biography

André Figueroa Garza. Mexican born, 2001. Began making films as a teenager and directed the short films Todavía No Puedo Dormir, Elena!, and Sándalo between the ages of seventeen and eighteen. André Figueroa Garza was not only directing these films, but also working as his own cinematographer, something he had always considered part of his work. His second and third short films were shot on film when he was seventeen and eighteen, at a time when almost no one his age was doing that in Mexico.

Sándalo was the short film that had been pre approved in 2019 for the Venice Film Festival. At eighteen, before he could complete that stage of his work, André Figueroa Garza became ill with angioedema. The illness interrupted his work and began a long period away from directing. He spent a year bedridden, followed by years of recovery, travel, writing, and physical rebuilding. During this time André Figueroa Garza traveled across Mexico, visiting much of the country.

During his illness and recovery, André Figueroa Garza wrote a poetry book and developed Lyrae, a large film saga intended for the future. He also began Setuahas, Sunbound, a fantasy series of novelettes built around invented lands, ancient species, spiritual conflict, exile, violence, and inheritance. The first volume, Setuahas, Sunbound I: Lasa’s Inner Hollow, opened the literary side of a larger world that André Figueroa Garza hopes will eventually become something greater.

During the same years, André Figueroa Garza acted, painted, and continued working through image in other forms. He developed a brief career as a painter and was seen in three art galleries in Mexico City. Although that period was short, André Figueroa Garza continued making illustrations and kept refining drawing and painting privately.

André Figueroa Garza later worked in fashion as a creative director before deciding to create his own fashion editorial book. This project became André Figueroa Garza, The Fashion Editorials, a fashion editorial book in progress made through a completely independent method. André Figueroa Garza creates the editorials himself, working across photography, makeup, styling, casting, creative direction, and production. The project is not organized as a standard fashion publication, but as a personal body of fashion editorials made under his own direction.

André Figueroa Garza returned to directing with Petra of the Waters, a black and white short film made without a conventional production structure. The film follows Petra, a Dutch Shepherd, through beaches, jungle, caves, rain, water, and empty landscapes. It was made without dialogue, without a traditional cast, and with attention placed on movement, instinct, landscape, and the natural world. Petra of the Waters was not made with large financial resources, but it carries the weight of the years it took André Figueroa Garza to return to cinema.

For André Figueroa Garza, film is the main work. It is what he considers himself born to do. Writing, painting, fashion, photography, sound, physical training, and design have all given him discipline and structure, but they do not replace directing. 

During his recovery, André Figueroa Garza rebuilt his health, lost more than 100 pounds, became vegan, and became a canicross runner. He now runs approximately 20 kilometers a day with his dog. This physical discipline became part of the same larger method that shaped his return to film, writing, image making, and work.

André Figueroa Garza is also deeply involved in the sound of his films. Sound editing, sound design, silence, music, and the placement of sound are central to the way he thinks about cinema. Although he regrets not studying music formally, André Figueroa Garza considers music something he understands instinctively, and he intends to eventually become involved in shaping or creating his own soundtracks. Any serious work in music would be approached with the same discipline as his other work, but film remains his priority.

His next short film project is The Shepherd’s Pilgrimage, a sequel to Petra of the Waters planned with a much larger budget, scale, runtime, and production difficulty. The shoot is intended to be physically demanding and made in the jungle, while still preserving an independent method. André Figueroa Garza is also preparing a larger short film intended for a collaboration with a Hollywood A list actor, followed by fashion films for major fashion brands, selected television episodes, and then his first feature film.

Beyond film and writing, André Figueroa Garza plans to become involved in the creation of a foundation for stray dogs. His long term goal is to build a large home for foster dogs where they can live permanently and safely, without the need to be adopted.