Jon Paul is an elite martial artist and filmmaker who enjoys the process of performance and creativity. He is a two-time Judo national champion, a Bronze Pan-American medalist, and a two-time world team member for USA Judo. He found passion for film and storytelling during his time training and competing in Judo while traveling to many international countries such as Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Italy, and Morocco to name a few countries. He is currently working on his next film project, which is a feature film to cover the full story of our short film “Dojo” in greater depth.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
What inspired me to become a filmmaker was being able to write down and express my ideas of different stories through filmmaking. Many of my creativeness came from traveling and competing throughout the world, staying in many places and learning about different cultures, about different people, with their many different backgrounds and stories, and learning my own story with my own raw experiences throughout the way.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in society?
Yes, cinema can most definitely change society in many ways through expression of ideas and messages. Film has a way to capture what emotions our audience is relating to at the time they watch a particular film as well as learn the complexity of open interpretation when it comes to storytelling and filmmaking.
-What would you change in the world?
I would change how people see how everything is approached and for people to be open minded when it comes to perception and reality.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I see the film industry having both those who want to continue with original filmmaking, with pure storytelling, and no CGI effects or very minimal and I see the otherside of the film industry where everything is used with CGI and AI has taken many roles when it comes to filmmaking.
I am a published poet and mixed media artist from Manchester, U.K. My work focuses upon ruined identity and mental illness recovery.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
My writing is what inspires my films. I started writing when my mental health declined I began to write about my experiences of hospitalisation and my experience of electro convulsive therapy at aged 26. Last year at aged 29 I had my debut poetry collection published and began combining my love for film to create visual poetry.
As many people I found validation in the alternative narrative international film and art house cinema has always explored. The French new wave, the nihilist nature that is explored and the everyday ideology it questioned. I was so invested in film being a way to see the world as someone else and made the ugly parts of life tolerable. That film taught me how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. It became a tool to question my social conditioning and to distant myself from the discord of what I was and what I shouldn’t be. I, like many other artist are constantly looking for answers wether it be in art, music, literature or film. We begin to align ourselves with the freedom of a creative brain, a brain that needs to be fed with possibilities of what could be different and holds the power of being an observer. It brings a feeling of control to our own lives and stories.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
I think cinema has already changed society so much so that it has and still is used as a tool to change the norm. Cinema has on so many occasions changed the way we see, it has the power to question, it has the power to alter the narrative, to highlight areas of everyday life that are bound in subjectivity. That the more diverse our societies have become can very much be seen within the art world. A place where normality and reality is bent and moulded into something more fitting as the world around us expands. That human right movements have long used the medium of film to express the inadequacy and the areas shadowed in outdated ways.
-What would you change in the world?
Freedom of expression should be celebrated and protected. That equality comes from listening and learning from others. That film has the power to transform every viewer into an empath to those you have never met and may never meet. Film has the power to turn our gaze and alter our perspective in such a powerful way. Someone of the artist I find most inspiring are those who deal with the taboo and darker sides of life. I hope that my work can offer an alternative vision on societal issues, identity crisis and mental health. The stigma around mental illness it’s past, present and future and how those in recovery see themselves.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I hope film continues to be used as a tool to bring positive change, to continue to diversify and expand the voices it gives power to. That freedom should always win over censorship. Film needs to be protected as a form of expression and an important way of challenging what we know to be true.
I have always identified as a maker, using my hands since childhood to make and fashion all kinds of things. I am a photographer and cinematographer thanks to my father, and a writer and storyteller thanks to my mother. I understand cinema thanks to both. I am a beekeeper. I am a lifelong progressive focused on justice. I am an environmentalist who wants to see the Earth survive. I am a teacher and mentor. But, most importantly, I am a brother, uncle, and husband. I am a father to my amazing nine-year-old son.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
I have been making short films since childhood and had always dreamed of being involved in big budget filmmaking. Even though life choices led me in other directions, film, cinematography, and modelmaking remained important to my artistic frame, and to my understanding of narrative. This identified how I thought of artistic expression generally. My parents educated my sister and I indirectly through immersion in Depression era black and white filmmaking, as well as the Hollywood Golden Age classics of the late thirties and forties. Growing up, we spent most of our time together in the theatre, watching the great American films of the 20th Century. This was my film school.
