Films

Oprah Winfrey – Purpose Film

“Raised in horribly oppressive circumstances, Oprah Winfrey lived a childhood that most people wouldn’t be able to bear. When one tragedy too many struck, Winfrey ran away from her hometown in Mississippi to find her dad. What he told her upon their reunion changed the course of not just Oprah’s life…”

Produced for Brand New World Studios

My fourth film for Brand New World Studios is all about Oprah Winfrey. Her incredibly powerful story of how she escaped horrible circumstances in her youth and navigated the challenges of trying to succeed in television as a black woman was very inspirational. Of course everyone knows who Oprah is when you see her, but people who weren’t super fans don’t really know her story. The key goal of telling this story was trying to hide the reveal of who the protagonist in the story was until the very end. By keeping the possibilities open and unexpected for most of the film, it shows how universal stories of struggle and the power of persistence are.

Little Miss Flint – Purpose Film

“When Flint, Michigan’s water became too toxic to drink, someone had to step up and do something about it. In this case, the first person to do so was a little girl named Mari Copeny better known as “Little Miss Flint.” Through the choice to stand up for her city when no one else would, Mari found her purpose.”

Produced for Brand New World Studios

This is the third film in the series of purpose films that I have produced for Brand New World Studios in Atlanta. This was a fascinating story to tell because it shows the power that the voice of someone with a purpose can have, no matter how young or who you are.

Hershey’s Chocolate – Purpose Film

“What separates Hershey from every other chocolate and candy company? For Milton Hershey, it was Intentionality, commitment, and pride in the people who worked for him. The company’s founder has helped generations of people find their purpose.”

Produced for Brand New World Studios

This is the second film I produced for Brand New World Studios. Based on a fantastic story of helping others instead of improving your bottom line, this film exemplifies the best of humanity.

Salvation Army – Purpose Film

“The Salvation Army’s guiding principle lies in one simple word. Its founder, General William Booth, had limited funds and limited time to send each of his 100 employees the purpose of the company. He managed to pull it off, and confirm his own purpose in the process.”

Produced for Brand New World Studios

This film created a unique challenge because we wanted to tell an engaging story with great visuals, except there are few photographs from the time period in which the story takes place. To combat this, we decided to make this an animated film and recreate the miraculous event that occurred on Christmas Eve in 1910.

A New Coke – Documentary

The story of Roberto Goizueta’s career as the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company from 1981-1997 and the impact of the infamous New Coke incident.

I co-wrote and co-directed this documentary with my friend Isaac Boruchowicz for an independent study with the Emory University Film and Media Studies department.

Disney Company – Purpose Film

I made this purpose film as a part of my Ideation class at Emory University with Professor Joey Reiman during the Fall of 2020. In the class, we work as teams over the course of the semester to discover the true purpose of companies. Professor Reiman’s work has shown that companies that have identified and follow their true purpose are over 1000% more successful than companies that do not.

We discovered that Disney true purpose is to make dreams come true in real life as illustrated by our master idea “the fairytale is true.” This master idea means that real life is as magical as fairytales and it is up to companies like Disney to protect this reality by filling the world with wonder and imagination.

The Happiness Machine

“A depressed inventor quits his job to fulfill his lifelong dream: building a machine that helps people find what makes them happy.”

I wrote, directed, and produced this film on a $1500 budget. This movie was shot in San José, Costa Rica with some of the most prolific film actors in the Costa Rican theater and film business. In 2020, the film was released nationwide on television on the Sinart Channel in Costa Rica. This had been my passion project for over 4 years. I had written the screenplay 7 years ago but never had the opportunity to produce it. A few stars aligned (quite literally, with the actors in this film) and I create the film and I was very happy to finally share it.

A Trip to Remember

A college teen stays in for his first ever pot brownie adventure, but after eating too many, he will have to face his greatest fears to survive the night.

I wrote, shot, produced, directed and edited this short in collaboration with my friend Isaac Boruchowicz who also stars in the film. My limitation was to make a film using only a bedroom set and that limitation created infinite possibilities because there were so many things to do in that one room.

We shot the film in less than 4 hours when we really needed 8 because of a scheduling conflict with the location manager. However, this always happens in filmmaking and you must make the most of it. Even with half the time necessary we were still able to pull the shoot off and ended up with a very satisfying film.