Fresh Kills

“Fresh Kills isn’t at all autobiographical, yet it’s all me, says first time writer/director Jennifer Esposito. “I did take pieces of people I grew up around and I used the essence of where I grew up to inform the characters’ world, but every character has some part of me in them. Staten Island, where I grew up and where the film takes place, felt very repressed and claustrophobic to me so that really influenced me when writing. The essence of the film is simple – it’s finding a voice in a world that tells you not to have one and I’ve felt that way my entire life.”