Directing

Adrian Esposito

Rochester, New York, USA

Adrian Esposito was born in Rochester, NY. He is of Lithuanian and Italian heritage and on the autism spectrum. Adrian discovered a love for film when he saw The Nutty Professor (1963) and later Dawn of the Dead (1979). This led him to take classes at Rochester’s Animation Workshop at Animatus Studio when he was twelve years old. In 2008, Adrian received his certificate in Radio and Television Broadcasting from Monroe #1 BOCES Eastern Monroe Career Center. Adrian's company Espocinema was formed in 2008 with the production of his first feature documentary Aging Trees of Knowledge. For that film and the documentaries that followed, Adrian learned to shoot interviews, edit, and distribute with a team of professionals. In 2013 Adrian wrote, produced and edited the narrative film Bury My Heart With Tonawanda, which was directed by Tonawanda Seneca Nation actor Gary Sundown. In 2016, Adrian was named "Filmmaker of the Year" at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, and his film Diffability Hollywood won Best Documentary Feature at the same festival. His films have also won the Los Angeles Red Nation Film Festival Courage Award twice, and his film We Can Shine: From Institutions to Independence was named Best Documentary at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival. He is a spokesperson for self-advocates, helping the world accept people with disabilities as capable and thus seeing their disabilities as "diffabilities." Since 2016 Adrian moved away from doing historical and educational documentaries to more entertainment themed documentaries and narrative films. His narrative directorial debut was the horror film Clowns in the Woods. For Clowns in the Woods and then Special Needs Revolt, Adrian has gained attention for casting people with disabilities in prominent roles

Acting credits

5.7

Mad scientist Prospero runs away with his blind daughter Miranda to Tromaville, hiding from evil pharmaceutical execs, including his own sister Antoinette who ruined his career after he found the cure against opioid addiction. With the help of a handicapped crack-whore, he releases a massive amount of laxative to whales, while his enemies are on a cruise ship to North Korea. A humongous shitstorm washes the boat away and brings them to Tromaville, where Prospero can now fully realize his ultimate vengeance.

#Shakespeare's Shitstorm

2020

Diffability Hollywood is a documentary about the history of people with disabilities in entertainment, how things have changed and still can improve.

Diffability Hollywood

2016

6.0

Megan, a Buffalo police officer suffering from PTSD, goes on a weekend camping trip with her partner Jeremy and his friends Blake and Gabriella. When Megan and Jeremy witness an execution by a rogue sheriff's department, the quartet finds itself hunted by different factions of an armed militia.

Guns of Eden

2022

5.0

In a future dystopia, a man with Down syndrome joins a rebellion against America's cruel dictator who has put all people with disabilities back into institutions.

Special Needs Revolt!

2024

1.2

Marcus, a young man with a disability, is bullied and killed after a prank goes wrong. In the afterlife, he meets a group of ghostly clowns who help him exact revenge on those who have wronged him.

Clowns in the Woods

2021

8.0

Six people find themselves trapped in Love Canal, Niagara Falls, an old toxic waste site, and witness the first hours of the plague that brings the dead back to life.

The Plague

2016

4.0

A murderous gorilla escapes from the zoo to go on a killing spree.

Psycho Ape!

2020