I heard communities. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Renee Denina,
now joined in studio by Connecticut's own Well this is pretty exciting. John Cruise,
filmmaker, writer, producer, talent exhortenaire. Welcome to our program.
Thank you for having me absolutely and you brought your leading lady, the leading
actress of your film project be mine. Now please help me. I hope
I'm gonna say and do your name Justice Shianni Gazi. Yes, all right,
good, thank you very much. First and foremost, congratulation on your
film. Thank you, Oh my gosh, how exciting and to be made
all here in Connecticut, to be from Connecticut. First and foremost, John,
let me start with you tell me your story. So Originally, I'm
a kid from Puerto Rico, born in Puerto Rico. Came here when I
was young when my mom finished high school. My mom gave me the opportunity
to you know, be more and really take advantage of what being in the
US hust to offer, you know. And so I started off as a
football player, you know, and from college ball, I just decided to
get into film and storytelling, you know, because us as artists, we
have this obligation to try and create stories and inspire the youth, especially kids
around the world, and show them that anything is possible. I love that
for you and from you, and I love that your mom inspired you to
do that. Who, by the way, is the silent partner in this
interview today. Maybe we'll get her to speak before this is over. But
how did you go from sports to filmmaking and writing? Was that creative bug
always with you? Yeah? I feel like I got my creativity from my
mom and from other family members in the family. I was always a creative
individual. I always wanted to do more with my life, you know,
make an impact. Never really changed the world, just impact the world in
such a way where I leave a message that can transcend lifetimes, you know.
Yeah, and that does change. That does change lives, you know,
even if it's one or more, um, it does make a difference.
So that's that's a wonderful way to lead your life. And I love
that, you know. I could see how proud your mom is sitting here
in this room of you, and so I think that's wonderful. What was
the first story that you ever came up with or how old were you?
I should say, when that first story happened. Um, it was really
me writing my story, you know, and trying to figure out how to
tell my story in a way where it's not like, oh, you know,
I want to have sympathy for this kid. No, it's oh,
this kid went through so much and yet he learned a lot and made something
of himself. So the first story I really started writing was the day I
was born, and it's my story, you know, and I continue writing
into his day. Now you're staying in Connecticut, right, you made your
film in Connecticut. Um, tell me about all of that and where this
film be Mine got started? Yeah, so, b Mine was a story
that I started developing back in twenty twenty one. I'm a big horror movie
fan. I love horror films, and I wanted to try and create something
different, you know. I wanted to try and create a villain that could
exist in our society, someone who can walk among us, you know,
without the demonic stuff or anything like that. Um, that's scarier, by
the way. Yeah, I think that's right. And she's like that,
you know. Right. So I wanted to, you know, try and
create you know, something authentic, but something good, something juicy, gory,
and so what I did was, you know, I wrote it,
um, I put it to the side because I had a lot of things
going on personally. And then I reached out to a couple of guys,
Tom Sash, you know, and and you know, we started to get
in going and we locked in the script. We you know, locked in
the cast um and then we entered production and you know, from there we
just made the movie. And I think we did a pretty good job,
you know, making I feel like the best short horror film in Connecticut.
And congratulations. Now how can people watch it? So where I actually doing
a premiere. Our premiere is going to be at Apple Cinemas July ninth,
twenty twenty three. The premiere starts at five, but our Red Carport Walk
starts at four. And if you want to purchase tickets, you just have
to visit our film page on Instagram be mine the movie, and on there
you will see a link tree and you'll be able to just you know,
purchase your ticket and come and support local. Yeah, and horror fan people,
we know that you are. There's a lot of you here in Connecticut.
You're gonna want to go and see this now. Now, enter Shianni.
Now, how did you get involved and how did you find out about
this project? So funny we're just talking about this. Somebody came in here.
Um we met on another short. We met on another short, and
um it was I think a comedy, but it's just not working really And
just like you never know that one person you meet that leads me to another
thing. And so I think when he finished right in a script, I
think I was probably want the first few people he contacts, like, I
want you on this. Oh wow, so you've got you You have to
do a like you didn't even try out you were in Yeah, it was
so tell me about your character. So my characters leading actress, So she
Emily, She is the town's sweetheart, and she takes in the main the
male actor who is the killer in a film, and because he's very like
um, kind of being bullied and he's the odd ball of the town and
so she kind of finds liking into him. She sees something into him that
I guess everyone else is ignoring and builds a friendship with him. And then
that kind of turns a sour And then now my life has turned upside down,
because now it's up an ab section that he has with me and now
he wants to kill everyone in my way to get to me. Type of
things like a love story gone very wrong. Not telling me about yourself a
little bit too? Are you from Connecticut? Yes to telling about yourself?
Born and raised in Connecticut, Hartard, Connecticut, that is. And I
knew I was an actress. I think from like the day I was born.
I mean, and my mom would tell you stories that I was like
two three, like standing up watching Little Bear and playing the roles on TV
kind of like mimicking each role. So I don't know, I just I
just am Like people say, that's what you do, know, It's what
I am. I'm a storyteller. So yeah, and I started that.
I fell in love with film and TV acting in college, but I was
already doing theater acting all through school until I hit film theater. I'm film
and TV and I was like, oh my god, this is the medium
that I love. I love like having a moment with the film and with
the camera, and so from there I just then starting to develop my film
and TV career. Well congratulations to how can we follow you online? Um?
You can follow me on my Instagram and I am shiannig, I am
si s h I h A n I G. All right, well we'll
put it up at my community access dot com as well, and back to
you to John and about be mine and the premise and the other actors.
Did you pull strictly from Connecticut or New England and tell me a little bit
about what we're going to see because I know people love to see landmarks right
when they're watching things. Yeah. So what we try to do is we
try to make it a homegrown film. Um. So what I did was
I tried to make the entire cast from Connecticut. Um, with the exception
of our lead man who plays the killer. Um, he's from Maine.
But he yeah, shout out together, phenomenal. There's no spoiler alert with
that, Like we know he's the bad guy from the Star. Yeah.
Yeah, you can sell all right if you watch the Caesar trailer. Um,
Yeah, he's he's uh he went to Uhar actually, but he's from
Maine. Phenomenal actor. And the crew itself came from New York actually,
so they're you know, different parts of New York. Um. But we
shot half of the film in Bristol and then we shot some parts in East
Harford. Um, I'm forgetting the restaurant's name, but the owners Romans,
right yea yeah. So we shot at Roma. Shout out to Paul phenomenal
guy, Phenomenal Grinders and pizza. Yea yeah, I ate there before and
they got some really good food if they don't um and uh. We shot
in Hartford as well at Sama Cafe Okay, owned by my boy Elijah.
Great coffee. It's in downtown. Yeah, it's definitely a vibe. It's
you know, calm after you're a movie. I'm sure it'll be a live
right. But this is great though, because what you're doing is, you
know, by by default, you're bringing in business or you're creating business,
or you're creating awareness for your home state, our capital city and surrounding towns,
which is what we need, which which is what we love. And
I feel like more and more filmmakers are coming to right, connect Get and
there's more opportunity right. I feel like there's just so much talent here.
I just hope that even on the industry is growing here, that we tap
into the actors, the writers, the directors, the creatives that are in
Connecticut, specifically Hartford, Connecticut. As well. But yeah, yeah,
and then now so this film is done be Mine, Um, this is
coming out in July. The premiere, it's going to be run down the
information again. Yeah, so the premiere will be in July. The way
you could buy tickets is visiting our film page. It's be Mine the movie
on Instagram. You can visit the link tree to purchase your ticket and we'll
have that amazing premiere to red Carper premiere. A lot of people are gonna
be there, you know, and we're just gonna have a great time.
And then from there we're gonna you know, do film festivals and we might
you know, be on some streaming platforms. Yeah, maybe maybe. So
if you want to find out more about that, always check our pages.
