HFC @ HLFF - Interview with Writer/Director of Proverbs Timoteo Cortez

Today we caught up with Houston based filmmaker Timoteo Cortez to talk about his newest short film Proverbs, which premiered at the Houston Latino Film Festival 2025. Proverbs, a spiritual and religious horror film, follows a desperate man who becomes the victim of a supernatural book and is hunted down by the book’s owner. We spoke about using film to convey guilt, visualizing metaphors in horror storytelling, and the importance of community.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Proverbs played at the Houston Latino Film Festival (2025), amongst other film festivals. Could you talk us through the genesis of this idea, what was the spark that led you to a script?

The version that we see is the fourth version through the draft process. Originally, it was going to be a little heist short film where two guys are trying to rob this one rich mob dude whose name is, like, The Eagle or The Executioner. Then they just happen to undermine The Executioner, who they meet at the diner and he gives a speech showing them that the jig is up. After the first, second, and third version, it wasn't really working for me. There was a certain prop that I was trying to look for that version, and then I found on Amazon one of those faux lock boxes where it could look like a book, but it's actually got something hidden. I saw one of a Bible and I thought it was really interesting. The diner scene, out of all the versions of the draft, stayed the same throughout. I wanted to find a way to make it connect, and put my view or spin on things in regards to religion. Then afterwards it was a lot of trying to figure out what the messages that I'm really trying to say here, without it just being something that's spectacle. Something that actually has meaning. I went through a bit of a mini-crisis with my religious views back in the day, and I tried to use those to unfold the story. 

That's the process, it seems, for a lot of short films. Maybe there’s a core theme, or I like to call them North Star images, these ideas that you have in your head where you can see it, and you want to so clearly translate at least that singular image on your screen. Like the diner scene, something that remains. It's interesting that you said it was a heist film before, so you're still working within “genre filmmaking.” What does genre filmmaking look like for you? Was that important to incorporate those expected themes?

No, it wasn't really something that I was necessarily striving for. From the first drafts, it was more just trying to write something that I thought could be exciting and get people's attention. The first draft was a few pages, and I wrote it literally in a night. Then with it transforming into horror, it wasn't necessarily a focus. It's weird, because it's not one of those things that I went after, it just came to be. I think what I'm starting to learn more and more about myself is that I'm into magical realism. So, it's kind of like my twist on how the world's going. With the voices and with the Bible itself, it was one of those exaggerations. Like I have my own voices, I view the Bible in a certain way. It was just those exaggerations and because of those things, it added to the horror element. So it was just something that I decided to lean into. It wasn't, “I'm gonna specifically do this, and I'm gonna do that.” I was inspired by other horror films, like The Shining was a massive influence for me. I think it was just more of leaning into the absurdity of things and adding some color to it. I wasn't really, like, “this is going to be horror.” It wasn't like a cognitive twist. 

With horror, I think one of the most important things you have to do is visualize your metaphor. How do you sort of visualize these metaphors, what do you decide is a good representation of these metaphors?

At the beginning, it was mainly to separate, you know? To have distinct moments of, this is when they're possessed, and this is when they're not possessed. In the beginning, we're able to see what somebody looks like at the late stages of their possession, where they're totally weak, and the voices are a lot stronger, a lot more harmful. As for the main character who's beginning to experience the voices and the possession, they still have a little bit more strength. A big thing for the eyes and for the voices was to represent the guilt or the shame that we feel sometimes. As a religious person, or even living in a world where you're constantly told what's right and wrong, it's always battled with moralities. Using that guilt to harm yourself, you start to look back. It's also an exaggeration of the insecurities and the pain that we all have within ourselves. I wanted to have the voices be something that was just so harmful, just draining to the body. I really tried to have the actors physically show what it's like to feel that pain constantly.

You do a really terrific job of having your actors take us on this journey, especially the self righteousness from the main antagonist, and then there's shame and curiosity and desperation from your protagonist. What’s it like directing your actors to get to that point, to chase that specific feeling? 

