How My Imagination Set Me Free | Mukunda Angulo | TEDxTeen

hello everyone good morning I'm from New York City I grew up in the projects in Lower East Side Oh New Yorker I grew up in the projects in the Lower East Side area I grew up in a family of seven siblings five brothers and one sister and I'm the middle kid in all of that are there any middle kids here more hands than I expected I'm with you stay strong it gets easier trust me I played musical instruments I rollerbladed played ball it drew painted pictures for school projects and I watched a lot of movies sounds normal right but I wasn't allowed to leave my apartment my dad wouldn't allow it he controlled everything I did in my life he even controlled my mom so my entire world existed in my apartment I had no friends I was home-schooled I wasn't allowed to cut my hair I couldn't walk out my front door I had no internet and I even couldn't talk about certain subjects I wanted to the only freedom I really had was my imagination and a huge influence came from movies now movies were an escape to me but they were also an actual guidance to life they showed me what rivers looked like what schools looked like what the countryside looked like even animals cats dogs mice horses they even taught me how to talk and how to dress and dress in style I watched so many movies for so long I started thinking why don't we do these movies play our favorite characters and that's how we started doing full-length movie reenactments and reenacted some of our favorite movies such as The Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher Nolan Pirates of the Caribbean the Lord of the Rings the Godfather's and Goodfellas we did classic movies too and we did everything we could to bring these films as much to life as humanly possible and we needed certain resources to bring them we need to write we needed to write down every single word from the film itself which took days sometimes and we also needed to bring certain other aspects to life as possible so we started looking around the house and we found cereal boxes paper packaging tape crayons and using all of these resources we were able to make armor swords costumes masks props you name it we made it computers phones not the iPhone flip phones the old regular ones bringing movies to life help me explore the outside world while I was trapped in my apartment my dad may have controlled our lives but one thing he couldn't control was our imagination we never celebrated any holidays except one my favorite Halloween this day really was special to me because it pushed my imagination my creativity as far as it could a whole new world opened up inside of me I turned my entire apartment into this huge forest mate trees in my hallway through leaves on the floor I make these giant posters Halloween decoration paper jack-o'-lanterns paper mummies hanging all over the ceiling all over the wall scarecrows and pumpkins made out of basketballs it really pushed everything as far as it could it was like making an entire city it was a really special day it was my masterpiece of my imagination but when I was 15 years old that special day became threatened and was threatened by my dad he tried controlling it and I felt like he was taken away the only power I had left the power of my imagination and that's when I hit my breaking point and I walked out my front door for the first time on my own in my life was a really big moment that day my dad was out getting groceries that day and something just sparked in me it was like a now-or-never moment but I didn't want him to recognize me either so I dressed up in the mouse face covering and bothering covering costume I could think of Michael Myers from John Carpenter's Halloween and I didn't just dress up in him because he represented Halloween or good or evil no not good just bad he's bad all together but he was someone and a character that refuses to die that refuses to give up he was the unstoppable in the film that's what I felt like that day unstoppable so when I went out I walked into a bank in a mask yes I walked to a bank with a mask I walked into a grocery store I walked into a pharmacy and I eventually scared and frightened enough people they called the cops on me and as the cops approached me and asked me all sorts of questions you know Who am I where am i where am i from why am I dressed in this weird outfit I was completely catatonic I had no idea what to say I didn't know how to speak to a regular person it was the first time this had ever happened to me in my life and because I wouldn't say a word they thought I was insane and took me to a psycho ward Hospital it sounds dramatic I know but for me it was really exciting it was because I was I met people my own age people like you regular people for the first time and they were like gods to me I don't know what to say I didn't know how to interact but I just just went with the flow and went with it and it felt so good it was a whole new world that just opened up kids my own age kids of my own peers and I even had a roommate for the very first time funky with my brothers doesn't count no and on this day while I was in the hospital I was there for a week we also had a daily routine we had group therapy talking about your creative side your goals in life you know who do you want to be who do you look forward to being and we even had a school routine as well we talked about