Markel Tomaras

Markel Tomaras made The Stairs as a way toward healing – and he is climbing to new creative heights

Explore the Films Created by Seattle’s Next Generation of Talent

Through a creative partnership with Fujifilm, the Africatown Community Land Trust, and William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation, six young adults honed their hands-on filmmaking skills and strengthened their creative confidence as interns at All Is Well studios in Seattle. During their three-month paid internships, each wrote, directed, and produced a one-minute mock commercial for All Is Well.

The results were as unique and creative as the diverse roster of interns. In a largely white industry, this group of creatives included multiracial, Asian American, Black, Somali, Mexican-American, LGBTQ+, and refugee individuals with funny, silly, scary, sad, thoughtful, and heartfelt stories to tell.

Through this series, we hear from each intern as they reflect on their 60-second project and how the internship fueled their artistic ambitions.

The Stairs

I created The Stairs when I was going through a difficult time in my life. At its core, The Stairs is about struggling with loss and mental health in a few of many forms. Creating it was like therapy for me and a way to heal from my experiences. My biggest creative goal is to direct horror and thriller films. People have asked me if I ever see myself directing other types of projects. I always say, I could, but my passion is always going to be in the spooky, scary genre. I have a lot of ideas and concepts that flow in my brain but don’t always work together. I get everything out on paper, visually piece together the elements that work, and tweak the ones that don’t, until I have something cohesive and strong. If I’m being honest, starting is always the hardest part. Once I get going, I feel creatively unstoppable.

The internship helped me realize my self-worth, and to value my skillset. I was fresh out of film school and wanted to break into the industry as soon as I could. It was such an exciting experience to get some hands-on learning. It’s one thing to be taught a lecture on set dynamics but it’s another to learn from experience. The internship gave me a sense of maturity and confidence about my art that I didn’t have before. I also learned that you have to take control of your own destiny. Working in film isn’t easy, especially not at first when trying to find work. You have to put in the effort to find jobs because they won’t necessarily find you. You have to put yourself out there for opportunities and actively stay looking until you have more of a footprint in the industry.

Watch The Stairs in full on the All Is Well website.

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