Though I consider myself a digital animator today, it is the language of film that defines how I see story, character, composition, color, and light. I am far more versed in the language and conventions of live-action filmmaking, and of the visual effects that populate those films (what I teach), than I am in the history and technique of historical animation. Consequently, my work is influenced more by the likes of Deakins and Trumbull, than Landreth, Miyazaki or Disney. I am inspired by the works of directors around the world, but most especially Kubrick, Kazan, Spielberg, and Mann, as well as Villeneuve, Denis, Bigelow, and Nolan.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
Movies most certainly can and have helped to change societies for the better. Given human reliance on sight and hearing, a skillfully produced film has the potential to reach someone on a level beyond what the written word may be capable of. Films can transport the viewer to a place of empathy and understanding, connecting on an emotional level. A good film can reach deep and illuminate in ways no other medium can. Film history is replete with examples of this, including influential and powerful films like The Grapes of Wrath, An Inconvenient Truth, Philadelphia, Hotel Rwanda, Schindler’s List, Bowling for Columbine, Norma Rae, The White Tiger, and Do the Right Thing. These films made a difference, and many other less high-profile films from around the world did as well.
-What would you change in the world?
I would break the grip that corporations have on democracy. Mindless corporate greed can be traced to most of the ills of the Earth, and until their behaviour is truly regulated and controlled, a more just world will remain out of reach.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
My hope is that cinema will incorporate new technologies as they emerge, pushing the quality and capabilities of the film medium farther. This has happened with the transition away from physical film to digital cinematography, as well as with the development of photorealistic visual effects. My fear, of course, is that AI, and unrestrained use of automated techniques, will result in the abandonment of the craft and artistry of filmmaking.
I am a professor, a writer, and an equestrian. I have been been a professor of communication and film for many years. I teach screenwriting, which is really how I learned how to write screenplays. I write books, essays, and screenplays. I have published three books about art and culture, dozens of essays and about film, architecture and design, and nine screenplays. My screenplays have won more than 90 awards in the last two years. One of my screenplays is in post production right now, and another one will be going into preproduction soon. I am also an equestrian. I spend time with my horses and mule everyday. They keep me grounded, strong, and healthy.
-What inspired you to become a screenwriter?
I was a film scholar long before I started screenwriting. I had already published two books and many essays about film culture before it occured to me that I could write screenplays. I believe having such a background has been quite helpful for my screenplay writing. My most recent scripts, Grab and Go and Dump It feature a profoundly autistic main character. This main character is based on a real person, Danny, a son of one of my dearest friends. I am excited about these scripts because I have been able to channel his energies and translate how he makes sense of his world. I believe I can bring his world to the screen. This representation is an important step for the autistic community. It also makes Danny’s family very happy!
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
Cinema has changed society in a million different ways, both good and bad. As a film scholar, I could spend the next month explaining this! But let’s just say for now, yes, it has reinforced debilitating stereotypes for women and minorities. But it also has the power to reverse those stereotypes. It has changed the way we spend our leisure time, and I suspect it has even changed the way we make sense of our dreams at night. It has also changed the way we understand history–particularly the twentieth century. My book The Past is a Moving Picture: Preserving the Twentieth Century on Film goes into great detail about how cinema shapes our understanding of the past.
-What would you change in the world?
I would love it if people could accept the realities of climate change and change their habits accordingly.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
The platforms will necessarily change, as culture changes. Each big shift will bring about anxiety and concern that cinema is dying. But I don’t believe it will. As a historian of the twentieth century, I have written and taught about the various stages of cinematic culture. Each one is significant and meaningful, but each stage passes, as society changes. But this is the great thing about cinema, it can adapt and shift along with our culture.
