Mnemophobia: Fear of Memories, your episode of In
Fear of's upcominmg second season - in a few words, what will it
be about?
A great question! I haven’t decided upon my logline yet,
so I’ll take this opportunity to
try it on for size:
Through the course of more than five decades, Mnemophobia:
Fear of Memories follows
the lives of mother and daughter Eloise and Emma who
experience tender and sinister
memories, respectively, of their deceased husband/father.
How did you get involved with the project to
begin with?
Well, I’ll begin by saying that it never ceases to amaze
me at how things happen and how
people meet people, not to mention how small the world
really is. I told this story when I
was up on stage at the 2nd
Macabre Faire Film Festival after being announced the
recipient of the Best Screenplay Award for a Short Film.
Now, for me, it wasn’t about the award, but the chance to share with others at the
event the path that lead me to the mic to tell this very story:
I used to work for this supermarket in Toronto back in
2006. I had a friend of mine who constantly, enthusiastically asked me about the films I
was only dreaming of making. So much so was his enthusiasm that he followed me into the
men’s room to continue his interrogation. I’m standing at the urinal while he’s
chirping, and I believe it was he – it must’ve been him, I was too busy concentrating on
"business" – that blurted out the word "film." Suddenly, the stall door opens and out
comes this young guy. He looks at me and asks quietly, "So… you make films?" That
young guy was none other than Toronto filmmaker Steven Cerritos, a good friend and collaborator
whom I’ve spoken to since our interesting first meeting.
Steven and I would – and still do – keep each other
informed about all things film, and one of those things was Rogue
Cinema, an online film
review magazine. I was frustrated that I couldn’t get a review for any of my films at the
time, and Steven had come into contact with Rogue Cinema founder Duane L. Martin. I sent
my fourth film Reverie
Three to Duane, and after my
first ever review, I added Duane on Facebook where we would have long-winded conversations about film.
Flash
forward to 2012 and I forwarded For
Clearer Skies to Duane. He then told me that For
Clearer Skies might be good for a film festival in Kentucky, and that I should
contact the organizer who was featured on Rogue Cinema’s front page.
There, I found The River City Festival of Films in
Owensboro and contacted organizer P.J. Starks who encouraged me to submit For
Clearer Skies. A few months later, the film
was screened at the festival in November 2012. A couple of
weeks after that, P.J. told me
that "a lady in New Jersey is looking for films that
are horror and sci-fi, and I think that For
Clearer Skies would be a
good fit." Naturally, I was very interested. He forwarded
me her contact info and I sent her the first of what would
turn out to be thousands of messages.
Elsie – or LC Macabre – founder of the Macabre Faire
Film Festival, among many other
events, and I became fast friends, sharing our passion for
film and the arts. Two months
later, and it was January 2013: the 2nd
Macabre Faire Film Festival.
Now, I always, always, ALWAYS tell filmmakers that if you
can make it out to a film
festival, especially one in which your film is playing,
then go! Otherwise, your film is
played to what is usually a small audience, they applaud
if you’re lucky, and then they
move on. On the other hand, if you do attend, then you get
to meet people, and as I
always say, networking is a filmmaker’s survival. Being
at the 2nd Macabre Faire not only put a lovely voice to the lovely face of Elsie, but
to her entire team, such as the talented man of many looks and voices, and Elsie’s
husband, Adam Ginsberg [Elsie
and Adam Ginsberg interview - click here]; Scott W. Perry [Scott
W. Perry interview - click here] who, funny enough, I only spoke very briefly with,
but we can’t seem to not have anything to talk about online; and Steven-Mark Glassner,
one of the festival’s judges (I had never met someone like Steven who rivaled my mom in
the area of support of my work). Steven was a big fan of For
Clearer Skies and had told me to check out
the screening of his series In
Fear Of. And so I did. I enjoyed the concept,
and that was
when Steven took the extra step and asked me if I’d be
interested in directing an episode
down the line. And here we are.
