Multi-Facial is a 1995 short film directed, written, produced, scored by and starring the 22 year old Vin Diesel. The story depicts the professional and emotional issues faced by Mike (Diesel), a multiracial (Italian and African American) actor. The twenty-minute film is semi-autobiographical, drawing on Vin Diesel’s own frustration trying to find work as an actor of mixed ethnicity. The film was noticed by director Steven Spielberg, who would cast Diesel in Saving Private Ryan (1998).
Multi Facial
In the early 1990s, Diesel returned from Los Angeles to New York, frustrated with his failures in Hollywood. Diesel’s mother gave him a copy of Feature Films at Used Car Prices, a book about producing low-budget movies. Diesel said that he found the book “truly empowering,” and it motivated him to make his own movies and wrote the script for Multi-Facial in five days. He produced and directed the film, shooting it over the course of three days for three thousand dollars.
Vin Diesel also wrote and performed music for the film. However, Diesel became disillusioned by the response to the film and stopped work on it. With encouragement from his stepfather, Diesel finished the final edit and screened the film at the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. He received a strong response, and the film was accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film was screened to standing-room only crowds.
The closing audition scene in the film is unexpectedly emotional, and effortlessly, it organically concludes the themes built up throughout the film. A great showcase for Diesel, the film works amazingly well cinematically, making it one of the great short films on acting ever made.
NEVER GIVE UP YOUR DREAM !
