Best of the Bronx: Romel Rodriguez

Movies and television are what Bronx resident Romel Rodriguez has always enjoyed, and now he is finally creating his own with the help of a full Latino and African-American cast.
In his short career, director Rodriguez has done a few short films, but now he's making his first feature film.
"There are times where you get scared and you're like, 'damn, this is really hard,' but there's no other choice. This is what drives me to get up and do it,” says Rodriguez.

The movie is about a young Latino entrepreneur named Alex, played by actor Marc Reign, who is down on his luck financially. Meanwhile, his mother loses her life savings to a scam. To help the both of them, he decides to start an unconventional business.

"Say I'm at a bar and I want to talk to this girl, but she's already talking to this guy. I call the main characters and I'm like, 'Yo, I need your help. Can you show up and help me?' I take it to extra lengths with bizarre events that happen. They're really funny,” says Rodriguez.

The full cast is Latino and African-American actors with a combined 7 million followers on all of their social media accounts.
Rodriguez says the best part is getting his community together to film this.

"My friends, comedians, actors, people who want a bigger platform to show that they're professionals. They all have a lot of talent and potential, but the way the industry works is that Hollywood doesn't really see them as actors,” says Rodriguez.

As social media influencers, he says, it's harder for them to be taken seriously, but they look forward to the day they can say they all made it together.

"And when the movie is done I'm going to need an entertainment lawyer to draw up some official documents,” says Rodriguez.

For now, they're shooting a promo video to help with the Kickstarter campaign that's starting next month to fundraise for the budget.