Aram Vidal

I've been writing since I was a child. It began as a way of understanding myself and making sense of the world around me. I wrote my first science fiction story as a teenager, and ever since I've been obsessed with the same questions: Where are we going? How will our minds evolve, and what happens when they do? OPENMIND comes out of that obsession. I'm still deeply curious about our future as a species, with all the extraordinary possibilities and all the dangers.

The starting point is usually something small: an image, a scene, a question. From there I tell the story in very few pages. Next I write a first treatment, around forty to fifty pages. Later I write the script, and then come the revisions. After a few months alone with the script, I share it with people I trust, because that's when you start to see the weak spots you're blind to. I always set a time limit to finish the script and start sharing it with producers and potential partners, because I know it will grow from that collaboration.

Inspiration comes from my own life, my dreams, something I hear or read in the news. I had the first idea for OPENMIND about six years ago. Back then a technology like this felt like pure science fiction. Today it's easy to imagine that within a few decades we may well have a comparable brain–computer interface. That frightens and amazes me in equal measure, because the mind is the most private and most powerful thing we have, and connecting it directly to AI would be a huge step. I chose to tell this story because it comes from an essential question I have. Writing a feature and then producing it can take years, so the subject has to genuinely pull at you to sustain making a film over the long run.

I'm proudest of the stories I've written independently, because they exist out of a personal need to say something. Among them I love Relevo (2014), a story told without dialogue that won Best Screenplay at Entr'2 Marches, Cannes; and El pez azul (2017), which also has a subjective style, built around the protagonist's memory. I'm also attached to my book of short stories, La gente sí se da cuenta, where I explore most of the subjects I keep returning to. In a way, those projects were the foundation for OPENMIND. I love that kind of subjective cinema, with a high level of visual poetry, where dialogue is minimal and used only when it's necessary.

Any script or film is an exercise in patience and resilience. Independent films are riskier in every sense, but they are so rewarding creatively, in terms of the freedom to express what you want. Success in this industry is always hard-won. Finishing any film is a marathon, and having one that truly connects witth a big audience is rare. This industry is almost impossible to predict, and it's better to be clear-eyed about that from the start. It's possible to find your path on it, but you need discipline. Eventually, films get made because someone keeps showing up until the work is finished.

The only way to stand out is to be truly yourself, to write about what moves you rather than what you think will sell. I've served on juries at film festivals in Mexico, and I've seen that what holds your attention among hundreds of scripts is what's singular. Writing independently is a great opportunity to play with elements that could only come from your experience and your own view of the world. Audiences also respond to what's original, especially in a landscape over-saturated with generic content. Most content today exists for only a few seconds in the memory of the audience, while great films have a long-lasting cultural effect. Producers are always looking for scripts with that long-lasting potential.

The exploration of consciousness and memory, the healing of trauma, the relationship between dreams, memory, and reality. You'll find it across all my fiction. Recursivo (2012) is a dream condemned to repeat forever. Relevo (2014) is a double sequence in which one side is real and the other a dream, and the audience has to decide which. Gato (2016) follows a patient who confuses reality with dreams. El pez azul (2017) is about the pain stored in old memories and the need to let go. And now OPENMIND is about a device that connects our minds to AI and to the network. Some characters use it to control and to censor, others to heal and to expand what they're capable of. So, there's a clear pattern in these stories, and it has everything to do with how I see the world: as a reflection of our inner life.

What excites me is that powerful production tools are now within reach of independent studios and filmmakers, in live action as well as in animation. Work that used to require the budget and the infrastructure of a major studio can now be done by a small team with a clear vision, so the gap between what you can imagine and what you can actually put on screen keeps narrowing. That's what drives me to keep developing stories I can produce myself. At the same time, the major studios are betting less and less on complex topics and stories. That leaves a wide space open, and independent studios are the ones who can fill it.

OPENMIND is the priority now. The screenplay won Best Feature Script at the East Village Film Festival in New York, and it is now beginning its festival run. We're developing it as an adult animated feature at 11:11 Film Studio, an author-driven studio based in Mexico and incorporated in the United States. OPENMIND is our flagship. In this story we follow Clara Sanatta, a historian whose husband (the creator of OM) has vanished from every record. To recover him and to protect the city's truth, she has to risk her own mind.

The script is locked, visual development is under way, and we're structuring the film as a Mexico–USA co-production, while remaining open to financing partners anywhere in the world. We're actively seeking co-producers, financing, and distribution partners. I can be reached at production@1111filmstudio.com.