Category: Senza categoria

Blue also seems to stem from a reflection that recalls Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a film that IndieWire ranked as the greatest European film of the 1970s. Pasolini denounced the commodification of the human body by those in power. To what extent did his vision inspire your film?

Salò is one of my all-time favorite films. Its power lies in portraying power for what it truly is, without filters, and to me that is the highest expression of art. Pasolini was certainly a major source of inspiration for me, particularly because of the strength of his visual language and the violence of his storytelling, both of which I consider essential elements of cinema. A film that deals with sensitive issues should shock the audience, it should deliver a slap in the face, while never losing sight of poetry.

Sex and power have always existed on a thin, parallel line. Since the beginning of time, the world has revolved around two fundamental forces: Eros and Thanatos. We pay more attention to a news story, a film, or even a song when it touches on one of these two dimensions.

Speaking of power, erotic content platforms operate on two fundamental levels. First, they promise easy money in a very short time, without revealing the darker side of that world. At first, this creates a sense of empowerment, especially for very young people who suddenly begin earning significant amounts of money. The problem is that they often fail to consider the risks hidden behind this thin veil. Their content is frequently downloaded, shared, and redistributed, ending up in the hands of anyone. Moreover, to keep earning, creators are constantly pushed to raise the stakes and cross new boundaries. Eventually, the line between virtual content creation and actual prostitution becomes increasingly blurred, as online interactions often lead to meeting clients in person. At that point, I don’t see much difference between the two worlds.

The second crucial aspect is that these platforms create a dangerous dissociation between virtual and real life. Many young people believe they are becoming content creators, when in reality they are entering the world of low-budget pornography, with all the risks that come with it. In a professional adult film production there is a crew, a production team, and experienced professionals surrounding the performers. On these platforms, you’re completely alone, in your bedroom, with only a camera pointed at you. When people eventually realize the world they’ve entered, or discover that their explicit videos have been leaked and may even reach family members, the consequences can sometimes be tragic and irreversible.

---

In Blue, this commodification no longer feels like a warning, it seems to have become an accepted reality. What was it like directing a film that tackles such a timely issue?

It was a genuine journey. When you’re dealing with such a sensitive subject, you have to approach it with respect, and that means truly understanding it through research and immersion. That was the most important part of the process: entering that world.

The work with the actors was extremely intense. I spent a full month preparing with the two lead actresses so they could fully internalize their characters, allowing Luce’s descent into hell, with Vicky acting as a sort of Virgil, to feel authentic, profound, and emotionally truthful.

From a technical standpoint, I was fortunate to work with an outstanding crew. We focused on highlighting the beauty of the human body through lighting and cinematography. Conceptually, I tried not to take a judgmental approach. Blue is meant to serve as a mirror for all those young people who are tempted by this world, warning them about its hidden dangers and the consequences it can ultimately lead to.

---

Why did you choose to cast Rocco Siffredi? What does he represent, both artistically and narratively, for this project?

The decision was made together with both the producers and the distributor, and for me having Rocco on board has been tremendously rewarding. He proved to be a true professional, deeply committed to his work, and he fully immersed himself in the role of Diego. Rocco is also a very devoted father in real life, and that authenticity naturally comes across on screen. Beyond that, he has firsthand experience of the world the film explores. Being able to discuss these themes with someone who knows that environment so intimately was incredibly valuable to me.

---

Blue addresses universal themes. Do you believe it has the potential to resonate with international audiences as well?

Absolutely. From a directing standpoint, I wanted to create a film with a classical storytelling style while combining it with a very contemporary editing approach that could speak to audiences across generations.

The film has already been released on streaming platforms in the United States, where it received very positive reviews. It has also become one of the best-selling Italian films internationally in recent years, with distribution in 25 countries.

---

After Blue, what are your next projects? Will we be seeing you involved in more international productions?

I certainly hope so. At the moment, I’m working on my second feature film. We’re still in the writing phase, and if everything goes according to plan, we should begin shooting next spring.

As for international projects, I do have one in development, and I’m currently waiting for some important responses. My ambition is to make Italian cinema that can truly speak to audiences around the world. Hopefully, we’ll succeed.

