Alina Munoz

Alina Munoz is the co-founder of Culintro, a culinary trade organization based in New York City.

Interview by James Cope

JC: What first sparked your interest in the arts and what led you to launch Culintro?

AM: My interest in the arts has been an intersection of sorts. My love of architecture and design started with my mom and at one point meeting an attractive architect. My love of cuisine started with Gourmet magazine at one point meeting an attractive chef. My love of entrepreneurship started with my experience working in ad sales and at one point meeting an attractive (and brilliant) tech entrepreneur. See a pattern…let’s hope I never meet an attractive kleptomaniac.

JC: Attractiveness is important whether it be an object, art, food, shoes, men and women, its all aesthetics right?

AM: I whole-heartedly believe in attractiveness (inside and out, on the surface and below). My appreciation grows the more I gain knowledge about a certain thing, place, or person. However, too much knowledge sometimes leads to too much attraction which leads to intimidation. Sort of ironic.

JC: Tell me about Culintro?

AM: After working at Gourmet for several years, I met my business partner, Stephanie Kornblum, who was working in Restaurant PR. We realized that there was no centralized organization for connecting professionals in the restaurant industry. Whether you are a Restaurant architect, designer, chef, cook, waiter, contractor, owner-operator, student, micro-distiller, or even kumquat farmer, Culintro offers a place for you to network and find other professionals linked to the industry. We host monthly events on trend-setting topics such as “The Future of Food Journalism,” “How To Build an Effective Cocktail Program” and “Restaurant Design.” We act as a resource to find jobs, connect with people, and stay educated on the evolving world of restaurants.

JC: Your family resides in Texas, do you visit them often?

AM: Yes, my parents live in Dallas, TX. I visit them about 2-3 times per year, usually around the holidays and visit our lake house in Whitney, TX.

JC: What do you have planned next for Culintro?

AM: To create an all-encompassing Restaurant Awards event in NYC, like an Oscars for the restaurant world. We also plan to expand to the West Coast in the next 2-3 years.

JC: Expand to the West Coast?

AM: Yes we plan to open up an office out there and start throwing networking and educational events similar to what we do in NYC. We are actually getting peer-pressured by our California restaurants and friends (and sponsors!) to expand. So we are rather excited!

JC: One last question. What is your favorite dessert?

AM: Hmmm, you can never go wrong with anything dark and chocolatey. But, I remember having the most delicious dessert at Lupa in NYC. My sister and I split this tangy goat's milk yogurt that was as silky and fatty as panna cotta. And, it was topped with honey and a syrup that had been infused with all-spice, cinnamon, and cardamom. I think there were some nuts in there too. Anyway, it was really fantastic. I hope I didn't make it sound gross!

Benjie Bateman

Benjie Bateman is a documentary film maker splitting his time between London and Edinburgh. He has worked on productions for companies such as the BBC, Channel 4, and National Geographic. I met Benjie in 1993 in San Francisco, he was bombing a very steep hill on his skateboard. We have been friends ever since.

Interview by James Cope
Photography by Benjie Bateman

JC: How did you get into documentary film making?

BB: I was into skateboarding from the age of 12 and this was my whole world for a long time. I went to a fairly uninspiring College in Edinburgh when I was 20 to study audio-visual technology just really because I had no A levels so could not get into a real university and did not want to deliver pizzas anymore. I had to do practical assignments so the natural thing was to film my friends skateboarding and make little videos. I used a Hi-8 camcorder and edited using two ancient S-VHS recorders.

JC: What were some of your early documentaries?

BB: My first video was a Spike Jonze inspired effort that I called ‘Addiction’. It had a dodgy storyline about a guy who was so hooked on skateboarding that it ruined his life. It was very homemade feeling but people seemed to like it, laughed at the right bits and enjoyed the skating sections so I was encouraged enough to keep going and create more. I began making videos for a little Scottish company called Local Skateboards. I made one video a year for 4 years featuring their team and the skaters from the Glasgow and Edinburgh skate scene. Filming my friends and learning to edit in my own time was a lot of fun. I would cut the skateboard footage to music then throw in the odd abstract shot here and there of buildings, signs, close ups of boards, etc, and experimented with filters and effects to varying degrees of success.

JC: How did you progress from making skateboard films with your friends to bigger productions for the BBC and National Geographic?