That’s quite a question. I’m just a curious girl from south Italy (Puglia). I am an observer, trying to capture all the nuances of reality. reality is the greatest film we will ever see. That is why I am constantly trying to create projects that can reflect it.
-What Inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Cinema has always been a staple in the family. However, when I think of cinema, a specific moment always comes to mind. I was lucky enough to have a teacher in elementary school who never considered children too young to discover certain things. Thanks to her I saw Rome, Open City for the first time. At that moment I felt like I was inside a romantic comedy, at the instant when the protagonist meets her great love.
-Do you think that cinema can bring a change in the society?
Yes, cinema could change society. Multimedia is the most powerful tool we have nowadays. For better or worse, cinema can influence the masses like few other art forms. In order to effect real change, however, cinema, which is part of society, would almost have to detach itself from it. Detach itself in order to have a complete and objective overview. In this way, cinema could really give viewers a unique view of what surrounds us and perhaps, thus it could push people to change their lives and society itself.
-What would you change in the world?
I would try to get people to listen to each other more. Today we are all absorbed in our personal commitments or our ghosts. At the same time, we impose on ourselves to show others the best and winning version of ourselves. I would probably invite people to wear a sign that says “look closer” like the well-known sign that appears in the movie American Beauty.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
Tough question. Cinema is changing fast, sometimes with blind haste. The only common thread remains the desire to tell stories. Probably in 100 years cinema will no longer be seen as an experience related to sharing. I am particularly referring to the experience of the movie theater. There will be more technologies, some roles may be replaced by special softwares. In this more technological and, perhaps, more lonely future, I hope that that famous red thread will always remain: let’s remember that we are here to tell stories and to create closeness between us human beings.
Growing up in Norway, my life has from I was very little been about the Arts; studying piano from age six; having a singing career as a boy soprano; playing the trumpet; performing in children Theatres; being allowed to buy myself an electric guitar at around 12 years old; playing keyboards in rock and jazz bands; studying music, singing, piano, composition…basically everything, also sports; performing in musicals and opera; assisting Leonard Bernstein in Vienna at the very end of his life, where everything he did became a film. I assisted both Lennie and the film Director, Humpfrey Burton on several concert films; participated, acted as an extra, observed during the making of Adrian Flicker’s film, “Halbe Welt” in Vienna, where I lived for 24 years.
From then on I was fully occupied following a career as a music conductor of orchestras and Opera companies around the world.
Twelve years ago I became father for the first and only time. This changed my life entirely, to the better, of course:) Travelling, which had happened together with my wife, was now on my own. I lost the spirit of pursuing the conductor jet setting life stile, and engaged in my sincere love for film. Over the last decade I made several Documentary films. Over the last six years I have completed my first feature film,COMMONHEART. From a childish mind.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Being passionate about several Art forms, I always had a special love for film. Only during the last decade have I found time to commit myself, engaging more profoundly in the film making process.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
Artistic expression in its deepest and most ideal shape can through the Art form Cinema be immensely powerful.
My artistic goal is always the same, as a musician, composer, conductor or a filmmaker; to create the most profound possible piece of Art that can bring the audience a meaningful experience, ideally to improve their world, our world, the world…
COMMONHEART. From a Childish Mind is a very personal film. Becoming a father is an important aspect of it. Having enjoyed my childhood in and around wild nature it became important for me that our son should be allowed to get a nature bound upbringing too. Then I observed, having returned- much for this purpose- to where I grew up on the Western Norwegian countryside after 36 years away, that children were not using our incredible nature as a playground anymore. It was only my son and I out there. People have in many ways lost their natural bound to nature.
And here we are at the very essence of the film. There used to be a connection which is so fundamental on a deeper philosophical basis in understanding -or at least feeling- our place as a part of nature, and we seem to be moving away from it…There was a connection which isn’t there anymore.
