Carlos Zerpa

At the Saari Residence, I aim to “finish” the script of LOA, Kill Your Masters, my first animated feature film, co-written with my dear friend and colleague Nana Rojas. The project started back in 2020 as an inquiry into the Zambos revolts in Venezuela as a way to reignite our passion with the idea of revolution. This process made us look further back and explore the root of anti-colonial revolutions: Haiti. For us, this project is a way to reconnect with our roots and question our revolutionary beliefs.

Although LOA deals on the surface with the processes of enslavement and independence in Haiti, its dramatic arc foreshadows post-colonial legacy in its echoes and contradictions today. This movie will NOT be a horror story but a story of empowerment through sacrifice, wit, and magic, as a comment against the demonization of black religions in western culture.

The script’s heart lies in the relationship between Rosalie, an enslaved orphan, and Madeleine, her Master turned Mother. I know the residency will enable us to reach new levels of intimacy and vulnerability, to be able to feed our characters with distilled versions of our traumas and contradictions. Also, I hope Saari would bring visibility to our project, helping us with our goal of finding an experienced producer willing to support us in this journey.

Born in Venezuela in 1984, Carlos is a screenwriter, creative producer and street artist based in Caracas. His creative practice emerges at the intersection of storytelling, visual arts, and social commitment and is inspired by the concrete struggles of the global south. His work seeks to empower underrepresented characters by creating transgressive, engaging and irreverent narrative devices. 

In 2010 he co-founded the cooperative ECL-MECHA, the team with who he has co-created several award-winning street arts, editorial, and animation projects such as the series A Piece of Peace (www.pieceofpeace.co), Karetabla (www.karetabla.com) and FILO, the transmedia storytelling CHAMBA (2018), the books Mural y Luces (2012) and Alerta que Salpica (2015), the magazine PLoMO (2011-2014), the film essay Beyond the Mine (2015) and the animated documentary series Voices for Peace, Colombia (2017), among others. As a street artist he has designed and painted dozens of statements on the walls of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Cuba, Spain and Argentina.

Co-founder and teacher in ENGRAPO, an independent public education project that introduces youth to visual communication as a tool to understand and transform their reality.

Alumni of Berlinale Talents (Germany, 2022), Sacatar Institute (Brazil, 2021), the Global Cultural Relationships Platform (2021), IsLab (Puerto Rico, 2020), Sundance Collab (USA, 2020), Bridging the Gap (Spain, 2019) and winner of ApaLab Pitch competition (Argentina, 2019).