A surrealistic, existential silent short based on one of my favourite words, “fugaz,” which means “fleeting” in Spanish. Fugaz, which I corrupted into a noun for myself years ago, helps me understand and organize my mind around the layers of reality that are always happening at once even though we’re not conscious of them, don’t know about all of them, have forgotten some of them, or just don’t want to think about some of them. Fugaz is also my moments of sudden extreme anxiety or memento mori when I feel like I should be worried about something but I can’t remember what it is. This character in this movie has had Fugaz creep into her life after living carefree, minding her own business, sleeping a lot and just doing her existential bit. But now her life is haunted.
Sylvia Toy St. Louis
My mother told me that I knew I was an artist when I was age 3. I have been making up stories and “putting on shows” since kindergarten. When I was eight years old, my father told me that if I wanted to be an artist, I would have to learn how to do something else for a living. He was a film connoisseur who appreciated Arthouse and would have been proud that I got into my first film festival the year that I turned 60; and also that my movies have received a little special recognition since then – Best Women’s Film, L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival,(2021); Senses of Cinema Top Films of 2019; Best Animated Feature Film, Hazel Eye Film Festival (2019); Best Fx Design, FICOCC #13 (2018); Los Angeles Neo Noir Film Festival, Grand Jury Award (2016) & Gold Award (2018).
I am a woman of color. The subject matter of my work varies but universality is very important to me. My work generally is not based on current events or specific societal themes; also, much of my work is silent. That may be one of the reasons that I often am labelled an outsider artist.
My work is rooted in my background as an actor and in my training and experience as a visual artist. I work in a small space, my 10′ x 12′ living room, using Chromakey techniques and “stage magic” to create places that are nowhere in the real world, but that hopefully could be anywhere.
Thank you for your interest in my videos.