A fun little note is that Steven Cerritos, "The Man
in the Stall Who Began It All", will be
screening his film at the 3rd Macabre Faire Film Festival in May/June 2013. Good karma
at its finest.
And, for the record, my speech on stage wasn’t this
long; Elsie would’ve killed me!
How can you relate to the fear in question,
Mnemophobia - and related to that, some personal fears of yours?
We all have demons and we all have angels. Naturally, we
remember the bad times
because they’ve not only affected us negatively, but
also because we tend to keep them at
bay so that, hopefully, we don’t repeat whatever it was
that caused us that pain, but that’s
how that bad memory is allowed to live on. On that other
hand, we remember the good
times which are often linked to bad times; for example, we
remember a loved one (good)
because they’ve passed on (bad). But good and bad is
subjective.
Mnemophobia is an interesting phobia in that it isn’t
just about fearing what we
remember, but fearing not being able to remember one’s
memories.
There are many memories that I would be more than happy to
forget, while there are
many memories that I wish I could remember, and I know
that they’re all tucked away
somewhere safely.
Anything
you can tell us about your intended cast yet?
When series creators/producers Scott W. Perry and
Steven-Mark Glassner first told me
that Macabre Faire Film Festival founder Elsie Ginsberg
and her husband Adam [Elsie
and Adam Ginsberg interview - click here] were
both set to star in Mnemophobia,
I was very excited. But apparently I wasn’t
as excited
as Elsie who, well… she can tell you if she wants to,
haha!
Originally, the episode was written by Scott (I believe),
however, after Steven read Yellow Brick Road, a feature
script I had penned, an epic dark modern fantasy rendition of The
Wizard of Oz, they decided to let me hold
the pen. In so doing, I expanded the
cast by three, resulting in a casting call, which is
presently out.
How do you
intend to approach your story from a directorial point of view?
Much like I do with each project I’ve helmed. I try to
figure out a way to complicate my
story, which subsequently complicates the shooting style,
but all in a very good way. I
find that if something’s too easy, then it might not be
good enough, or challenging
enough, or effective. I consider what my story is, what
the theme or themes are, and
develop a visual language that will support that overall
vision. For instance, my first feature film, Snow Angel, is about a man who climbed a ladder
at work, fell, and became paralyzed. The story then followed
the next seven days of his life on the ground with nobody around to help him. Knowing the
story and its themes of restriction/confinement, survival, and so on, I decided to
film his entire escapade from a single angle throughout the duration of the film. If he
couldn’t move, then my camera couldn’t move. It placed the audience directly in his
shoes and tested their own patience and endurance, or lack thereof, and allowed people to
discover themselves through him.
Overall, I’m here to offer you an experience, not a
spectacle, and I’ll be aiming to do the same with Mnemophobia.
As
we speak, your short For
Clearer Skies has just been released,
right? You have to talk about that one for a bit?
For
Clearer Skies is
the seventh short film, eight film overall, under Arcilesi Films. Its
conception came a couple of months after I filmed Snow Angel. Interestingly,
I felt much like the paralyzed man in Snow
Angel in that I
paralyzed other aspects of my creativity to make that film come to life, solely catering
to its needs. With For
Clearer Skies, I
was able to do the complete opposite. I was able to tap into my boyhood
interests of science fiction and the possibility of aliens. I was
able to allow my camera to break free and move around once again. I was able to make a film
that involved practical special makeup effects as well as digital visual effects,
both of which were firsts for me.
I casted the very talented Charles Lo Manto and equally
talented and beautiful Kelly-Marie Murtha, both of whom starred in Snow
Angel (I think that
Charlie was happy to move around in this one, haha!).
The film boasted more than twenty-five lines of original
alien dialogue, as I didn’t want to resort to having my characters speak English and then
manipulate their voices later on, say, by reversing the dialogue; their lips simply wouldn’t
sync, so it was never a consideration. I wanted something organic, something
native to the alien characters, something challenging for Charlie and Kelly to chew on;
thus, an entire, consistent language was created.
