Damned Are The Lost (2019)

After suffering the abuse of a close family member, a young man is forced to question his own sexuality and must decide what it truly means to be a man.

Director Biography - George Carrillo

Born & raised in New York City, George is an emerging independent filmmaker and jack of all trades who has adapted to all needed positions in the film & television industry, though his area of expertise is primarily as a Writer/Director/Editor. He graduated from Hofstra University’s Lawrence Herbert School of Communication with a degree in filmmaking.

In 2012, while at Hofstra, George’s student film “My Angel” was an official selection of the International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM). After graduating, George worked in supporting roles in various projects in the film & television industry to expand his experience. However his passion for working on his own independent films, led him to want to further expand his knowledge of the workings of the industry. In 2018 he enrolled in continuing studies at the New York Film Academy where he created 3 short films, one of which, titled “Damned Are The Lost”, was an official selection of 3 film festivals: Art Slope 2019-Shorts in the Slope Film Festival; Manhattan Rep’s Stories Film Festival 2019 & The Brightside Film Festival 2019.

George continues to create projects in spite of the challenges he faces with a physical disability he has had since he was a young boy. George struggles with an unspecified neuromuscular disorder which causes unpredictable muscle spasms that can be so debilitating at times that he is unable to stand or sit without intense pain. His episodes can last a day or as long as a few weeks. However his most recent major episode in 2019 led him to be hospitalized and he still currently is working on his road to full recovery.

In spite of his physical limitations, George has been inspired through the pandemic to still create. Even during recovery, he adapted by using technology like ZOOM meetings to work on various projects & has recently returned to work on film shoots and is presently in post-production of his next short film titled “Broken Puzzle”.

George hopes that through his work, he can show others that no one should be held back by their own limitations or by those imposed by their environment in a post-COVID world, but simply be driven by the reach of their imagination.”

Director Statement

Though we live in a more accepting time than that of our parents and their parents before them, life is still not perfect. There are so many people who are still criticized, marginalized, attacked, feared, and hated for doing nothing more than just being who they are. There are those who want us to be divided by the color of our skin, by what gender we are, by where we are from or where we were born, by what God we worship if we worship one, and ultimately who we choose to love.

My film is dedicated to all those people, especially to the “LOST,” all those who have been forced to repress who they truly are, all those that been been forced to hide to “be like everyone else,” and all those who choose to live in a bubble of unhappiness moving nowhere out of fear of violence and being rejected by their friends and family. To all members of the LGBT community, to my friends, family, and to strangers and my fellow human beings, this is dedicated to all of you.