subjects history math science and draw creative little drawings or get to our creative side as much as possible and my favorite movie night they had a movie night every night as you play movies here they go yes we play a movie every night yes it was a huge freedom accomplishment for me I had tasted freedom for the very first time in my life after I came back from the hospital Hank went back home I couldn't go back to this old world of mine this controlled environment this limited world how could I so when I came back I told my dad it's over your dictatorship and control over me is over it's over for all of us my brothers my mom as of now we are all free and he accepted it he had no choice and for the very first time my brothers and I were free my mom was free and so we started going out on our own all together exploring New York City but we didn't know the city that all that well so we started using movie references as to where to go home alone - lost in New York Macaulay Culkin is checking into the plaza he's hanging around Central Park so we knew where that was we thought Hotel Plaza must be that way because he's going uptown north and we figured out uptown in downtown from die hard with a vengeance with Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson they're going all over the city chasing this train in a cab that's about to go off somehow going through Central Park so we're using movies based in New York City as to where to go in the city and where to hang out as a guidance and a guided us well mind you as we were exploring New York City we met our first friend on the street director Kristen Moselle we connected with her because she loved films just as much as we did and she was a film anchor that was a plus wandering the streets and our first friend is a filmmaker after spending time with her I realized I could start making my own film projects I could bring my imagination to the other people besides the one I besides the ones I grew up with my brothers it was a whole new kind of freedom she taught us cameras we collaborate with other filmmakers we even worked with actors for the very first time it was crazy I was on set directing I couldn't believe it it really was a whole new kind of freedom next level and Christa was so intrigued and amazed by our imagination and our creativity and after spending so much time with her we felt comfortable sharing our backstory with her and she was blown away she was amazed she asked us to make a film with her about our lives and that's how the documentary The Wolf Pack came to be and in 2015 I flew with my family including my mom to the Sundance Film Festival with the film where it premiered and won Best Documentary of the year thank you I'll never forget the day they announced it it meant so much because they said it was a subject it was a film about the power of imagination about the power of our imagination a film about imagination that really hit home and after that things started to get really exciting there were so many people across the world that were touched by our story we got invited to go to all of these new places places that I only seen in movies an imagined and dream of going to we flew to Europe we went all over the UK we went to a Germany we went to Sweden we went to South America and Colombia and to the hometown of movies los angeles as we were exploring and traveling I got to learn all sorts of cultures and learn about new music and meet new communities new people I went to all these film festivals and met all of these amazing filmmakers and talked about their ideas and their process of filmmaking I'm a directors writers producers actors composers editors I could go on and on and on and on and I even got to meet some of my own heroes David O'Russell Spike Jonze Mark Ruffalo and Robert De Niro these are the same people that taught me how to talk act speak create and write with the power of their imagination and their movies I really saw how imagination brings people together people started taking notice of us after all of this not just because we were in a film but because of the way we started making our own films we started own production company we worked with bigger media companies we were doing online content and presenting our own original films I was getting paid to make my own movies this was a dream come true my life could have gone in many different directions I could have been man I could have been angry bitter or messed up from my childhood experience but my imagination sets me free from that it helps me see hope endless opportunities it sets me free from self-doubt and from judging others before I walked out that front door my imagination was the only place where I felt I was free now I'm out in the world doing all of these things I've always dreamed of doing and it's better than anything I could have imagined imagination isn't just a fairy tale or fantasy it's you it's who you are it's the power within you don't ever let anyone take that away from you believe in it nurture it your imagination is your freedom thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 301,590

Rating: 4.9699812 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United Kingdom, Life, Art, Creativity, Film, Documentary, New York City, Movies, Imagination, Family, Ted Talks, TED, Mukunda Angulo, The Wolfpack

Id: ECCQ7DyA5M0

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2016