The film is comprised of only six shots, two of which are
four and six minutes in length, respectively. The main decision for that style was simply
to underscore the instability of the characters’ situation, to give a more
"documented" feel to the environment, not to mention that it allowed Charlie and Kelly a chance to play
and NOT to hide their new knack for alien dialogue in cuts.
Presently, For
Clearer Skies has
played at eleven film festivals in Canada and the U.S.
and has won three awards (Best Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi,
and an Audience Choice Award). Charles Lo Manto is currently up for a
Best Actor
Award at the Vaughan Film
Festival here in Toronto, Canada, which I’m very excited
and happy about as he’s put so much time, effort, and skill into this film. Without him
and Kelly, there would be no
clear sky for this film.
What
were your inspirations writing it?
I was and still am a kid. And the same goes for my brother
and cousin. We enjoy
watching sci-fi films as well as horror films. I cannot
tell you how many times we’d
watch, say, a zombie film and criticized the stupid
decisions characters made. Of course,
as an audience member, we have all the answer, right?
Heck, my cousin even started the
(four-member strong, haha!) ZIPO: Zombie Invasion
Protection Organization Facebok
Page. We’re still recruiting, by the way!
Two of my all-time favourite films are Cloverfield
and District 9. I get a kick out of thinking about what it would be like if a giant alien
crashed through Toronto and what I would do in that situation. On the other hand,
District
9 offers such a unique and real-life
glimpse of what it can very well be like if we were to be
visited or "invaded" by aliens. For
Clearer Skies definitely
borrows from the latter. So, the film was borne out of boyish
speculation and a chance to play with giant-sized Lego, so
to speak, allowing me a
chance to build and create a (Lego) set I would want to be
part of.
There’s nothing better than rubbing shoulders with a
live version of the very thing you
created on paper!
How did
you get into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any kind
of formal training on the subject?
As I said earlier, mnemophobia is an interesting phobia in
that it isn’t just about fearing
what we remember, but fearing not being able to remember
one’s memories. One of
those memories that I do fear losing are, in fact, the
several that I have of my grandfather
and I watching movies together when I was a child.
A lot of what I do today is a reflection of him. He has a
massive collection, much like
my own 1,600+ DVD library, of VHS and even Beta tapes (he
even still has the large,
brown leather-bound Zenith Beta player on top of his TV).
I pretty much grew up at my
grandfather’s house, and being there so often, I used to
rummage through and discover all
sorts of movies. But there will always be three films that
hold a special place in my
heart, the three films that set me on my way: Hook,
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
For some reason, I took to those films and watched them
religiously. And is still amazes
me at how wrong I was about most of the dialogue that the
characters were speaking; and
that all goes towards being a child and replacing the
things that you don’t understand.
Yet, the films haven’t lost their magic for me because
when I do revisit them, I remember
not only what I thought the characters were saying when I
watched them as a child, but
who I was with – my grandfather. And those memories
forever keep me a child. The
name Arcilesi Films is a tribute to my grandfather, not to
mention the use of his name
Salvatore as my middle name.
But I did have an affinity for storytelling. I had a
fondness for books, particularly R.L.
Stine’s Goosebumps
series. I’ll never forget a teacher at my
elementary school arguing with my mom about how I wasn’t allowed to order
Goosebumps
books through our reading program because they were "too violent",
and me in my tiny, defiant voice declaring, "but the boy turns into a bee, how could
that be violent?" Funny enough, that
book was Why
I’m Afraid of Bees #17 (my lucky number!).
A short while later, I went to the first annual Screemers,
a horror-themed park that comes out here in Toronto during the two weeks leading up to
Halloween. I was kind of scared, but mostly intrigued by the image of this screaming
demon/vampire thing and used that and my love of Goosebumps
as foundation for my own writing series. It
was around that time that I was building Lego Titanics and CN Tower’s
and pretending that something was attacking them. And the Jurassic
Park Lego set was definitely another
inspiration as it allowed me to create my own Jurassic
Park movies.
