My name is Luisa Bel Cardoso Head and I am a Brazilian stop-motion animator and multimedia artist. As an introverted child, I spent most of my time reading fantasy books and watching movies with my dad. Fantasy worlds and miniatures drew me to animation. At 11, I began studying with Diego de Los Campos, a wacky experimental artist and stop-motion animator, who taught me to bring objects to life over nearly 10 years of apprenticeship.
Some of my biggest inspirations have been authors like Ursula Le Guin and Phillip Pullman, and filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki, Nick Park and Wes Anderson. The sense of whimsy their fantastical worlds invoke is something I also want to portray through my work. I am also very inspired by personal mentors who have crossed my life, such as Norman deCarlo, the first stop-motion artist I came across at CCA. As a stop-motion fabricator, he helped me develop my practice and passion for the medium, opening up a whole new world of possibilities in the film industry.
Throughout my journey at CCA, I realized I might not want to be a 2D animator, but instead work with stop motion animation and fabrication, as well as set design, lighting and fabrication for live action productions and multimedia films. In my first Junior Project, I had the opportunity to make a music video for a local Bay Area band, which sparked a new interest in creating animated music videos. I aim to develop that practice and work with more local bands to translate their music into visual art.
My biggest career goal is to work in large scale film productions while also developing my own personal multimedia work, be it animation, sculpture, fashion or illustration. I am always developing new hobbies and love to incorporate them into my work.
In my short film, Nemo, a lonely bunny on the moon must choose between the comfort and memories of his home and the uncertainty of traveling across space for love, as a way of expressing my personal experience with memories, belonging and longing, as well as feelings of childlike wonder and dreaming. These themes have shaped my trajectory as an artist, as well as my own personal life, living in a different continent from my family and childhood, while navigating cultural differences and linguistic barriers, and the duality that causes.
Last summer I had the opportunity to intern at Mystery Meat Media, a small stop motion studio owned by Ri Crawford and David Lauer. The studio was responsible for the animation in Sorry to Bother You and I’m a Virgo, both by Boots Riley. During my time there, I had the opportunity to learn about small-scale studio work and a variety of tricks on set design, lighting and prop making, as well as working on a budget and fluid stop motion animation. As I continue my journey at CCA, I aim to delve deeper into filmmaking and visual storytelling, to bring to life the fantastical stories in my head and honor my family and culture through my work. For my senior project, I am oscillating between making a short film about my grandmother’s stories, a retelling of a Brazilian folktale or an experimental music video for another local band.
