Framingham Filmmaker's Work Shown At Boston Short Film Festival

FRAMINGHAM, MA - Ever since she was a youngster growing up in Framingham, Alex Leombruno had an interest in making movies. Now her pursuit of her life's passion has led to recognition, as her latest independent short film was part of last week's Boston Short Film Festival.

"As early as elementary school, I can recall making silly videos with my best friend at the time and being super excited to hold a camera," she explained. "In middle school, I went to a summer camp where I took a filmmaking class, and that passion just kept growing."

Leombruno further honed her skills at Framingham High School in its filmmaking and television program. She was part of the crew that produced the daily newscast and is a 2017 graduate.

"When it came time to figuring out what my plan for college was, there was no hesitation for what I wanted to do," she said. "Nothing else made sense to pursue, and I feel grateful my teachers and family were encouraging of going to film school."

She graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in May of last year and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career goals. Her current film, "I Love You Don't Leave Me," was written in the fall of 2020 while she was in college and was completed over the course of eight or nine months.

"I worked on it throughout the course of my senior thesis course in college, a class that spanned two semesters and focused on the pre-production, production, and post-production of the film," Leombruno explained.

Because this was during the height of the pandemic, only a few people could be involved in the filming process.

"I ended up forming a bubble with four other classmates," Leombruno said, noting each classmate had a separate script that also needed to be turned into a film. "We shot all of our films in the span of a single month, from January to February of 2021. We quarantined together the whole time so we could shoot the films as intimately as possible while eliminating the risk of spreading or getting COVID."

Leombruno's film, shot on Cape Cod, was edited and completed last April. She decided to send the film to the Boston Short Film Festival last summer because the location is so close to her roots, not knowing what the reaction would be. She also did not want to give away the plot.

"To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about the Boston Short Film Festival, as I hadn't heard about it until I submitted my film last summer," she explained. "However, just looking at the screening schedule makes me feel honored to be included. All of the other films look amazing and intriguing!"

The film was part of the three-day film festival, which was held at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge from July 12-15. This is the third film festival acceptance that Leombruno has received for the film.

At this point, Leombruno did not talk about plans to make another film right away, as she is adjusting to life on the West Coast.

"I'm at the stage now where I'm trying to figure out where I want to take my life and career from here," she explained. "There are so many things about graduating college, one of the biggest being that the structure and safety that a film program once provided, is now gone. Similarly to something I found when moving to Los Angeles from the East Coast, there is loss of comfort when making such big changes."

She added that she is currently "also trying to figure out how to be an adult, how to make friends outside of school in a brand-new city, how to balance working creative jobs versus jobs that help pay my rent."

In the past, Leombruno also pursued music. She has turned more of her attention to that side of her creative process, "which feels exciting to grow that passion as well."

She had some advice for aspiring filmmakers - be patient with yourself and follow your instincts.

"The only reason I am living in a whole new place and at the cusp of entering into a film career is because I followed my intuition of doing film simply because I thought it was fun," Leombruno added. "Only over the span of several years and being surrounded by like-minded artists did I realize that I need to be creative to survive. That may sound dramatic, but art is how I process my emotions and how I turn whatever I'm feeling into something greater than just myself."