Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Sanello
Hi Courtney, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My Story:
I was brought up a Scholastic; Princeton Review College-ranking Book that everyone bought to make sure their kid went to The Best of the Best of the Best. Life had other ideas for me. Being Senior class of the unfortunate year of 9/11, the Ivy League applicant pool from the New York area dramatically changed; no one traveled beyond a stone’s throw from home, let alone dare to fly. Despite being told as an Early Decision Columbia applicant I’d be “a sure thing,” even my G.P.A. performance, extracurricular activities and all the other stand out gems of an application, fate had other ideas.
Ultimately I was waitlisted and honestly thank God. Brown offered an engineering program because I was a girl and excelled at math and science. So when my public guidance counselor called me in about it, I asked, “what am I going to do, make gears all day? How many years is this program?” She replied, “Five.” To which I said “Five? Instead of four? F-*k that.” I would have been a legendary engineer and very difficult to have left such a lucrative position. Instead I got into Emory’s regular decision and going to Atlanta gave me this sick feeling in my gut that this was not the place for me.
Attempting to transfer first semester freshman year I was informed that not all AP credits would equally transfer to another Ivy League, and, well that was just about it for my Ego. So despite being leads in musicals and having a inherent natural proclivity to the visual arts, already being commissioned by private clients, I knew while my stay in Emory’s Business School, that I needed to put all of my art and creativity into a box, lock and bury it at the bottom of a lake. Forget about it for a time so nobody could get to it and hurt me. For a while, I actually forgot about it, thinking it wasn’t worth exhuming since culture believes Art is just a trivial hobby that wasn’t going to lead to an actual career. So glad I was wrong.
As I traveled up the Advertising and other Production houses’ ladders, groups of friends sat me down (multiple times) asking me plainly, “Courtney- what are you doing?” I answer, “Well, helping you guys out making advertising campaigns–” And they cut me off saying “No. What are you doing? You’re a Creative like us, you need to be doing your art.” I’m so grateful for these folks hitting me over the head and getting through to me, because after enough “interventions” I said “Screw it. Yeah, let’s give it a go. And so I pivoted my life immersing and giving myself over to the Arts.
Bless my parents’ hearts. I knew before putting in my two weeks notice in my Advertising position, I needed to give the parental unit a heads up of my intentions, explaining that I felt like I was dying everyday going to my job. To which their answer was, “You know, Courtney, it’s not the best time to quit your job.” I said, “Well, I tried. Good talk.” and went ahead anyway. I resented them for far too long, how insensitive they were, but in retrospect, I respect their best intentions of wanting the best,most stable life for me.
But anyone who knows me, really even from an initial conversation would know that I don’t do stable. It bores me to absolute tears. I like having a pulse and I like coworkers who have a pulse as well. Neither of which did I discover in my Corporate Encounters.
How I Started:
I started my journey back into the Arts first through visual arts, then acting and singing; renewing my love for the things that I always loved and had a proclivity for. It was over ten years since I engaged in anything related to the arts, so you could imagine that all my tools and skill sets were rusty. It’s kind of the worst combination feeling so awkward and clunky when doing something you used to do so seamlessly and being a perfectionist. In regards to Directing, I was chosen as the 2023 Shawna Shea Women in Film for first time directors, which I never thought I’d win.
So I just started by asking my peers questions about screenwriting, and the number of drafts usually needed. But to be honest, being the director, producer, writer, actor, production designer, composer and storyboard artist for my first film First Refusal I had to figure a lot out on my own and just started. I always lean towards the things that scare me the most and failure is something that both paralyzes me as well as challenges me. It can change by the day, sometimes by the hour. Talk to my cadre of friends, they’ll let you know.
How you got to where you are today.
I got it today by living and listening. By fully immersing myself into everything that I am attracted to. I previously mentioned in my initial BOLD JOURNEY article that pre-First Refusal, I was coming out of a very dark decade of my life. I had this compulsion that there has to be something more out there. There has to be people like me or people who I’d like to be friends with that are making creative works, whether in film or art or anything to make me feel alive again.
This need to explore and discover brought me to my first film festival on Long Island and I just sat and watched and went up to the filmmakers after whom I was attracted to the most, asking if there was anything I could do to help them accomplish their goals. Pure tenacity was my driver. A lot of the time I care whether people will like me, (subtext: wanting their approval) but only until recently, it slapped me in the face that it doesn’t matter at all.