Who is Sydney Rincón?

I began studying as an actor at the Academy of Performing Arts, Orange County and later moved to San Francisco to study Cinema and Political Science at SFSU. With a lifelong love of freaky animation, subversive genres, and surreal outliers in the film world, I grew to express my voice as a director/ actor in the Bay Area. 

Alongside my filmmaking work, I have long been involved in local and national political movements as an advocate, spokesperson, artist, and activist. My political engagement is inseparable from my work as a filmmaker; if anything, it defines my approach to filmmaking, it is how my works speak to the political circumstances of our time. Films like Do the Right Thing (1989) and Fantastic Planet (1973) live close to my heart for these reasons. It’s important to learn from other artists, and I always love connecting with my fellow filmmakers and community. I can be contacted on TikTok, Instagram (@cableservice), and IMDB.

Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

Like all toxic relationships, it was love at first sight for me and cinema. I grew up going to the theaters and learning to express my most complex feelings through film quotes. But it wasn’t really until the COVID-19 lockdown, with no other attachment to the outside world, that I immersed myself in film entirely. Admittedly, I spent more time studying the film catalogues on my TV than I did in Zoom class. Wes Anderson, René Laloux, and Hayao Miyazaki became my peers, and I shared in their works religiously.

Cinema was no longer just an excuse for me to talk with others or share interests; it was my language in which to communicate and share myself in the most honest sense with the world. That love has continued to grow richer and stronger as time goes on, with my first directorial project, Sensus Mori (2025), being the first of many opportunities for me to speak directly to audiences. I hope that maybe there is another lost someone on the other side of the screen who can find their voice through mine. Like the directors I fell in love with in high school, I learned how to blend film, animation, and advocacy in my own cinematic style.

Tell us about your project “Sensus Mori”.

When an elusive society agrees to be interviewed, a journalist must contend with their ideologies or risk falling prey herself. Sensus Mori (2025) is shrouded in banter, oddity, and fantasy; it urges us to question how much we are willing to sacrifice ourselves in pursuit of belonging somewhere or to something. With the divisiveness in our communities, I encourage others to consider what makes us authentically ourselves and be conscious of what we are willing to blindly sacrifice for the approval of others.

An undergraduate SFSU thesis film, Sensus Mori (2025), has thus far screened at 72 festivals across 19 countries. Inspired by the MAGA movement and the submission of the media to government forces, Sensus Mori (2025) speaks about the ridiculous and dangerous layers of political avoidance. This film serves to drive conversation into how cult mentality, ignorance, and boneless media can harm our communities at large. To learn more about Sensus Mori (2025), I encourage everyone to check our Instagram (@sensusmori) to stay up to date with screenings, interviews, and more.

Which Director inspires you the most?

Boots Riley should be on everyone’s mind right now. A Bay Area activist-turned-director, Boots Riley is redefining how we see one another and organize politically through film. With so many creatives willing to be silenced by mainstream media and an oppressive regime, Boots Riley has shown we don’t need to bow to censorship or cower away from our morals. As obvious as this may seem, he’s one of the few really walking the walk. I was fortunate enough to attend the Oakland Premiere of I Love Boosters (2026), a film that embodies Black Surrealism and advocacy through art. This film does not shy away from the cruelty of capitalism under the guise of cultural influence. It’s a must-watch and one of my newfound favorites. Cinema is not dead so long as Mr. Boots Riley is around.

What do you dislike about the world, and what would you change?

I could write a manifesto of what I don’t like about the world and how I would change things. But in the simplest of terms, there is too much division and not enough compromise. I don’t mean left and right either; I mean the oppressed against the oppressing oligarchs. People are going to think differently, so it’s important to look beyond minute differences and collectivize for the bigger picture: unity amongst the working classes and a more fruitful future for everyone. 

This kind of future takes work, and we need to be willing to do it. Everyone wants a village, no one wants to be a villager. Nothing will change until that mindset shifts, and I hope my work as a filmmaker can lead us closer to that future.