BB: In 2001 my artist friend Toby Paterson recommended me to an arts festival that were looking for videos and films that related to the urban environment. They screened one of my videos in The Lighthouse Gallery, Glasgow and a video producer called Bevis Evans-Teush saw it and starting hiring me for camera and editing work. He produced videos for Arts Organizations like Scottish Opera as well as The National Health Service and Glasgow City Council so it was pretty varied. I began learning how to tell stories with images and make a point using interviews, pictures, and music. I was still making my skate videos but was getting more and more interested in people and the stories they have to tell. One bored Sunday evening in 2002 I was washing the dishes and heard an item on BBC Radio Scotland which got my attention. It was about an event called the Bothy Ballad Champion of Champion’s competition an obscure folk singing tradition exclusive to northeast Scotland. I could barely understand their thick northern accents but hearing the banter and the men’s singing made me want to find out more. I teamed up again with Bevis and we bravely and a bit naively embarked on our first ‘proper’ documentary about this little-known scene. We met many amazing people and were welcomed into a world we never could have experienced without the excuse of making the film. For the last 5 years I have worked as a freelance editor on documentaries and programmes for BBC, Channel 4, FIVE, and National Geographic Channel, and also run a company with Bevis called Rolling Pictures producing and directing our own ideas.

JC: Where do you get your ideas from and what inspires you?

BB: I’m interested in people. I especially like scenes where people are doing things purely for the love of it regardless of whether it’s cool or going to lead to fame and fortune. I think that comes from growing up as a skateboarder during the 90s when it was still very much an obscure subculture and not the fashionable and acceptable activity it is today. I don’t necessarily get big flashes of inspiration. My approach is more tortoise than hare. I kind of plod along gathering images, interviews, ideas, and music, then roll up my sleeves and work on the material until I come up with a scene, sequence or story that is more than the sum of it’s parts.JC: What projects are you working on at the moment?

BB: Bevis and myself got together again last year to set up a production company that we are calling Rolling Pictures. Our first production was Dave Kidney Superstar, a 30 min documentary for BBC 1 Scotland about a 78 year-old wrestling champion from Dundee. It was well received by the press and public and was nominated for a Bafta Scotland award which we were really flattered about. We have now just completed our second programme for BBC Scotland that will be aired in May or June this year. It’s a revisit of our original bothy singing documentary presented by comic soap actress Joyce Falconer learning the tradition and attempting to shake it up a bit. Next, I’m taking some time off to write a feature film script. I have never written a feature script before but have a story and idea I’m excited about and want to have a crack at it so stay tuned for more!

Jeremy Holmes

Jeremy Holmes got his first Skateboard when he was only 5 years old. He got discovered and sponsored at the age of 14 when he won the Sixteen Skateboards video contest. He has gone on to represent some of the biggest companies in skateboarding including World Industries Skateboards and eS Shoes. He has traveled and lived all over the world from San Francisco, London, Barcelona, Hawaii, and Moscow. He is married with a beautiful daughter who turns 6 at the end of April.

Interview by Jason Koen
Photography by Branton Ellerbee and others

JK: So…you have been skateboarding since you were very young. What was the attraction at the beginning that still keeps your fascination 20 years later?

JH: In the beginning it was the movie Gleaming The Cube which was filmed in 1989 and featured Christian Slater that first got me interested in skateboarding. Then once I got going it was just the pure fun of it plus the challenge of getting better. These days what keeps me going is the mandatory need for an outlet...of expression, from stress, an avenue to let creativity out.

JK: I feel that skateboarding is one of the hardest things in which a person can achieve a high skill level. Certainly honing this skill and representing some of the biggest brands in the industry you have gathered some jewels along the way that translate into other areas of life. What are you’re favorite gems?

JH: I'm not even sure I know what you mean but the process of thinking about something then taking that which was purely mental and working out the kinks and making it happen is one of the most valuable things I’ve taken from skateboarding. As I've grown up I'm amazed at how applicable the process that I’ve learned from skateboarding has been in so many other aspects of my life.

JK: You are known for having a velvety smooth aesthetic combined with raw street skating and for being humble so I know it's hard to talk about yourself. Let's talk about other people now. What other skateboarders inspire you most and why?

