Newtown Student Wins Film Awards, Again and Again.

At only 14 years old, Max Galassi is an up and coming, award-winning, film maker.  

His video "Moonlight" was nominated for the Greenwich Film Festival by the well known Academy Award winning actor/director, Ron Howard.  The film won "Best in Connecticut" and "Best Experimental" this year at the Westport Youth Film Festival on June 2, which had over 200 submissions.  The film was also selected by The National Film Festival for Talented Youth, which had over 700 submissions. “It was a huge honor to be selected for that festival,” he said.

Finishing up his freshman year at Newtown High School and his first year at the Regional Center for the Arts magnet school in Trumbull, Galassi said,  “Ever since I got a computer and got on iMovie, I have been making videos.”

Max’s precocious efforts at filmmaking started when he was 12 years old.  Terrence Mallick, who made the films “Tree of Life” and “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” has been one of his biggest inspirations. 

Although some reviews of “Tree of Life” said the film was a challenging movie for many adults, for Max, it was his jumping off point.  From his first music video to his most recent project, a screenplay about astral projection, Max seems to be able to dive into material that is beyond his years. 

Describing his interest in the paranormal, Galassi said, “Last year, I saw a movie that really commercialized astral projection, and made it seem scary.  But then I started reading about it, and I also read the “Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz.”

Combining astral projection with the spiritual is the basis of his screenplay.  “It goes into love on an astral plain.  One of the things I want people to see is that the world is what you make it.  Your world is inside your head.  

“Ask yourself, what is your world?  And when you see that, you realize that you cannot judge anyone else’s world. Once you make those agreements, you are ready to accept the fact that everyone sees things differently, and you can feel content in the world,” he said. 

Deep thoughts are clearly at work in the film that has done so well in the youth film festivals. In “Moonlight”, the main character lives partly in reality and partly in her imagination.  The lines blur, and even as she breaks down, it would be difficult to know if her relationships were her reality or fantasy. 

The film was based on a poem written by Amelia Arnold, a girl Galassi met earlier this year after joined the Westport Youth Film Festival, where he is on the Board. 

“Amelia showed me her poems.  One was about winter, one was about love, but the one called "Moonlight" caught my eye.” 

Galassi met actress Hayley Tate from Trumbull High School, and asked her to star in the video, “And she did a really good job,” he said. 

When asked what he liked best about “Moonlight”, he said, “I really wanted to do a film about someone who was separate.  The girl in the movie is kind of crazy, but then again, what is crazy.”

Max’s mother Desiree Galassi, said that his career, “started unexpectedly.  He took a group of photos with a regular camera and turned them into a video and he came in second in Connecticut, two years in a row, in “Reflections: National Arts Recognition Contest,” sponsored by National PTA.

“He was using this little camera and the lens was cracked, and by manipulating the video that blurry spot became part of the video,” his mother said. “It was an anti-bullying social action film.”  

For that film, twelve year old Max won second place in the state.

His next venture involved taking popular songs and lip synching to them. His video was noticed by musician Renato Abela, who asked Max to film and edit an original music video for his song, "I miss you."  (Click the highted area to view the film.)

Abela’s group features the vocals of David Bickler from the group "Survivor" and Brad Gillis, the guitarist who played with Ozzy Ozborne and the group "Night Ranger."

“Max dragged his feet for a while, because he was nervous about making a video for a professional adult, and he was worried about it being good enough.  We really had to keep after him to finish it,” his parents said. “He was only 13, and a little intimidated, but when it was done, Renato said, ‘You captured my song.  It’s like you saw what I saw in my head, and you made a movie about it.” 

Renato used the video as the official video for the song.

The opportunities seem to keep on coming, and recently, Max was asked to film a promotional video for the literary magazine, “The Newtowner”s first annual masked ball.  That video can be seen here.