When I was fifteen, my brother and his friend decided to
start a band. My brother was supposed to be a drummer, though he never played or
touched any drums in his life. So seeing it as how I never played or touched drums in my
life, I formed my own band, which I named False
Godz (not quite a hit with my Catholic
school). For the next two years, I wrote all of the lyrics for our songs. Sensing
that the band was fledgling, I
started to learn how to play the piano, and once the band
finally went under, I took the lyrics I had written and what few piano notes I had
learned, and started to translate those lyrics and music into short scripts/films. Being heavily
into music at the time, I picked up a copy of The
Marshall Mathers LP, and upon hearing tracks
like Stan and
Kim for
the first time, I was utterly amazed at Eminem’s strength in
lyrical storytelling; the passion, the "love", the hate! His writing showed me the
possibilities of expression.
I’d also go online and search for scriptwriting tips,
and that’s pretty much how I taught myself scriptwriting until I went to university for only
three weeks. Why three weeks?
Well, let’s just say that administrators aren’t as
keen an observer as an artist might be and I apparently I wasn’t in the right film program.
And how I knew I was really meant for film was when I
literally had my own movie moment. I was standing on a subway platform; the north
train led to the University of Ill Administrators while the south train led to Trebas
Institute, a private film school in Toronto. After the coming-of-age, moment-of-truth
soundtrack played in my head, I boarded the south train.
But film school wasn’t the answer, either. Indeed, I
learned quite a bit, but I also learned a lot about people and about life. I learned that I was an
eighteen-year-old kid whose next natural educational step was to go into a
post-secondary institution of some sort, while others around him were in much different life
situations. I mean this as no disrespect to my former fellow classmates, but I believe I’m
one of the only students who continued to make films after tossing that graduation cap
into the air (I actually didn’t have a graduation cap!). I say this only because I didn’t
have anyone after graduation to grow with, and that also had a lot to do with where I was
in life.
 |
I attempted to make a feature film, but failed. I
attempted to make another feature, but failed again. I was ready to quit (and there have been
many, many times where I’ve felt that way, which, I believe, is a natural reaction when you
love something so much. I had a teacher who once said, "sometimes when you say ‘I
hate you’, you’re really saying ‘I love you’", and that’s how I feel about
filmmaking at times).
But then three things happened: 1. My good friend and
actor Kevin Carroll; 2. My mom told me about On
the Lot, a filmmaker version of American Idol; and 3. My uncle bought a pool table. Since I was flirting with the idea of
leaving film, Kevin called me up for a sub sandwich and told me that I was making a mistake.
Literally the next day, my mom told me that Steven Spielberg was involved with this show
called On the
Lot and that they were looking for new filmmakers. To enter, I had to
make a five-minute film. I knew that my uncle had just bought a pool table and wanted
to write something that involved a pool table. Thus, the very first film from
Arcilesi Films, Game
of Life, was
born, starring Kevin Carroll (and my uncle’s pool
table). We didn’t make the program,
but now we had a film that started to play festivals. And
we were on our way…
What can you tell us
about your filmwork prior to Mnemophobia: Fear of Memories and For
Clearer Skies?
I’ve been on my own Y
ellow Brick Road, that much is certain.
Game of Life, I’ve always
felt, is an apt title for a first film as it’s certainly a game that
we all play; I know I certainly have and still continue to
do so. Game
of Life is a special film to me not just because it was my first, but because I
can’t help but go back to that
place and time at the back of my uncle’s auto body shop
(where I set most of my films) on that snowy Sunday back in January 2007, when it was
just myself, Kevin Carroll and Alino Giraldi, and how I didn’t know anybody and nobody
knew me. And now here I am speaking with you; it just goes to show how a seed can be
planted and blossom into something more. Game
of Life centers around twin brothers Cameron
and Cal who play
a game of pool to decide who will live and who will die in
a world of overpopulation.
