GUSTAVO A. GARZON
director/ writer/ producer/content creator
BIO
Gustavo is one of the top writer/directors in the international market today. He was awarded a GRAMMY in the Best Music Video category, the prestigious Billboard, MTV Latin America Awards, and Premios Lo Nuestro Univision and recently the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from the Buenos Aires Music Video Festival. Gustavo also won Premios Oye for Best Music Video of the Year for Alejandro Fernandez’s heartbreaking video “Se Me Va La Voz” and also received his 5th Grammy nomination for a music video for SONY-BMG international singer/actor Chayanne.
Gustavo is also the creator and director of the TRANQUILITY FIELDS YouTube channel, ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr1_--crZ-BkUvo4St_BMyA ), dedicated to creating an immersive experience through beautiful, hypnotic and mesmerizing collages of Nature and original ambient music and forest sounds for meditation, relaxation and wellbeing.
The director has just finished the 2019/2020 New Jerseys Campaign for PUMA, for the top soccer teams in Mexico, CHIVAS of Guadalajara, Monterrey's RAYADOS and GALLOS of Queretaro. Gustavo did the creativity, direction, camera and editing for the whole campaign.
Recently, Gustavo has directed a SKY TV campaign featuring international star CARLOS RIVERA, music videos for Grammy winners Lila Downs, Juanes, Marco Antonio Solis, the documentary ELYPSE: A JOURNEY INTO SOUND for Mexican acclaimed band Camila, commissioned by SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, in addition to campaigns for CHIVAS REGAL's BAND OF BROTHERHOOD feat. the acclaimed band MANÁ, DIRECTV feat. Shalim Ortiz, music videos for multi-platinum star Alejandro Sanz. In addition, he has just finished shooting promos for TELEVISA, LA REINA SOY YO, in addition to a campaign for SKY TV feat. CARLOS RIVERA, a promo for Mexico's Foreign Affairs Office with World Cup soccer stars such as Bebeto, Dunga, Jorge Campos and Jorge Valdano focusing on the immigrant cause.
As a director, Gustavo has worked with superstars such as Shakira, Vanessa Williams, Ricky Martin, country legend Johnny Cash, Vonda Shepard, Oscar de la Hoya, Maná, Cafe Tacvba, Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Crystal Waters, Paulina Rubio, Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel, Camila, Jesse & Joy, J.Balvin, Alejandro Sanz, David Bisbal and the double Academy Award winner, music producer/composer Gustavo Santaolalla, ( “Babel”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Motorcycle Diaries”, “21 Grams” and “Amores Perros” soundtracks among many).
He has directed near 200 music videos and 150+ hip visually strong TV commercials for clients such as PUMA, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, HSBC, Astra–Zeneca, Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Wal-Mart, Kimberly-Clark, and Kellogg's along with promos for TV shows "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Entertainment Tonight", for Paramount Pictures’ UPN. He has also directed the Latin Grammy 2006 campaign for WALMART. He has directed campaigns for KELLOGG'S, DirecTV, 7UP, Dr Pepper, and recently, for LA VOZ KIDS for TELEMUNDO.
Gustavo has also directed soundtrack tie-in projects for feature films such as “Crazy, Beautiful” with Kirsten Dunst for Disney, “Zapata”, "Dance With Me", "Drive Me Crazy" and for Fox’s animated film “Anastasia”.
His feature film debut, “VOLVERTE A VER” (SEE YOU AGAIN) is a visual romantic comedy he directed in Mexico featuring Alfonso Herrera (FOX's THE EXORCIST) and Ximena Herrera.
He has recently directed UNIVISION DEPORTES' SABADO FUTBOLERO show opening featuring Ninel Conde and stars from the Mexican Soccer League. He has also written and directed DESTINS CROISÉS (Crossed Destinies), a short thriller shot in Quebec, Canada as a guest artist for the KINOMADA PROJECT. He was also invited to be a Jury of the prestigious Guanajuato International Film Festival.
Gustavo’s strong visual style incorporates lyrical elements in his work, always following a surreal and poetic sense of narrative storytelling. The director explains: “My goal is always to come in contact with those mysterious forces operating behind the visible world thus provoking an active participation in the viewer.”
He was born in Argentina and has been living in the U.S since 1982. He obtained a B.F.A. in Film at the film-conservatory of SUNY College at Purchase and later he received a fellowship to study at the prestigious UCLA M.F.A. Program in Animation, where he studied for 2 years. While in New York, he had a One Person Show the Personal Cinema Series at the Millenium Film Workshop.
As a screenwriter, he has written both for feature films and TV. His most recent script, THE EXILE, is a heartfelt, character-driven drama about a terminally-ill judge with a dark secret who leaves his family behind to make amends with those he wronged in his past that is rapidly vanishing. The screenplay was a TOP FINALIST in the BARCELONA FILM FESTIVAL, STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL, and the BIG BREAK INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY COMPETITION and Top 10% in the prestigious Austin Film Festival.
His latest feature screenplay, REMEMBER YOU WILL DIE is an existential sci-fi drama in the vein of SOLARIS. In addition, ECLIPSES, (drama) tells the story of a young cello prodigy from the Bronx struggles to overcome his Asperger's symptoms and traumatic past with the help of a forgotten Soviet virtuoso to achieve greatness. His script WE ARE RAMPAGE is a wild dark comedy adventure about a group of misfits seeking redemption by helping neglected seniors experience the best 24 hours in their lives.
Gustavo just finished writing FRACTURE(S), a visceral, character-driven TV drama about a group of NYC Emergency Service Dispatchers coping with the agonizing life and death situations they face 24/7. In addition, he wrote BIOSPHERE 3.1, an original sci-fi TV drama and GONE POSTAL!, an original TV dramedy.
He also wrote the screenplay adaptation of PALOMAR, A LOVE AND ROCKETS STORY, from the famed graphic novel by comic-book pioneer Gilbert Hernandez. Called the graphic equivalent to the fabulism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez,“ by the Times of London, this dark, surreal comedy tells the story of Luba, a rebellious femme-fatale who escapes from her drug lord husband and settles in the strange town of Palomar in search of a peaceful new life soon to be shattered by rising sexual tensions, jealousy and the arrival of a serial killer whose mission is to wipe the town from the face of the Earth.
The writer/director has recently adapted the screenplay EXPEDIENTE No.6353 (FILE No. 6353), a screen adaptation of the Mexican award-winning novel "Nadie Me Verá Llorar" (NO ONE WILL SEE ME CRY) from writer Cristina Rivera Garza. Set during the 1920’s, this engrossing drama tells the story of Joaquin, a self-exiled photographer inside Mexico City’s Mental Hospital who tries to rescue the mysterious Matilda, a patient and former revolutionary from the asylum’s hardships and her own mental illness. Novelist CARLOS FUENTES calls the book, “one of the most beautiful and perturbing novels ever written in Mexico.”
Gustavo's original screenplay, NOAH'S DREAMS, a heartfelt drama in the tradition of Latin America’s magic realist novels, has reached the semi-finals of the prestigious Chesterfield Screenwriting competition. The writer/ director has also written specs for the AMC series “BREAKING BAD” and HBO’S “IN TREATMENT”.
Gustavo is now developing to direct and produce BENGALAS, a bio-pic docu series about extraordinary women in the Hispanic world.