Directing
Independent Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is trying to make a television show. He persuades BRIC TV, a Brooklyn non-profit Arts organization, to finance a television show whose premise is that every episode will be about the making of the previous episode. In the process of creating the show, everything can-and does-go wrong. The cast, a who's who of Brooklyn's independent filmmaking community, includes Alex Karpovsky, Eleonore Hendricks, Dustin Defa, and Onur Tukel.
Grand Jury Award Winner - Slamdance 2023 Jury's notes: “With idiosyncratic music choices, sibling chemistry out the wazoo, and a philosophical Brooklynite as the series lead (played by Howard Lester in his introductory role), Theodore Collatos’s Palookaville explores the surreal existence of JoJo, a man victimized by a random act of violence who now thinks he’s the famous defunct boxer/anti-fascist, Joe Louis. Will you believe that JoJo’s become the Brown Bomber? Doesn’t matter, because you will believe in Palookaville.”
Sensing evil, a haunted house tour guide seeks a medium's help only to be warned that she is facing a vengeful power beyond her control.
A midnight summer's dream.
Stuck in a dead end town, young James kills time with his druggie friends, engaging in debauched chemical intake to the point of unconsciousness, until he meets Sara, a sweet new arrival to their group. However, Sara wants James to take her further into the world of narcotics experimentation (just as James was contemplating abandoning this lifestyle), and she also wants him to introduce her to the sinister local legend of Toad Road, a spot deep in the forest that is apparently home to the Seven Gates of Hell.
Inspired by an episode of Cops, Hillbilly Wolf follows Dennis, a societal misfit / holy boy who lives in a small town in the Bible Belt region of North Louisiana. Troubled by unemployment, poverty and the death of his dog, Dennis copes with his anguish by believing in the salvation of the hereafter. His tendency toward violence, however, has made him a menace, ensuing in a meditated and desperate religious quest to escape this world.
Tuna and long time friend, Alex, are on their quest to go to Richard's wedding in Central Park. The duo meet up with their motley assortment of old friends only to revive old jealousies and debates on politics, religion, and the meaning of success, as the whole party runs the risk of going off the rails in a downpour of rain and emotions.
Lousy lover and egocentric Eric Sparrow is dumped by his girlfriend after rejecting her marital proposal. After a few failed dates his luck turns when a chance encounter with a vampire turns him into a sex god.
Squatter documents the day to day struggle of a group of homeless people living in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
A has-been New York rock-star teams up with a wannabe filmmaker to destroy hipster culture in New York... if they don't destroy each other first.
The final days of Coney Islands attraction 'Shoot The Freak' are seen through the eyes of the Freak, who we learn, is a restless and angry kid who enjoys violent games and dope smoking.
This is the story of a 12-year-old girl working hard to overcome a troubling past and accept and embrace the love and possibility that now surround her. Born as Brianna to a drug-addicted mother, she and her baby brother lived in harrowing conditions before being adopted by a young couple fully invested in raising their children to be whole, happy and strong.
A woman creates an alter ego in hopes of overcoming the trauma inflicted by men in her life.