That was my favorite experience throughout the whole film, working with the actors. I started out as an actor in high school. So, whenever I was working with them, it felt like playing. The beautiful thing about it was that we were all on the same page as far as our views. We all had our experiences, our negative experiences with the church, and our questions and doubts. Especially with Braden [Tanner], The Executioner. Both Braden and Gerardo [Velasquez], we had an hour long phone call discussing their characters and discussing the themes and the ideas. I asked them if they had any questions, and they're like, “No, dude, I don't really have any questions. I understand exactly where you're going,” and “it reminds me of when I was a kid.” We all connected and related on that level, to where we knew, more or less, where we were going with this. It was a way of them reliving, or relieving those pains and feelings. 

Being able to understand in the environment that we're in, how this character is going to react and move in this area comes from having a lot of rehearsal time on set. With Byron and Gerardo, it was trying to make sure that I can have them reach that level of intensity for whenever they're in the middle of their possession. Like Byron’s scene when he was in the restroom, he's about to die, and he was giving me a lot, but I felt like I needed a lot more. I wanted to push him. You're at the last point, and you're throwing whatever you can just to fight and survive. Your body is giving up on you. So, I was like, “What number are you at? Like, at a one out of 10 on a scale of one to 10? What are you at?” he's like, “I'm at a 10.” Then it’s like, “all right, if you're at a 10, I need a 15 right now.” And he went straight to a 15, fucking killed it. The beautiful thing about it was that I was dealing with such professional actors. Then with Gerardo, trying to get him at the diner scene to that level of intensity was also a challenge. It was a matter of really trying to balance chilling all day, and then all of a sudden you have to be in character and your character is at the worst point of their life. Gerardo, being the main actor and having his own style, captured it very well. I think everyone captured the right mentality.

Can you talk us through your visual style? There's a lot of claustrophobia to the shots, very few wides. Do you have inspirations for that, or a style that you were chasing visually?

Visually, I'm still figuring things out, right? But for the film I really needed to build on tension, and I really needed to make sure that we never, even for a moment, had relief. But a lot of it I had to do with just me. I love reading books, and I love that we're able to understand and feel what the character is going through mentally with the written word, it's easy to do that. With visual images, it's a lot tougher, because you can't necessarily get inside the character's head, right? I want to know what's going on in his head. That adds more to the drama, that adds more to the tension, and frankly, it helps us relate better to the character as well. Visually, I wanted to keep everything tight, because I never wanted for anybody to drift off or to try and figure out “what else am I supposed to be looking at here?” What you need to see is right here, and what you need to feel is going on right here at this moment. You don't need to focus on anything else in the background. The other thing too, long lenses can help build separation. I really wanted him to feel like he was alone, to feel that he had nothing to rely on. 

Another thing that resonated with me were the bookends, or the circular storytelling. The emphasis on ending the film the same way it started. Can you talk us through that decision? Do you think it speaks more towards the religious or humanist aspects of the film?

The reason I did that was because I wanted Sam and Alex, the characters, to represent two different types of people. There's the person who is so caught up with religion, or so caught up within these voices, that at the moment when it comes down to for them to be able to break or cut that off cleanly, they don't. There's people that just stay within it. They're comfortable with hearing the voices, and they get comfortable with that guilt and that shame. With Sam's character, in the end, he was able to cut off the ears, to cut away the voices and to be able to to make that jump, and to be on his own. The reason why I titled it Proverbs was because the Book of Proverbs is more or less telling you how to live your life in the eyes of God. I wanted to show the world of somebody that can't let go, and somebody that can and is able to move on and to make their own choices. Give a little bit of a rise and fall within the story. Because in the end, when we see him in the restroom about to cut off his ear, we know what's at stake, and we know what he has to do. It's just a matter of, is he going to do it? The Sam from before the film probably wouldn't have done it, but the Sam that we experienced these scenes with, he does make that decision. He knew what was at stake. Plus, I love when endings in film are circular storytelling, the bookends. 

The sound design, especially in the diner scene, is so good at building suspense. Was that something that was in the script, was it something you were planning on the day? Was it something you found in post production?