How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I’m an optimist when it comes to the future of cinema. Right now, there’s a lot of fear surrounding AI, studio monopolies, and the pricing out of industry creatives, especially for independent filmmakers like myself. But the truth is, I don’t think any of these will outlive cinema. I think it’s a bump in the road, as with any industry– the difference is cinema is not just any industry. Cinema is culture at its best (and sometimes worst), that’s something that I think will continue to endure and grow with us over the next 100 years, so long as there are human artists to make it and human audiences to love it.

What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

I’m thankful for the platform WILD FILMMAKER has provided for independent creatives to share their stories and connect on a grassroots level. It’s cliché to say, but now more than ever, we need spaces like this to hold authentic conversations with one another for the sake of art, not box office sales. Small creators, particularly women, are being pushed to the fringes of society, and as a result, our voices are being stifled by algorithms and paywalls. Connecting with real cinephiles and creatives like this actively works against these barriers. I imagine that through stories and collaborations shared amongst us, more young artists will realize that their scrappiness and passion are a driving force of cultural influence, not a hindrance. We should be grateful that WILD FILMMAKER will be here to see us through the technological and cultural changes inevitable to come. 

-With this victory, you have achieved an important milestone and have become an authoritative voice in international independent Cinema. What are your next projects?

I’m looking into documenting local UK communities and have two main ideas. The first is a documentary on pole dancing, fitness, and well-being, inspired by the Netflix film Strip Down, Rise Up. The second is a documentary project capturing the nature, mindfulness, and well-being activities that Sarah runs for young children at The Whitworth Art Gallery.

-Describe yourself with three adjectives that best reflect your vision of the world.

Creative, artistic, reflective. 

-WILD FILMMAKER is, above all, a space for freedom of thought and sharing. Who would you most like to find yourself in front of, and what would you say to them? You may include figures from the present or the past, from Julius Caesar to Marilyn Monroe, just to give an example.

The person I would most like to find myself in front of is Michelle Yeoh. Her life story is a powerful testament to resilience. After a spinal injury ended her dream of becoming a professional dancer, she worked tirelessly to build a completely new life, eventually becoming one of the most accomplished action and dramatic actresses in the cinematic world by constantly challenging her limits.

Her words at her Harvard Law School commencement speech deeply resonate with me: “Learning how to fall teaches you how to land. And learning to land gives you the courage to jump higher.”

Coupled with her personal motto—“Stay loose, know your limits, and find your people… And then leap, and leap again”—she has completely motivated me to strive for success and fearlessly push my own boundaries.

If I were standing in front of her today, I would say:

“Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your incredible story with the world. Because of your journey, I have finally found the faith to be entirely true to myself. You have inspired me to boldly chase my own ambitions—whether that means working in the film industry or continuously pouring my passion and love into arts. Thank you for giving me the courage to leap.”

-Through the WILD FILMMAKER Community, we have succeeded in bringing independent filmmakers under the same spotlight as mainstream industrial cinema. How do you evaluate our work and activities?

I evaluate your work and activities very highly because you provide a modern, accessible alternative to traditional, high-cost industry models. By combining an online magazine with digital film festivals, you create a supportive ecosystem specifically tailored for independent and first-time filmmakers who might otherwise be overlooked by mainstream media. Your platform effectively bridges the gap between creation and visibility, allowing new artists to build momentum early in their careers. Your digital-first focus successfully removes geographical barriers, opening up the industry on a global scale. Features like published dialogue interviews allow creators from all over the world to gain international recognition affordably, while simultaneously giving global audiences more opportunities to discover and explore diverse independent cinema. By relying on modern digital spaces rather than old-school distribution networks, you offer a budget-friendly way for artists to build their press kits and share their stories with the world without overspending.

-Who is Gala Avary?

Gala Avary is a writer, producer, film critic, and podcaster. She is best known for her producing and on air work on The Video Archives Podcast with Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary. She started working at fifteen years old in writers rooms up in Canada, and over the last fifteen years has produced movies like Lucky Day (2019) and the upcoming indie drama Sicklerville. She’s curated for Arrow Streaming, been featured in Fangoria, and spoken at establishments like Snap Inc, Creator Camp, Runway, and Soho House. Currently, Gala is COO of General Cinema Dynamics: an AI company that aims to elevate entertainment and make production more available in the independent sphere.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I’ve always loved cinema. I’ve been lucky enough to grow up on sets like The Rules of Attraction, or visiting my father’s filmmaker friends (like Gaspar Noe, Abel Ferrara, Christophe Gans, and Tarsem Singh) while they were in production. I’ve known from a very young age that I had to do something in the creative field, and at ten years old my dad gifted me Final Draft to write an idea that I had. I’ve been hooked ever since.

