Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Rossi.
Hi Richard, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was interested in the arts as a child. I played guitar and performed as a boy in the nightclubs and bars of Pittsburgh, along with my musical family. I acted in my first film as a teenager. It was shot in my hometown and was called “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.”
In my young adult years, I worked as a minister and used my creativity in that context, writing Christian songs and my sermons were thespian and dramatic. I filmed some of the services and tried to do it in a creative way.
Then, I made a journey from scripture to script and started diving deeper into acting and filmmaking. I’m in post-production now on my fourth feature dramatic film I’ve directed, “Lucy & the Lake Monster.” I’m quite excited to share the film with the world this year when it comes out.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My artistic journey hasn’t always been a smooth road. I’ve made my films on modest budgets outside of the studio system, so that has been challenging, but by the grace of God and a lot of hard work, we’ve been able to finish every feature dramatic film that we’ve started.
I also had to move away from some of the thinking I picked up in the religious world that sometimes was not supportive and conducive to creativity. My worldview and theology changed. I now believe that if God is the Creator and we are created in God’s image, then creativity is a very spiritual and beautiful practice. This contrasts the extreme fundamentalism of my younger years, which sometimes negated and suppressed creativity.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most known for my three feature dramatic films I wrote and directed. The first two were biopics. One was about female evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who ministered in Hollywood in the Roaring Twenties (“Sister Aimee: The Aimee Semple McPherson Story.”) Then, my second film was on the life of baseball great Roberto Clemente, “Baseball’s Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories.” My most recent feature, “Canaan Land,” came out in 2020. I play a con man preacher in the film who falls in love with a sincere Christian woman, played by Rebecca Holden.
My current and fourth feature is “Lucy and the Lake Monster,” and it’s based on a children’s book I co-wrote with my lifelong friend Kelly Tabor, who is a retired 4th grade schoolteacher. The lead actress in the film is 9-year-old Emma Pearson, who plays my granddaughter Lucy in the picture. She’s so stellar in our film that I predict Emma’s going to be a big child star after the movie comes out later this year.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The way that we find and watch movies is quite a bit different than when I was a little boy. There were no streaming, DVDs, or videos in my childhood, so the Disney Classics would come out every so many years to the theaters, and we would be really excited to see them. Or a great movie like “The Wizard of Oz” would come on TV once a year, around Thanksgiving time. All of us kids sat on the living room floor, excited to see it. We’d talk about it at school the next day.
Now, with streaming and the internet, people can pretty much pick what movie they want to watch and stream it, so it’s a great opportunity to have people all over the world see our work as filmmakers.
The downside is that sometimes it can lose some of that magic of a big event. It’s no longer as special to see a film.
I hope to restore some of that with our upcoming coast-to-coast tour for our children’s film and do some in-person screenings at theaters, schools, churches, synagogues, and community centers. We want some of the cast and crew to be a part of it and meet the children and their parents at the screenings. I want to incorporate some performance art from the cast into these live screenings. As musicians, we will even perform some of the music from the film, live at the theatrical exhibitions. I’d look forward to restoring some of that movie magic of experiencing film together as a community and lighting up the faces of children of all ages.
Kelly and I are so thankful to all the children around the world who have written us and told us how much the book means to them and how much it has inspired them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.
lucyandthelakemonster.com - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/champmoviehq - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/champmovie - Twitter: https://twitter.com/
ChampMovieHQ - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/@richardrossilive7459/ videos
