A DARK ROMANCE CREATIVITY & ADDICTION
Diana Cignoni
Diana Cignoni was born and brought up in Germany, and moved to New York City at age 23 to study acting at HB Studios with legendary teachers Elizabeth Dillon and Geraldine Baron of the Actors Studio.
Diana moved to Los Angeles at age 25 to study with Charlie Laughton, mentor and teacher to Al Pacino. He remains her biggest creative influence to this day. She made two films with him; “It’s so much like luck you know”, which screened in 2004 at the Topanga Film Festival, and “Somewhere in the Background” featuring his poetry and philosophy. Diana joined the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble KOAN in 2002 and created with this team six multiple award winning productions such as Talking Sides, Buddha’s Big Nite, Kafka Thing, Sliding into Hades, A Man’s A Man and The Arsonists.
Diana is founder of the production company Ground Hero and produced, directed, wrote several short films, image films & documentaries. Her first film Jade: Portrait of a Street Hustler screened in 2001 in the NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Competition. Her second film Hollywood Forever screened in 2003 at the LA SHORT FEST. Diana has always felt a strong pull towards iconic moments of beauty and the surreal quality of random existence, and that sensibility informs her cinematic work. She has always chosen a creative, vision-filled path throughout her carrier working in modeling, acting and now in filmmaking.
She currently completed One Weekend, her first feature film she wrote and directed that is based on a true story, starring Gabriel Freilich, Ron Bottitta and Norber Weisser. She brings her unique European sensibility as a director to this haunting story of love, loss and mystery. She is assisted by Andria Chamberlin as the cinematographer and Pete Kneser as composer and sound designer. She also begun pre-production in July 2013 of a documentary working title: " Addiction & Creativity - a Dark Romance" or "DRUGS AND GENIUS" .