It’s funny, it was something that I originally had added into the script, because, like I said before, the first draft was initially in the heist genre. The character of Sam in that version was setting up the dude at the diner, and he knew it, but he was too scared to actually follow through with it. I was trying to play with the sound design of him hearing the clock or the ticking on his watch. One of the things that I immediately thought about was Interstellar, where they're on the water planet, and you hear all the ticking. We know that every second on that planet is seven something years on Earth. You know what's at stake, you know time is being lost. So with the diner sequence, I wanted to just keep building that tension. It was a mix of what I originally intended, but also it helps the audience stay focused. 

Sound design has always been so important to films. Even in silent films, they were playing pianos and stuff. That's what film is, this beautiful convergence of sight and sound. It's this beautiful symbiotic relationship, and I think you did achieve a really good type of pacing thanks to sound design and acting.

Yeah, thank you, it was huge. Especially with the intro, the hook, the first three minutes of the film that we see. I was like, “this has to be with music, otherwise it's just going to feel naked.” The rough cut, or the first draft of the cut, everything just felt so bare and so naked. Once we finally added the sound design that we intended, it just made everything complete, especially with the voices in the head. I love the voices. 

I want to talk about what it means to you to both have something like the Houston Latino Film Festival, and then also to have Proverbs play at the Houston Latino Film Festival. Can you talk us through both the experience, and what it means to have that sort of community in Houston? 

It means everything to me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Houston Latino Film Festival. Back in 2019, I attended my first one. At that moment in time, I had dropped out of school, I was frustrated, I was trying to figure out how the hell I was gonna break into the film industry and what I wanted to do. It felt daunting, because you're in Houston, and you're like, “Where the hell am I going to like, where are the sets at? How am I going to do any of this? I don't know anything, and I don't know people.” It just so happened to be that time in March where they started selling tickets. It was 60 bucks for a pass, and I ended up buying one, even though I was broke as hell. I got really excited. I was like, “okay, cool, it’s my people they're showing us.” It ended up being one of the best experiences I've had as a beginner. You're meeting people who have the equipment, who have the experience, and you're seeing all these great films, and you're seeing that everything is achievable and that the impossible is possible. From there I was able to go on sets, then finally being known in the film industry as a crew member. Then to screen at the place that inspired me, that gave me hope, that gave me the belief that I could do it, it feels like a complete circle. 

To have Proverbs there was absolutely inspirational and motivating. I got step one done now, step two is to do it again, and step three is to screen a feature there. For me, as somebody who's part of not just a misrepresented, but an underrepresented community in the mainstream media, it's empowering. It gives me the excitement to be part of leading change. Filmmakers that are coming in with different voices and our perspectives, our chance to be able to impact the medium itself. Even though we're a small industry, compared to Austin, New York or LA, there's still people like me who are out here, who want to make it happen, and can make it happen. It just proves you can do it, and for me, it's something that I hope I can give back to, because it's done so much for me. If I hadn't gone to that festival, I don't know if I'd be in the same position that I'm in right now. It literally changed my life. It was an amazing experience, it's always a pleasure and a privilege to be able to show people the film. I think I've been able to ride the wave of having this last year done pretty decently for the film. So I'm kind of just riding on that wave of hearsay or whatever.

Speaking of the future, do you have anything coming up that you're working on and that we can tease people with?

I just wrapped up editing on this poetry film for the locations/houston 2025 for public poetry that'll be screening on April 12. I'm excited for that one. It'll probably be online later on in the year. I'm trying to develop one of my passion projects for a short film called Candles. It's about an older Hispanic couple in the 70s that are learning to try and grieve the death of their son in the Vietnam War. I'm trying to work on this documentary, trying to get a solid foundation for the story. But other than that, that's kind of all that I got on me right now. If anybody comes to me for something, I'll happily do it.

At the time of this interview, Proverbs had already screened at the Houston Latino Film Festival. To follow along on Timeteo’s journey, you can follow him on Instagram at dir.teo

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