Pasqual Gutierrez is a writer, director and actor. Sundance 2025 Comedy “Serious People” was his debut into feature filmmaking alongside veteran documentary filmmaker Ben Mullinkosson who co-wrote and directed. Gutierrez is also 1/2 of music video directing duo CLIQUA who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry including The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Rosalia, Madonna, and more. Gutierrez is developing his second feature, a sequel to Serious People.
Ben Mullinkosson was raised in the suburbs of Chicago and trained in directing at Chapman University. After graduating Ben spent 15 years directing commercial work and documentary films between Los Angeles and Shanghai.
Ben's newest film, SERIOUS PEOPLE, directed with Pasqual Gutierrez premiered at Sundance 2025 Film Festival. The film is sold by 2AM.
He is most well known for his feature length film DON'T BE A DICK ABOUT IT which won the Audience Award at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam in 2018 and is currently distributed in North America by Oscilloscope Laboratories.
en also recently premiered his five-year project, THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS, which won the Special Jury Mention prize at CPH:DOX in March 2023 and was sold to MUBI. The film was represented for sales by CAA and a is co-production between Kindred Spirit (Executive producer of THE FAREWELL and HONEY BOY) and /avelength (Executive producer of CUSP and WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR).
Among Ben's advertisements, SAMSUNG: VOICES OF LIFE with Agency Leo Burnett won a silver lion at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in 2016. His UNESCO World Heritage Ad with agency TBWA, THE LEFT HAND, was nominated for the ADC awards in 2020. His other clients include Facebook, Beats, Vivo, Yelp, The Home Depot, VANS, Converse, Apple, Red Bull, VICE and Nowness.
His short film, GNARLY IN PINK, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and premiered online as a NYT Op-Doc. A number of his other short films have received Vimeo Staff Picks and others have millions of views.
Ben is repped for commercials by Florence in Los Angeles. He also speaks Chinese fluently and is an X Games gold medalist for halfpipe skateboard competition in China.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
artistdecoded.com
Ben’s Links:
benmullinkosson.com
instagram.com/benmullinkosson
Pasqual’s Links:
pasqualgutierrez.com
instagram.com/pasqualgutierrez
instagram.com/cliquamundo
Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asian identity.
Her feature film, Girls Will Be Girls, premiered at Sundance where it won an Audience Award and a Special Jury Award. Shuchi was a Gotham Awards Breakthrough Director nominee and a John Cassavetes Award nominee at the Spirit Awards. During development, Girls was supported by the Aide Aux Cinémas du Monde and Sørfond grants, Gotham Week, Berlinale Project Market and Script Station, and Cine Qua Non Script Lab.
Shuchi’s short film, A Period Piece, was selected for SXSW and her film Mae and Ash won numerous awards before becoming a Vimeo Staff Pick.
Shuchi’s documentary credits include story producing the Emmy-nominated film Being Mary Tyler Moore which premiered at SXSW. Shuchi also story produced the vérité series, We Are: The Brooklyn Saints, directed by Rudy Valdez for Netflix, and Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas for HBO, where one of her episodes was nominated for a GLAAD Award.
She is a graduate of the American Film Institute and an alum of Berlinale Talents. She lives in NYC and is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the Bitchitra Collective, and the Freelance Solidarity Project.
Topics Discussed In This Episode: