Experiencing Interruptions?

American Musical

In a desolate America of quiet suburbs and abandoned dreams, everyday streets become silent stages where fear and longing collide. Above the empty houses, a lone figure in jeans and a faded camouflage parka appears on a rooftop, not as a soldier but as a ghostly witness of decline. His presence — half myth, half threat — looms over a fractured community, where ordinary lives continue in stillness, unaware of the weight pressing down from above. A portrait of isolation and unease, the film transforms the suburban landscape into a frozen tableau of suspense, echoing the style of Gregory Crewdson & Norman Rockwell. It stands as an unflinching portrait of contemporary America, exposing its fractures, anxieties, and quiet despair beneath the surface of ordinary life. At its core lies the allegory of regicide — not only a symbolic slaying of authority, tradition, and the founding myths of the nation, but also a distinctly American topos, one that too often mutates into lived reality through the blind violence of a world caught between transformation and stagnation.

  • Massimo Scognamiglio
    Director
  • Massimo Scognamiglio
    Writer
  • Massimo Scognamiglio
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 12, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Massimo Scognamiglio

Born in Rome, he lives and works in Rome.

Artist, photographer, and digital evangelist, he paints, photographs, and has been exhibiting since the mid-’90s. From 2006 he lived for two years in California, then for a brief period he moved to Paris where he paints, photographs, designs performances, his most famous Rebirth, which took place in 2016 at Place de la République. Today, he lives and works in Rome, in his studio-house-gallery known as Le Petit Atelier.

He has exhibited at the MACRO Museum Asylum in Rome, with the project “Where is the future?”, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, also in Rome, with the exhibition “The Shining Consciousness”, moreover he has entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art of Vibo Valentia LIMEN ; in addition to other galleries in Italy and abroad.

Massimo Scognamiglio stands as a poignant figure in the landscape of contemporary art, his works a testament to the profound layers of human introspection. Without resorting to hyperbole, it is evident that his art delves into the crevices of mental unease while simultaneously radiating a palpable life force. Scognamiglio’s oeuvre is a journey through the psyche, with series like “Gli Strappi” (1998-2004) which laid bare the raw edges of human emotion, and “Ciclo delle Stanze” (2008-today), where each room becomes a chapter of an introspective narrative.

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Director Statement

American Musical is not a celebration, it is an autopsy. I wanted to strip away the glitter of the American dream and reveal the body underneath: suburban stillness, broken rituals, and the silent weight of violence that echoes through history.
At the heart of the work is the allegory of regicide, the symbolic killing of authority, tradition, and myth.