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Filmmaker Miguel Ángel Ferrer on The Sea Inside • Movies We Like • Episode 706

Filmmaker Miguel Ángel Ferrer on The Sea Inside

Filmmaker Miguel Ángel Ferrer joins Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss Alejandro Amenábar’s The Sea Inside, a profoundly moving story of autonomy, love, and what it means to truly live. Miguel, the Venezuelan-American director of The Shadow of the Sun, brings a deeply personal connection to cinema that explores both survival and mortality. Together, we talk about what cinema can teach us about dignity, resilience, and the courage to be heard.

“I saw people in Venezuela make the impossible happen daily—no gas, no power, no milk—and still, at seven o’clock, there’s a full spread on the table. I thought, why isn’t this in a movie?”

Miguel shares his path into filmmaking—from childhood adventures captured on his father’s Betamax camera to washing dishes in LA before building a career in commercials and narrative storytelling. That perseverance shapes The Shadow of the Sun, his acclaimed feature about two brothers trying to change their lives through music.

“Don’t take life for granted. He says, you’re sitting three feet from me, and I want to reach out and touch you—but for me, that’s an impossible journey. We forget how miraculous small things are.”

In The Sea Inside, Miguel finds a masterclass in intimate filmmaking: a story driven not by spectacle, but by performance, perspective, and the emotional weight of everyday human connection. The film’s quiet moral arguments—and Javier Bardem’s extraordinary work—continue to inspire Miguel’s own artistic ambitions.
 
Watch this full conversation on YouTube
👤 Meet Miguel Ángel Ferrer
🎞️  Miguel’s new film: The Shadow of the Sun
🍿 Miguel’s pick: The Sea Inside
🎧 If you like these movies, check out these conversations The Next Reel
Movies We Like

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Movies We Like invites you inside the minds of the people who make movies.

In each episode, co-hosts Andy Nelson and Pete Wright sit down with filmmakers—from cinematographers to costume designers—to talk about the films that inspire them most, and how their craft changes the way they watch their favorite movies.