of respect for those who understood and furthered the cinematic medium and was fortunate enough to be learn under important figures in Mexican cinema like screenwriters Guillermo Arriaga, Eliseo Diego, and Beatriz Novaro, and director José Luis García Agraz. After finishing high school, Marcos Villaseñor went on to obtain an undergraduate degree on Communication Sciences and Media Studies from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (which he completed with the best average of his class). While studying there, he wrote, directed and edited a number of short films, both in film and video. Interested in the growing importance of video technology as an instrument of filmmaking and in the enormous possibilities of compositing as a narrative tool, he moved to Milan, Italy, to study a three-year, specialization course on Video Design (that he again completed with excellence). There, he experimented with video art—his work was part of the collective exhibition Collegare on December of 2006 in Milan—, music video, new marketing tools such as “book-trailers” and “virals”, and non-narrative structures, while also producing a series of short films. As his thesis project, he undertook the production of the feature film “I migliori sentimenti”. He currently lives in Mexico City, where he alternates directing commercial projects for Contenido Neto (which he co-owns), teaching at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos and the Universidad Iberoamericana, and pre-production of his next feature film.