Season 3 Episode 6 – Experimental Filmmaker and Composer Christopher Rakas
Born in the ’70s, raised in the ’80s, and grew up in El Paso, Texas, Christopher was a troubled kid who needed an artistic outlet. He always loved watching Elvira, not for her physical attributes but for the cheesy horror and sci-fi movies she screened weekly. Christopher started making home horror movies when he was 12 and was particularly interested in the special effects make-up side of filmmaking. “I was obsessed with Tom Savini and Stan Winston. And I loved directors like John Carpenter and Wes Craven.” He’s always leaned toward the darker, more experimental side of the arts. In the ’90s, he formed an experimental band called The Fold, which was off to a hot start until drug use and alcohol abuse derailed those ambitions.
For 11 years, he’s owned a pizzeria in downtown El Paso. A silver lining to the pandemic was the rekindling of his love for filmmaking. Dada Noise is his first professional film project. He’s writing a TV series called On Bloody Paths with Ingmar Koch and Mary Susan Applegate. Applegate wrote the music for the film Bend It Like Beckham. Marc Caro, the director from City of the Lost Children and Delicatessen, will direct a few episodes. And Christopher has a film in this year’s Experimental Film Fest titled Dada Noise 2.
