Vanessa Esteves

Vanessa Esteves

From First Time Go by Benjamin Duchek

May 8, 2026 · 22 min · Season 4 · Episode 26

About this episode

Benjamin Duchek interviews filmmaker Vanessa Esteves about her directorial debut and the challenges of animated filmmaking.

The kind of filmmaking that my guest, Vanessa Esteves, does is all encompassing -- job, hobby, passion. And that shows through in her latest work, CHRISTOPHER & THE BUG (2025), a "heartwarming short film about a reclusive owl whose peaceful solitude is disrupted when a tiny bug unknowingly moves into his home." We talk about why we don't see the bug, what college roommate inspired her to write this story -- not in a good way!; animated films and screentime for kids, and more. If all of our films were given the thought and love Vanessa gives her directorial debut, we would be in such a better place. In this episode, Vanessa and I discuss: do we see the bug in CHRISTOPHER & THE BUG? how she got started in filmmaking and why she decided this would be her directorial debut; what is it like producing animated films and if it is an easy jump back to live action; the lessons she's learned from producing films that she brought to CHRISTOPHER; how to tell the story on a run time of 11 minutes!; the challenges of specifically an animated film; why sound design and score were so huge for this film; the idea that animation is just for kids and how it is different in the short film…

People in this episode

Host: Benjamin Duchek

Guest: Vanessa Esteves

Topics covered

  • filmmaking
  • animated films
  • directorial debut
  • screen time for kids
  • challenges of animation

Keywords

  • filmmaking
  • animation
  • short film
  • screen time
  • Toronto

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Boatrocker Studios

Books & works: CHRISTOPHER & THE BUG, GYMNASTICS

Places: Toronto

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