The child’s voice at the very beginning of the film says:”There was a time when Mother Earth hummed children to sleep.” and ” There came a time when the people didn’t hear the song anymore”… We have moved away from listening to our planet and what is fundamentally natural.
The wild nature just outside our door is a perfect set for filmmaking.
-What would you change in the world?
We urgently need to change our habit of destroying the source of life, to start living with nature instead of against it. My film introduces as an example the hope of “animal rights”. This is something existing only on a philosophical level, if at all. When we think about rights for animals, it is only on a religious level, or seen from a perspective of human needs. Never “animal needs”.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
The technical development would lead me to fantasies about images being reproduced in more dimensions. The world as we know it has three dimensions of space—length, width and depth—and one dimension of time, but it seems to be more dimensions out there to discover. String Theory counts so far 10 dimensions in our universe. Anyhow, the need for profound artistic experiences will always- and more and more so- be important.
I’m a filmmaker. I write, direct, produce, and edit films. Company of Prophets, my first feature film is currently on the festival circuit. Myself, the cast and crew have been very blessed to have our premiere of both Company of Prophets and My Sci Fi Short film Sleepers premiere at the historic Chinese theatre, as well as being nominated and winning awards in numerous film festivals across the globe.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Sitting in a large theatre with the lights down and being transported into another world and I absolutely love it! And I hope I can transport others into another world with my films. This is the catalyst of everything I do in the film industry, full stop.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
Absolutely! Cinema can change society. We’ve seen cinema do it throughout its illustrious history. From socially conscious movies to politically charged movies have moved groups, even great individuals to spark change for the better. As long as filmmakers are allowed to speak on subjects that need a spotlight on, we shall always have cinema that can change the world for the better.
-What would you change in the world?
Love, hope, faith and patience. These 4 principles are what we definitely need a lot more of in the world, in my humble opinion. I know it will be difficult but damn, how much better off would this place be if everyone was at even 75% of these principals?
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
Unfortunately, I don’t see a big golden age type of explosion in the next 100 years like some have predicted. Yet, I do see a “Broadway-like” experience in the cinemas for the next 100 years. I think the film industry can be more concentrated, that each cinema experience can be an event, not necessarily a blockbuster movie experience but almost a spiritual, close-knit family, welcoming connection for those that have an absolute love and passion for film, movies and cinema. And I’d love it! Those are the types of stories and movies I’m trying to create.
Greg Di Roma is an American filmmaker, amateur hockey player and church ministry leader from Peekskill, NY. He is known for his cinema verite style films and videos most especially, Our Triumphant Holy Day. Greg has many passions and is always integrating them together in some sort of way with his films, from hockey to faith to music and so forth.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
When I was in college, I decided to explore digital arts, graphic designing, web design, video editing, animation etc. I was into graphic design more than anything else and a lot of times I was making a lot of things inspired by movies. During my first semester at SUNY Purchase I took a screenwriting class and that was a huge inspiration for me to start going into film, then that summer I got an internship at this digital arts school called the Digital Arts Experience and we did a lot of video production there and that’s when I realized I wanted to go into film. I was also watching a lot of movies that summer and that made want to go into it even more. Eventually I ended up going to film school at Pace University and that was just an amazing program, it taught me so much about production and gave me opportunities to create a lot of projects, most especially a documentary going into Cuba. The film we created is titled, Cuba’s Crossroads: Hope, Rock and Revolution.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
I think it brings a lot of change as it is. There’s a lot of films that inspire many different things, from the way we view society to technology etc.
–What would you change in the world?
Haha, a lot of things. The way we treat each other and our outlooks on life. Also the way we use our resources and take care of the planet. I would also make sure people have a better chance at getting opportunities of any sort. Everyone is trying to find their niche, and it’s only gotten harder for people to figure out what that is. Everyone needs a chance to find their purpose in life.
–Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
It’s tough to say, God knows what kind of technology will be developed in the next century. A.I. is going to do a lot, that’s for sure. With that and a lot of the technology developed, I think a lot more of us will be making movies especially in the comfort of our own homes. A lot of us have more tools at our disposal as it is, so many of us are content creators, there’s going to be so many more films out there like there are now. Indie film along with streaming is growing, I think the industry is going to make a more equal platform for everyone to showcase themselves. The new media is continuing on the rise, there’s going to be a new Hollywood out there, what exactly that’ll be remains to be seen.
Christalo Castro: I am just a guy trying to make God proud.
-Who isAlex Kruz?
Alex Kruz: I read this and just shook my head, and said – how characteristically Talo. The lead actor often sets the tone of the film, it’s who you watch from beginning to end. It’s the reason why you grow close to a show and stop watching when they leave.
I knew I had to pick someone for it who was NOT an actor! This process for all of us was going to be a physical journey, a spiritual journey, and an artistic journey. I needed a fighter, someone who was physical enough to take the art to another level. Someone who was afraid of nothing, like me, and like his answer, it is simple like a ring, but infinite like the night.
In this time period of #METOO, I have to say my relationship with Talo was completely physical before we started this project. In one of my many down and out periods, when I left with nothing but the shirt on my back I ended up living in the same building as Talo and seeing him training for fights, I would train with him. I had the pleasure of training in many parts of the world, and getting my nose busted so many times even my twin flame Ewa had to get a nose operation to breathe clearly! (Lost track at #37) You could say our training was unorthodox, but that’s who I was as well. Get it done, think outside of the box, keep moving, keep fighting.
Also you can call this crazy, but once you get to a certain level in your own self-knowledge you begin to see past the layers in others. Talo I saw had actually studied acting before in his last life, lived in New York City and was a starving artist who didn’t do anything with it. I don’t believe in accidents. He was reluctant AF, but I fed him well, gave him the occasional mojito/margarita, let him go to his fight training while we were on travel, and we were in business. We had the perfect lead for the project.
-What inspired you to become an actor?
Christalo Castro: I guess I always wanted to be “a creative”. Growing up I would watch a lot of YouTube, so that made me think of different ways of telling a story in different mediums. I was also really into things that sparked my imagination, like Zelda, anime, and comics. So I’ve always enjoyed things that were kind of otherworldly. What inspired me to be an entrepreneur is the fact my brain just works differently than most people; not better, just differently. I’ve always thought I was competent enough to pave my own paths and I prefer to do my own thing.
-What inspired you to become a Filmmaker?
Alex Kruz: He totally did his own thing! In some scenes his own thing was brilliant! For which he doesn’t give himself credit for. With that boundless energy of wanting to do many things at once, he would get lost while we were traveling, at one point he didn’t want to be an actor any more, at another he didn’t want to learn his lines. I literally had to tell him I would send his ass back on a plane, and hire this other actor who looked like him but could barely string together sentences to play the rest of his scenes! If I told him to climb a mountain, or run back and forth that was easy, but Talo is very much his own person – like a James Dean or a Marlon Brando. Courageous, fearless, but not a dancing monkey. I respect that fire.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in society?
Actor – Christalo Castro: Cinema in the long-form movie sense has changed society. It affected pop culture significantly throughout the 20th century. I love film because it is an art that builds on itself. There’s nothing quite like it in that sense. We look at something that was shocking in 1960 is now commonplace in today’s moviescape. I am starting to see the decline in people wanting to watch movies. I think it is starting to take something special to make someone want to go out and watch a movie since we now have all these streaming services and other methods of keeping ourselves entertained. Long-format movies have changed society a lot, but I think it is starting to dwindle in its effectiveness.
Director – Alex Kruz: I like this about Christalo, he always has one foot here and another in timelessness and pulse of change.
-What would you change in the world?
Actor – Christalo Castro: The school system. It’s made to brainwash and design worker ants. There’s no emphasis on critical thinking.
