Samuel Gaytan
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 Special to the Times<\/p>\n
El Paso native Steven Loya-Montoya\u2019s dreams led him to film school in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old filmmaker and 2020 Austin High School graduate has a short film \u2014 \u201cWhere Do Butterflies Go When They Die?\u201d \u2014 in the San Antonio Film Festival, which is July 22-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting into the San Antonio Film Festival was pretty exciting news,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter moving away from Texas and going to Hawaii, it\u2019s a very rewarding feeling to be able to return to my home state and share the work I\u2019ve done while being away. Of course, it would be even more rewarding if I was to get into the El Paso Film Festival but just being back in Texas is a lot for me to be happy about.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also is hoping for a homecoming with his work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would mean a lot for me to be part of the El Paso Film Festival in September later this year. Just being able to go back to El Paso and have my film shown in front of family and friends would make the whole experience feel very complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trading El Paso\u2019s desert climate for a tropical paradise wasn\u2019t something he planned on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up deciding to attend the University of Hawaii at M\u0101noa after taking a summer trip in 2019 to visit my family who lives in Hawaii,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t originally a school that I had looked into or really thought about, but my uncle (Richard Montoya) and aunt (Lisa Montoya) had scheduled a campus tour for me to take while I was visiting. It wasn\u2019t till I was on campus, meeting students and staff and getting to see what campus life was like that Hawaii became a top interest of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Film school also wasn\u2019t in his plans at first, but it was a decision he made as the start of the university year began.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhotography and movies had always been an interest of mine,\u201d Loya-Montoya said. \u201cI specifically liked learning about the creative process of movie and TV making. The challenge of having ideas in your head and bringing them to life was fascinating. Although I had other interests and potential majors I wanted to study, I decided that if I was going to be in college, I might as well pursue what interested me most, which was film.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving to Hawaii has brought personal and professional growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of lessons that I’ve learned from moving to Hawaii in both my personal life and my professional life,\u201d he said. \u201cPersonally, I\u2019ve learned not to be afraid to take risks and try new things. Moving from El Paso to Hawaii was not an easy move, but it showed me a life outside of our city. I was able to see that there is a lot more to life and a lot more opportunities than what I grew up with. It taught me to be a lot more comfortable with not knowing what’s next and being able to try new things even if they seem a little risky or crazy.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessionally, I was able to learn about a whole different part of an industry than what you see on screen. There are a lot of steps that go into making a film and it can take years to finish a project. It took me about nine months to finish my film from just writing my ideas out to being able to submit to a film festival. It taught me how to collaborate with others and build relationships with people to get the best possible version of an idea put onto a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as much as Hawaii has brought him, Loya-Montoya remains dedicated to the Sun City.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl Paso will always be home; it\u2019s where I grew up and where my family is,\u201d he said. \u201cTaking trips back to El Paso will always be an important part of my life. I cannot ignore the influence that El Paso has put into my life creatively.\u201d<\/p>\n
A large part of that influence is family history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inspiration from this film came from my grandpa, who passed away in 2023, and from growing up watching my mom take care of my grandparents,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to make a film that portrayed what it was like to be a caretaker for someone you love and caring for someone that eventually ends up passing away. It\u2019s not an easy job and it can be very difficult both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was a struggle for my mom and was something she had to do on top of whatever other things she was dealing with in life, but she never failed to do her best and show my grandparents love in their final stages of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cI was very close with my grandpa and watching him go was hard, but I felt comfort knowing that he was well taken care of and my mom was always by his side.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film, which also was selected in 2024 for the Hawaii International Film Festival, is dedicated to his grandfather, Antonio \u201cJunie\u201d Montoya Jr., who died Aug. 23, 2023.<\/p>\n
