Bored in the USA

This month’s post is a special one. We’re spotlighting Mike Finazzo, who we know as PDG’s fiercest Vocational Program Specialist. He’s been with the company for three years and has proven himself intelligent, compassionate, and effective in the field.

But there’s another side to Mike… in addition to his stellar work at PDG, Mike is also a director, writer, and stand-up comic. We recently had a chance to ask him about his latest movie, Bored in the USA:

Describe what you do for fun outside of work.

Well I really enjoy the company of my wife and dog… I guess my cat too. I also really like making movies and I’ve made two small feature-length films. One of them is called Bored in the USA and is currently on Amazon Prime. It’s a love letter to Baltimore that I worked really hard on, and it turned out well. I highly recommend checking it out and giving the movie a five star review. If you watch the entire movie, I get like six cents from Amazon. I refer to this as my “retirement plan.”

Why do you love it?  

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with movies. It just kind of stuck. I watch several movies per week and study the history of movies.

What got you into it?  

Mainly women and fame. Then I realized that Mental Health was more likely to bring me these things than indie film, so I ended up working as a counselor and a job coach. But seriously, ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed with movies. First it was Back to the Future, then it was Woody Allen movies (this love hasn’t aged well), and then it was trying to make my own. I always had a fascination with people and world building… so I started making them.  

Where do you want to take it?

I would be completely satisfied if I made small movies that a handful of people see every year or so. I’d also like to teach. I went back to school in January and I’d eventually like to be a professor of film history at the college level.  

What’s the best thing about doing what you do?  

Someone discovering the movie on Amazon and telling me that they liked it. There was a random guy from Canada who sent me an email about how he emotionally connected to the movie the other day; that was really cool.

Any funny/weird stories?

I couldn’t afford to go to college or film school, so I did whatever I could to learn about making movies. Once I was an extra on The Wire (you may recognize me as Baseball Fan #81 in the first episode of season 2). Extras tend to be aspiring actors, older people looking for something to do, and some people who are, uh… eccentric. One dude told me he wrote a book about “aliens that take over the world and start by infiltrating a wig factory. It’s an autobiography about my first marriage.” We still keep in touch until this day (not really).  

How we do support you?  

If you find me in PDG’s Pryor room sobbing, I’m okay. I’m just having a moment. Oh… with the movie? Sorry! If you like small movies where people talk and connect, check out Bored in the USA on Amazon. If you want to buy it, that’s cool. If you have Prime and want to stream it for free, that is cool too. Leaving 5-star ratings and reviews really do help; Amazon caters to movies that have a lot of them and that what makes micro-budget movies like ours a success. So if you like it, please leave a review. If you don’t like it, lying is okay too.

Watch the movie on Amazon Prime here.