Can you tell us what type of business you run and how long you've been operating this business? 

I’m a self-taught filmmaker. A director, screenwriter, and editor of rock music videos and independent but ambitious, stylized action films that creatively rebel against their budget restraints to emulate Hollywood level production values and special effects.

I started editing professionally when I was 18, which was 3 years ago when I moved back to New York City, where I was born. Subsequently, I’ve written, directed, and edited two short films; the black & white neo-noir Sinner’s Lullaby and the gritty, but fun cyberpunk transmission Dissolved Girl starring Alexandra Faye Sadeghian & Ivelaw Peters.

In addition, I’ve directed & edited a number of music videos by up and coming artists such as Pam Steebler, Peri El, DAHNA, and the great rock band RANN. I had the honor of actually filming and photographing RANN’s opening set for Jefferson Starship last year, as well as Peri El’s opening for Kesha. I also actually appear in the music video for The Chainsmokers ‘iPad’ !

It’s something I always knew I was going to do. My family moved away from NYC to a small town in Virgina when I was only 4 years old, but I always knew I was meant to make it back here. I think what perhaps was so tantalizing, yet the greatest support of that aspiration was all the action or superhero flicks and even some of the classic detective films by Alfred Hitchcock I watched on endless repeat as a youngster all being set here. It had to be done!

In fact, that wasn’t all they inspired me to do; my first filmmaking attempt was as early as age six, in 2007. It was the summer between kindergarten and first grade. With the help of neighborhood kids, I procured a 10-minute Spider-Man short, shot on a camcorder. We utilized Halloween costumes, composited the hilariously rough “visual FX” in Microsoft Paint, and cut the whole thing together in Windows Movie Maker. Definitely something that pre-teen kids made, but at the time it felt like my first step into a larger world.

I dropped out of school when I was 16, obtained a GED, and when I turned 18 I headed for the city to attend the 1 year conservatory program at the New York Film Academy. It was there that I met the great Swedish actress and Sinner’s Lullaby star Elvira Levin, as well as Dissolved Girl’s insanely talented cinematographer Lidia Marukyan.

While finding the lay of the land as an assistant on an indie film set, I met my late but great friend and incredible production sound mixer, M Wolf Snyder (1985-2021) - best known for his work on Chloe Zhao’s The Rider and Nomadland. Wolf & I became close pretty quickly and I think I learned the most from him, he was a lot like a mentor or older brother figure, especially when we shot Dissolved Girl, which is dedicated in his memory. He was a beautiful person, I’ll love and miss him always.

Just like studio productions, there’s this urgency to target certain demographics in order to profit or find an audience, and while I certainly had fans of The Matrix, Blade Runner, or Ghost in The Shell in mind when promoting Dissolved Girl, I think you ultimately have to remove yourself from algorithms and send a copy over to what you consider the least likely festival circuits, no matter how niche or far from mass consumption you feel. I mean hey, that’s where even the really wild stuff that subsequently developed cult followings like Rocky Horror Picture Show started; indiscriminately out in the open and letting the people decide.

What put things in perspective and I’m really touched by is being approached folks who will tell me that while they don’t care for the direct influences behind Dissolved Girl or the aesthetic of the piece, they really connect with and appreciate the characters and the performances, and seeing this sort of dystopia from the perspective of a young woman, (Lenore Warner played by the insanely talented Alexandra Faye Sadeghian) and one whose struggling to find that balance between being tough, but also embracing her softer feminine side she feels an onus to obfuscate from the rest of the world to protect herself, and how relatable they find that.

Truthfully, you never know who’s going to watch much less like your film, and it’s always worth whatever risk you feel to just omit the demographic algorithms and let everyone from whichever world see it. To quote Dissolved Girl’s tagline, “time to bend and blur the lines”

I’m an evangelist for action pictures seeking a medium with the neo-noir and cyberpunk subgenres! 

Cyberpunk refers to a niche of sci-fi that I think is in part inspired by film noir, Japanese animation, and flaunts an underground heavy metal edge… at least that’s what I set out to portray in Dissolved Girl; set during an era of heated political war between man & machine, a young human computer hacker and an uncover robot cop must overcome their differences whilst procuring a caper to expose the cybercrime queen of the future.

I’m a big proponent of black & white film, but it’s ultimately contingent upon the script. Sinner’s Lullaby was a heavy handed homage to old detective films and thematically deals with extremes and the darker & lighter sides of it’s heroes, so shooting black & white more loyally translated in the literal sense, and was just beautiful. The picture had a quaint pre-digital setting with rotary telephones and such, whereas Dissolved Girl is very futuristic and technology is a character in and of itself in the film, so not only is it in color, but with a whole spectrum of electronic neon or futuristic monochromatic teal tints.