-Tell us about your projects.

I’ve just wrapped production on an ultra-low-budget independent feature titled Sicklerville, directed by Jason-Christopher Mayer & Gage Golightly and starring James Paxton, Ruby Modine, and Cody Saintgnue. It’s a punchy, gritty, independent movie that takes place in South Jersey. The film deals with the “will they, won’t they” surrounding the 2000’s opioid epidemic. I’m really proud of how hard the crew worked, and I can’t wait for audiences to see it.

I’m on to producing a few more traditional projects for 2026 and 2027, and I’m excited to share more about them when I’m able to. On the AI side, I’m working at General Cinema Dynamics and aiding Roger in his adaptation of Paradise Lost with producer Marco Webber. For my personal project, I’ve been compiling a written compendium for The Video Archives Podcast.  It includes dozens of interviews with industry professionals regarding their movies, and I plan on self publishing the book later this year.

-Which Director inspires you the most?

The director that inspires me most would have to be Ken Russell. Altered States was the movie that made me fall back in love with filmmaking. I love his use of color. Russell is inspired by artists, and I love how he was a provocateur and always pushed the boundary of what was acceptable to audiences.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

The world is actually a pretty amazing place, and when you focus on the positive sides of things you see a lot more greatness around you. My hope for the world is that people continue to be kind to each other, and try to see where people are coming from. Conversation is one of the most powerful tools we have, and it’s what makes cinema so important.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

Cinema will still be here in one hundred years. In what form, I don’t know. What I do know is that people still sit around the campfire and tell stories, so I don’t imagine that that will ever go away.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

Wild Filmmaker’s modus operandi: “Cinema has the right to exist freely” … it interests me. The acknowledgement that art evolves is an important one. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

https://www.youtube.com/@videoarchivespodcast/featured

By Luigi Pingitore

(From left: internationally acclaimed sculptor Jago; Academy Award winner Robert De Niro; and filmmaker Luigi Pingitore)

