A Young Sketch Artist visits a well renowned psychiatrist as his life begins sprawling out of control after years of Physical and Verbal Abuse has taken a toll on him.
Marcellus Cox is an Award Winning Writer/Director hailing from Los Angeles, California. Marcellus Cox has always had a passion for movies and filmmaking. As a True Auteur His style of cinematic storytelling embossed with dark and edgy themes that is engaging and enlightening, delivering his audience to a place of understanding and compassion for social issues and objectivity, as he Pushes the boundaries of controversial storytelling, touching on subjects such as Race, Religion, Social & Political issues.
Marcellus Cox work has screened in over 150 International Film Festivals, Won over 100 International Film Awards and has screened Nationwide on CBS, FOX, ABC, SHORTS TV, Revolt, Crime/Investigation & PBS. It was our pleasure to interview Marcellus Cox for LA Indies.
What was the inspiration behind the making of your film?
I wanted to make a story about dreamers, about artist and the love we all share for are visions and are crafts. But a honest story about the struggles and the fact that people especially a lot of times the ones we care about don’t share are passions and try to bring us down mainly because we dream of a life beyond the average 9 to 5. We as artist have much more to offer to this world. My self personal have and continue to deal with these issues consistently, it’s a personal self revelation.
What is the most challenging aspect of working in this particular genre?
Getting your message across in a realistic manner that’s respect and appreciated. If your not true to your story at all times folks can tell and that’s one of the things I pride myself on as a Filmmaker. I’m always going to tell you the truth behind the camera, I’ll never hide anything from you and will bare my soul.
When did you realize that you wanted to work in media and make films and what was the first film project that you created as a director?
I knew when I was 9 years and the first time I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit and was absolutely blown away by the live action/animation mixed and the story was a perfect old school noir that just had me hooked for life. So ever since then that’s all I ever wanted to do was make movies.
My first real project as a Director came with my short film titled: Rise Up. It’s a Fantasy/Drama about Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s only meeting face to face but it gets interrupted by a young man from the future who shows them what there really fighting for and eventually die for.
How did you choose the cast and the crew of the film and what was the most challenging aspect of production?
I picked my cast mostly from actors I’ve worked with in the pass on other projects accept for Mickey played by the great Rashad Hunter. I found him two weeks before filming because my lead actor before him drop out over Covid-19 concerns. I didn’t have enough time to rehearse with him and because of Covid we couldn’t meet in person so we had to do it via FaceTime so that was fun lol but Rashad did a amazing job. The entire cast: Stephen Cofield Jr, David Chattam, Charlz Williams, Deangelo Davis were all unbelievable.
The challenging aspect of shooting was the pandemic. We actually had the 900K budget for the feature but Covid hit and the investors backed out on me so to prove that the film was more then worth investing in me and my producer Armando Townsend took our own money and shoot the concept. There was no guidelines from the CDC so we basically made are own with strict safety measures and on top of which we were in the middle of the Black Lives Matter Protest over the death of George Floyd happening all over Los Angeles so it was a lot lol but we got it done.
What genre of filmmaking fascinates you as a director and which genres do you prefer to work on?
This is a tricky one lol. Comedy fascinated me because without question it’s the most difficult genre to pull off, Comedy isn’t exactly the most universal language that everyone can agree on, what might be funny to me might not be for you. If I see a old woman walking down the street and fall flat on her face I’m laughing lol it’s funny to me... of course I’ll help her up but it’s funny and most people don’t agree with that. It’s a genre that has my attention but I don’t think I’ll tackle anytime soon.
The genres I do prefer as a Film Director and Screenwriter are Psychological Thrillers, Crime Thrillers, Drama and Science Fiction. I would also like to throw in Westerns and I would really like to make one in the future when I’m much older but not to old tho lol.
How can cinema change the world and have an impact on society? I can’t speak for everyone because not everybody share the same views on cinema but for myself as a Artist and pure student of the craft I say it can change the world and society just by being honest, bold, courageous with the truth. Bushing the boundaries of storytelling as far as it can go till you squeeze every bit of life out of it. Cinema can have such a lasting impact on peoples lives especially when you know the artist behind it gives you everything they got with their story. What is your next film project as a director? As of now my next project as a Director is working on the Feature Version of my proof of concept Mickey Hardaway which is currently playing on the festival circuit. I’m in the middle of raising funds for the film. I hope to begin shooting it in 2022(God Willing) lol but that is the plan.