In just a decade, this young Argentine film director achieved international repercussion with audiovisual creations that bring together casts of truly dreamed-of local performers. Suffice it to mention that at the age of 18 he directed “Utopia”, his first one-minute short film. Three years later she filmed the series “Collective Unconscious”, starring Nicolas Pauls, Felipe Colombo, Gustavo Garzonand more.
It was followed by period fiction “The legacy” with Pablo Rago, Fabian Vena, Boy Olmi, Luis Machin, among others. He later specified “Land of ruffians”, an animated web proposal, with the voices of Rago and Julieta Ortega; two seasons of the episodic thriller “Matthew’s World” with Luciano Cáceres, Martina Gusmán, Fernán Mirás, and Federico D’Elia; and drama miniseries “incoexistence”with Laurita Fernandez and Tomas Fonzi. At the same time, she devised and led the program “DAC Short Fictions” where he held dialogues with guests from the local audiovisual industry and presented Argentine short films, together with Peter Lanzani, Jasmine Stuart and Martin Slipak.
Recently, he finished directing the international co-production “The cry of the butterflies” (Star+), which deals with the life of the Mirabal sisters who, from the Dominican Republic, became a symbol of the fight against gender-based violence throughout the world. Also, the shooting of her first feature film, “sideways thinking”a thriller with the Spanish Itziar Ituño and the Argentine based in Madrid, Alberto Ammann, among others.
But the reason for the talk is the brand new launch of the miniseries “The Good Retreat” (Flow Contents) and of which he was showrunner. It is a dramatic comedy in a police key that deals with the story of four friends over 70 years old, played by Mirta Busnelli, Betiana Blum, Claudia Lapacó and María Leal.
News: He writes and directs audiovisual scripts, but he is also a producer and showrunner for television series. What defines it?
Mariano Hueter: I consider myself an author. Sometimes that translates through a script, directing or commanding completely, as in this case of “El Buen Retiro”. But the most common, for me, is writing and directing.
News: What was your training?
Hueter: From childhood until high school he wrote stories and novels. I have long novels from that time, surely bad ones, and small plays. I always liked to create. And I felt like an author from the start. I studied acting in “Río plata” by Hugo Midón, although I wasn’t interested in acting, I just wanted to create. I finally found a way to channel that passion when I started studying at the Universidad del Cine. Whenever there is the possibility of telling something that is interesting to me, I get involved with everything.
News: How did you come to direct audiovisual?
Hueter: At the age of 21 I made “Collective Unconscious” my first fiction series, which was not the beginning because at 18 I had already filmed a short film “Utopia”. Later, between 19 and 20, I did others and I was lucky enough to win many festivals abroad. It did not come from the cinematographic stick. My dad is not a film producer, far from it, he is an accountant. But I won an INCAA contest, I got together with friends, we associated a production company and we finalized the miniseries. That initial experience led me to grow up at 21 and direct actors as if I had a 30-year career. I quickly felt very comfortable and from that moment, until now, I never stopped.
News: Listening to him, one gets the impression that it was very easy.
Hueter: The fact that it is easy or not, I always exemplify it with that after finishing that first miniseries, I had a spike in pressure and was hospitalized for fourteen days due to stress and low defenses. Because one imagines saying “Cut!” or “Action!” and chatting with the actors. But directing audiovisual is much more difficult. All the time, the people around you test you because you are the one who is supposed to have all the answers in your head. The success or not of the project, the economic returns, how many possibilities it gives you or not to do the next thing; that the partners who join do not feel disappointed or recover their investment. At the time, it was a blow for which he was not prepared; yes to tell the story and direct it, not everything else.
News: But he was able to get over it.
Hueter: I was learning series by series. Today I feel that what I dedicate the most time to is concretizing a project and not wearing your health.
News: Something important given the Argentine reality.
Hueter: Yes. Here everything is arduous and changing. Suddenly you don’t have enough money and you have to use a lot of creativity to make things work. Except for the last projects I got involved in, which are international co-productions, my habit is to do something more independent and self-managed than commercial. Because with my own production company I sign the checks, and face the claims, if any. All that quilombo, little by little, I learned to manage. Surely it depends on a quota of talent, but also on a lot of work and perseverance. I see that there are people in the audiovisual medium who throw in the towel very quickly and that is a mistake.
News: In the miniseries “El Buen Retiro” he is showrunner. What work does he entail?
Hueter: A producer defined it better than me: it is the combination of two roles that were previously the artistic producer and the creative director. A person who knows a lot about direction and script, but at the same time is very focused on how that project is going to be produced, putting together the cast and the different areas. He commands the team and ensures that, at least in my case, the proposal has quality, is cinematographic. That is, someone very involved in the creative part, but who also knows how much everything costs, and what the budget limitations are. He is like a general coordinator who knows about cinema and is creative. he
