Biography
Born in Englewood, New Jersey as Jack Herbert Christal-Gattanella (both his mother and fathers' last names), he originally wanted to be an animator as a child, and was a vociferous fan of animated movies and cartoons. After realizing his attempts at drawing were less than satisfactory, he became a fan of and studied movies - all kinds of movies, and began trying to write screenplays when he was 15. He also was an avid creative writer, and in his teens and his early 20's wrote short fiction and poetry along with his first attempts at short films and screenplays.
After being accepted into William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, he put all of his extra time and energy into making short films and writing. As a member of the Student Film Association he made his own and helped work on other students' shorts. His first shorts, which he made on his own unconnected with school, were Infidelio (2004) and Untitled Impound (2005). He used a single JVC Camcorder for these shorts, and was heavily inspired by filmmakers Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes, as well as television sitcoms (Seinfeld (1989) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)).
During this time, in 2005, he met an actor, Zack Abramowitz, whom he would later collaborate on many projects. Gattanella was impressed by Zack, a last-minute replacement in 'Impound' as the "Junior Lawyer" Mel Klein, and later cast him in the surreal-comedy short, Harold Maxx (2006), which began life as a short for a class. Along with working on Jack's projects as director, Jack has also served as script supervisor on Zack and Michael (2008), Zack's debut as a writer-director, and on the web-series Losers as a cameraman. They now have a collaboration effort, 'JackandZack Films', which is dedicated to making comedy shorts, starting with Lines of Glory (2009), which is already making the rounds at festivals.
Graduating in 2006, Gattanella kept focusing on screen-writing, and has continued to do so today, working in various genres and types (horror-sci/fi, drama, thriller, dark-comedy, and police procedural). He's soon to go into production on his first feature film as director, based on the characters created in his first short film Infidelio titled 'Green Eyes'. He survives by his wife, a Political Science professor, and his family, who often make cameos in his films.