The film also honors Loya-Montoya\u2019s mother, Corinna Montoya.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking this film felt important for me to show how much I respect everything my mom went through as a caretaker, and it never went unnoticed. It was also a way for me to make sure that the memory of my grandpa lives on and that hopefully from me and my families\u2019 personal experience, other people in similar situations can find comfort in knowing they aren\u2019t alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loya-Montoya said he hopes his film brings insights to those who watch it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo begin with, I hope that it brings some kind of comfort about the topic of death. Watching someone you love slowly pass is hard to deal with, but it\u2019s something that everybody experiences at some point in their life,\u201d he said. \u201cOftentimes when you see a death in a movie or TV show it can be sad, but I don\u2019t feel like it really captures the heartache that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, he said, \u201cI hope people can watch my film and know that, yes, it’s hard and it\u2019s OK to grieve. The love we have for that person is worth all the heartache, and in the end we can look back at it and realize how beautiful life can be and be thankful for the memories we have made along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loya-Montoya wrote, directed and edited the film, which features a tragic story laced with the beauty of love, family and forgiveness. The actors bring strong, believable performances in situations that many who have been through similar challenges will recognize.<\/p>\n
It also honestly captures the bilingual nature of many Mexican Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding Mexican actors in Hawaii presented one of my earliest challenges when planning this film and was one of the questions I was asked about the most,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I felt confident that our people would step up once we put out the call looking for someone to fill the role. We actually had quite a few people reach out to us asking how they could be involved. One of my biggest achievements on this project was how many Mexicans were involved in creating this film, from being in front of the camera to working behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes to show that we are everywhere and we are willing to step up and help each other out even in the places that you might not expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loya-Montoya believes \u201cWhere Do Butterflies Go When They Die?\u201d transcends political and social climates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to think that my film holds its value regardless of whatever social or political time we\u2019re in. The overall topic of death and grief will always be relevant in life and will be something that everyone experiences in the future or has experienced in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Still, he acknowledges, \u201cI think there are some challenges that come with being a minority filmmaker. I think pitching ideas like mine where I knew I wanted a Latino cast and wanted the film to have Spanish in it raised some questions at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to do it right and I wanted to portray my culture in a way that felt genuine and not forced. In a place like Hawaii I can understand why it might\u2019ve seemed a bit doubtful, but I knew it could be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be challenging to get others from outside your culture or ethnic group to understand and get on board with your ideas. I think this will be something I will have to prove again in the future but thankfully in today\u2019s industry we are starting to see a lot more diversity in filmmaking, and there\u2019s still a lot of stories to be told coming from filmmakers with different backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loya-Montoya credits others with helping him through the filmmaking process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am lucky to say that I had a great crew that handled other parts of the filmmaking and put their full effort into helping me create my story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to raise funds for making this film by creating a GoFundMe and marketing to get support from friends and family. In total, we were able to raise close to $4,000 thanks to everyone’s help.<\/p>\n
Despite his love for Hawaii and El Paso, Loya-Montoya is open to going anywhere opportunity leads him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of right now I\u2019m open to the idea of relocating if the right opportunity presents itself. I don\u2019t want to limit myself to one place and I know wherever I end up my goal will always be to create and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Loya-Montoya is focusing on the next challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the next part of my career I hope to be able to make another film with some ideas I\u2019ve been workshopping,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m currently working on some smaller promotional projects for local businesses in Hawaii, but my main goal is to make another short film. I want to be able to incorporate as much as my culture into what I do and bring more attention to subjects or stories in our communities that I don\u2019t think most people know about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samuel Gaytan \u00a0|\u00a0 Special to the Times El Paso native Steven Loya-Montoya\u2019s dreams led him to film school…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":80041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[647,691,5229,648,185,665,10857,41524,54975,31126,2488,171,2104,1020,54977,3204,26621,2487,3195,425,666,53,50,450,1457,54976,1451,7202,7203,645,2490,358,173,3187,646,67,586,132,5230,16995,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-80040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-affiliate","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-arts","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","14":"tag-colleges","15":"tag-colleges-u0026-universities","16":"tag-el","17":"tag-el-paso","18":"tag-enabled","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-festivals","21":"tag-film","22":"tag-film-festivals","23":"tag-film-u0026-tv-industry","24":"tag-hawaii","25":"tag-highlights","26":"tag-industry","27":"tag-local","28":"tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","29":"tag-movies","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-overall","32":"tag-overall-positive","33":"tag-paso","34":"tag-positive","35":"tag-san-antonio","36":"tag-sanantonio","37":"tag-story","38":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","39":"tag-texas","40":"tag-tv","41":"tag-tx","42":"tag-u0026","43":"tag-united-states","44":"tag-united-states-of-america","45":"tag-unitedstates","46":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","47":"tag-universities","48":"tag-us","49":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}