Blue Bassoon Pictures

Alaric S. Rocha is a filmmaker and educator dedicated to revitalizing the handmade style of cinema. Embracing miniatures, puppetry, and in-camera effects, his work celebrates the craft of filmmaking and the magic that happens when imagination is built by hand. Rejecting the trend toward ultra-realism, Rocha’s films blend exaggerated melodrama with bold practical effects, creating horror and fantasy stories that are visually inventive, playful, and emotionally charged. Inspired by directors such as Terry Gilliam and the DIY spirit of classic genre filmmaking, Rocha views the filmmaking process itself as a creative adventure. One that thrives on collaboration and experimentation.

Rocha currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Cinema Production at Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, where legendary Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling once taught. At Ithaca, he mentors emerging filmmakers while encouraging students to explore tactile filmmaking techniques, creative problem-solving, and storytelling that embraces both craft and imagination.

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Rocha first began teaching filmmaking while working with young students in Chicago, helping children create their first movies and discover the joy of storytelling through the camera. That experience shaped his belief that filmmaking is best learned through experimentation, play, and collaboration. Alongside his work with college students, he looks forward to returning to those roots by helping bring filmmaking opportunities to the youth of Ithaca.

His first feature-length film, Where Is Juan Moctezuma?, is a genre-bending mockumentary about a fictional Mexican cult horror director whose lost films influenced generations of genre filmmakers. The project expands Rocha’s long-running body of work recreating “lost cinema”—meticulously crafted films designed to look like forgotten genre movies from the 1950s–1970s.

Rocha’s films have screened at festivals around the world, including Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Mórbido Film Fest, Dances With Films LA, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Nightmares Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival, where his short film Winter premiered in 2011. His past directing and producing work includes Demonoid (1971), filmed in the mountains of Mexico; Deadly Embrace, which brought together more than 200 Chicago tango dancers; and 1000 Paths of Death, shot beside a remote waterfall outside Portland, Oregon.

Whether resurrecting imaginary cult classics or crafting new genre worlds, Rocha’s films are driven by a love of practical effects, playful storytelling, and the belief that cinema’s greatest power lies not in perfection, but in imagination.