Andrés Useche
Andrés Useche |
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Andrés Useche (born November 7, 1977 in Manizales, Colombia) is an award-winning writer, film director, graphic artist and singer/songwriter.
Early life
Useche published his first political cartoon, "Soy Libre", at age 11. In high school, he won the Colombian Ministry of Culture Individual Creation Prize in Graphic Arts with his graphic novel Vana Espuma ("Idle Mist"). Upon high school graduation Useche composed "Azul de Noche", a quintet performed by members of the Manizales Chamber Orchestra. Its conductor, lead violinist Gillermo Gomez, would go on to perform with Useche on the compositions and live multimedia projects Useche created during his college years.
Career
In the late 1990s, Useche also scored documentaries and wrote, directed, edited, scored and starred in Vana Espuma (1998), a 25-minute film adaptation of his graphic novel.[1] The film had a $100 budget and won the Best Fiction Film, Best screenplay and Best actress Cesar Awards,[2] along with other nominations for Useche for Best Actor and Best Music.
After graduating as a visual designer with emphasis on Film from the Universidad de Caldas, Useche moved to Los Angeles, California, where he has worked as a script writer and is developing a feature film project.
In 2008, in support of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Useche wrote, performed and co-directed in the viral video "Si Se Puede Cambiar", a Spanish language music video also directed by Eric Byler and Warren Fu, which debuted on YouTube on February 22, from the group United For Obama. On April 8, 2008, "Si Se Puede Cambiar" was chosen by YouTube to represent Obama in the first ever "Trendsetter Tuesday". The video was featured on the main page of the site along with videos about the other remaining US presidential candidates. "Si Se Puede Cambiar" quickly reached 325,000 views and maintained a rating of 4/5 stars, beating the scores for the Hillary Clinton and John McCain videos. The video had been watched in 193 countries. Versions of the video with subtitles in German, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Arabic have also been released.
Through 08 Andrés gave television, radio and newspaper interviews in which he promoted Obama's campaign. [3]
On December 29, a live TV news program reported Andrés Useche had been tapped to sing at the Presidential Inaugural Ball and Gala "We The People" at Capitol Hill, Washington DC, on January 20 2009.
Andres was also confirmed to perform at The Latino Inaugural Gala to be held at the Hall of the Americas / The Organization of American States (OAS) across the street from White House grounds on January 19, 2009.
In 2009 El Principio (Del Final) with music and vocals by both Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Andres Useche was made available as a free download at Useche's website http://www.andresuseche.com
In Summer 2009, Andres traveled to Colombia and was signed by Legart, Asuntos Juridicos which now represents him as screenwriter, director, actor and songwriter/ musician in South America.
On 09/09/09, a 96.3 FM Colombian radio special featuring an Andres Useche career retrospective, confirmed the upcoming production of "Aún Aquí", a film written, directed, scored and produced by Andres Useche to be shot in his hometown of Manizales, Colombia. In 2010, The Internet Movie Database released the first trailer for "Aún Aquí".
In 2010 Andrés Useche directed The Cove PSA "My Friend is..." in which he joined forces with Oscar-winning producer Fisher Stevens, Lina Esco, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rudd, Naomi Watts, Courteney Cox, Mariska Hargitay, Woody Harrelson, Jason Mraz, James Gandolfini, John Leguizamo, Evan Handler, Rob Morrow, Tamlyn Tomita, Carrie Ann Inaba, Chris Tashima, Russell Simmons, James Kyson Lee and Richard Kind among other talented artists. Andres also worked as composer, co-writer and co-editor on the project.[4]
In response to the passing of Arizona SB 1070, Andres Useche wrote and recorded the song "Marching into the Light". On May 19, 2010 he traveled to Phoenix, performing the song and joining marches protesting the law. Images from the rallies and subsequent travels around the country appear in the music video for "Marching into the Light", also directed by Andres and dedicated to the memory of Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix, two recently deceased DREAM Act activists from UCLA. Andres also took to the airways speaking on various TV news programs to denounce what he felt was racial profiling implicit in the law and called for compassion, unity and comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. [5]
In 2010, the Coffee Party USA website announced that Andres Useche would perform at the National Convention on September 24 of the same year.
References
External links
- director Andrés Useche, Hollywood and “The Cove” Join Forces for Dolphin Awareness , Andres Useche interview for Mashable
- Andrés Useche TV news interview on Mega TV
- Andrés Useche TV interview on Univision news program.
- Andrés Useche, el Otro Colombiano que Cantara para Obama on El Colombiano
- Andrés Useche sings for Change (the Obama Kind) on the Austin Chronicle
- Si Se Puede Cambiar Useche for Obama video on YouTube
- Andrés Useche at IMDb
- Andrés Useche Activista, Cineasta y Músico on Semana Conexión Colombia
- Borges: Influence and References - Andrés Useche by Manu El on www.themodernworld.com
- Vana Espuma trailer on myspacetv.com
- "Election rocks to a new Latin beat "Andrés Useche", and other artists express their support on The Miami Herald
- Andrés Useche le canta a Obama on La Patria.com
- Protagonistas del Mundo: Andrés Useche on RCN Radio/TV station
- Andrés Useche music videos on Will.i.am's website Dipdive.com
- Channel 9 News: Andrés Useche and other young Democrats on Vice-Presidential debate on CBS Television