John Cannizzaro grew up in New England and attended the University of Vermont where he graduated with a degree in business administration. While pursuing his business degree, he also studied film theory and literature.
He relocated to Los Angeles in 1990 and made several short films before making the 50-minute short feature film, CRITICAL MASS. The film was reviewed by Paul Malcolm in the November 22, 1996 LA Weekly as a "low key tale of guttersnipe mysticism .... CRITICAL MASS is heavy on mood and symbolism with Cannizzaro drawing some beautiful compositions .... What's most intriguing about the film is the connection it makes between spiritualism and ennui."
Cannizzaro is currently working on his first full-length feature, The Left Hand Path, as well as two short experimental documentaries. He continues to work primarily in Super 8 because of his love for its painterly and non "realistic" rendering of images as he strives for insight that is more intuitive than logical. Furthermore, shooting in Super 8 provides the subversive thrill of using a consumer medium for something other than home movies and illustrating that there is no one "proper" way of making a film.
Shot on Super 8 and blown up to 16mm for a dreamlike effect, CRITICAL MASS is a strange, poetic vision of childhood.
From its first vision sequence to its consequential conclusion, the film follows one boy's wanderings, both internal and external, as he tries to make sense of his world. Life, death, time and place become interchangeable when he happens upon a dead crow, a barren hilltop and a small boy who serves as a catalyst for his actions.
CRITICAL MASS explores the power of childhood imagination that makes play become reality.
1996, 16mm, color/so, 50m, $135