 My favorite thing about these interviews is learning something new about amazing people in my life. Maya is someone I've always admired. Her work through Form Follows Function is beautiful. I love her ability to tell stories through film. I'll let her words speak for themselves! Name(s) Maya Santos Affiliations (arts org, fun things you do, etc) : FORM follows FUNCTION, creative director & founder FORM follows FUNCTION http://fffmedia.com/ FIELDWORK https://www.facebook.com/fieldworkla SOUL IN THE PARK http://www.soulinthepark.com/ I like to bike, draw, paint watercolor... meditate, space out..... I like space and making space experiential. I like architecture and architecture history, visualizing how places were in the past and seeing what's possible in the future. I like music of all kinds, sounds where I can hear soul. I like seeing and experiencing art...gravitating toward what resonates. I like to conceptualize projects with people, and to connect people with people who have could potentially collaborate together. I like graphic design, people watching, movie watching, traveling, and dreaming, especially remembering dreams.  What's the one word you are guilty of using too much? netflix. How did you end up doing what you are doing now? My background is in architecture. I graduated with a B.Arch and B.S in Architectural Studies, worked in the field for a few years and got bored. Have always loved to shoot video and document life around me. Also enjoyed dabbling in multi-media installation. Learned how to edit on an analog 3/4" system and made a documentary on Filipino turntablists with my crew isangmahal back in Seattle. Years later in the Bay, learned how to edit digitally and made a short abstract piece that made it in some film festivals. That piece helped me get a job in a documentary studio in LA, called Sustainable Media Studio. I became Lead Editor there and had the opportunity to direct and co-direct my first short documentaries about places; "BUILDING A" was about the historic restoration and rehabilitation of a building at Trade Tech Community College, and "A CONVERSATION" was about the MLK Library at City College as told by Dorothy, a Librarian who worked there for over 30 years. After that particular piece got in a few film festivals, I soon realized that my education in Architecture did not go to waste and that I had knack for making short films about places through the perspectives of people who use them. Focusing on this angle really resonated with me because 1) I've always wanted to use architecture as a means to help empower people, especially marginalized people with a voice in how they see the places in which they live, and I've always wanted to support their visions of how to make the built environment more enjoyable and useful. 2) Making short films highlighting people's experiences, stories, memories, visions about the places around them can help create more awareness about the places around us all, AND can help people learn more about one another. This can only help in the process of breaking down barriers. 3) The relationship between people and their environment constantly creates place and because everything changes, places constantly change. In telling the story of one place, so many stories and lessons emerge because of all the energy that intersects there throughout time. Sharing stories of one place can reveal how that place is evolving and reflect how people are evolving in the way they use it. Exploring these relationships really is fascinating to me, which is why FORM follows FUNCTION was founded in 2011. It is an open collaborative studio dedicated to creating media about places. By being collaborative, we are open to working with anyone who wants to tell a unique story about a place, whether it be about the architecture or landscaping, or your grandmother who lived and worked there for many years, or about people coming together to create a community garden there, and in the case of THE COTABATO SESSIONS, about the music and art that originated from the land there and is still alive...all of these elements and more is what creates a place. FORM follows FUNCTION is interested in supporting the dialogue about place in this way through media. shameless plug: fffmedia.com ... thanks for the support guys! Which member of the Wu-Tang Clan best describes your personality? ummm...not really sure I know them all well enough to say, but I was a fan of Method Man or at least he was memorable to me. So maybe that is something. Dogs or Cats, who wins? Why? DOGS all day...I'm deathly allergic to cats though they are intriguing ;) What is the best part of any given day for you? Early morning before dawn, in my second dream....usually very vivid and sometimes lucid. In a zombie apocalypse who would you want on your survival team? the one with the master plan.  What is the last thing you searched for on google? to be honest, wu-tang clan...but before that "Where or When" by Peggy Lee on youtube. If you could talk to your high school self, what would say? discipline yo self girl! it will help you in the long run! What is the best thing or meal you ever ate? When I ate meat, adobo, was my favorite meal ever. Now as a vegetarian, I long for anything close. What is a memorable project that you are working on or have worked on? THE COTABATO SESSIONS was like a dream seriously. First of all, I've always wanted to shoot outside of the country...and to be able to go to the motherland and to shoot with talented cinematographer and friend there, Ruelo Lozendo was just perfect. To be in the country side of Mindanao (where a lot of people were telling me not to go), was really the one of the most peaceful places I've ever felt. The production itself had a lot of unknowns, but the combination of Joel Quizon, Susie Ibarra and her husband Roberto, Master Danny Kalanduyan along with the entire Kalanduyan family, and local sound crew there, it seemed that nothing was stopping this project and all the elements came together to support the grace and ease it all really was for us. I've heard the Kulintang before in the US, but to experience this live and direct from the source, especially from entire women elder ensembles was unlike anything I've experienced before. It was like the land and the people and the ancestors were speaking through them and we were truly blessed to witness and document it! There were many timeless moments behind the camera where I was just in complete awe and had to recognize the dream that was really happening. For me it was a true honor to be there and I will always be thankful for it. Super hyped to finally get to edit in full. For now the trailer is on the kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350747284/the-cotabato-sessions-a-music-legacy-from-the-phil The support that has been coming through on this project has been overwhelming. BIG THANKS TO ALL FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS! Many thanks to Maya for doing an Oblivious Interview with me! I am so stoked for The Cotabato Sessions to be completed. The images and teasers that are shown in the trailer are not enough. If you can contribute to their Kickstarter campaign, please do! They have some amazing incentives that you can receive by donating to the film.
The Cotabato Sessions Kickstarter Campaign
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