Interstate 8

I am an Italian-American filmmaker who travels the world. I was born on the west coast of the United States, but grew up largely in Central Florida. I have always loved writing and storytelling ever since my mother taught me how to read very very young while also introducing me to film from an early age too. I started making films with my best friend in Sanford when I was about 11, mostly parodies, mostly because we loved film, mostly because we loved to act, mostly also as a survival mechanism of living in Florida.

I graduated college (AA Degree) and high school at 17 and then moved to Boston, where my mother (and grandmother) hail from. After Boston, I moved to New York City, where I resumed school and resided for a year or so, but most importantly, began making films again all over the city. Having grown up without money and access to reasonable equipment, I picked up where I left off, making films only using the few resources around me. This involved, and still involves, finding ways around the roadblocks that are typically overcome with having a crew (editors, producers, cameramen, directors, boom operators, etc) as well as solving problems that comes with a lack of professional equipment.

At 19, I left New York City and college, and sought out to fulfill a life’s dream of backpacking Europe. Traveling alone without much money and minimal film equipment (DSLR, tripod, two lavaliere microphones, shotgun microphone, and laptop for editing), I traveled around the continent both exploring the world and practicing filmmaking while also continuing to practice writing and acting too. Sadly, this adventure would end after the United Kingdom would deny me entrance into the country due to a lack of funds, and then ironically took all of the money I worked years for in the flight back. With no other options, I retreated to the US for the holidays and continued writing and filming.

At the start of 2015, I decided to continue the adventure by backpacking Canada through the winter and part of the spring. After about three months, I ended up back in the United States, where I shortly after, completed a short film called “Interstate 8”, the name being a reference to a Modest Mouse song (and record).

About two weeks before my 20th birthday, I received an email saying that “Interstate 8” was accepted into the Short Film Corner at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It was by far one of the greatest experiences that I have been privileged to have in my life.

I am now 20 and am just trying to learn and create as much as possible in as many places as possible in the short amount of time that I am allotted on this planet.