Being a New Yorker and all, I love to set my films in a stark otherworldly version of this place littered with anachronisms that conflate classic film noir and the fiercest of 90s MTV, and have it deserted on the surface in favor of a seedy underbelly where the night never ends. I think I often describe it to the art department as “if Rob Zombie gave Gotham City a face-lift!”

I strive to balance stories pertaining to some kind of gritty underworld, but that also evoke an emotional availability, maturity, and human touch. I think the most believable characters on screen who best surrogate and carry the audience’s emotional investment are the ones who are vulnerably flawed and have moral gray areas or hypocrisies we either sympathize with or admittedly have ourselves… I think prevailing against the villain in combat and foiling their evil plans is actually the easy part, I think saving the day is always most dependent upon whether the hero can cross the stormy oceans of self-destruction in their mind and break the cynical shackles of their past circumstances or trauma, which masquerade as a virtuous safety harness, and it’s something we all experience an equivalency of in our everyday lives.



From a directorial standpoint, I simply just think that’s good cinema, to have big popcorn fun whilst also being moved and feeling some kind of heartful resonance.

How important is networking with like-minded individuals in your industry?

Meeting like-minded individuals is one of the most vital and spiritually nourishing facets of the industry, but one very important thing to be cognizant of I’ve certainly learnt myself the last few years; is that “like-minded” doesn't necessarily equate to people who perhaps like the same films, listen to the same music, or draw inspiration from the same places as me, y’know? If anything, that can all be kind of trivial.

But rather, the truly like-minded colleagues and artists you form strong rapports with, respect the most, and will do you justice (and vice versa) are the ones who share your ambition and urgency to get in on the action, regardless of the genre or general inception of the piece. In the words of Batman, “it’s not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us”. The really beautiful outcome of this I’ve experienced in the last few years is that you end up with a go-to list of artists who are all endowed with a very diverse realm of sensibilities informed by different ages, life experiences, cultural backgrounds, and overall genre interests all coming together and striking this really uncompromising spirit.

For instance, I wanted Dissolved Girl to conclude and roll into the credits with a really banging original hard rock song to compound that kickass energy, in the same vein as Rage Against The Machine’s “Wake Up” at the end of The Matrix. I wanted an industrial rock feeling to compound the film’s futuristic, tech-driven setting, and a female vocalist at the mic, akin to say Evanescence or Garbage…

And when you know it, the one for the task was actually none other than pop-country queen Rae Radick. She was understandably a little bit nervous and perplexed by my inquiry initially because of that huge genre departure, but she and her producers quickly rose to the challenge and really immersed themselves.

Ms. Radick’s original soundtrack single “Blur The Lines'' definitely flaunts that killer industrial rock edge, but as a country singer I think she really elevated the material and evoked many wonderful nuances into it; that sensitive human touch that appropriately reflects the duality of the hero of film, Lenore Warner, becoming a force to be reckoned with by accepting her own sensitive, feminine side.

You’d think it was an unlikely collaboration, but I think ultimately why it worked so beautifully! Because we weren’t like-minded in terms of genre or immediate influence, but like minded in that artistic impulsivity to simply get in on action and to create something new by lending your own sensibilities and craft where you haven’t before. And for that, we quickly came to a really strong cinematic and musical medium.

You can listen to “Blur The Lines” on Spotify and all major music streaming platforms. Rae Radick recently opened for Miranda Lambert in concert and has a new self-titled album available as well!

How do you get the word out about your films?

Good question. Social media is obviously the most ubiquitous when it comes to promotion now, but ultimately… REALITY is our source material for social media, and it’s for that reason that I’d have to say film festivals are the most conducive environments.

Screening your picture is nerve-wracking at first, but I think audiences sort of go into festivals with the expectation or benefit of the doubt that they’re going see is a little bit different than what’s streaming online or what’s showing at the cinemas, and they’re a little less quick scrutinize production values or this or that, I think their mentality is more “does this film show potential and promise, could this evolve into something really special if the cast & crew had more at their disposal?”, and they’re quick to approach you and initiate a dialogue.

Dissolved Girl had a small, intimate opening in spring of April 2021 at a cinema in New Jersey before covid restrictions settled, but later on screened at GainesCon in Seminole, Florida in November. What a great time! I felt ambivalent in entering Dissolved Girl into any festival circuit because of how it’s essentially like a comic-con flick, or scaled down version of one as opposed to Sundance material--- and this festival that Barry & Nicol Gaines run is in essence like the comic-con for shorts. A watershed for that beautiful balance between wanting to experiment, but still wanting to classically entertain and have a good fun time!