Calogero’s films have played internationally at Cannes, Berlinale, Heartland, BAMcinemaFest, Napa Valley, among others. His first directorial feature, MOVING IN 2008, centers around a family and their troubles during the recession of 2008, and was released in 2022 on Prime Video. His second directorial feature, LONG ISLAND GUS, focuses on a man’s struggles weaving through the Long Island black market in an attempt to find a kidney for his ailing friend, and premiered at the 2022 Sarasota Film Festival where it won the Independent Visions Jury Prize. Calogero produced Tyler Taormina’s second feature film, HAPPER’S COMET, that premiered in Berlinale’s 2022 Forum section, and is producing Taormina’s third feature film, CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT, set to premiere at festivals in 2024.
Calogero is currently working to kickstart three feature films that he will direct. The first film, SUE THUNDER AND JOHNNY LIGHTNING, centers around a Native American social worker, Sue Thunder, who leads a task force for missing and murdered Indigenous women in Arizona as she uncovers human trafficking and real estate fraud on her reservation. The second film, VICK, LENNY, JASMINE, follows a 30-year-old Nigerian-American woman, Jasmine, her husband, Vick, and their 10-year-old biracial son, Lenny, as their life changes due to an unplanned pregnancy. The third film, LEONI’S, tracks America’s greatest forgotten chef, Leonard ‘Leoni’ Maglioni, and the server staff behind his mythological Italian restaurant, Leoni’s.
Calogero was raised around Long Island, New York. His father, Jimmy, works in construction, and his mother, Maria, is a hairdresser. His parents named him after the character ‘Calogero’ in the 1993 movie A BRONX TALE. He attributes his family's constant moving and Italian-American blue-collar heritage as major influences in his work. He is also the founder of 19th Floor Productions, a film production company based in New York. His favorite filmmakers are John Cassavetes, Frederick Wiseman, Shirley Clarke, D.A. Pennebaker, Martin Scorsese, Agnes Varda, Sidney Lumet, Robert Altman, the Maysles Brothers, Orson Welles, and Allan King.
Feature Films
LONG ISLAND GUS (2022) Writer/Director/Producer
MOVING IN 2008 (2022) Writer/Director/Producer
HAPPER’S COMET (2022) Producer