JH: I'm really inspired by the golden era of street skating in general, you know, like '95 to 2000. The videos Mouse, Trilogy, Photo, Eastern Exposure everything about street skating during the time of these videos…my favorite videos is what has been most inspirational to me. These days I guess it's more nostalgic than inspirational, Gino's part in Trilogy, or his two or three tricks in Mouse get me going or Ricky O's part in Eastern Exposure, that whole video for that matter. And that’s another cool thing about the videos in that era, nowadays I'll like this part and that part of a video and that’s all I'll really watch, but back then you'd love a whole video, just about every part.

JK: Now you’re the guy in the videos. Tell me about some of the places that skateboarding and filming for videos has taken you. Do you have any crazy travel stories you don’t want your wife and daughter to hear? Tell one of those!

JH: Ha! Nothing too crazy you know me I'm pretty mellow. Although I did get left behind in Austria on an Ezekiel Europe tour. We were staying in this bed and breakfast and I'm just taking my time brushing my teeth and hear the van pulling off. At first I thought nah their probably just moving it or something…nope! The worst part was how long it took before they noticed I wasn't in the van. I'm talking they got all the way through the countryside onto the autobahn and pulled over to gas up, then wonder "where's Holmes?!?"

JK: How do you imagine your life would be different if you had never been involved in skateboarding?

JH: My friends wouldn't be as interesting and cool. My perspective on life and happiness would be way narrower. I'd probably make a lot more money, scratch that. I would definitely make a lot more money! Sometimes it's kind of scary but skateboarding has defined who I am in so many ways. It’s really hard to imagine what I'd be like if I never got that skateboard on my 5th birthday.

JK: What are your main priorities in life right now?

JH: Spending time with my lovely daughter and wife. Filming my part for the HYPE! video which is my board sponsor, it should be dropping sometime this fall 2010. Also I’m working on a promo video for Broadcast Wheels. I’m riding my bike a lot at the moment and working on being less introverted!

Camille-Anais Semprez

Camille-Anais Semprez studies film theory at La Sorbonne in Paris but is taking a semester off to spend time in Dallas and launch her new jewelry line. She has danced with the Moscow ballet, been part of a short film in Marrakech, modeled in New York, studied classical ballet for twelve years, participated in the Contemporary Art Biennale in Prague and studied Mandarin Chinese for six years…and she was just born two decades ago!

Interview by Jessica Olsson.
Photography by Branton Ellerbee

JO: First question that I think comes to everyone’s mind is: What’s your tie to Dallas?

CAS: My first encounter with Dallas goes back to 1995. Actually my family moved here from New Mexico to put me in the French school, while still being within driving distance of our beloved Taos. Over the years, despite all the moving around , my parents have kept a main residence in the uptown area. I’m here for a few months, taking time off from school to launch my jewelry line.

JO: How did you get in to designing jewelry with your film/music/art background? Do you draw any inspiration from your upbringing?

CAS: I had an unusual upbringing, a nomadic childhood along with two creative parents. I think they always encouraged me to create, imagine and be resourceful.
The pendants started in the “treasure cave”, which is my father’s studio, a little over a year ago. I found some bullet casings lying around, and I had an idea. My dad helped me make the first one, which was a bullet and a crystal (my mom was already into crystal pendants and had given me a few). From that prototype and the support and help of my parents, sprung the complete collection under the name pp+c. Not all of the pieces have specific symbolism, but I can say that the feather pendant is very much homage to my Crow Indian family who watch over me.

JO: Describe the general process and how long does it usually takes to construct a piece?

CAS: All the pieces are hand made and there are no two exactly alike. The most time consuming process is shaping the wood, in fact the smooth shape was only recently perfected. The whole process (drilling, cleaning, sanding, buffing, polishing…) and assembly takes around 4 hours a piece I would say.

JO: What are your 5 essentials for this spring/summer?

CAS: Trench coat, moccasins, floral prints, boyfriends in bowties and a ticket to Paris!

JO: Where is your favorite shopping in Dallas?

CAS: I love Grange Hall! Its Sherlock Holmes-esque charm, like a place full of dark and obscure objects is so appealing to me! There is without a doubt a European aesthetic that I love about this store.

JO: What other kind of projects do you have going on for the future?

CAS: A second collection!
Besides that, continue my studies, dabble in Djing...This is the near future, as far as the rest only time will tell.

JO: Where can we buy your jewelry?

CAS: For the moment by contacting us through our website: pp-plus-c.com Hopefully soon an in store location here in Dallas, I’m working on it .

C’est tout!