To look at Javier Badillo you would never guess the quiet, unassuming Vancouver filmmaker spent time as a punk rocker.

Badillo was born at the height of the punk rock movement and the time spent sewing his punk rock oats has helped him in his journey to discover his other true love - filmmaking.

"I've been a storyteller for as long as I can remember, but I explored many different paths before arriving at filmmaking in my late twenties," said Badillo.

Badillo was born in Caracas, Venezuela in the late 1970s. He became a permanent Canadian resident in 2006. In now calls Vancouver home.

It took traveling the world, a serious stint in the punk rock band and a first career in animation, before he realized what he really wanted to do.

"I started with music and game/web programming, then moved on to 3D and 2D Animation, and now finally, settled in live action film. I did not wake up one day and say, "I think I want to make movies now." It was a gradual discovery process."

He hasn't abandoned his punk rock roots entirely. He still play in bands in Vancouver and is in the midst of starting a new ska-punk rock band. He has recorded an album with a local band and still plays shows around the city.

"My music career goes hand in hand with my filmmaking career. I don't have the heart to abandon my music side," said Badillo.

Where did you go to film school?

Before I knew you could study film at schools, I studied from every free Animation tutorial I could find on the Web and practiced with downloaded software. Then I took some 3D night courses, in tandem with my music career, in Malaysia. That got me a job in a TV commercial animation production company where I found out about Vancouver's world-class animation standards.

Eventually I moved to Canada to upgrade my skills in Fine Arts and 2D Animation. I attended the 2 year Commercial Animation Program at Capilano University (then a College) and the 1-year 2D Animation program at VanArts. Later, after a few stints in the film industry and attempts at DIY filmmaking, I decided to leave my cushy animation career and study film at Langara College Film Arts
program in their Directing stream.

Are you from Vancouver. If not, where are you from?

I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, but traveled with my parents around the world until turning 18, when I decided to stay in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). In 2002, I quit my punk rock band, packed my bags and after working a year in China, I moved to Vancouver, which I now call home.

What is your favourite movie and why?

I don't have a single favorite film; there are too many great old and new ones. One of my favorite films, however, is Debbie Does Dallas. Great acting. No but seriously. "Grave of the Fireflies", by Isao Takahata/Studio Ghibli is up there with my top picks, along with Costa-Gavras's "Z". Films about the human spirit stretched to its limits by insurmountable odds inspire me. And that includes romantic comedies!

Which directors/filmmakers influenced you?

I am constantly reading and discovering new directors whose work make me grow as an artist and as a person - I'm currently reading about the amazing Elia Kazan and Sergei Eisenstein. I've always been a big fan of every film by Hayao Miyazaki and the style of Chuck Jones. I went through a phase when I was enamored by the films of Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman. Spielberg, Scorsese and Stone are also master storytellers and visual artists whose work I admire.

Among our more contemporary directors, I love the work of the three amigos: del Toro, Cuarón and González Iñárritu. But there are many more whose works, both on and off screen, inspire me: The Coen brothers, Dave Fincher, John Cameron Mitchell, as well as awesome Canadian filmmakers like Katrin Bowen, Bruce Sweeney, Atom Egoyan, Don McKellar and more recently, Martin Gero and Xavier Dolan.

Do you consider yourself an independent filmmaker or do you work in the industry?

I'm working toward becoming a full-time independent writer/director, but I also need to eat and pay rent. So I have had to wear many different hats in the local film industry. I've worked in film equipment rental warehouses and film distribution administration. I have worked as lamp operator on low to high budget TV shows and Films.

I also freelance as a Storyboard artist (I am currently boarding a project for a New York based filmmaker who I met online), Editor including an upcoming BravoFact!/NFB olympic short), and Art Director, including one of the last DGC Kick Start recipients, "Henry's Glasses" written, directed (and DOP'd!) by my good friend and amazing local filmmaker Brendan Uegama. When you are an independent filmmaker working with a tight community (and pocket), you also want to be a constant, self-less, enthusiastic collaborator.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the locally produced, micro-budget independent films can only afford to pay the cast and crew with free food, film credits and new connections - and I believe it's not completely our fault, since there are many more films being produced than the institutions that can fund them. Like any artistic endeavor (such as a rock band), writing/directing can hardly suffice as your main source of income, so the broader your skill set, the more employable you are.

Heck, I loved pulling shots as a pro barista for a while in this amazing coffee town! The trick is in striking a balance between finding sources of income that also add to your relevant experience, and never losing sight of your ultimate career goal.

What awards/honours have you earned as a filmmaker?

When I was doing more work in independent animation, my first micro-short "The Catch" about a baseball game between tigers and elephants earned a finalist nomination in the World's Smallest Film Festival for mobile devices in London, England in 2003. Later, my animation short "Swords don't run out of Bullets" about a girl who fights off zombies with her sword, which I created for a sword-fighting school I attended in Vancouver called Academie Duello, won the Daily 3rd Most Viewed Award at the massive Newgrounds.com, an online short film portal, for receiving 75,000 unique views in one day.

My first live-action short film "Scars", a crime thriller, was selected from over 120 submissions for the recent "Made in Vancouver pre-Olympics Film Festival" and played along 11 other short films made with higher budgets and by more established directors. My second short film, the superhero family comedy "Henchin'", screened at the "International MidForms New Media and Film Festival" in Vancouver last year, to over 5,000 people over three days and shared a giant exhibition space with invited media artists from all over the world.

Where do you see yourself and the film industry in Vancouver in 10 years?

I will be writing and directing my fourth feature film, and traveling the world to shoot it, bringing along all the friends I made during the 2010s. I will also be recording my third studio album with my ska-punk rock band. I will be taking time off filmmaking to tour with my band in Latin America and to teach film directing and storytelling in Venezuela and Malaysia, two countries close to my heart. I will also be sharing my life and my secluded Caribbean beach house with a loving, beautiful girl - I don't know who yet, but that's none of your business!

Vancouver will stop being mostly a service backyard to Hollywood and the world's top filmmakers will move here to create the next film masterpieces. The thriving local independent film scene will finally break away from the traditional financing models and be self-sufficient, with world-leading, community based, online film management groups producing micro-budget to low budget films and providing the infrastructure and guidance for up-and-coming film directors to make their films. High budget films will also get written and produced by Vancouver's world class studios and talent, and Canadian producers will take advantage of California's new film tax breaks to shoot their features there and provide American crews with jobs. Why not, eh?

How many films have you made? How many in Vancouver?

So far, I have made 5 animated microfilms and 5 live-action short films. One of my films was produced in China and the others here in Vancouver. Can't wait to make the next one!