Jason Michael Brescia
| Jason Michael Brescia | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 19, 1986 (age 29) Long Island, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Director, writer |
| Years active | 2007–present |
Jason Michael Brescia (born June 19, 1986) is an American writer-director from Malverne, New York. His first two feature films are The Newest Pledge and Bridge and Tunnel. He is a graduate of Chapman University.[1]
Early life
Brescia grew up in Valley Stream, New York but his family moved to nearby Malverne, New York when he was a teenager.[2] Brescia attended Kellenberg Memorial High School, a private Society of Mary Roman Catholic school in Uniondale, New York where he was voted "Most Humorous" by his peers in the school's 2004 yearbook. As a senior at Kellenberg, Brescia appeared on the February 26, 2004 cover of Long Island Newsday, at the time one of ten most circulated newspapers in the United States of America,[3] because of a pilgrimage the school took to see the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ. The caption on the front page read "With cross aloft Jason Michael Brescia leads Kellenberg students to theater."
In 2006 Brescia enrolled at Chapman University in Orange, California where he studied film production at the school's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. In 2008, Brescia was bestowed the honor of the school's Cecil B. DeMille award for "Best Undergraduate Director." It was also at Chapman that Brescia began working on his first feature film, The Newest Pledge.[4]
Career
The Newest Pledge
In 2010, at age 23 and only months removed from college, Brescia went into production on his first feature film, The Newest Pledge. The film was made on a small, independently financed budget, was produced by his longtime friends and colleagues Bob Burton, Nate McGarity, and Bryson Pintard, and starred mostly college friends of Brescia. During the production of the film, the producers asked Brescia to write in roles for Andy Milonakis, Kevin Nash, Jason Mewes, G. W. Bailey, and Mindy Sterling, to help ensure that the film be sold. The film would premiere at the New Beverly Cinema on October 30, 2010, and would later go on to screen at the Wet Your Pants Comedy Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Houston Comedy Film Festival, and Indie Fest USA in Garden Grove, California. Shortly after a private screening at Cinema Village in New York City the film was acquired by Lionsgate for domestic distribution.[5]
On August 28, 2012, two years after the film had wrapped production, The Newest Pledge was released across North America. FilmThreat.com described the film by stating; "With brain checked at the door, I enjoyed it. I don’t think the plot makes the most (if any) sense, most of the acting is cartoonish and the end resolution is as obvious as you’d expect, but it actually charms in its somewhat insipid way. It's not going to win any Academy awards, but it's also not the worst comedy I’ve ever watched in my life".[6]
In 2014 the film was released in Australia. In January 2015, "The Newest Pledge" began airing on the Showtime Networks.[7]
Bridge and Tunnel
In December 2012 Brescia went into production on his second feature film, "Bridge and Tunnel." Written and directed by Brescia, the film is set in his hometown of Nassau County, New York[8] and stars Ryan Metcalf, Mary Kate Wiles, and Annet Mahendru. The film wrapped production in August 2013, and began appearing in film festivals around the world in May 2014.[9]
In May 2014 the film began appearing on the film festival circuit in the US. The film gained acceptances into the Long Island International Film Expo, Long Beach International Film Festival, Temecula Valley International Film Festival, Hoboken International Film Festival, Emerge Film Festival, Laugh or Die Comedy Film Festival, Northeast Film Festival, Sanford International Film Festival, Paterson Falls Film Festival, Catskill Mountains Film Festival, Maryland International Film Festival, and Central Florida Film Festival.[10]
The film had a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles, opening on September 26, 2014[11] and in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the film opened on September 11, 2015.[12]
On February 2, 2016 "Bridge and Tunnel" was released across video on demand platforms such as iTunes, Amazon Video, Verizon, Cox, Google Play, and AT&T U-verse.
References
- ↑ Bloom, Karen (July 3, 2014). "Summer sizzle at the Long Island International Film Expo".
- ↑ http://www.liherald.com/malverne/stories/Malverne-directors-first-feature-film-acquired-by-Lionsgate,42739
- ↑ "Three New York Moguls in Talks to Buy Newsday", by Tim Arango and Richard Pérez-Peña, March 21, 2008
- ↑ Danney, Micah. "V.S Native's Movie Airs on Showtime". LI Herald.
- ↑ http://afterthecut.com/2012/08/31/crossing-over-one-on-one-with-jason-brescia/
- ↑ http://www.filmthreat.com/reviews/55064/
- ↑ Danney, Micah. "V.S Native's Movie Airs on Showtime". LI Herald.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2593410/
- ↑ http://liherald.com/stories/Summer-sizzle-at-the-Long-Island-International-Film-Expo,56072?page=1&content_source
- ↑ http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2014/06/09/blood-sweat-and-laughter-spice-emerge-film-festival/1545403
- ↑ Goldstein, Gary. ""Bridge and Tunnel" Leads Nowhere". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ Melville, Sammi Leigh. "Life, Nothing More: “Bridge and Tunnel”–A must-see selection in the new Harrisburg-Hershey Film Festival". The Burg.