The Day I Had To Grow Up
You're never too young to start making a change.
Interview with Directors Stefano Da Frè and Laura Pellegrini
Watch The Day I Had To Grow Up on Prime Video
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
During Thanksgiving 2018, I was in Colorado with family. One night, I saw a young man named Jeremy Ornstein arrested in Capitol Hill. He was with members of the Sunrise Movement, a group of environmental activists calling for Congress to adopt new progressive policies. More importantly, what struck me was Jeremy's anguish. His pain and his emotional breakdown, as he related his grandparents' stories of surviving the Holocaust. Jeremy worked months on a personal story to share publicly. At its core, he is a young man broken by the greed of capitalism and empty promises. The video of his speech & arrest went viral that evening, hitting 2.5 million views. At this moment, I called Laura Pellegrini, the Co-Director of the film, and said: "I think we need to meet this kid and hear his story." From that point onward, it was clear we were making a film about "understanding" youth activism in modern political times.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Laura & I feel young people have been ignored by the political process. They often feel - what is the point of voting? Why is the world not the way it could be? Well, this film explores the lives of five activists from different racial backgrounds, and genders, to confront each kids' idealism with the structure of the "actual" world. You should watch this film because this is how the future generation of America is both "feeling" & "thinking”.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
As a boy, I was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Later I had to make a living as a filmmaker, dealing with investors, assets, and producers. The idealism of my youth always reminds me "why" I have abandoned some core values as I grew up. This is all of us. All of us forget the versions of what we once were. Politically speaking, this film is a pure example of threading a line of why activism must never be forgotten or dismissed as simply too idealistic.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
You know, when you start a film, you need to be able to work with the key members of talent. Laura & I live in New York City. So we took a risk after four phone call meetings with Jeremy and some of the other kids, to finally meet Jeremy - our main featured activist. We needed to rent a car and drive to Washington D.C. to meet him over coffee, simply to get a "feeling" of what he was like in person. Can I work with him? Is he stable? Is he more than just a mouthpiece or is there a three-dimensional person behind what I saw on Now This when he was delivering a speech? Laura & I fell in love with him as a person. We talked about poetry, Bob Dylan and just a little bit of politics. But after that meeting, Laura & I knew he'd be a perfect match for this documentary The Day I Had To Grow Up.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The feedback has been extremely positive. Our last documentary The Girl Who Cannot Speak was on NBC.com for a four-month distribution deal, so we kept contact with people at NBC/Universal in the documentary department. Also, a colleague at MSNBC Andrea Mitchell has been very supportive of our documentaries and gave us very simple advice: "Dear Laura & Stefano, keep it personal. The more personal you make this film, the better it will be." Those are words of wisdom that we still think about to this day.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback has been very constructive and has challenged Laura's & my usual narrative structure of filmmaking. This documentary has involved more archive footage than we have previously ever had to work with. On a technical level, it's been one of the most challenging documentaries to make.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We are looking to make our film more visible to teens, youth activists and young Americans who currently feel left out of the political process. This is a film that will inspire hope, mirroring back subjects that are 17-19 years old who feel the same way, but are finding their own ways to make a difference right now.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Film festival directors, distributors, and journalists are our main focus point.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
One woman who watched the film said it spoke to the young activist in her who’s been tired for a long time. I'd like the film to engage with everyone on that same level. To light a fire inside people. And to move them.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What political conditions have to exist in our American democracy for a child to feel so affected and disenfranchised by it that they are drawn to youth activism?
Would you like to add anything else?
If you have any questions, please visit our website: www.rossofilmsinternational.com
Also, please follow us on Instagram!: @thedayfilm
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Laura & I are working on a feature film called A Dream Beyond The Dark. It's the story of a blind painter, starring Clara McGregor (Ewan McGregor's daughter.) We are currently in post-production for the film in Ireland!
You can follow the film's Instagram for updates: @dream_beyond_official_film
Interview: May 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
The Day I Had To Grow Up
You're never too young to start making a change.
Length: 17:00
Director: Stefano Da Fre & Laura Pellegrini
Producer: Ej Argenio
Writer: Brandon De Los Reyes
About the writer, director and producer:
Filmmakers STEFANO DA FRÈ and LAURA PELLEGRINI are respectively the President and Vice President of Rosso Films International. They won the Coup de Foudre at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Their documentary, The Girl Who Cannot Speak, was screened at NBC's Meet the Press Film Festival (in collaboration with AFI) and at the Academy Award-Qualifying Festival Regard. The film screened in competition at another Oscar-Qualifier, the St. Louis International Film Festival, in November 2019. Rosso Films International is proud to create emerging political documentaries & narrative feature films about women, people of color and disabilities.
BRANDON DE LOS REYES is a content producer based in New York City. He has produced commercial content, music videos, as well as short & feature films that have screened at many prestigious festivals. In recent years, he has worked largely in New York for world-class production companies such as Anonymous Content, Sawyer Studios Entertainment, and Click3X which has brought him onto professional sets for clients like Crest, AT&T, Little Caesars, Carefree, Chase and CBS The Amazing Race.
EJ ARGENIO is an Executive Producer based out of New York City. His most recent film In the Field highlights the racial tensions in suburban America. He is currently working on a documentary about the first Asian hockey player in the National Hockey League (2022).
Key cast: Jeremy Ornstein (Himself); Violet Kopp (Herself); Griffin Gould (Himself); Sara Salyani (Herself); Taylor Turner (Herself); Sofia Ongele (Herself)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, film festival directors
Instagram: @thedayfilm
Hashtags used: #documentary #thedayfilm #youthactivism #nowthis #abcnews #democracynow
Website: www.rossofilmsinternational.com
Made in association with: Rosso Films International
Funders: EJ Argenio Partners, LLC
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Amazon Prime (Release: October 2, 2020)