Dearest readers,
I've always had personal, artistic projects to focus on. In elementary school, it was character designs for prospective comic books. In middle school, it was sketchbooks. In high school, it was short films. In college, it was... short films. And presently, it's feature-length films (and a book but I'll get to that in a moment). Despite the seemingly never-ending challenges posed by this ongoing pandemic, I'm thankful I've been able to adapt my projects to my limitations and remain productive through these trying times with highly satisfactory results! For this reason, I'm delighted to share a few reasons I'm excited about the new year:
State v. Unknown
My second feature-length film is approximately 85% complete! And I couldn't be happier with the work of my amazing principal cast (Andrew Garcia, Lorean Mapp, Mia Scornavacca, Florencia Barletta and Juan Iglesias). While I'm trying not to say too much about the film in order to preserve as many of its surprises as possible, I will say that the film boasts a supporting cast twice as large as the one on my debut feature-length film, For My Sister! I expect to finish production on State v. Unknown, which began July 2021, by spring of this year.
Twenty Years of Filmmaking
The year 2022 marks an important milestone in my life. It was two decades ago that I began earnest, concentrated work on the first short film of my professional canon. Since then, a relentless practice and inordinate consideration of the artform has remained fairly continuous across this yawning stretch of time. In these past twenty years, I've produced 16 short films, written five feature-length screenplays and produced a first feature-length film with a second well on its way. Filmmaking is the great joy of my life and I'm so thankful for the time, resources and collaborations that have made this insane journey possible!
My First Book
Yes, I'm writing a book! It's been in my plans for a while now as I first hatched the idea of doing so as far back as 2015. What's the book about? It's a diverse collection of stories from my creative life, taking readers from my youthful, formative experiences to more mature, professional ones with plenty of accrued insight and wisdom to spare. As it stands, the book is approximately 15% complete and I'm aiming to self-publish when the manuscript is complete in a few months. And the timing of the book's release is intended to coincide with the above-mentioned anniversary. What can I say? It's been a meaningful twenty years!
I hope you enjoyed this brief rundown of promising tidings from my humble corner of the internet! Thanks for reading and I wish you a new year of greater illumination, vision and focus!
