Unwanted

I grew up in a small wealthy suburban neighborhood about twenty minutes East of Pittsburgh, PA. When I was four, my father purchased a JVC Mini-VHS camcorder. He bought the camcorder to make family home videos, I saw more creative potential. After some coaxing, he let me have my own tape to create my first film, starring myself and my two younger sisters. It did not have a title, or even a real plot. It was an experimental film that showed us running back and forth in front of the camera. Although on the surface it was not much, this film was the start of a lifelong passion. The thrill of making something and then watching my hard work come to life on-screen was exhilarating. I knew from this moment onward I wanted to become a filmmaker. As the years went on, I kept directing more and more of my own films. They started to have real plots and titles. With each new film, I would push my boundaries and try something I’ve never done before. The same is true with this film, Unwanted.

A few years after I was born, my father became the manager of a large international engineering company, and his occupation allowed my mother, two younger sisters and I to live comfortably. That was until my parents separated when I was eleven-years-old. My mother moved out of the house, and subsequently caused my sisters and I to be forced to move out as well. The four of us all lived together in my grandmother’s basement for a brief time. Just one year later, after working three jobs, starting a successful business, and overcoming cancer, my mother was able to buy a house for us and move us back into our neighborhood.

When I tell this story, I usually tell it solely to commend the amazing character and work-ethic of my loving mother. However, I often refrain from making comments about my father. I’m not on bad-terms with him and never really was. He payed child-support and would see me on the weekends, but as the years went on after the separation, I felt like he slowly started to give up on being there for me. Even though we love each other, nothing could change this feeling I have towards him, the feeling of disappointment. I felt like he gave up on wanting to be a good father, and he had no excuse for it.

While masked behind a thriller conflict of an extreme mental illness, the feeling I had towards my father fueled the core behind Unwanted. In my film, David has every excuse not to, but yet through poverty, a disruptive mental disorder, and the death of his child’s mother, he is never willing to give up on being there for his child. I guess you could say I wrote David’s character to be the father I always wanted to have. A character that is obsessed with their own child to the point where it takes them to their grave.

Creating my first psychological thriller is a boundary that I was excited to break open, and had every intention of doing from the conception of the film. Making a film that focuses around fatherhood is not something that I expected or was interested to make. I just wanted to make a dark twisted film about someone that thinks about killing people. After writing my first draft, it was apparent that this was not enough to make a memorable story. I would have never thought Unwanted would turn into the story it has, but I am so happy it did.