Check my personal page Tank seven seven thirty two, so t a n K
seven seven thirty two, or you can visit the film page for updates on
that. We're trying to get that going. But this is a unique horror
film, even though it's a short, it's a horror film that I think
a lot of people are going to be impressed by well, and I just
would love for people in our state to rally around you to get larger streaming
services or anybody to even pay attention to this. So if anyone's listening right
now, to show your local support, like the film's page, spread the
word tag and spread the word, right. I mean, that's how we
create a little following, a little you know, fan club, right,
you know you need you need some fan people here, So let's build that
up for you. And you know, congratulations to you. What's coming next?
So next actually, um, we're going to do an exclusive announcement the
premiere. Oh but I'll say something here. Now, I'm producing and co
hosting a TV show, so that's an early development. We're trying to give
a different vibe to the TV show. We're trying to give a cinematic feel
to it, add a little you know, color diverse today aspect to it,
diversity exactly. And then after that, I'm planning on working on a
comedy film, you know, So that and the comedy film. Actually I'm
planning I'm breaking the fourth wall, you know, so we know how that
goes. Yeah, well I'm really excited. So you're going to come back
and share with us all your updates and good news, right of course?
Yeah? All right, Well we hope so and I wish you nothing but
success. Do you have any plans for any other projects you're working on?
Yeah, I'm actually writing process of writing a film myself that I want to
shoot this summer, and I think tapping into one of his shows, but
you know, to be announced, and yeah, starting to get my own
film started as well. In Connecticut. I'm really really excited for you.
Now, introduce your mom for me, please. So my mom, the
beautiful woman that's sitting right there is Shakira Sveto. She's the owner of Shaky
Promotions. Her and I are actually teaming up for our first ever like you
know, business type of thing that we're doing at the heart for Latino Festival
this year. Okay, that's happening at Duncan Park where we will be showing
our official trade trailer. We'll be talking about the film. They're in front
of five thousand people, and I'll be alongside my mom, you know,
while she's doing her business, I'm doing my business. So it's not just
a mom in some relationship. You know. We got a work thing going
on entertainment dynasty here in Connecticut. So Mom, SA come up to the
microphone here tell me. I mean, I know your smile says it all.
But Pete, this is you know, radio and podcasting. Get up
to the mike. Tell me about how you feel about your son and how
proud you are. Well, the word proud is not enough. Yeah,
I'm very very proud of seeing him like it was worth it or the struggle,
because like it was, it was amazing, ace amazing seeing him now
young men and with a future and all the things that he made or really
and he's going to make. It's like you're making me tear up because I'm
working at her mother speak speak in Spanish because I want you to tell him
how you feel, and I want people to understand that because I want you
to say it the way you want to say it. Go ahead. Me
is I don't know what you said, but I felt it. I say
that I'm very very I had three three boys, ole mother with three kids,
and I'm very very prouds like it's no words, like what I feel
is no word. And I be with him like any time they need me,
I be there to help. I help them with the kind like with
the actors, and I say I cook, I do anything to help me,
guess, and I want to be on set so you know, what
do you need me to do? I'll cook too, or what do you
mean? I'll help whatever you want. But you know, this was a
wonderful interview and I sho all nothing but success. And I know you're going
to come back and chat with us. I know people are going to start
following you. So I'm gonna just one last time. I know We've said
it a couple of times, but how can people follow the film specifically?
Yeah? So, um, if you want to follow the film and you
want to come to our premiere, just visit our film page at b mine
the movie on Instagram. You can visit the link try and purchaser tickets.
The premiere will be July ninth, twenty twenty three at Apple Cinemas and down
Town Harford thirty nine in Front Street, and be sure to save this day
two July. First, we'll be at the Harford Latino Festival Center stage taking
over home Play at the Heart at the Harvard yardgo Stadium at Duncan Park.
Well, I've got my Dunk and yard Goats Jersey ready, I'll be there
myself there I go. All right, guys, Well, thank you so
much for being on my Heart community thank you, thank you,