Private Project

Jerome

JEROME (mid-teens) struggles with feelings of inadequacy when the annual Fathers and Sons event forces him to confront the absence of his own father; and he deals with it the only way he knows how—basketball.

  • Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz
    Director
  • Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz
    Writer
  • Ari B. Lopez
    Writer
  • Selena Leoni
    Executive Producer
  • Ben O'keefe
    Producer
  • Santi Naidoo
    Producer
  • Genres:
    Drama, Coming of age
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 31, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz

Gianfranco Fernández-Ruiz (the hyphen is silent) is a Los Angeles-based, Afro-Latine writer/director, whose emphasis on character marks culture as integral to identity but second to story. His work mirrors the frail and current socio-political climate in intimate settings staging nuanced characters with multicultural backgrounds that feel distinct and common--a feat that has drawn attention from the Sundance Labs (a 2021 Second Rounder).

His work bridges the gap between the siloed other and the mainstream, focusing on simple slices of life and relationship dynamics. Gianfranco’s stories are a bright mix of the beats, verve, and rhythms of his Dominican heritage and Boston roots. For him, film thrives when it encircles discovery, catharsis, and community.

Gianfranco currently studies directing at the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFIC), and was selected for the Flip the Script Short Film Fund with CreatorPlus with his short film JEROME.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As a spirited, too-much-to-handle kid, my mom would threaten me with, “you want me to call your father?”

You ever flinch at a word? I did. Whatever a father was, it frightened me - my monster under the bed.

As a teenager, the idea of an ever-present father still terrified me. A man of my own blood around all the time? What would that look like? How would it change the world I knew? How could that influence me as a man and future father?

I'd never know.

So much of who I believed I was felt like a great mystery wrapped up in this man. I didn't know where he was, or what family I had. The history, the legacy, the facts: my father came to America undocumented, participated in illegal activities, imprisoned for ten years then deported. And for years I thought, what of that belongs to me? I sat with my hands behind my back waiting for that question to be answered, waiting for the moment I'd be taken in. But that whole time, my mother worked 80 hour weeks; took me to school; put me into programs; and checked in throughout the day. Frankly, for a single mother I didn't know where she found the time, but as I grow older I realize she didn't find the time. She made the time.

The school to prison pipeline is a darkness that threatens communities of color everywhere. But families and communities that stick together shed light on that darkness. Those programs gave me community, and my mother, in so many ways, played the role of a father too.

My mother. A strong, independent, bull-willed woman taxed with teaching her son to articulate his grief, and more importantly, to stay a child, to keep his imagination, even if she didn't know exactly how. She wasn't always the softest. She didn't always understand why I wanted to know a man that was never there. But she showed up, and taught me that showing up is the single most important thing a person can do in life.

Later I'd learn I'd be a father. I was 24. I learned that being a father was as simple as showing up. Unfortunately, I don't see the single mother represented on screen. This film is for all the single mothers like my mother who mentored me into my fatherhood with little to nothing.

Thank you for your consideration.