Wherein 7x7 meets a member of the local film scene and asks them the immortal question: What are you working on?

What’s your name, how old are you, and where do you live in San Francisco?

My name is Joey Izzo, I’m 28 years old, and I currently live in the Lower Haight.

How long have you lived in SF?

I’ve been in SF on and off since 2005. I lived in The Mission, then the Inner Sunset, then I left for a while and moved back to the Haight a little more than 2 years ago.

What did you do before you were a filmmaker?

My last regular job was at Amoeba in Upper Haight, doing their web content, filming What’s In My Bag segments, and shooting live performances at the store and in Berkeley, and editing them. We had a small media team that I was on.

So… what are you working on?

The main thing I’m working on right now is getting my short film Stepsister into film festivals and getting all the materials together to do that. Stepsister is a dark comedy about a girl that meets her step brother’s fiancée and basically tortures her for 18 minutes. Don’t print that! It’s about… um …the conflict that immediately arises between the two women. It’s a comedy I shot with Beth Lisick,Brent Weinbach, and Anna Serengina.

The world premiere of Stepsister is coming up at SF International on April 27,th and it’s also playing on May 4, so we’re trying really hard to get everything together. We’ve actually also been accepted to a certain large, Eurpoean film festival. We can't announce it yet, but it's really exciting, so we’re trying to get all of our what they call “deliverables” together—prints, press kits, the website—that stuff.

We have a fundraiser coming up on April 20th at The Chapel with Ty Seagall, Mike Donovan from Sic Alps, and a band called Breakarts. We’re basically just doing whatever we can to get ready to go overseas. I’m also writing a couple of features right now—Since there’s not really that many opportunities for distribution, you can’t really expect to make money on a short. It’s like a big, expensive business card.

What do you like best about working in San Francisco?

It’s a small place; the industry here isn’t quite fully formed yet and I like the restrictions it creates. It’s fun to make it up as you go!

Is there anyone you want to give a shout out to?

Yeah! Anna Seregina, Beth Lisick, Brent Weinbach, Jesse Dana, Barret Michael Hacia—everyone that helped on the film!

Stepsister plays May 27 and April 4 in The San Francisco International Film Festival program Shorts 2.