The Culver City Film Festival will be running this week, from the 9th-15th, at the Regal LA Live located on West Olympic Blvd. If you happen to be in the LA area and are looking for fresh, creative content, be sure to check these films out and support independent filmmakers, writers, and cast members.
Among the standout creative talents is Miguel Martinez, whose short film, With Your Life, will premiere on the 10th. This isn’t your traditional slasher film. Instead, it delves into the generational trauma accumulating within families, weaving a narrative about violence and horror within domestic spaces.
Before sharing my thoughts on With Your Life, I’d like to highlight parts of my recent conversation with Miguel. Rather than a standard interview, our talk became a mezcla of narratives and reflections. Miguel is a passionate, humorous individual whose deep cultural knowledge and reverence for his Mexican heritage feed his creative vision. His talent as a writer/director makes him a unique voice to watch.
I. A Darkening Urbanus
Miguel Martinez greeted me on a video call with an easy smile, wearing a black tee in what appeared to be his LA home. Occasionally, his black cat wandered into the frame, adding a whimsical touch to our conversation. From his current home base in Los Angeles—a city rich in both historical roots and futuristic vibes—Miguel reflected on the journey that brought him here.
Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Miguel developed an early fascination with movies. “I watched everything,” he said, laughing. “There were no restrictions—except Nightmare on Elm Street. My mom thought Freddy Krueger was too close to the devil.” While the movie was off-limits, Miguel’s curiosity was unstoppable. He borrowed the film’s score from a friend, playing it repeatedly on his SpongeBob CD player and imagining the movie in his head. “I think that was the start of me creating stories from fragments.”
Movies became a way to connect with his father, who would often take him to the theater. Miguel recalls a pivotal moment when they watched Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. “It was the first time I realized someone made these choices, designed this world. I thought, ‘I want to do that—I want to be part of this process.’”
A Journey into Filmmaking
Initially, Miguel imagined himself as a writer, crafting novels or short stories. But as he immersed himself in storytelling, he realized his ideas were highly visual. “I’m not just a writer—I think in images, in moments.” His interest in screenwriting grew, leading him to join SAY Sí, an after-school arts program that introduced him to filmmaking. “It was incredible,” he recalled. “They had cameras, editing software, and people willing to teach. I asked every question I could think of and worked on as many projects as possible.”
This hands-on education shaped Miguel’s understanding of the craft. “When you write a screenplay, you’re not writing a finished product—you’re writing a blueprint for something that will evolve in collaboration with others. It’s thrilling.”
I wanted Miguel to talk about this aspect of his education since one usually hears about some kind of program or training in film or media in LA or NYC, even at the middle and high school level, not so much in Texas. I was happy to hear that there were programs available and that there was support for him and others pursuing these cinematic aspirations.
His parents, he emphasizes, also had his back and Miguel says he didn’t really encounter any resistance or pushback from them. I mention that Richard Linklater, known mostly for Dazed and Confused (he just made Hit Man with Glen Powell) is from a small town in Texas, and look at him now. The setting sun is beginning to impact how Miguel looks on the computer screen. The room around him is slowly going dark, the edges around his face too; I have the lights on where I am. I see something moving behind him as I hear him continue to speak about his education.
Once Miguel gets to college, his parents buy him a laptop. He is constantly working on small projects. He gets hold of a DV camera with tapes. Instead of handing in traditional assignments, he’d ask his teachers, "hey, can I make a short to replace this thing? Sure, they said." He is coming into contact with other people who are into making films, watching and talking about films. Miguel works on what he calls ‘structured screenplays,’ and as previously mentioned, collaborates with others to see their projects through to the end.
Miguel briefly jumps forward to mention he has published a collection of poetry—fitting, given his explanation of how his mind works. While still in this forward timeframe, he shares his thoughts on the programs available in L.A., where he’s lived for almost a decade: "At my old job at a distribution company, I hired and interviewed many interns and realized how much more help kids here have. There are after-school programs, donated cameras from filmmakers, and even middle school screenwriting classes. I thought, Man, if I had access to a Red Camera in high school, get outta here! It’s incredible, and the kids here are so talented." Even after telling me this, Miguel kept smiling—a smile that said so much more than words could.
