Meet Luke Tanner Raphael Walther | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Luke Tanner Raphael Walther and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Luke Tanner Raphael, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
There is this quote, ‘Do not ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive–then, go and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’ Stories–books, movies, stand-up comedy, and good lecture–have always fascinated me. Simultaneously, the alternative–a safe career–seemed like a recipe for no motivation and complete boredom. That, and the idea of becoming immortal due to a well-told story was immensely appealing.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I get bored, I get dangerous. Not fun-like-motorcycle-dangerous, but bad-like-fist-fight-dangerous. So pursuing art has really been a self-preservation decision; I wanted to live the best life possible and do my best to encapsulate that in what I create. Really tangibly, that means genre-blending–I want to laugh and cry in the same movie; that keeps it interesting. That’s what I’m shooting for in my stories–engagement. When someone finishes watching one of my pieces, I want them to feel like they’re waking up. Stylistically, that means I’m using a lot of fast edits and lots of verité footage. If I’m having fun making it, the audience should have fun–if I’m cryin’, we should all be cryin’.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Any good time in Houston starts with a taco truck in the East End. The Menil makes a good morning-early afternoon activity, and afterwards we’d literally hang out in the hammocks at Axelrad. We’d then catch a live performance put on by the good ol’ folks at Wonky Power!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Jessica Bolaños and Nelson Vanegas of Goodspero were absolutely vital early on in my career. I probably shoutout them out on a yearly basis because I really cannot understate what a huge difference it made to go from a kid that knew nobody to a kid that knew 2 people, and had 2 people that were gunning for me, 2 people who gave me good advice, 2 people that cared about my success. I had never had strangers care like that before; it meant a lot to me. More recently, Josh Blanco of Ducky Neptune has been an unending source of collaborative inspiration. Iron sharpens iron and he has been an invaluable peer to work with. Go far, baby, go far!

Website: ChasingDonuts.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucaswaffle/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukewalther/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bylucaswaffle
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6_ZUa1gOo
Other: https://vimeo.com/lukewalther

Image Credits
Luke Walther