Felipe Bustos Sierra Explained

Felipe Bustos Sierra
Occupation:Film director, producer and editor
Years Active:2010-present

Felipe Bustos Sierra is a Chilean-Belgian film director, producer and editor based in Scotland.[1] His debut feature-length documentary, Nae Pasaran (2018), won the Best Feature award at the 2018 British Academy Scotland Awards, where Bustos Sierra was also nominated for Best Director (Factual).[2] Bustos Sierra is also the founder and creative director of Debasers Filums, an independent film company based in Edinburgh and Glasgow.[3]

Early life

Bustos Sierra is the son of a Chilean journalist who was exiled to Belgium after the 1973 coup d'état.[4] As a child growing up in Brussels, Bustos Sierra attended Chilean solidarity meetings, where he first encountered the stories of Scottish Rolls-Royce plant workers in East Kilbride who, in solidarity with the people of Chile, boycotted servicing the country's fighter jets following the military coup. These stories formed the subject of Bustos Sierra's first feature film, Nae Pasaran.

Bustos Sierra is an alumnus of the Eurodoc, Berlinale Talent Campus, the Independent Filmmaker Programme, and the EIFF Talent Lab.

Career

In 2010, Bustos Sierra founded the independent film company Debasers Filums in Edinburgh, Scotland. One of his early short films, Three-Legged Horses (2012), is based on his experiences as a rickshaw driver in Edinburgh.[5] The film was the first successfully crowdfunded film project in Scotland and went on to screen at over 100 international film festivals, on five continents, winning four awards.[6]

Bustos Sierra was commissioned by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap scheme to make Nae Pasaran as a short film in 2013.[7] In March 2015, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to turn Nae Pasaran into a feature-length film.[8] The resulting documentary received critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards in 2018.[9] Bustos Sierra tells the story of the Scots workers who defied Pinochet from the Scottish side, and, following five months of research in Chile, from Chileans—both oppressors and oppressed.[10]

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorProducer
2010Tixeon (short)
2012Three-Legged Horses (short)
2012Five Six Seven Eight! (short)
2013Nae Pasaran (short)
2018Nae Pasaran
[11]

References

  1. Web site: Felipe Bustos Sierra - Director/Producer. 2018-06-01. NAE PASARAN. en-GB. 2019-06-20.
  2. Web site: British Academy Scotland Awards 2018: Winners Announced. 2018-11-04. www.bafta.org. en. 2019-06-20.
  3. Web site: Debasers Filums - Uplifting Scottish Films. www.debasers.co.uk. 2019-06-20.
  4. News: On your way, Pinochet! The factory workers who fought fascism from Glasgow. Gilbey. Ryan. 2018-11-01. The Guardian. 2019-06-20. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  5. Web site: Interview with Felipe Bustos Sierra. Lawer. Gosia. 2014-03-17. B:Loft. en-US. 2019-06-20.
  6. Web site: 2018-06-01. Felipe Bustos Sierra - Director/Producer. 2021-07-31. NAE PASARAN. en-GB.
  7. Web site: Nae Pasaran - Feature. Scottish Documentary Institute. en-GB. 2019-06-20.
  8. Web site: NAE PASARAN - an untold story of Chilean solidarity. Kickstarter. en. 2019-06-20.
  9. Web site: Nae Pasaran · BIFA · British Independent Film Awards. 2018-10-31. BIFA · British Independent Film Awards. en-GB. 2019-06-20.
  10. Web site: Nae Pasaran on how Scottish workers defied Pinochet: The Skinny. 2021-07-31. www.theskinny.co.uk. en.
  11. Web site: Debasers Filums - Uplifting Scottish Films. 2021-07-31. www.debasers.co.uk.

External links