There was a moment, lasting roughly until the mid-1960s, when Cinema and Capital spoke the same language, even as they conversed from opposite frontiers. They had established a pact of mutual aid—perhaps turbulent, often conflictual, but in any case
founded on respect and a clear understanding of their respective domains: industry put up the money to buy prestige and ennoble its profit-driven mission; the artist contributed genius to ennoble the money. Each held 50% of the bargaining power. In such a scenario, even the producer’s blindness of that era, with his obsessions about commercial viability, became a vital reagent. The producer was a physical enemy, a concrete obstacle against which the director had to struggle, and in that struggle, the work of art accumulated the kinetic energy necessary to come into being. It was a fertile dialectic.
With the uncontrolled explosion of commercial television in the early 1980s, the pact between art and capital definitively broke, and for two reasons. First, because the image was no longer Sacred, since it could proliferate on every small screen at every hour of the day and night. And second, because the perpetual Schedule had transformed every representation into spectacle first, and then into entertainment. Cinema thus lost the identity-based primacy that had distinguished it from its very birth as the medium that  demonstrated the superiority of imagination over reality.
On the strength of this, one of the two ceased to consider the other a counterpart. And if many producers of the past were adventurers, sometimes megalomaniacal and a bit charlatan-like, they nevertheless seemed to retain a carnal and deeply human intuition. They knew that to make a profit, they had to bet on the unexpected, on the uniqueness of the director’s vision. Today, Capital has taken the driver’s seat—and it matters little whether it is often the fruit solely of State coffers—and has decided everything: the route, the duration, the destination, and even the driving style. But as if that were not enough, to join it in this mad race that has as its only possibility (but do they really not understand this?) the irrelevance of aesthetic experience, another even madder Totem has arrived. The stupid God of Communication. A phenomenon that in the last 10-15 years has grown
 to such an extent that it has demoted art to content—a horrifying term that equates a three-hour film with a thirty-second video on TikTok. Both are fossil fuels to be burned on the altar of the viewer’s attention.
Since Marketing and Communication are today omniscient and blind Gods who have planed down all complexity, abolished all experimentation, and immolated originality on the altar of conformism, transforming visual syntax into bait for attention, we are witnessing a truly perverse and unspeakable historical reversal. If it has always been art that educated and formed the public, flushing it out of its comfort zone to show it the unexplored, today art is expected to conform to the public—or rather, to the caricature of the public invented by marketing departments. We move within an abstract schema, governed by pseudo-experts, data analysts, and content managers convinced they hold the thermometer of people’s desires. The result is a mysticism of the banal. A counterfeit reality in which interest is schematized, differences are smoothed over, and the particular is sacrificed to be transformed into a fake, empty, repetitive, and above all elementary universal product. If everything must be immediately digestible by an increasingly fleeting attention, then everything must resemble everything else. Cinema has been
 reduced to being the decorative appendage of a permanent advertising campaign.
Federico Fellini’s observations come to mind then, worth rereading in their entirety, spoken when he himself probably sensed the first creakings, the first signs of the Pact’s rupture: “Producers are sweet prophets of the public’s intuition, and the worst part is that almost always their idea of the public, their dialogue and their nose, are inaccurate and unfortunate. They are nourished by a conception of the ‘commercial,’ of the ‘marketable,’ that is a true maniacal delusion, an abstract scheme, aggravated by a sort of plebeian intellectualism and a categorical mysticism, dominating a reality invented by themselves, nonexistent, counterfeit. They always end up making films that are not only ugly but also unmarketable, while most of the films we remember were made DESPITE the producers… This struggle against the producer to defend the film is ultimately an advantage for the film, because struggling means charging oneself with aggressive energy, and energy is a good thing, vital for creativity. Long live the producer!”
 In this scenario, the solitude of those who want to make art, who still consider cinema a language capable of surprising, moving, connecting to its own expressive urgency, experimenting with forms that demolish people’s psychic sleepwalking, is now abyssal. Because one no longer has to fight against a flesh-and-blood producer, against whom to accumulate aggressive and vital energy. One has to fight against a rubber wall made of Excel spreadsheets generated by an algorithm, engagement metrics, focus groups, and against a suffocating conformism disguised as market inclusivity. So, as in Wenders’ famous film, The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick, today’s director is a man alone, anguished by the presence of a triple threat: the demands of capital, the motional
 illiteracy induced in the public, and the dictatorship of marketing that a priori excludes the unexpected, the mistake, the sacred fire of intuition that answers to no market research.
Those who still seek the particular, the scratch, the singular unrepeatable expression, find themselves isolated in a desert of standardized content.
But it would be dishonest, as well as foolish, to long for that time as a golden age. Even then, cinema betrayed, even then it produced rubble, and even then it was often in the service of ideologies and vanities. The pact between art and capital was not simply virtuous.
What we can truly miss is not so much the era itself—which, like all we have not lived, appears to us in dreams with more lights than shadows. Rather, we miss a condition. That condition in which the image still possessed a margin of the Sacred. Sacred in the most ancient sense of the term—something that escapes immediate consumption, that demands time, silence, and space within us. It asks us to let the world open a breach in the armor of our ego, an act of surrender on the part of the one who looks. Today we are
 saturated with images and precisely for this reason we have lost our hunger for them. We see thousands a day, but how many have the power to fertilize us, to instill themselves in our depths? The truth is that the more images we see, the less we imagine. Excess has anesthetized the seductive capacity of the gaze.
Yet human beings cannot live without imaginaries that cross through and transform them. They need them as they need myths, stories, symbols that do not immediately let themselves be translated into meaning. Jung said that the true Master is the one who does not explain. He accompanies us to the threshold of the unknowable and leaves us there, at the mercy of our capacity to see, feel, imagine. Cinema, when it is cinema and not content, does exactly this work. It leaves a residue that continues to work inside the viewer long after the lights have come back on—an impregnation, as the early film theorists called it, capable of silently rewriting our perception of the real.
That is why, in an era obsessed with entertainment, with the need to fill every instant of attention, to never leave a void that might resemble boredom or thought, the sacred
 dimension of visual representation is an urgent need as much as that of food or sleep. Those who continue to make images that resist explanation, that are not consumed in thirty seconds, that know how to germinate producing dreams or nightmares, are protecting the collective. They are defending the possibility of being seduced once again. And how can we love if we have not first been seduced?
 So is it all over? As in every war, signs of life and new possibilities will come only from the front of resistance, which today more than ever is not merely an aesthetic choice, but  an act of pure devotion against the disappearance of the human from the big screen.
Greek cinema of the early new millennium, the more recent Romanian cinema, the cinema of Southeast Asia, of Argentina and Lithuania (and one could cite dozens and dozens more examples) demonstrate this. There is still life in that mysterious and magical world that appears precisely when the light around us goes out. On Netflix, there is a documentary that testifies to Orson Welles’ long and stubborn battle against everyone and everything in order to make cinema. The title of the documentary: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. Today we should claim another possibility. To love the world and those who produce Sacred, true, and unique images while those people are alive. And if this should disturb the plans of those who only want to perpetuate the Kingdom of stupid entertainment and spectacle that produces not emotion but habituation, so be it. It will mean that they will hate us as long as we live.

