Return to Origin

It's been a crazy past few months and lot of amazing things have been happening in my life, but first off apologies for not being able to update my site more frequently to better share them with you. It's been a time of reflection, refocusing and re-enegrizing my creative spirit to manifest some creative concepts that have been lurking deep in the recess of my mind. It's also a time to be grateful for the many awesome experiences I've had that have made me very happy and grateful to be where I am today.

My work with The Film Stage continues to grow with strides, having interviewed the cast of Melancholia, director of Attack the Block Joe Cornish and conversed with one of my personal heroes Werner Herzog. Made the above music video promo for the band With Lions and have many more upcoming projects with them on the horizon. In the reality TV department, I've been editing show for TLC, The Sundance Channel, National Geographic and The Nature Conservancy. A show I edited Lady Hoggers just started airing and my episode 'Boss Hog' airs this Wednesday night.  Saw Tycho live, he was awesome. I saw Radiohead perform live twice, once in the audience of The Stephen Colbert Report which was unreal and then front row and center at Roseland just like my first RH show in 2000 when they debuted Kid A and I was a freshman at NYU.

I got the iPhone4S and absolutely love it, the optics are outstanding and I've been doing a lot of instagram-ing. I'm going back to Sundance and Cannes next year (and maybe hopefully SXSW and Fantastic Fest as well) and I'm looking forward to interacting with all sorts of cool new people. I also have some interesting projects in the pipeline, both photography and video and a fan funded project I'm developing. So lots of good things on the horizon, including a re-designed site with some cool new features to make interacting with me cooler! All the best and keep the creative juices flowing!

Videogame Summer

It's been far too long since I've posted anything and it's a shame since I have so much new interesting stuff to share but I'm still catching up on it all. Throw in a new job working for National Geographic and you can partially understand why I've been short on time to update the site. That being said, I've been working with some friends for a soft redesign of ZAFFI to coincide with my first crowd funding project which will happen before the end of the year that I'm currently mapping out. Really excited to share all the cool new content I've been brewing up but in the meantime, here's a little video I did just to show you a slice of my summer.

I Cannes Do It

As you can tell from my previous post, it's been a big year for me and film festivals. Getting to attend two of the most prestigious cinematic congregations (Sundance and Cannes) in one year is truly an honor and I am grateful the knowledge and friendships gained. As I head to the shores of the south of France, I'm thrilled to be covering the films participating in the festival as coverage for The Film Stage. However in addition to my duties as movie critic, I'll also be doing some shameless self promotion and pitching for two feature length scripts I'm bringing to show producers, financiers, execs and people who own yachts.

I'll be launching two new micro sites for each feature concept in the weeks to come and hope to garner some interest with my endeavors at the festival. Since this would be my debut feature, I'm trying to keep costs for production low and thus appetizing for potential interest. When I return to NYC, the plan is to start filming a teaser for one of the projects and then begin crowd-funding for my first feature film. Today, as I embark to the airport, I'm releasing two teaser images for each film, Traces and Desolation. Big thanks to Jake Tapia and Lauren Turbowitz for helping make these look really awesome. So stay tuned for both reviews of the films at Cannes and news about my next major film project!

Sundance 2011

Earlier in the year I had the esteemed pleasure of accompanying both editors of The Film Stage, Jordan Raup and Dan Mecca, to attend the Sundance Film Festival as a press representative of the online media outlet. I couldn't have been more excited to be there, having dreamed of one day being part of the festival as a filmmaker, and was definitely charmed by the fun dance in the sun. Over the eight or so days I was there, I got to meet some amazing people, including many filmmakers but mostly fellow journalists in the realm of what I like to call the cinema bloggerati, whose friendships I now cherish dearly. And oh yes, the films. I saw a total of 24 films (most of which were good) over the course of the fest, including the world premiere of Kevin's Smith controversial film Red State, which was not so good.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience and if everything works out it will become an annual tradition. You can check out my plethora of photos on Flickr and check out all my reviews of the following films: Silent House, I Saw the Devil, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Guard, Shorts Program Vol. 1, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Red State, Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, The Son of No One, Cedar Rapids, The Details, Senna, The Green Wave, Reagan, A Few Days of Respite and my favorite film of the fest Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey. And don't forget to stay up on my writing for The Film Stage, since I just found out I've been accredited as press for this year's Cannes film festival!

2011 Reel

It's been over five years since I've updated my reel, so it's safe to say this has been a long time coming. Hopefully you enjoy my work both as a writer, editor and director and continue to follow my foray into the future of filmmaking (alliteration FTW!). Feel free to check out my profile on LinkedIn for my resume and references and if you are interested in hiring me for anything, you can email me directly . Thanks and pump it up to 11!

My Top 10 Films of 2010

It's been a whirlwind of a year for movies and myself this year. This has been the first year I've been writing for a film centric website, The Film Stage, doing news, reviews and even interviews. Working with this team of creative young minds has truly been inspiring for myself and re-opened an infinite amount of possibilities for what I want to do with my film directing career. Another bonus has been the opportunity to see lots more movies than I normally would have had time for, making this year's top 10 list extremely special. So check out the entire picks from The Film Stage team or you can jump straight to my page here. Thanks everyone and Happy New Years!!!