The college he attended in San Antonio was a good one, but its media focus was on preparing students to enter broadcasting, not the film industry. He says, ‘I got a lot of training, I learned a lot, but it was geared towards me eventually joining an ABC or Fox affiliate for news. That was the closest thing I had at this level with cameras and editing and what not.’ He had to make some kind of leap, especially if he wanted to make those horror films that others weren’t fond of, even if horror has a long track record, and not just in cinema. By now it is dark in the room where Miguel is sitting. I’m not sure where the cat is any longer. He keeps talking in this surrounding darkness, out there in LA.
Interlude
A) Robert Rodriguez tells Miguel: "You have to learn how to close the gap between what you want things to look like and what they actually look like when you make them. The only way to do that is to keep making stuff. Just keep doing it, and you’ll get better. You’ll get more productive and you’ll learn how to do more with less. So, don’t stop, make a channel, find people who want to do the same thing, and do it."
B) After graduating college, Miguel gets married to Amy, loads up the car with all of their belongings, and heads west.
C) Miguel starts up his own distribution company called Freakish Films.
II. With Your Life (Written/Directed by Miguel Martinez)
We’ve all seen those slasher films throughout the decades. The lone male who goes after the young female for whatever reason that is at times laughable and at others gory. With Miguel's With Your Life, we witness a deeply personal and culturally resonant reimagining of the slasher genre.
At its core, the film tells the story of a young woman and her baby fleeing from an abusive husband. Through its exploration of domestic violence, patriarchy, and generational trauma, With Your Life transcends the conventions of horror to offer a harrowing, emotionally charged experience.
Fans of Miguel’s earlier work, such as his 2023 film Lechuza, will recognize his signature focus on women’s stories and his ability to weave folklore and social commentary into a single, cohesive narrative. Both films center on women’s survival and resilience, using horror to confront societal and cultural wounds. This thematic focus aligns Miguel with a broader movement in Mexican and Latin American horror storytelling, which often uses the genre to critique patriarchy and systemic violence.
The opening sequence of With Your Life is a masterclass in visual storytelling. Miguel employs a split-screen technique to convey multiple layers of the narrative simultaneously: a car pulling up (representing the external, social world), an exterior shot of a house (the domestic sphere), and a sleeping couple (intimacy and the power dynamics within relationships). His innovative approach not only sets the tone for the film but also demonstrates Miguel’s skill in using every frame to tell a story.
III. Neither the Horror of Conrad nor Coppola
I didn’t want to keep Miguel too long, we’d already passed the 30-minute mark, and I’m sure he had cool places to be on a Friday evening in LA. He had noticed that behind him in his room, all had darkened, so he got up to switch on the light. The cat glided in from another an adjacent room and appeared to wink at me with its green-yellow eyes. Somewhat horrifying, no? We get the word from Latin: horrere, ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end,’ (compact OED).
Miguel has a profound understanding of horror’s ability to reflect societal fears and anxieties. “Horror is a genre that doesn’t need to be subtle—it can be bold, direct, even maximalist,” he explained. He’s fascinated by how the genre evolves with the times, from the political fears of the 1970s to the technophobia of today.
Much of Miguel’s inspiration comes from his experiences growing up in Texas and the rich tapestry of Mexican folklore. Not surprisingly, he mentioned that part of his interest in making his horror film, Lechuza, was due to that fact that the Llorona series had already run its course, and that there were other stories to be told. Stories from his own backyard.
His father related stories and legends de otro tiempo, where figures visited quiet homes, harassed troubled pueblos, or chased out hombres malos. Miguel has listened to these tales over and over again, shaping his imagination while at the same time inspiring him to tell other kinds of stories, new stories. These borderland territories contain their own horrors, their own ghosts, haunted by the violence of anglos y mexicanos; not least, la frontera.
With Your Life is part of a larger project exploring themes of immigration, the fraught relationship between Mexico and the U.S., and the deeply human stories shaped by these forces.
As we wrapped up our conversation, Miguel’s smile remained. His black cat perched on his lap, as if ready for its next adventure—much like Miguel himself. With his unique voice and unrelenting passion for storytelling, Miguel Martinez is a filmmaker to watch.
Suffice it to say: Don’t miss With Your Life at the Culver City Film Festival!
(See full interview and article here.)
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