Maria Servellón is an award-winning filmmaker, multimedia artist, educator, and arts advocate. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Film and Media Art from Emerson College. Her expertise lies in film and digital media, including projection, installation, photography, and design. Maria’s work explores the relationships between art, music, and dance in shaping identity. Servellón was named one of 2018’s “Latinos 30 Under 30” by El Mundo Boston, a 2019 New England Film Star Award finalist, a 2020 Amplify Latinx “Latina Leader”, a 2020 Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce “Outstanding Young Leader” honoree, and has won grants, fellowships, and residencies from the Boston Mayor’s Office Of Arts & Culture, Boston Arts & Business Council, Boston Public Schools, Boston Dance Theater, Danza Orgánica, and Mass MoCA. Undoubtedly, Servellón has reached success in her field and she is not slowing down!
The following is the caption timecode transcript. It’s for your convenience (Control F) and accessibility.
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Hi, I’m
Maria Servellon, and I am an Emerson
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College MFA alumna of 2018
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and I am also an affiliate faculty member
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in the Visual Media Arts Department.
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What sparked
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my interest in multimedia
was grabbing a camera
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on my 15th birthday, my quinceañera,
and exploring.
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My dad gave me this camera.
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He was like “I don’t know come back
when you find something
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interesting” and that’s something
that was very daunting.
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But I was very excited.
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And with time,
I started making music videos
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with my friends, in classes,
and making experimental works.
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When I came to Emerson College,
I was like, okay, I know what I want to do.
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But now I’ll officially write it, direct it
produce it, get the casting, everything done.
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Also, see what else is out there
when it comes to multimedia work.
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Being at Emerson
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was something that I really treasure
because
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I was able to learn a lot in class,
but mostly as well on the film
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sets with my peers
and on their emerging media projects
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and thinking about,
like, what are different ways
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you can tell stories
and can influence culture.
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My favorite Emerson professors
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were able to help me
think about how to approach
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directing in a way
that is authentic and vulnerable,
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working with actors,
and then also how to teach
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well in my classes and care
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about what I am talking about.
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Being able to not have to pick
one form of media or the other.
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So if I wanted to do video art, good.
If I wanted to do filmmaking,
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they can both exist in the world and you
don’t have to compromise your visions.
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And having that was really useful for me
because even though I came in
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with clear direction, I left definitely
in a sense of achievement
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and personal satisfaction
that the world felt
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pretty open and interesting
now that, you know, Emerson days are over.
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What I love about teaching at Emerson
and I’ve taught
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narrative classes and directing, ways
of seeing,
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the feminist media production
course is that the students inspire me.
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I love to see excitement and passion,
having a lot of fun conversations
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in class about interesting works
that we’ve seen and experiences on sets,
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and being able to get together
and get excited
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for the craft
and want to learn more and more and more.
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I think that approaching
teaching at Emerson and coming back
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four years ago was something
that helped me in my own craft
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where I thought about how do I help others
the way that I was helped.
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How can I bring that back?
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And to be part of the Emerson community
that, again, is always paying it forward.
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I had different achievements, like, from
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El Mundo Boston and Mass MOCA, Mayor’s
Office, Boston Public Schools.
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They’re awesome and I’m very proud of them
and I worked really hard to get them.
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But they’re not
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the only thing that I feel like makes me
an artist, makes me who I am as a person.
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I think that it’s the types of connections
I’ve been able to make.
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The relatability and authenticity
that I’ve been able
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to build over time and passion
for the craft,
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I would say. It’s never about,
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you know, how many awards
and such that I can get.
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It’s more so of, did I come in this space
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as authentically as I could,
and I can say that, yeah, I have.
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And that’s probably my most
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important achievement.
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So from the different things
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that I have worked on over a decade now,
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I think that I want to keep working
in the next couple of years
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with even more musicians,
performing artists, written word artists,
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and to think about outside of my city,
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like who else needs to hear this message
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of how the arts matter and
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appearing as authentically as possible
through your work.
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So I try not to have like concrete goals
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because I’m definitely a believer
that in the place with the right time,
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everything just kind of falls into place
and that’s how it’s always been for me.
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It’s a lot of patience,
but I think that it’s worth it.
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Best advice for folks is work
hard, work steady, rest hard,
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and also you’ll see the little bud
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growing
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Thank you again for letting me share
my pearls of wisdom
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with you on and off the classroom.
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And I hope that you have an amazing
semester. Take good care. Bye
