Jonnathan Álvarez and his universe of monsters that redefines Mexican stop motion

Monsters and wrestlers mingle with everyday Mexican life, all held together with paste. This is the work of Jonnathan Álvarez, a 24-year-old director, stop-motion animator, and filmmaker from Mexico City.

In an interview with Mexican Press Agency (MxPA), he shared the process of creating these monsters that haunt his mind, as well as the challenges of being a filmmaker in that country.

Jonnathan, also known as “Jean Nathan,” has a peculiar love for miniatures and special effects. It was this passion that led him to create Juan Cíclope Nepomuceno, the protagonist of the short film titled The Monsterograph.

In one minute, he tells us the story of Juan Cíclope, a photographer who specializes in photographing monsters. With charming naturalness, Juan immerses us in a world where monsters dream of being movie stars, but no one will take their picture because they’re afraid of them.

Meticulously detailed puppets are the stars, and this filmmaker lets his imagination run wild, creating characters like El Mayate del Mal, La Hormiga Atómica, and the famous Kong King. Even though they only appear for a few seconds in the short film, it’s impossible not to be captivated by the lives of these monsters. How did they become actors, and how did they end up auditioning at Tepeyac Studios?

Jonnathan shares that this work stems from his admiration for the monsters of Mexican cinema, as well as the language that is such an essential part of Mexican identity: “I find him to be a very noble character (Juan Cíclope), who could be taken from a Polivoces movie, but in stop motion,” he commented to MxPA.

This charismatic animation was originally conceived as an entry for a short film competition at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) in Mexico City. “The prize was some cash, and I thought to myself, ‘If I were to win, even with a lot of luck, I could buy myself a computer,’” Jonnathan recalled.

Like many Mexican artists, Jonnathan grew up in an adverse economic environment that limited his access to materials and tools for his work. “I remember once we were filming a short film and we didn’t have much money for some things, and my brother told me: ‘You always have to think that you have to do things with nothing.’ I think it’s a great life mantra,” shared the creator of El Monstruógrafo.

It was under these circumstances that he discovered his love for creating miniatures and puppets. The filmmaker commented that parts of this short film are inspired by his family: “The story about El Monstruógrafo’s grandfather being a scrap metal dealer is true. My grandfather was indeed a scrap metal dealer, and he told me a story about a time he came to collect scrap metal from the Tepeyac Studios here in Mexico City.”

The monster photographer’s short film won the UAM competition and became the “spiritual godfather” of the filmmaker’s other projects. From time-traveling wrestlers to paranormal stories of vampires trapped in bottles of alcohol, Jonnathan Álvarez’s mind never rests.

From all corners of Mexico, artists of unparalleled talent strive to create with what they have at hand, convinced that there is no worse fate than doing nothing for fear of not having all the right tools.

To learn more about this artist’s work, follow him on social media. He also told MxPA that he’s working on a series of El Monstruógrafo, at a stop-motion animation studio called Kloakaa d’ Monstruos, as well as a short film titled Tzotemoc.

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