Roadside Florist was my
sophomore film. I expanded in length and scope in comparison
to Game
of Life in that I needed extra help, and by
extra help I mean that I had one production assistant. Roadside
Florist follows Graham Wool, a modern day
hermit who,
for twenty years, has been laying flowers on the sites of
drinking and driving accidents to
honour those who have perished, but one day meets a family
member of one of those he’s
commemorated.
 |
Scent of Rosemary is when
people started to pay attention. I lost a few friends because of the film’s contents. Since it dealt with a very raw and
intimate story of pedophilia, I feel that those who stopped talking to me had done so because
they thought that because I joke around and am easy-going that that was the type of
film I’d make. Wrong! I save my drama for my film, but that doesn’t necessarily mean
that I AM the characters in my film. I casted Steven L. Bird, who was the lead in
Roadside
Florist and showed off his range by playing someone completely the opposite of his
previous flower-setting self, and Patrick B. Smith, whose broken arm actually added to
our film. The lead character, Lawrence, was the most difficult to cast because of the
level of conflict he endures, among other aspects. The script tested a lot of
"actors", or at least the ones who claimed, "I can play anything," but then said, "I
won’t play that." (Their accepting the script
before reading it and then declination after reading it
always reminded me of the lyrics from the Meatloaf song I Would Do Anything For
Love.) But one ACTOR was mature and understanding enough to embody Lawrence, and
marking the first collaboration of – presently – five films, I cast
Robert Nolan [Robert Nolan
interview - click here], Toronto’s very own indie star. I am very proud to say that after four years,
Scent
of Rosemary will have its World
Premiere at the 3rd
Macabre Faire Film Festival in Long Island. Scent
of Rosemary follows Lawrence, a one-time child sex offender, as he
searches for his young daughter
who was adopted during his stint in prison.
Reverie Three was the first
film that won any sort of accolades and has won at each festival it has played. I know this is going to sound like
the cliché, artsy director thing to say, but I truly do not make films for the awards. I
simply say this because when the first award was announced, there were a few people who started
to treat me differently; some were jealous, some were curious as to how it won, some
were genuinely supportive, and most just don’t give a shit! So you can’t ever get
lost in the hype – good or bad – and lose your way. Reverie
Three also saw the first time that I
experimented with long, continuous takes which seem to have become a trademark.
Obviously, I didn’t invent the film style, but I enjoy employing it as a means of
tension, among other things. Reverie
Three follows Foster, an
adoptive child who grows up to resent and seek revenge upon
his adoptive parents and their blood son in a very unique
way.
God’s Acre is the little
baby of the bunch. It was made as part of the 2009 Toronto Film Race. I had never thought of participating in an event
where one had to make a film in 24 hours, but after a friend of mine suggested it, I decided
to give it a shot. Plus, I was bored. For those who don’t know how it works, here goes.
Filmmaking teams of all skillsets comprised of any size are challenged to make a
film in 24 hours. To keep things fair, all teams are sent an email containing the theme and
the prop or action that they must include in their films. The only things you can do up
until that email is sent is assemble your cast and crew, your location(s), your gear,
and whatever else you think you’ll need. Once you’re notified, you’ve got 24
hours to make your film. Now, most people treat this type of event – and there are a lot of
them around the world – as a way to have fun, to be creative, and also to goof off. Most
people make comedies. I know that some felt I should’ve made a comedy and that this
competition was a good time to branch out into something funny as comedies seemed to be the
winning type of film, but I believed that our drama would come out on top. 24 hours
later, and with our theme being "revenge" and the prop/action being
"spraying a perfume/cologne bottle", God’s
Acre was made. One week later, God’s
Acre screened in front of 300 people. We were
film #29 out of 30. Of course, the majority of the first 28
films were comedies. So everyone’s laughing and having a good time, and then my
melodrama fades in. And the laughing stopped. But I didn’t care. Some time passed
and it was announced that God’s
Acre had won five awards.
Seems tears can compete among the laughter. I would go on to help organize the 2010 film race and judge the 2012
film race, and God’s
Acre would
go on to screen at eight other film festivals, including
the upcoming 3rd Macabre Faire
Film Festival. God’s
Acre observes a religious man’s interview,
one that will justify or
condemn his life’s actions.
Lavender Fields is the first
time that I wrote anything outside of my comfort zone in that
I employed the use of ASL (American Sign Language). I
wanted to play with language and communication as well as time. With the help of
actress and ASL Coach, Elizabeth Morris, who trained both Robert Nolan and Kelly-Marie
Murtha, we ended up with the bittersweet Lavender
Fields, a tale about a husband and wife who
are suffering after the loss of their unborn child.
Snow Angel marked my first
feature film. As I mentioned above, it was a chance for me to offer not only an acting experience for Charles Lo
Manto, but also a film experience for the audience. The film was shot in two days. The first
day was dedicated to all of the paralysis scenes. Charlie was as dedicated and as brave as
they come. He spent what must’ve been four to six consecutive hours laying on a
freezing, dirty auto body shop ground – topless! – unable to move. We surrounded him
with heaters and blankets, and anything we could find to keep him warm. Almost the entire
film was improvised, as I didn’t feel it was authentic scripting a man’s
struggle of paralysis. Each scene was exactly three minutes long and uncut, and most of what you
see and hear from Charlie is genuine. As I expected, and because of the nature of the
film, Snow Angel played at only
one festival. I had shown it to several people who thought
that I didn’t know what the hell it was that I was doing in terms of its style, and so
they dismissed it as a rookie error
that a director would make on his first feature. Wrong!
Their feelings of boredom,
anger, impatience, and so on were all spot on.
Essentially, they felt exactly what
Charlie’s character was going through, and, once again,
it was the experience that I was
offering them and so it was the experience that they
received.
Any future projects you'd like to
share?
Canswer, a
minimalist, cross-genre tale of two people stranded on a rooftop in the
midst of a pandemic, is my second feature film that is currently
in postproduction and should be coming out shortly. This film has been the absolute best
experience I’ve had in my life. The idea hit me after an interesting and intense 2012 New
Year’s experience. I had filmed every inch of my uncle’s auto body shop, but hadn’t
yet tackled the rooftop, so I figured that it was time to rectify that. The film has
"zombie" elements in it, and what started out as just a few friends and family dressing up
as "zombies" turned out to be a full-fledged event called "GET INFECTED!" And
since it landed on Mother’s Day, it was affectionately, unofficially dubbed "Zombie
Mombie Day". My team and I also just came off of a successful fundraiser called
"fundRAISING THE DEAD" that saw a live show of musicians, comedians, teaser trailers, and some
pretty cool raffle prizes.

|
While on the set of Canswer,
I also met my
ex-girlfriend who indirectly inspired an epic feature script called Yellow Brick
Road, an
epic dark modern fantasy rendition of The
Wizard of Oz. The
1939 classic has always been a favourite of mine. When I finally
bought it on DVD, I was watching it late at night
thinking, "Man, Dorothy’s really in a fucked up situation." And thinking about what it
would be like if she and her friends and her enemies would be like in our real world started to get
me excited about the possibilities. 79 days later, and the epic was written,
complete with homages, tributes, and a whole bunch of neat little secrets and trivia
embedded into the script. Luckily, thankfully, readers have been praising the material, even
going so far as to say that I’m doing for The
Wizard of Oz what
Christopher Nolan did for Batman,
which is a very
heavy weight to carry - so with all of that added-on
pressure, I can only hope that we can
start laying some yellow bricks of our own.
How would you describe yourself as a director?
