The Big Book

Darwin works as a fraud surveillance investigator; spying on those with workers' comp claims to see if they are faking their injury or not. When he’s not working (and sometimes while on the job) he sponsors young men in Alcoholics Anonymous. His strict code of conduct gets thrown for a loop when his next surveillance target is his own AA sponsor.

  • Daniel Maggio
    Director
    EarthBound, USA / The Great American Short Story / The Glory Hole
  • Daniel Maggio
    Writer
  • Jared Moore
    Producer
  • Jared Moore
    Key Cast
    "Darwin"
  • Timmy Spence
    Key Cast
    "Lucky"
  • Lorenzo Hernandez
    Key Cast
    "Tony Hawk"
  • Myles Gilbert
    Director of Photography
  • Male Tears
    Original Score
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Thriller, Spy, Comedy, Spiritual, Summer Noir
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 27, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Daniel Maggio

Daniel Maggio was born in Hemet, California and many of his films have been produced there (INCLUDING THE ONE YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE). At the age of 13, he wrote his first screenplay, THE UNKNOWN SUPER HERO which was directed by his teacher/mentor Jimbo Marshall and produced through his middle school. The film premiered at the Temecula International Film Festival and that screening solidified Daniel's lifelong pursuit of filmmaking.

At 17, he directed his first feature film, BROSIS. It's the story of a brother and sister who unknowingly start dating each other over the internet. He attended San José State University where he received degrees in Film + Theatre. While attending SJSU, he directed multiple award winning short films (JIMBO, ELDER ANDERSON, ANTIQUE IMAGINATION). It is estimated that he drank 400 cans of Tecate during his collegiate career.

Daniel is a member of the indie folk-rock collective HIPPIE CREAM and has directed multiple short films and features for the band. MARTY'S MAGNIFICENT DAY-GLO DREAM-A-THON is a feature length sci-fi musical featuring original music from the band (think "Rock N' Roll High School" meets "Inception" meets "Forbidden Zone.") RADICAL PARADE is a feature length documentary chronicling the band's 20 year history, highlighting the best and worst of their 300 song catalogue. He has produced the band's last 5 albums.

In 2014, Maggio directed THE GLORY HOLE for Dan Savage's Hump Fest. The 4 minute short tells the true story of how Jeff and Cosgrove fell in love at a San Francisco glory hole in the early 90’s. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Hump, screened at FRAMELINE40, and is currently distributed through Wolfe Video.

He is the co-founder of the Hemet Film Festival, hosted at the Historic Hemet Theatre.

- written as if by someone else

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Our lead actor, Jared, has been working in fraud surveillance for many years. He secretly videotapes people with workers' comp claims to see if they are actually injured or not. I met him through theater and film friends in Hemet. I was fascinated by his job and had never seen it depicted on screen before. We all know Private Investigators, but the insurance fraud element had me intrigued. He said it was mostly a lot of waiting around, which gave him the opportunity to memorize lines for plays.

I have been in 12-Step Recovery for the past five years (whoops, not so anonymous) and I started to see many parallels between Jared's world and the spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Characters are so much better when they live by a moral code and making the protagonist an over committed sponsor in AA just made sense.

We worked hard to present things "as is." People are always going to have their prejudices (whether it's towards AA as an institution or snoops that work for insurance companies) and hopefully the film makes the case for reserving judgment until we have all the facts.