-Who is Billy Mitaritonna?
Billy Mitaritonna is a hard working, selfless human being. He is a devoted husband, loving father of 3, a veteran history teacher and a championship high school basketball coach on Long Island New York. But who he is in the year 2026 is evolving into a creative screenwriter. That evolution didn’t happen overnight. For most of my life, storytelling lived in the background, in the way I’d tell a story to my players before a big game, or the way history came alive in my classroom when I could connect a lesson to something real. I spent decades showing up for other people’s stories: my students’, my athletes’, my own kids’. Somewhere in there, I started paying attention to my own. “THE WALK ON” is a tribute to my father who never let me quit on anything in my life. He is the inspiration for my screenplay.
-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?
May of 1977 when my father brought me to see STAR WARS at age 5. It taught me the difference between good and evil, taught me to never give up- no matter the odds, and opened my eyes to a new world that I had not seen from my small Queens apartment. I found comfort and joy in the movies I loved in the 1980’s and cinema was an inexpensive way to forget about life for a while.
-Tell us about your project “THE WALK ON”.
It started with my memoir, Last of the Redmen in 2018 that I self-published on Amazon books. Writing down what it actually felt like to be a kid who got cut from his high school basketball team four years in a row, and what it meant that my father never once let me believe that was the end of the story. I wasn’t trying to become a writer when I wrote that book. I was trying to make sense of something that shaped my whole life. But once it was out in the world, and once people started telling me it moved them, something shifted. I realized the story wasn’t just mine anymore, it belonged to anyone who’d ever been told they weren’t good enough. Turning that into a screenplay, THE WALK ON, felt like the natural next chapter. I’m 54 years old, a Gen Xer telling a story from an era I lived through firsthand, and there’s something I hope resonates in… that it’s never too late to become who you’re meant to be. I spent my whole career teaching kids that history isn’t just something that happened to other people. Somewhere along the way, I started applying that same idea to myself. “THE WALK ON”.
-Which Director inspires you the most?
There are a lot of very talented directors out there today but the one who inspires me is Gavin O’Connor. I’ve had a chance to meet Gavin and he is as real as it gets. His movies are always enjoyable and he is not afraid to take chances. In his film, MIRACLE, about the amazing US 1980 Winter Olympic Hockey team, Gavin had to make big choices in finding the right angles and casting decisions while keeping this story true to form. He got it done with great care and the movie is one of my all time favorites.
-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?
As a social studies teacher, I am an active learner about the world around us. The easy answer is to have everyone get along in harmony but that is “pie in the sky” thinking. I can only control what I can control and that is what I have pledged to do with my family. If each person can control what is in front of them and their family, maybe we will be able to get along in society without drama.
-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?
With the advent of A.I. in the last few years, I can’t imagine where we will be in 100 years but to put things in perspective, the first talking movie was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Look at how far we have come in the last 50 years with C.G.I. and A.I. The next 10-15 years will be eye-opening.
-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?
I am impressed with the reach of Wild Filmmaker and their ability to promote rookie and veteran film makers. As far as screenwriting, it is a hard business to get into without the proper representation and that is my goal for right now.
Thank you to WILD FILMMAKER for giving me the opportunity to share THE WALK ON with the world!
Angelo and Billy Mitaritonna
