Chris Messineo
Directing
Biography
Chris Messineo is an award-winning writer and director. As the owner and director of NJ Film School, he has taught the craft of independent filmmaking to hundreds of kids, teens, and adults - who have gone on to win their own awards for writing and directing. He has worked as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, script reader, screenplay consultant, and even a film festival judge. He is the founder of Off Stage Films, an independent production company. Their films have played at festivals around the world and been recognized for screenwriting, acting, sound, cinematography, editing, score, and directing. In 1998, he formed the NJ Screenwriter's Group and since then, they have held hundreds of original screenplay readings. In 2002, he created MoviePoet, a free online contest and forum to celebrate the art of short scripts and help bring screenwriters and filmmakers together resulting in the production of over 300 films. Chris is passionate about filmmaking, teaching, and frequently lectures on Hitchcock, Film Noir, Chaplin and Keaton, and much more. Most recently, he wrote and directed "The Strange Dark".
Known For
With her family’s safety on the line, Susan must choose who to trust: her husband, who claims he can see the future, or the mysterious strangers at her door.
The Strange Dark
Kit and his two best friends have been raised by a forest-dwelling cult on the outskirts of society. As they come of age and are brought closer into the cult’s fold, Kit alone is bothered by the cruelty of its rituals. After stumbling upon a mother and her child where the forest meets the outside world, Kit must decide if he is truly safest in the life he has always known or if the world he has been taught to fear is worth abandoning his adoptive family.