Before the years when he started watching content on YouTube, Moises Cardenas treasured the time he spent watching Mexican sketch comedy and stand-up on the family’s living room television with his dad. “I think my dad’s probably the funniest dude I’ve ever known. He’s a big fan of comics from Mexico, so I have vivid memories of him putting on this show called ‘La Casa de la Risa,’ it was like a Mexican SNL (Saturday Night Live), in a way. So, it was a lot of sketches with famous comics and writers, but also a lot of stand-up,” he says. “My dad would put that on for me every week, and I didn’t realize at the time how it would impact me or what it would mean to me, but I have such good memories of being a kid in the living room with my dad just watching comedy.” That bond over comedy would grow into finding his favorite online creators and television content, to studying film after high school, to the kinds of scripts he’s drawn to writing as a young filmmaker. When he sent off his comedy short submission to the annual San Diego Latino Film Festival, he didn’t put pressure on himself to get accepted — but his submission was accepted and it felt good. His film, “Rizz Assist Gone Wrong,” is among the schedule of 150 dramatic, comedic, shorts, feature length, animated, and documentary films being screened during the 33rd annual festival from March 18 to 22 at the AMC Mission Valley and Digital Gym Cinema. Cardenas, 25, is a filmmaker, photographer, editor, and videographer who also spends his days working in marketing and digital media. He lives in Barrio Logan with his parents and older brother, and talks about wanting to provide comfort during times of pain by making people laugh. Q: What led to your interest in filmmaking? A: I want to say, during the early- to mid-2010s, I really was that generation that grew up with a lot of YouTube. I grew up with YouTube in its early bloom, and I grew up watching a lot of sketches and skits, a lot of creators, like a guy called SUPEReeeGO, Eric Ochoa. Because he’s Mexican, he used to do a lot of skits surrounding cholos. He had something called “Cholo News,” which was just two guys pretending to be cholos, but giving their own take. It was like the cholo/Mexican “Weekend Update,” stuff like that. I don’t think I realized it back then, but like that really influenced my humor and would eventually fuel my writing and my work later. I think it was also just comfort. At least for me, I couldn’t speak for myself, and art in general has given me comfort to do that. Q: What kind of influence has your upbringing, your culture, had on the art that you create? Are there ways that you see your upbringing as having informed your art practice? A: I am a son of immigrants. My parents are both from Mexico, they both moved out here in the ’80s. My dad is from Jalisco and my mom is from San Luis Potosi. My upbringing has everything to do with my humor. My dad is one of the most serious, but also unserious, people I’ve ever met. It’s impressive how, sometimes, the people with the most traumatic and difficult upbringings laugh the most, like him. I don’t want to say too much, but his childhood wasn’t great; it was nothing like the childhood that he gave me, that he (gave) sweat, tears, and blood to be able to give me. At one point, he was one of the few providers for his family as the oldest child. I don’t even know how many aunts and uncles I have, but definitely double digits. It’s just so impressive how people like my dad can still find a way to laugh off their pain and their past. There’s a lot of hurt in Mexican culture, like every other song, every other corrido, is about, like, missing your ex (laughs). It’s a lot of very strong emotions — historically, culturally — that are with us. I think for a lot of creators like me, who are Mexican, Hispanic, we have a lot of dark humor. With art being so comforting to so many people who are dealing with so much, the brighter aspects of growing up Mexican, low income, have definitely influenced my humor and how I cope, personally. It definitely shows up in my comedy, for sure. Q: Why did you submit “Rizz Assist Gone Wrong” to this year’s festival? A: Initially, I made this sketch with the thought that I’d just post it on my Instagram. It may not even get that many views, but it’s cool. I’d just graduated film school, I just moved back to San Diego, so I just wanted to get back to creating. Then, I realized the timeframe of the film festival. The kind of work that gets submitted is all varied-it’s all kinds of films from all kinds of filmmakers, all kinds of backgrounds. I realized that I don’t think I’ve been at festivals and seen that many sketches. I know it’s its own thing, it’s not technically a film; it’s sort of adjacent. The way I like to do make my sketches, I try to make it look nice, make it sound nice with good quality sounds, music, stuff like that. So, in a way it is film adjacent, but technically I want to say that it might not be taken as seriously as what is usually submitted to film festivals. Again, because of everything that’s going on, with it being a Latino film festival, me being Latino, I feel like our community needs stuff like this. To be able to laugh, especially when there’s things we can’t control, like the political climate and things that are going on. There’s not a lot that we can do about a lot of things, but what we can do is try to laugh. Q: What does it mean to you to be included in the festival? A: It’s reassuring, for sure. I remember whenever I first started taking film classes, I started out at (San Diego) City College and then finished at Cal State Long Beach, and got my film degree there. When I started out at City, the moment from when I bought a camera and started writing sketches and getting friends together, to the moment when I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to get a degree in this,’ was pretty quick. I was like, ‘This is exactly what I feel like is meant for me.’ As I was taking film classes, I started noticing that my peers were very stereotypical cinephiles who unironically love like every classic filmmaker, every classic film. The fact that I am struggling to think of specific names of classic films right now shows that I wasn’t a typical filmmaker, a typical person studying film. Honestly, I like to joke that the main reason I went to film school was so I could have free equipment to shoot sketches, and in a way, that’s true. You get all this equipment for free and I was like, ‘Hell yeah, dude. I like making sketches, why not make them nice and pretty with all this equipment?’ (Sketches and comedy are) what I grew up with; that’s what “film” is to me. But, sketches are not the usual project included in these kinds of festivals. Usually, they’re more “cinematic,” impactful, that are about topics that are more serious. I would argue that comedy is just as impactful. Yes, it’s important to remind ourselves of things that are not right, politically or culturally. It’s important to write about things, to remind ourselves of the work that needs to be done; but I’d also argue that it’s just as important, despite all of those things, to still be able to laugh. That’s what I grew up with, and that’s the reason I went to film school. For the longest time that I was in film school, I felt kind of felt like an idiot whenever my peers would talk about all of these classic films. I care about Dave Chappelle, you know? I care about “Key Peele,” that’s my thing. So, with this selection (in the film festival), it was very reaffirming. Even if I’m a little different, I can still be part of it all. Q: What is a rizz assist, exactly? A: The term itself, “rizz,” I actually just figured this out. Like, I knew what it meant, but it’s shorthand for charisma. I wanted to poke fun at this pretty silly trend that was going viral for a while. A vlogger would bring his phone a mall or a park, and find a couple, go up to the boyfriend and be like, “Oh hey, I’m Kevin, remember me? You let me borrow $100.” Obviously, he didn’t, but they’re doing this just for the sake of making the boyfriend look good in front of the girl. I said, what if there’s an instance where the vlogger does that, but the boyfriend really goes with it and asks for his money back? So, in “Rizz Assist Gone Wrong,” I play the boyfriend. As the vlogger, it’s like, ‘Oh crap, I just tried to do this guy a solid and now he’s putting me on the spot. Do I give him the money, or make him look bad?’ That’s basically the premise. Q: Has this happened to you? To anyone you know? A: Honestly, I’m not that great with girls, but no. Q: What inspires you in your storytelling? A: We’re always told in film school that if you’re not writing something that’s personal to you, that means a lot to you-whether it’s comedy, horror, romance, whatever-the most impactful stories are something that happened to you or someone around you. The films that actually made it to editing that I put out, and there are lots that never made it out and haven’t seen the light of day, but the ones that have made it out, especially this one, was because I’ve been very connected to them. I feel like that’s when it’s easier to get out of writer’s block, when you’re connected to your film. In film school, you get a lot of assignments, a lot of scripts to write. Sometimes you’re just doing things because you have to do them, but when all of that is said and done, whenever you’re writing something that is meaningful to you, that means a lot to you, that has origins in your personal life and that you’re passionate about, that’s always been the kind of films that I try to write, even if they’re “unserious.” Q: Are there artists, filmmakers or other kinds of creators, whose work you respect or admire? A: Off the top of my head, I would have to say people like Shane Gillis. He’s a comic who started out doing stand up, but also silly sketches with his friends on the side and posting it on YouTube. Completely self-funded, not putting a lot of pressure on it. Eventually, he got a Netflix show. He’s a big one, especially once I got to film school. People like him who started out on YouTube doing their own thing, self-funded and doing it for fun, but still taking themselves seriously in their craft and eventually getting the opportunity to pitch to bigger companies. To get reassurance that they’re legitimate artists. There are others, people like Trevor Wallace, definitely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Same thing, they started out doing sketches for Comedy Central and Adult Swim. Obviously, Jordan Peele is now one of the most respected filmmakers. People like Dave Chappelle, as well. ...read more read less