Bronx Film in the Running for Eight Awards at International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema MILAN

NEW YORK - Nov. 27, 2016 - PRLog -- "Bx3M," written and directed by NYC-based filmmaker Judith Escalona, is nominated in eight categories:

·         Best Director

·         Best Lead Actress

·         Best Supporting Actor

·         Best Supporting Actress

·         Best Feature Film

·         Best Cinematography in a Feature Film

·         Best Editing of a Feature Film

·         Best Original Screenplay of a Feature Film

"It's an epic on a city block," says Escalona about her film. Escalona grew up in the Bronx and knows these characters intimately as friends, neighbors, and the subjects of gossip, giving them a complexity for the actors to bring to life on screen.

"Bx3M presents an aspect of inner city life often overlooked in pursuit of the sensational," Escalona says. "These kids, while identifiably Latino, are just like any other teens. They each confront an issue that drives their individual narratives forward into a unified whole...I choose mythology and universal resonance over modern day social pathological interpretations. Both modalities actually coincide and function as approaches to understanding the behavior of my characters and what 'Bx3M' is ultimately about the freedom to love."

ABOUT THE CAST

The cast of "Bx3M" represents the diverse Latino diaspora to the United States. Since filming wrapped, the actors have gone on to great success, with Jazmin Caratini, who plays Maria, becoming a television star in Puerto Rico. Mario Eusebio, who plays Michael, is a rising star in the off-Broadway theatre scene in New York, while Supporting Actor nominee Berto Colon has found much success in the hit Netflix show "Orange is the New Black".

ABOUT THE FILM

View the trailer for the film and download press kit for film with images and video clips at http://www.bx3mgrowingupfast.com.

SYNOPSIS

Things are heating up in this coming of age story, as Maria, Mona and Michael take on the challenge of their senior year at James Monroe H.S. For Maria, senior year means fulfilling a dream. As a straight A-student, Maria is so close to becoming the first person in her family to go to college.  But when Michael, her first love, begins a descent into self-destruction, Maria must choose between two destinies, one with Michael or one without. Unfortunately, she has to come a realization that her father has already warned her about.

Michael is headed down the wrong path with the wrong people, turning to drugs to numb the trauma of losing his mother as a child. Being a latch key kid, with no parental guidance, Michael is left to fend for himself, battling the mean streets of the Bronx, plagued by the anger and loneliness that has haunted him for most his childhood.  When his best friend Pus-Head finds himself in danger, Michael takes grasp of his destiny in an act of vengeance that could be his final bow.

Mona, the enigmatic artist, wants to go to Cooper Union to study photography.  But a lover's triangle, between Seneca, the high school track star, and Sam, the college student, stutters Mona's path towards getting into Cooper and getting out of the Bronx. Her dilemma is a well-kept secret, till her mother discovers Sam is a girl. The duplicity of her character inspired Escalona, to cast the part of Mona with two actresses, including Supporting Actress Nominee, Monica Delgado. The choice to cast two actresses also pays homage to Luis Bunuel and his final film "That Obscure Object of Desire".

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Escalona is a segment producer for CUNY TV where she has received a number of awards and acknowledgments including three 2012 Communicator Awards. Escalona is also the Executive Director and Founder of Puerto Rico and the American Dream (www.PRdream.com), the award-winning website on the history, culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. PRdream has launched several new media initiatives, among them the PRdream Oral History Project and the technology based art gallery MediaNoche (www.medianoche.us).

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Since 2006, Film Festival International has been giving Indie Filmmakers the platform to showcase their work. From humble beginnings in Tenerife, the festival now hosts events in some of Europe's most fabulous cities.

The International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema MILAN runs from November 26 to December 3, 2016. The "Bx3M" screening will be Tuesday, November 29.  For more information about the Milan film festival, visit http://filmfestinternational.com/milan/.