Ricardo Manigat

"HELLO" Online Premiere

Here it is, Christina's short "HELLO," shot back in March 2015. We've finally premiered it online!

A lonely soul attempts to make a connection with a visiting stranger, but her intentions don't quite match his interpretations.

Read about past screenings, Coney Island Film FestivalAx Wound Film Festival & Macabre Faire Film Festival

See behind the scenes and the making of HERE.

Director Statement
For two years, I was an Instructor for a mobile film workshop, which meant spending one week out of every month in a hotel room. I was always very aware of how alone I was despite being surrounded by strangers in other rooms. I was never personally lonely, but there's a certain loneliness to hotel rooms that you can just kind of feel. People pass through, never settling in, never making it a home. I often found myself thinking about all the stories that passed through; all the strange, unsettling, hopefully sometimes wonderful memories made there, and the potential 'ghosts' that lingered. This combined with my tendency to wonder about my room possibly being haunted led to the inspiration for "Hello."

One night after a long day at the workshop, when I couldn't sleep and found myself paying very close attention to the silence, the almost eerie silence of the room, I started freaking myself out with the possibility of not being so alone after all. In an attempt to appease my growing trepidation, I started pondering about ghosts; what would make them linger, what they could really want from a living person. I started entertaining myself with the notion of a ghost simply being lonely & bored -- especially having to watch all the people pass through the room they may haunt, and just wishing to make a connection with someone. As a huge horror film fan, I thought of all the cliche things that often happen as signs of a haunting and tried to find a funny, sweet or mundane explanation for them on the part of a ghost. Soon I was writing the script; and though I didn't get any sleep that night, I started the next morning very excited about this new script I had just written. I shot the film on no budget two months later and am very pleased with the final product, thanks to my small but mighty team of talented collaborators.

We've Cast Paul (in "About A Donkey")!

We've cast Ricardo Manigat as Paul! (Not so much news, since he's been attached for a while, but we're now formally announcing Ricardo's role in the film!)

Paul is a software engineer currently working in a startup dedicated to improving the US school system. He has always loved children and is over the moon to be having his first child with his wife, Annie. Because of his charm and sensibility, he was quickly embraced by Annie's whole family. He has become the voice of reason, though he has always had a soft spot for Anne's father Tim and his whims. 

More about Ricardo: https://about.me/ricardo24

HELLO (Teaser)

Check out the teaser for my new short film "Hello." 

You can read more about the film in this blog post. I'm not submitting to many festivals, but would like to get it out there, see how it's received and have a few local screenings before putting it online next Fall. But no worries, we will have content going out in the meantime. We're still on the festival circuit with our crowdfunded shorts "We Had Plans" and "Not Our Living Room" and will be releasing them online in the Spring.

-Christina