Michael Rizzi

05/31/2025

10 years!
Best decision of my life.
Happy Anniversary
i love you forever. ❤️

05/13/2022

Global release JUNE 10 exclusively on add it to your watchlists!

Check my previous post for full trailer!

SYNOPSIS:
Four women from different backgrounds forge an unbreakable sisterhood while trapped and in hiding during the genocide in Rwanda. Inspired by true events.

Written and directed by the amazing Alanna Brown

05/15/2021

That’s a wrap on my latest feature aka
Spent a month with great folks up in the beautiful woods near Big Bear shooting this movie. I failed to post anything about it before because i was too busy shooting it. 🤷🏻‍♂️☺️

What an amazing experience working with co-writer/directors & thank you for trusting my eye.

Big thanks to for bringing me in to the project.

04/10/2021

WOW! WE WON!
So proud of this film. Congratulations to everyone involved. 🎉🎉🎉
- Don’t miss the final screening of Alanna Brown's Trees of Peace — WINNER of the SBIFF Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema AND the ADL Stand Up Award sponsored by ADL Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties, the Skinner Social Impact Fund, and Steve and Cindy Lyons!

Trees of Peace will play at the SBIFF Drive-In TODAY (Saturday, April 10th) at 4:30 PM!

Based on events during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, four women from different backgrounds and beliefs are trapped together in an underground room. As they contend with the fear of being found and fight a slow death from starvation, they are forced to reconcile their inner demons and to put their differences aside to live through the day—for 81 days straight.

Trees of Peace is the story of four women who find unity, hope, and strength through one of the world’s darkest tragedies.

Want to stream Trees of Peace at home? Online tickets are available at SBIFF.org/tickets

All films, tributes, and panels are available to watch online until 11:59 PM TONIGHT.

03/26/2021

I’m so excited to announce that my latest feature TREES OF PEACE will be premiering at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on April 9th!

We shot this film in October/November 2019 right before anyone knew how much the world would change. It’s been quite a journey to finish it but I’m so proud of what we were able to accomplish.

Beyond encountering the normal challenges of shooting an independent film TREES OF PEACE posed an even greater, unique creative challenge as most of the film takes place inside a small 5’ x 5’ storage room with 4 women sharing the space, and the story spans almost 3 months of time. Putting that creative puzzle together was quite a process and I’ll be posting more in the future about how we met that challenge.

SYNOPSIS: Based on events during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, four women from different backgrounds and beliefs are trapped together in an underground room. As they contend with the fear of being found and fight a slow death from starvation, they are forced to reconcile their inner demons and put their differences aside to live through the day—for 81 days straight. TREES OF PEACE is the story of four women who find unity, hope, and strength through one of the world’s darkest tragedies.

Thank you and congratulations to our incredible, talented and unflinching writer/director for trusting me to help translate your beautiful script to the screen for your debut film.

Starring the incredible talents of:


Big thanks to my amazing crew for always making me look good and to for bringing me onto this project initially.

If you would like to see the film, is hosting virtual screenings for $10/ticket or for those near Santa Barbara, there will be a giant free Covid safe drive-in!!

Link in bio for more information!

01/06/2021

09/25/2020

Fun lil’ westside B-Roll day / location scavenger hunt with who also 📸 these pics and perfectly captured my amazing operating stance. 🤪
It’s for a doc series I’ve been working on for a couple of months. Nice to be busy. Stay safe out there!

09/04/2020

The Argument is out today on VOD! You can watch it on , ,

I’m so proud of this film and what our incredible cast and crew accomplished together.

We had a super fun time shooting this film last spring. It was a lot of folks squeezed into in a small house location…which seems like a bonkers concept in 2020. Hope you enjoy!

08/22/2020

THE ARGUMENT

The official poster! So excited to share that our film is being released in virtual theaters and VOD on Sept. 4th and is available for preorder on iTunes now!! (Link in bio)

“The Argument” follows Jack (Dan Fogler from the Fantastic Beasts franchise) and his girlfriend, Lisa (Emma Bell from The Walking Dead) as they get into an argument during a get together with some friends in their apartment. As the argument escalates, the party comes to an end and all their friends leave — but the party isn’t really over. Jack and Lisa recreate the party over and over again — with all their guests — in order to figure out who was right.

08/19/2020

When you take your son to a demo of ‘s .spider 💡because daycare is still closed he gets to be in front of the 📷

08/12/2020

Finally some good news in 2020!

Very happy to announce that our film
THE ARGUMENT
will be released on September 4th!
We had such a fun time making this comedy and hope that you will enjoy watching it and maybe escape the stresses of the world for a bit.

06/02/2020

🖕🏼
✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