Director

Matt Acquarelli has always been interested in creating worlds outside of the real one. After viewing the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he became fascinated with using movies as a medium for immersive storytelling and creativity.

As a young child, he was always the one to set up a story with his toys. He also enjoyed playing with video cameras and acting out scenes from movies for fun. But after seeing The Fellowship of the Ring, he was hooked. Not just into the story of four hobbits traveling through Middle-Earth, but to storytelling itself. He wanted to tell tales like that. He wanted others to be immersed into it like he was.

At the beginning of high school, Matt began writing and shooting small skits with his friends. Most of his writing consisted of short stories, but they helped to enrich his skills as a narrator. Towards the end of his high school career Matt got a job at a movie theatre in his home town. Once promoted to manager, Matt gained valuable knowledge about movies. He was able to see what movies people generally liked, what demographics seemed to gravitiate towards which films, and how to craft a cohesive and engaging story. After constantly watching people’s faces during movies at his theatre, he knew he wanted to become a feature director. He wanted to have visions that would make people become extremely involved in film. He wanted to entertain.

Once graduated, Matt went to Moorpark Junior College. There he took his general education classes and a few electives including creative writing, which is something he still very much enjoys doing. After spending two years at Moorpark, Matt transferred to Cal State University Northridge. There he took a few writing classes to further his understandings of the creative process. Matt was then accepted into the Film Production Program at CSUN. Since enrolled in the program, Matt has been a part of two student films, including one that he directed. He also gained an in-depth look at film photography and an understanding of visual storytelling. Since then, he has become absorbed with the image. He takes pictures on a weekly basis to constantly refine his cinematography craft.

Matt continues to work on screenplays and movie ideas whenever he can. He has also traveled the world during his college career. He has been to England, Paris, Italy, Japan and Hawaii. He plans to take a trip to New Zealand within the next year to continue exploring and opening his eyes up to what exists outside his homeland.

Currently, he is in pre-production of his senior thesis film, and looks forward to shooting it this November.

Filmography

• A Government’s Story (2007), writer
• The Tale of Bastardo (2007), writer
• The Latent Image (2010), boom operator, composer
• Shades of Pink (2010), writer/director, composer

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