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B. R. Tatalovic (a.k.a. Bruno Tatalovic), Serbian-American motion picture artist and media educator was born in 1966, in Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). After high school, he worked as a milling machine operator, while collecting VHS tapes in his spare time and operating an underground video store. In 1988, upon completion of mandatory Yugoslav peacetime military service, he moved to the United States, living with his Serbian immigrant relatives in Ohio, and pursuing permanent residency in America. As a young immigrant without college education, Tatalovic performed various blue collar jobs for many years: machinist, union steelworker (USW), carpenter, and housing maintenance-man. Between 1995 and 2005 he attended college evening-classes for working adults, pursuing creative arts degrees at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) and Cleveland State University (CSU). At the same time, he completed filmmaking workshops by Robert C. Banks, Stephen R. Campanella, as well as popular "2-Day Film School" by Dov Simens. While studying visual communication at CSU, Tatalovic created his debut motion pictures on 16mm and DV formats, most notably the thesis film The Bad Guy Speaks (2005), a short thriller-noir written by his first screenwriting collaborator Dennis Goldberg. After its initial public show in Cleveland (2005), Tatalovic was invited to screen at "Nasi u Svetu" (a presentation of works by Serbian diaspora filmmakers), at 2006 Belgrade/Martovski DSFF; his first public artwork exhibition in Serbia.
In 2006 Tatalovic formed Belgrade & Cleveland Media Group, a sole member micro-studio for video/film production. One of his first producing projects was a North American concert tour by well-known musicians from former Yugoslavia: Zeljko Bebek, Alen Islamovic, Mladen-Tifa Vojicic, Srdjan 'Gile' Gojkovic, Vladimir Divljan. Using small crew "run-and-gun" cinéma vérité approach, and working as producer, cameraman, director, and editor - Tatalovic covers live concerts and behind-the-scenes stories, releasing his first live-concert DVDs and the full-length documentary feature B.A.T.: Balkan Rock Nostalgia (2008). In the same year, he enters higher-ed academic field, teaching videography for court reporting at the local technical college. A year later Tatalovic was invited to Hollywood, California, for an interview with the American Film Institute (AFI) as one of top 50 applicants for AFI's highly sought-after MFA program in film producing. After failing to become an AFI fellow, he secured a spot at another prestigious academic institution - Chapman University's Dodge Conservatory of Film, where he studied under mentorship of Alexandra Rose, David S. Ward, and several other award winning Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) educators. Between 2007 and 2009, while living and studying in California, Tatalovic worked on numerous film projects (on 16mm, 35mm, and DV formats) in various positions, collaborating with talented motion picture artists from around the world: Darryl Wharton-Rigby, Ammar Rasool, Mian Adnan Ahmad, Cecil Moller, Jonada Jashari, Nick Corporon, Prarthana Mohan, Daniel D'Alimonte. As part of his Master thesis work, Tatalovic produced a short film Fiasco (2009), a multiple award winning comedy (directed by Nadia Hamzeh and starring Navid Negahban), which resulted in an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation (ATAS "EmmyFoundation") nomination for collegiate TV production and several festival awards. At the same time, he interns for Sony Pictures Entertainment, working as marketing assistant on several big Hollywood releases.
In 2009, Tatalovic gets an offer to teach creative arts in Ohio as full-time faculty member, earning an academic tenure in 2014 (Cuyahoga Community College) and an Indie Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award for Teaching (Int. Indie Gathering Convention, 2016). Besides academic engagements, he continues to work on independent film productions. In 2011, through an online ad, Tatalovic met his new writing partner Robert Graziosi. A newly completed spec-script titled Dying 2 Meet U (2012) enters preproduction. Despite lack of proper financing and available resources, the micro-budget satirical comedy, starring Ohio's charismatic character actor Rick Montgomery Jr., gets completed and released in 2012, screening at Scare-a-Con pop culture convention and the Indie Gathering IFF. In 2014, Tatalovic entered preproduction of his next spec feature Lux in Tenebris (2017), a complex socio-cultural urban drama about contemporary America (co-produced with Alex Russo and Deborah Ochwat). The crowdfunded and self-financed micro ULB production was executed on numerous locations and using highly diverse cast, including an appearance by OSCAR® Nominee Eric Roberts. The film gets released three years later via Amazon's Prime streaming and VOD platform.
Tatalovic's first screen-acting work dates back to the late 1970s, when he appeared as a background extra with his classmates in a popular Serbian children's series Babino unuce (1976). As an actor in the U.S. (since 2004), he worked on numerous titles, from being a background player in blockbuster movies, to various lead and supporting roles in American underground, independent, and SAG-AFTRA productions, sharing dialogue lines with Mary Faktor, Stephen Dorff, Terry Kiser, and others. In addition to screen acting, Tatalovic continued to work in many other key creative roles on student produced projects, as well as numerous indie short and feature films, collaborating with award winning visual artists such as: Bryant Anderson, Chris Hlywiak, Kurt Broz, James Neyman, Scott E. Brosius, Donn R. Nottage, Robert Swanson, Johnny Chechitelli, D.C. Evans, Andrew Numbers, Nick Fiorella, Mikhail Tot, Johnny K. Wu, Peach Martine.
Tatalovic's cine-artwork exhibitions include numerous shows in the U.S., as well as festival screenings in his native region: Croatian One-Minute Film Festival, Serbia's Martovski DSFF, Bistre Reke SFF, Mister Vorky International Festival of Cinema Art, and Jahorina Film Festival (Bosnia). His accolades include: film festival awards for producing, directing, editing, and acting, the State of Ohio recognitions for small business startup (from Senator Mike DeWine and Congrasswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones), the College Television Award from Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, as well as multiple contest nominations/awards for screenwriting. Exhibited at over 100 film festivals and conventions, including motion media shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Cleveland, 2017), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA, 2005). In 2018 he founded Kinodrome Film Festival, an annual short-form motion picture and screenplay event for up-and-coming artists and student content creators. Tatalovic is a member of American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS - Great Lakes Chapter). He resides and works in Cleveland, (Ohio, USA) with his life-partner and producing associate Deborah Ochwat.