-Who is Marcus Nel-Jamal Hamm?

Marcus has often been described as a visionary.  My loving mother and father both graduated with top honors with Master’s Degrees in Sociology, and I was raised to believe firmly that the sky was the limit.  Growing up with a vivid imagination and an early affinity for the arts and sports, I wanted to become everything from a wrestler and a bodybuilder to a stuntman and an actor.  But I also loved to write and draw, and grew up reading comic books, hundreds of which are still in my possession. In my earlier years, I believed I had to choose one direction. While in college at The University of Maryland, I simultaneously decided to sign up for a professional wrestling training program with Bonebreakers Academy.  I went in without any expectations, I had suffered a car accident a few years prior and upon recovery, I simply wanted to test my abilities. It turned out that I defied even the trainers’ expectations; a year later, I received my first contracted television role with Urban Wrestling Alliance in 2000, which aired on UPN.  While we trained and prepared for filming, legendary actor David Dunard also trained us in acting. Our wrestling trainer was Rocky Johnson, a WWE Hall of Famer and father of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson.  After the series ended, I completed my college degree with a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice, and then moved toward acting after taking more training.  In 2007, I received my first role on a scripted television series, HBO’s *The Wire*, with a feature recurring role as Officer Marcus.  This granted me access into SAG and launched my move from Maryland, to Los Angeles, where I have since continued to perform as both a pro wrestler and actor, while writing and producing various award-winning independent films, shorts, and music videos.  

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

One of the bonding experiences I had with my father growing up was going to the movies. My favorite memories include seeing films like Return of the Jedi, Ghostbusters, ET, Gremlins, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It always felt like each movie stayed with me in a deeper way, almost as if it were a part of me. I enjoyed discussing the storytelling and living in these fantasies and I appreciated the work it took to bring a story with such a grand spectacle to life.  The effects, the cinematography, and the score from films like these always stood out even at a young age. 

-Tell us about your project “Triggered 3.0/The Dragon King”.

Triggered 3.0, the Final Cut is the completed work of a five-year project that began with Triggered, a Cinematic Superhero Fan Film.  That first film was very special, as it was developed to help complete a dying friend’s last wish.  Steven James Tingus was a lifelong advocate for disability and diversity inclusion. I had the honor of meeting him in 2017, and our friendship led to us working together on a comic book-themed fan film where he wanted to play the antagonist.  In 2022, we completed that work and it screened at the Indie Night Film Festival where Steven had the opportunity to see himself in a lead role for the first time at the famous TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  On the very same night of the screening, Steven passed away, having fulfilled his wish. We agreed to continue on with the story, leading to part 2.0, and now the final cut which has brought Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts to join a stellar cast led by Fernando Marrero, Robert Dobson, Bridgett Bess, Joshua Longfellow Wright, Masashi Ishizuka, Siri Hull, and Katrina Chiovon.  Triggered 3.0 has already won its first award for Best Action Film from the Los Angeles Stars Film Festival. It will screen as part of the Los Angeles Fantasy Fest on November 21st at the Skiptown Playhouse, followed by an awards ceremony on November 22nd.  

