STAIRWAY TO THE STARS

“Stairway To The Stars” is a touching reminder that we are more than our past and have value no matter what stage of life we find ourselves in.” - Film Threat

“Writer/director Lorenzo DeStefano has cast the outstanding performers Sean Young and Quinton Aaron in a film that highlights the value of friendship, above all things.” - Mundiario

"The beauty of short films is that you can tell a powerful story in a condensed period of time. That’s exactly what Lorenzo DeStefano has done with ‘Stairway To The Stars’”. - At The Movies

Born in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Lorenzo DeStefano is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, film editor, and photographer. A member of the Directors Guild of America and former member of the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild, he has produced and directed network series, documentaries, and narrative films, worked in U.S. and U.K. Theater, and written fiction, non-fiction, original screenplays, and adaptations.

His feature documentaries as producer/director include “From A Darkened Room-The Diary of A Nobody”, about Arthur Crew Inman, author of “The Inman Diary”, “Hearing is Believing”, about the gifted young musician and composer, Rachel Flowers, “Los Zafiros-Music From The Edge Of Time”, about the Beatles of 1960s Cuba, and “Talmage Farlow”, a portrait of the American jazz guitarist.

DeStefano’s plays include “House Boy”, “Shipment Day”, “Camera Obscura”, “Providence”, “Stairway To The Stars”, “Ambition”, and “The Three-Sided Room”. Theater directing includes William Inge’s “Natural Affection”, Horton Foote’s “The One-Armed Man”, the world premiere of Robert Schenkkan’s “Conversations with the Spanish Lady”, the world premiere of “Twisted Twain” by Bill Erwin, “Jitters” by David French, and his own productions of “Providence” and “Shipment Day”.

DeStefano’s career in motion picture film editing includes “The Blue Lagoon”, “Making Love”, “That Championship Season”, “Dreamscape”, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, “Thrashin’”, “Winners Take All”, “The Killing Time”, and “Gingerale Afternoon”. He was Supervising Film Editor, Producer, and Director during the 4 season/83 episode run of the acclaimed, Emmy-winning ABC/Warner Brothers drama series, “Life Goes On”.

In addition to “House Boy”, his award-winning debut novel, DeStefano is author of the short story and novella collection “Wild Places”, the memoir “Visitations – Finding A Secret Relative In Modern-Day Hawaii”, the photographic memoir “La Hora Magica/The Magic Hour – A Photographer’s Journeys Through Cuba”, the essay “On Knowing Daniel Aaron”, “Diary of a Nobody”, a feature article for The Guardian, and the cinema memoir “Callé Cero–An Encounter with Cuban Film Director Tomas Gutierrez Alea”.

DeStefano’s screenplays include “Shipment Day”, “The Diarist”, “Lads”, “Deep Inside”, “Cropper’s Cabin”, from the novel by Jim Thompson, “Appointment in Samarra”, from the novel by John O’Hara, “Waiting for Nothing”, from the novel by Tom Kromer, and “Creeps”, from the play by David E. Freeman.

Narrative films as writer/producer include “The Diarist”, a 5-Part Limited Series based on “The Inman Diary”, published by Harvard University Press, and “House Boy”, a 5-Part Limited Series adapted from his novel.

Narrative films as writer/producer/director include the 2023 short film “Stairway to the Stars”, starring Sean Young and Quinton Aaron, and “Shipment Day”, an upcoming screen adaptation of his prize-winning play about his cousin, the noted Hawai’i author and human rights activist Olivia Robello Breitha (1916-2006).

Photography credits include “Rest Homes Hawai’i”, “Leahi Hospital – Children’s Ward”, “Six Feet Under”, and “Queen of the Damned”. His traveling exhibition, “Cubanos-Island Portraits 1993-1998”, shown extensively in Cuba, New York, Chicago, London, Havana, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, is in the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, and was acquired in 2022 by the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami.