The Syracuse International Film Festival is showing its first mob movie this weekend. WAER News caught up with the filmmaker. Christopher Mormando said his goal to make a feature film began several years ago.
“I am the only writer. I produced it with a couple of other people,” he said. “And I was the director but, I am one of the leads, as well.”
After establishing himself as an actor for ten years, Mormando shot his film in 17 days in 2023. He said his drive to succeed - and the storyline - are direct reflections of difficult childhood experiences growing up in his family.
“Still the pressure at 56 that you remember things that were childhood scars or hearing the arguments or the fights,” Mormando said. “Somebody that never went through a divorced family… it’s not to blame them, they just would never truly understand it.”
He said the actress who plays his characters’ mother in the movie, reminds him of his own mother.
“There’s a very pivotal moment in the film when he’s asking his mother, does he know anything about who killed his father,” Mormando said. “And I think for a lot of times, including myself, that you would never ask your mother because you might think your mother doesn’t know but, yet, in a lot of cases, the mothers know more than anybody ever knows or thinks.”
The screening of Mormando’s movie “Judge No Book” is Saturday night at the Catherine Cummings Theatre in Cazenovia. The Syracuse International Film Fest runs through Sunday and concludes at the Palace Theatre in Syracuse.