The follow up to Triggered is my first full feature fantasy film, titled The Dragon King.  Currently in screenplay format only, it has already received its first nomination for a Best Screenplay Award from Film Invasion L.A., which will host an awards ceremony on August 22nd. I am excited to announce that I will be co-directing The Dragon King with rising visionary filmmaker and actress Tiffany Toney, whose breakout feature film Bora has been wowing critics and audiences globally.  Before we begin with The Dragon King, our first collaborative project, Merry F’N Christmas is in post-production and will have an official release date announcement very soon. 

-Which Director inspires you the most?

I have been inspired by many directors over the years, but none more than Spike Lee.  His films feel like more than cinema to me; they are pure works of art. He often seems to break the rules of linear storytelling, taking you on a cinematic journey with a unique signature that always tells the audience that no one else could tell the story the way he does.  I feel that those qualities make a director stand out.  

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

Simply put, I am anti-racism, and unfortunately this world is plagued with it.  One of the things that draws me to filmmaking is its power to inspire. Sometimes this is done directly by telling stories that address it, but also in other ways such as casting and hiring a diverse team, which is a key aspect of all of my work under my company, Urban Renaissance Entertainment.  If I could change racist mindsets across the world, that would be a greatest wish as it stands as one of the main reasons we cannot find peace. 

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I imagine in 100 years that people will be plugged into some artificial reality network, allowing them to experience film in a manner that feels like they are living out the lead roles.  Advancements are happening so rapidly that I’m honestly fearful of how far this technology will go in another century. If I’m being honest, I hope that we go backwards instead of forward and remain where we were between the 90’s and 2000’s with human actors, practical effects, and advanced CGI. 

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

It’s not often that independent filmmakers have the opportunity to share their story with the world, so WILD FILMMAKER is greatly appreciated for seeking out and acknowledging those of us who are still building our audience and earning accolades.  

-With this victory, you have achieved an important milestone and have become an authoritative voice in international independent cinema. What are your next projects?

Receiving this distinction from the TriBeCa Film Critics Circle Awards is a tremendous honor. I am deeply grateful for this recognition, and I am humbled to be considered a respected voice within international independent cinema. My next projects naturally grow out of my background in dance, sound, and visual storytelling. I am currently writing a film that reflects on my move here and explores the emotional and psychological landscape of displacement, memory, and belonging. Another project is a highly visual work centered on the expressive language of the body and how movement can communicate emotion, history, and experience without words. I am also developing a deeply personal film inspired by a close friend. It begins with the simple act of putting on jackets as she recounts her story. Through intimate gestures and conversation, the film explores resilience, vulnerability, and the ways our bodies carry memory.

This award encourages me to continue making films that embrace experimentation while remaining deeply human. I look forward to sharing these new works with audiences and continuing to explore cinema as a space where image, movement, sound, and personal histories come together.

-Describe yourself with three adjectives that best reflect your vision of the world.

Intuitive, Daring, Visionary.

-WILD FILMMAKER is, above all, a space for freedom of thought and sharing. Who would you most like to find yourself in front of, and what would you say to them? You may include figures from the present or the past, from Julius Caesar to Marilyn Monroe, just to give an example.

I would love to find myself in front of and have long vibrant conversations with:

Lina Wertmuller, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Chantal Akerman, Akiro Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Agnes Varda, Jacques Tati, Francois Truffault, Andrei Tarkovosky, Pina Bausch, Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev, Martha Graham, Ohad Naharin, Meredith Monk, Leontyne Price, Maria Callas, Bidou Sayao, Jessye Norman, Charles Baudelaire, Alberto Moravia, Agnes Gund, Gordon Matta-Clark, Carolee Schneemann, Bruce Nauman, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus…. Soooo many more…..

