Dito Montiel

After being expelled from high school, Dito MONTIEL (1970, Astoria, Queens) wrote ‘a bunch of madness in pen’ that was published by Avalon Books. He joined a hardcore band and went on tour with them. While on the road he started to develop several ideas for films and tried to capture these ideas while filming them. He came in contact with the actor Robert Downey Jr and that convinced him to make a film with him. Soon he wrote a script that was eventually developed at the Sundance Screenwriters and Filmmakers Lab. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is his first film. It won the director’s award at Sundance, and both the critic’s week award and the Isvema Award at the Venice Film Festival. He is now working as writer and director on his next project Runnin’, which is expected to be finished in 2008.