After taking film production electives as an undergraduate student, Francisco Luna attended Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School where the renowned filmmaker screened a clip of Francisco’s work and described it as “very fine stuff.” He was also active as an entrepreneur, in the course of which he was advised and encouraged by seasoned professionals who had led multi-billion dollar operations.
Francisco is currently developing two features. One is a romantic screenplay he wrote, Falling Hopelessly. The other is a re-imagining of Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr on which he is working as creative producer.
Francisco loves cinema and his favorite streaming service is Criterion Channel. He also loves to read, with a special love for philosophy, poetry, and classic literature. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, and his favorite philosophers include Saul Kripke, Nietzsche, Sartre and (paradoxically) some Christian thinkers. He also loves Persian poetry (in English translation) and his favorite novelist is Samuel Beckett. A great admirer of French culture, Francisco reads and speaks at an advanced level and has taken graduate coursework on Montaigne.
Finally, Francisco is a committed advocate of effective altruism, which measures the amount of lives saved per dollar of charitable giving. To this end, he donates quarterly to charities rated highly by The Life You Can Save and GiveWell. For example, he has given to Against Malaria Foundation to pay for bed nets which cost US$2 and protect two people for up to three years. Bed nets are estimated to have averted 450 million cases of malaria between 2000–2015 and, according to the CDC, were shown to reduce the death of children under 5 years from all causes by about 20%.[1] He urges others to check out these organizations and consider supporting them.
[1] Source: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/best-charities/against-malaria-foundation