It’s a funny question to be asked how I got to where I am today because I don’t really see myself as anywhere. I’d like to be seen as constantly moving, constantly evolving. I can’t even pinpoint a dramatic change for evolution because every new experience I am changed and I’d like to think changed for the better.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This made me chuckle. How much time do we really have? Maybe ask me in 10 years and I’ll have a clear answer but I can tell you now in this present moment, that I never choose the road that is smooth ever. How boring would that be? I’d have nothing to be completely torn up about. Rage is my superpower, I wish it weren’t but I’m grateful to have something that switches me on, driving me into creative production. I’ve learned that some of my greatest struggles are the source of propulsion for my greatest creative achievements. I am a new film director and will continue to direct, making my own work as well as other wonderful creatives’ projects that I have encountered very recently. I’d say the greatest struggle that I have, aside from being a minority in the film industry, (which I don’t even care or see anymore as an obstacle) is myself and my artificial limiting beliefs that I have to quickly squelch anytime they take root. I can’t take all the credit for that because my self-imposed obstacles are as powerful as I am creative, and it really is the group of inspiring beautiful artists who surround me that is the reason I can tip over to my creative side. They hold me up when I cannot. I couldn’t do it without any one of them nor without my parents who built the platform to grow into this person I am today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Multi-hyphenate is an overused phrase but that’s the best that I could describe myself as I am a director, self-taught visual artist, writer, producer, actor, singer, cellist, storyboard artist. I am a creator. I know how to put things together. I built my own sets for my films without having any previous experience. It’s probably because I grew up with a father who is a genius at circuitry and HVAC systems. So instead of playing with Barbie dolls I was building galleon ships and airplane models, painting them and absolutely loved it.
I’ve been painting and drawing since I was 5 years old and have been professionally commissioned to create oil and acrylic paintings of various sorts for many different clients, mainly impressionistic style or portraiture.
My professional life is one of an actor working in film, television, theater and musical theater. My multi-disciplinary artistic skill sets feed into and empower my directorial capabilities. I am currently in development of two film projects, one short film and one procedural tv style format. But I am most looking forward to working with a colleague on developing his script into my first feature film I will be directing next year.
I don’t ever see myself stopping creating: paintings, films, songs, performances and artistic experiences for people to plug into. That is what is most important to me; to share my experiences in an artistic way in hopes of connecting people to what is truly important in the human experience. To allow them to check out of whatever is bothering them in their day-to-day life and hopefully give them pause. To give them the space to take a breath and sit and think, “hey, maybe today wasn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll be ready to take on another day.” Because that’s all we have when you really think about it. Just today.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Anything that you feel you’re taking a risk or makes you absolutely horrified is the direction you should drive towards. I would have never found my first Mentor if I hadn’t force to drive myself with a crippling migraine to my first film festival’s awards ceremony in Long Island 2 years ago. If I never connected with this filmmaker, I would have never known that he ran his own film festival, thank you Skip Shea of The Shawna Shea Film Festival. But it’s not just forcing yourself into new situations and expecting things to just fall into your lap. You have to actively offer service and offer yourself in any way you can to help people with their projects and goals who are more professional and more experienced than you in every way. It’s time to be humble and it’s not about you and your dreams of being cast in their upcoming projects. It’s how you can help them.
If I never followed up with Skip he would have never suggested for me to apply to the Women in Film Fellowship for first time female film directors. If I wasn’t selected perhaps my award-winning multiple award winning short film, First Refual, which is currently still in the film festival circuit, would have never been made at all. Sometimes I think if you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll never know what you like or not and that’s critical with a mentor. Sometimes I even think the mentor finds you, you’ll know because you’ll feel it. I’ve mentioned in the previous Bold Journey article that I have crippling anxiety and social situations which sometimes prevents me from engaging in as many events as I truly want to in my heart of hearts. Thank God for my support network who remind me that I do have something to offer that would benefit others.
Best advice that I received for networking was to look up some local upcoming events related to the Industry that you want to start being a part of and just go, all in. In my case, filmmakers were congregating at an upcoming film festival not too far away. So just buy a week long festival ticket, go by yourself, don’t bring a friend because you can’t babysit them. This is strictly business and just for you. I made that mistake one night of the festival and vowed to never do that again.
You won’t regret it. It’s scary because even on a local level, everybody knows everyone and then you’re that guy that everyone looks at but has no idea who you are until they do. Until you show them who you are.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://courtneysanello.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/courtneysanello/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/courtneysanello
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneysanello/
- Twitter: https://x.com/courtneysanello
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/courtneysanello
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/courtneysanello
- Other: https://filmfreeway.com/firstrefusal
Image Credits
All image credits are given to Sean Gallagher
https://www.imseangallagher.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imseangallagher