Luigi Benvisto was born in Varese, Italy with dreams of filmmaking and New York City. After discovering his passion while shooting short films on his digital camera, Luigi moved to Rome to try his luck in the Italian film industry. “For two years I lived in a garage with a bed and a bathroom, but kept shooting projects. One day I shot some casting videos for actors in a different way than usual; instead of recording just the actor saying the lines, I created a short movie where I was introducing the character and the actor was saying his lines. The actor wasn’t selected, but the producer called me saying that what I did was amazing and he gave me the possibility to direct and shoot the backstage of the feature movie they were shooting. I worked on set with actors like Valeria Golino, Alessandro Haber, Andy Garcia, and director Mario Monicelli. It was a very exciting experience. From there, I moved to Cinecittà where I discovered the New York Film Academy.”Luigi attended the 8 week film workshop summer program in Rome. After completing the course, Luigi was awarded a scholarship from famous director, Bernardo Bertolucci, to continue his NYFA education with a one year film-making program in New York City. “Not only does NYFA teach you how to become an expert in your field, it also shows you how to build relationships, friendships and industry collaborations. The program is intense, but I like it that way. It teaches you to work under stress and control the situation even when everything is going wrong – which is basically what happens on set in the real world.”
Currently, Luigi balances his schedule between teaching at NYFA and working on set. Luigi just finished a feature thriller, which is being shopped around to distributors. He wanted to share the exciting cast with us, but was told to wait until the film acquires distribution. He recently started his own production company, Jack Boar Pictures, which produced a documentary called The Paper House: Report. His next projects include a production in association with Lima Charlie Productions and a feature about the life of actor Mickey Rooney, that he will shoot in Minnesota at the end of the year.
by nyfa