HUNGRY FOR LOVE will be a one of a kind movie. Never before has New York been featured like this as two romantic misfits meet for the first time and embark on five-borough dining adventure!
Many people go to New York City looking for their big break. With the sheer diversity of New Yorkers, you are bound to find delicious, unique and cultural places to dine, too. And one movie aims to capture it all! Hungry for Love is the first feature film collaboration for writer/director Justin Ambrosino and producer Soojin Chung, both graduates of the American Film Institute (AFI). Ambrosino’s short The 8th Samurai won several awards and qualified for an Academy Award, while Chung has worked on multiple films in South Korea, including Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. She also produced the surreal Escape from Tomorrow, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to acclaim.
Hungry for Love is about two down-and-out New Yorkers, Giovanni and Priscilla, who couldn’t be more different: Priscilla is struggling to publish her first book, after receiving a philosophy Ph. D., and Giovanni is a pastry delivery driver with dreams of traveling America on a food crawl. And each have faced their fair share of hardships: the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, overwhelming student debt… but when they meet for the first time they realize they also share a mutual passion for food. And that’s when their unexpected journey begins. On a whim, they decide to go on an all-night, five-borough dining adventure together. Determined to leave all their personal struggles behind, and enjoy themselves once and for all, they explore cultural neighborhoods, meet unique characters and eat dishes to die for. But along the way, they realize they can’t escape their problems and must face them head-on. So, as they begin to peel back the onion of their lives, they ultimately find out who they really are.
Hungry for Love will be writer/director Justin Ambrosino feature film debut. This is a true passion project for Justin. He wasn’t always a filmmaker, actually he grew up in the restaurant business. “My father, from Torre del Greco, opened an Italian restaurant in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 1977 and sold it over 5 years ago. It was a 35-year run for him. I am 33. It was all I knew,” Justin says as he recalls, “I saw everything from young lovers proposing over spaghetti alle vongole to seasoned lovers cheating over ricotta cheesecake. I even saw someone get beat with a wooden pepper grinder! Food was always central to the stories I’d see and hear and soon it became a personal passion of mine.”
After Justin segued into movies, he began developing his first feature and he wanted to tell a personal story, set in the world he grew up in – NYC restaurants. Justin says, “using food, restaurants and New York City as the backdrop, I can fill every frame with the things I love the most, like I love how you can find every kind of cuisine here, and it’s more specific than other cities, we not only have Caribbean cuisine but we have Haitian, Jamaican, Bajan! Every borough, every town within every borough, and every block within every town, is culturally diverse! Like in Queens, you can walk around and see nothing but Greek food with Greek signage, then turn the corner and see nothing but Korean food and signage! That’s what makes New York City beautiful!”
There is a bittersweet scene in the screenplay where the characters are going to an Argentinean restaurant in Queens that Giovanni has great memories of eating at as a kid, but when they arrive they find out it will be closing for good the very next day. They have a “last supper” of sorts and share a moment with the chef who has mixed feelings himself about what’s happening. “You see, this is a story I hear all the time in New York. Every day a new landmark restaurant is closing. Whether it is the raising of rents, the owners retiring or the competition winning, it’s really hard to pinpoint the answer to the change, but this is NYC, change is inevitable.” Justin continues, “with the influx of new restaurants offering farm-to-table, organic cuisines, with locally sourced ingredients, the older restaurants are put into a dilemma: change their menu and offend their regulars or stick with their menu but get passed over by new residents. I think the most successful restaurants are the ones that were originally farm-to-table, always using locally sourced ingredients and that changed their menus frequently–they stayed fresh with each generation.”
The film is being produced by Sundance alumni, Soojin Chung, whose previous film “Escape from Tomorrow” sent shock waves through the industry. Soojin believes that while Hungry for Love is a fun, New York food movie, there is also something else it is about – Body Image. Both Soojin and Justin have dealt with their own weight related issues, whether it be themselves or in their family, and through those experiences they believe the same thing – no matter what size you are, you deserve to be respected and have the choice to live your life by your own terms. And they aim to prove that by casting non-traditional romantic leads. “I think we need something to combat the overwhelming amount of beauty and fitness advertisements that preach only skinny is beautiful, so there will be no “skinny babe” or “chiseled hunk” in Hungry for Love. Instead, it is just regular people—who also deserve a happy ending.”
Currently, “Hungry for Love” is running a Kickstarter campaign in order to raise $60,000 for pre-production. If you connect in any way with this story, whether you are a big time foodie, chef, New Yorker, please join the campaign to make Hungry for Love. They cannot make this movie with out you!
JUSTIN AMBROSINO (Writer/Director) graduated from the American Film Institute where he received the prestigious Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell Scholarship. His short, “The 8th Samurai”, won more than 20 jury awards worldwide and qualified for the Academy Awards Shorts Category. Previously, Ambrosino was an assistant on numerous films such as “The Departed”, “Lord of War” and “The Producers”, as well as a Sapporo Artist-in-Residence, Kyoto Filmmaker’s Lab Fellow and a shadow director on “Law & Order: SVU”. Currently, Ambrosino is working on his feature debut “Hungry for Love”.
SOOJIN CHUNG (Producer) produced “Escape from Tomorrow” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. The LA Times called it “one of the most provocative movies ever seen” and Variety said, “Its cult status will remain immortal”. “Hungry for Love” will be Soojin’s feature film follow-up. Previously, Soojin worked on eight major feature films including Park Chan-Wook’s Venice winner “Lady Vengeance”. She also participated in the IFP Trans Atlantic Partners Program, Film Independent Project Involve, Tokyo Talent Campus and the CAAM Fellowship. In 2013, Chung was awarded one of the Best New American Filmmakers by the Vilchek Foundation.
To find out more visit the films’ Kickstarter: bit.ly/hungryforlove
For further inquiries write Soojin Chung at: soojin@forerunnerfilms.com