Director – Alex Kruz: I forgot to mention, Talo was in school while we were shooting. He had me write him a Dear Sally Teacher letter, I’m stealing your student for three weeks please don’t fail him letter. Anyway having 3 masters and a doctorate I have to agree with him.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
Actor – Christalo Castro: I think it is dying. I don’t see much innovation. In a lot of ways that’s why I respect what our director was trying to do with this film. He was trying to make something different, that wasn’t so standard. How many times can someone play the same song on repeat and we still clap with the same excitement? I think that short-form content is the future. However, there is a lot that can be done in terms of shows and the medium of telling a story. I think that that will be very promising for a while. But 100 years from now the content will be extremely short and attention-grabbing to get the most attention for the least effort.
Director – Alex Kruz: He might be onto something – attention span. It’s getting smaller and smaller in our fast food convenience society. Even in the military we use the 8 second and 18 minute rules for presentations.
I was recently surprised to notice the extent to which the lineage of my ancient ancestral heritage, spanning over 2500 years of Babylonian Hebrew diaspora, appears in my work. I have always been fascinated by the semitic root languages not only because they are sublimely beautiful, but they abound with meanings which can enrich and expand the very context of understanding itself. For me, for example, the etymology of words in a root language is a metaphor for the “Etymology” of the human soul. If my human soul is inseparably linked to what is meant by Word, ie., my soul is akin to a word, “my personal” identity then is inevitably transcended way beyond the conventions regarding “who” I am. This is so important in my view. Identity in this expanded context is one of the main ideas that occupies me creatively in my life and in my work. I’ve been trained to approach the imaginal realm of perception through contemplative enquiry for nearly four decades. I’d say that this factor affected me profoundly, especially my poetry and moving-image films – largely in the way they were made.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
My desire to share experiences which I didn’t find in any other films, and possibly the way my brain works and connects things. Though I thought my dreaming about filmmaking was an impossibility, I was extremely fortunate. Suddenly, a miraculous thing happened in the fall of 2014 while on a poetry reading tour in the UK. I was just sent a cultural bulletin and in it was a call from the local Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival to submit a film under the general theme “Spiritus Mundi”. I knew instantly I’d respond. I was determined to make the film because of this title. I had no idea what a huge undertaking it would become. The next day I bumped into the creative director of the festival – what on earth is the likelihood? – who immediately agreed to support my unknown project. I was utterly inexperienced, yet my installation project was allocated the largest room in town to fit a six meter diameter circle of 28 silk banners and a large screen. We shot a hundred people standing and facing the camera for five minutes each. So whoever sat to watch the main film inside the circle was surrounded by people projected onto the silk banners by six projectors I bought by taking loans. So it was the title, The Spirit of the World, that really prompted me to go for it. In my view the Spirit of the World is embodied best by mankind or the human potential. Because of this support and great help from the community, I filmed 5 major moving image films that year.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in society?
I think so. Films always affect society but the important question is what kind of change? I hope more and more films will have an auspicious impact on us. Of course this largely depends on our readiness and desire to change. I would love to watch visionary films that address and invoke what is real and universal in us; films that foresee unprecedented new paradigms of wisdom that show human endeavor in a new light; films that establish new artistic and contextual vernaculars. Why? Because these are all crucially necessary now.
-What would you change in the world?
The wise say no one can change anything or anyone. But one can aspire towards essential change – which is necessarily a change of perspective. We can aspire together. A change in my perspective may or may not resonate with others, but hopefully one does not seek to transform oneself in order to affect or influence other people. Chinese wisdom says that influence extends to others from those who became inspired from/by their essence – I’m paraphrasing. So affecting change better not be the prime motivation in my desire to change, but it may be consequential if real change comes about.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I have no idea. Humanity is yet to discover itself anew – that I believe and think it can and should. But whether or not a change in humanity occurs, I imagine the film industry could become a mirror, preferably a well polished mirror, for the possibility of this collective self-discovery, or at least for the coming world.
