“LOVE WILL TEAR US APART.”
86 Minutes. 2013. A jaded pair of friends become infatuated with the same person.
Well, this is my first feature film. I was 22 when I started planning it, 24 by the time the edit was complete. I was an art student in San Francisco and I took some semesters off to make this movie with other art students and local artists. I was inspired to make a feature length movie after watching the French cinema of the Nouvelle Vague and discovering the masterpiece "Les Amours Imaginaires." I had a budget of roughly $7000 and most of that went into buying camera gear and wardrobe. It was surprisingly difficult to find a young gay actor in San Francisco who connected to the lead gay character, so I cast myself as other directors have done before. Although I think I’m a good actor, I decided after this film to never act in my own projects ever again. To this day I am eternally grateful to all the people who were a part of making this movie and who gave their time and spaces to me. When I look at this film now, a decade later, it seems like a miracle that the film was completed, and I feel extremely proud of it.
Kaleigh Macchio as Genevieve. August Roads as Max. Azure Valencia as Adrian. Written & Directed by Azure Valencia. Cinematography by Ben Leon. Assistant Director Mikel Bossette. Production Design by Edward Michael. 
“CRUSH IT.” (OUT IN 2025)
A gay teenager spends his last summer before college with his estranged, toxic father.
My 2nd feature film is currently in its final stages of sound mix and will be released in 2025. This was another grass roots, guerrilla, barely any money production. We shot it in 2016 when I was 26 and it has taken me many more years than my 1st film to complete. Finishing the final cut of “Crush It.” has been a long process. A nearly 2 1/2 hour original edit was condensed to 1 hour and 40 minutes. I edited it by myself with some counsel from friends. I edited it while also writing new scripts, making music videos, moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, working as a production assistant in Hollywood, working jobs, paying bills, maintaining an effervescent social life, and having to deal with the financial realities of filmmaking. However, I am happy to say that the final edit is something that I am very proud of.
We made this movie in Sacramento and the Bay Area. I lived with my cinematographer, and my main cast, in a cheap hotel in Sacramento for over a month. We shot this all over the Sacramento area, a lot of it guerrilla style. An indie producer based in Sacramento helped me find actors and businesses who were willing to help us and be part of the film for little or no compensation. This was another film that, despite the sweat and tears in making it, made me realize how truly blessed I was to have made films in the Bay Area when I was young. There’s something very open and giving about the people in Northern California. Perhaps it is because they do not have the toxic specter of Hollywood hanging over them like we do in Los Angeles...
Brian Brigantti as Jacob. Aaron Holliday as Aaron. Erwin Galen as Marc. Written & Directed by Azure Valencia. Cinematography by Edward Michael.