-Through the WILD FILMMAKER Community, we have succeeded in bringing independent filmmakers under the same spotlight as mainstream industrial cinema. How do you evaluate our work and activities?

Cinema/Film has always been a place where different voices can meet, regardless of budget, geography, or industry. What I admire most about the WILD FILMMAKER Community is its sincere and deep commitment to creating that meeting place. By bringing independent filmmakers into the same conversation as mainstream cinema, you remind us that the true value of a film lies not in the scale of its production, but in the depth of its vision. Independent cinema is where many of the most courageous artistic risks are taken. It is where new cinematic and visual languages are born, where visual silence can speak as powerfully as dialogue, and where deeply personal stories find a universal heartbeat. Your work nurtures this creative ecosystem by giving filmmakers not only visibility, but also a sense of belonging. I believe cinema is a living art form, nourished by diversity of voices and perspectives. The WILD FILMMAKER Community has become more than a platform, it is a bridge between cultures, artists, and audiences. In a world that often celebrates the loudest voices, you create space for the quiet, the experimental, and the deeply human. That is a meaningful contribution to the future of cinema.

With this victory, you have achieved an important milestone and have become an authoritative voice in international independent cinema. What are your next projects?

My next project is a video called Young River, the river through the eyes of a child. It is a project about innocence, discovery, and the way a child can look at nature with wonder and truth.

Describe yourself with three adjectives that best reflect your vision of the world.

Hopeful, energetic, and humanistic.

WILD FILMMAKER is, above all, a space for freedom of thought and sharing. Who would you most like to find yourself in front of, and what would you say to them?

I would like to find myself in front of Marie Curie and Lina Wertmüller. I would tell them that I admire their courage, their vision, and the way they opened roads for others. I would also say that I would like to see a world without wars, with human understanding and hope for the new generations.

Through the WILD FILMMAKER Community, we have succeeded in bringing independent filmmakers under the same spotlight as mainstream industrial cinema. How do you evaluate our work and activities?

I believe that WILD FILMMAKER offers a platform where filmmakers find a resonance for their work. This is so important because, after the solitude of creating, the filmmaker can feel that their message has found a road to walk in the world.

-With this victory, you have achieved an important milestone and have become an authoritative voice in international independent cinema. What are your next projects?

Great question! In this time of flux, I do believe in the continuing power of original storytelling, and so, creatively speaking, my other projects on the EP!C slate like “NeverWere: a Lycan Love Story”, “Deadeye”, “LoveBeats” and “Shelter: No Place to Run” continue to be developed on an ongoing basis.

-Describe yourself with three adjectives that best reflect your vision of the world.

Original. Outstanding. Excellent.

-WILD FILMMAKER is, above all, a space for freedom of thought and sharing. Who would you most like to find yourself in front of, and what would you say to them? 

You may include figures from the present or the past, from Julius Caesarto Marilyn Monroe, just to give an example.I’d love to be in front of the people who are putting the business in front of the stories, and saying to them that we do not make widgets that are efficiently making money for them. Everybody from TV stations to Marvel has found out that widgetry and art are two different products. Original art is not scalable, hedgeable, refinable. Craft is, and professionalism is. But reducing art to content and calling them the same exhibits a profound lack of perception along with a distinct myopia and atmosphere of scarcity which, although great in the world of Warren Buffet et cie, achieves little of long term value in the cinema. Yes, ’twas always thus. But as we can all plainly see today, that paradigm must change or perish.

-Through the WILD FILMMAKER Community, we have succeeded in bringing independent filmmakers under the same spotlight as mainstream industrial cinema. How do you evaluate our work and activities?

Bringing an open and frank discourse into industry is always good. Data scraping in the name of efficiency is not always good. Industrial cinema has always been about the middle way. Nothing stand-out, everything catered to the tastes of the viewers (and their pocketbooks). That’s thankfully going away, leaving the independents to find their own way to economic viability outside of industrial norms, concepts, doctrine. This is a good thing, as we are seeing increasing evidence that the industrial business models of the Age of Industry and Information are sunsetting and giving way to the Age of Communication. And the WILD FILMMAKER Community is at the vanguard of a new direction, despite what the gate-keeper pundits would have us all believe.