I knew I didn’t want to do that forever. I was 26 years old and needed something different, an unusual challenge. So I moved to Western Europe.

My interest in the medium of film has become much greater and much more personal over the past few years, because of the different animated movies I now watch with my kids.

Because the best way to develop a city is through arts and culture, it was just bound to happen. Especially because this area is already home to such a vibrant community of artists — in...