I’ll hold your hand so that you can take your first few
steps, but I will let go and allow
you to fall and pick yourself back up. I’m not here to
spoon feed anyone – collaborators
and audiences alike. I’m very interested in the people
that I work with. To me, they’re
more than just an actor or the sound recordist. I’m
interested in who they are, what
makes them tick, their likes, dislikes; I’ve even gone
so far as to ask them why it is that
they are truly doing what they are doing, especially my
film. I know that if I’m making
films about people for people, then I want to know about
them. It’s a personal joy to
have little, private, fleeting conversations with my cast
and crew on and off the set.
Seeing those classic stills of legendary actors and
directors having private, candid
moments mean the most to me.
I thrive upon "love" – and I’ve quoted that
word for personal reasons – and hate, and I
bring both to each story. I challenge someone whether it’s
through an alien language or
the American Sign Language, whether it’s by having them
lay on a frigid ground for six
hours without a muscle moved or by having them perform a
13-minute monologue in a
continuous take. And while these may not be the most
innovative techniques or what
have you, they are the tools that I need and use to create
an experience for them and the
audience.
And as I’ve said earlier, I’m here to offer you an
experience and not a spectacle,
although, in truth, sometimes a spectacle is the
experience. I want my cast and crew and
the audience to feel or have felt something.
A tear, a laugh… those are the laurels for me.
Filmmakers
who inspire you?
Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salo,
or the 120 Days of Sodom), Alexsandr Sokurov
(Russian
Ark), and Gaspar Noe (Irreversible)
are just three of the directors who inspire
me. I won’t get
into the specific reasons why, but I will say that if you
even start to check out the three
films I’ve mentioned, then you’ll not only begin to
gauge my own work, but you will see
what films can really say and do, and what power they can
have. Experience for
yourself!
Your favourite movies?
I remember sitting on the couch with my father when I was
a child. He’d pop in a VHS – one of two – from this black box. The tape would start
to play and I remember always
being instantly bored. He would play this film all the
time! And not just the first one,
but the second, and the third.
When I attended Trebas Institute in 2004, one of the
instructors announced to the class
that we’d be watching the first of this trilogy. It was
something that I wasn’t looking
forward to. Yet, as that iconic title card with the
marionette hand and strings faded in,
followed by nearly 30 minutes of a Sicilian wedding that
closely resembled those
celebrated by my family, I fell in love with The Godfather. And while I can definitely write a book about my
"love" of The
Godfather trilogy, I will
only say that I am always in awe when we reach what I feel
to be The Scene that sums up
the entire saga: when Michael Corleone falls to his knees
and lets out the most angstdriven
scream of his entire life, but no sound comes out… I can’t
help but think of
everything that he has been through.
And those are the films that I enjoy and want to make, one
where a viewer can think back
to the first minute of where it all began.
...
and of course, films you really deplore?
The ones where when I’m sitting nice and comfy in the
theatre with a hot bag of popcorn,
and the teaser trailer for a film comes on, and I freeze
mid-popcorn bite and say, "That
was my
idea!"
Your website,
Facebook, whatever else?
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Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
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For everything Arcilesi Films, please feel free to visit www.arcilesifilms.com
There you will find teaser trailers, poster art, cast and
crew bios, behind the scenes
photos, production notes and trivia, reviews, links to
Official Facebook Fan Pages, and
much, much more.
And I sincerely thank you in advance for visiting…
Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
I simply want to thank everyone who has supported Arcilesi
Films through all of the
years. Without you guys, my family and friends – and I’d
like to think that my collaborators live under that umbrella – none of what I
do could be made possible.
I want to thank Scott W. Perry [Scott
W. Perry interview - click here] and Steven-Mark Glassner
for reaching out and taking a
chance on me, and for connecting me with Search
My Trash for what has been an
awesome correspondence.
I also want to thank my enemies and everyone who did me
wrong. Without them, there
are no obstacles to overcome.
I especially want to thank a particular person who has
given me the quotation marks I
needed to wrap around what they proved to me to just be a
word – "love" – and for
inspiring so much anger. Both are fuel for creativity, so
thank you…
Thanks for
the interview!
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