Branislav R. Tatalovic

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 1987 he completed mandatory Yugoslav military service and a year later he moved to the United States, living with his relatives in Cleveland, Ohio, and pursuing permanent residency in America. Bruno's "green card" was approved in 1990, opening a new chapter in his life. As a young immigrant, without higher education, Tatalovic performed various blue collar jobs: union steelworker (USW), machinist, K-Mart portrait photographer and housing maintenance-man. In the late 1990s he returned to college, pursuing visual arts and media degrees at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) and Cleveland State University (CSU). At the same time, he attended filmmaking workshops by Robert C. Banks and Stephen R. Campanella, as well as popular "2-Day Film School" by Dov Simens. While 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 be part of "Nasi u Svetu" program, at 2006 Belgrade DSFF (known today as Martovski Festival) in Serbia, the first public artwork exhibition in his native country. In 2006 Tatalovic formed Belgrade & Cleveland Media Group, a sole member micro-studio for video and film production. He was contracted to shoot 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" documentary production approach, and working as producer, cameraman, director, and editor - he covers live concerts and behind-the-scenes stories, releasing his first live-concert videos and the full-length documentary feature B.A.T.: Balkan Rock Nostalgia (2008). In the same year, Tatalovic enters higher-ed academic field, teaching videography for court reporters at the local 2-year college. After applying to several top U. S. film production graduate programs, in 2007 Tatalovic landed an interview with the American Film Institute (AFI). He failed to become an AFI fellow, but he secured a spot at 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, he worked on numerous film projects (on 16mm, 35mm, and DV formats) in various positions, collaborating with talented motion picture artists from various countries: Darryl Wharton, Ammar Rasool, Mian Adnan Ahmad, Cecil Moller, Jonada Jashari, Nick Corporon, Prarthana Mohan, Daniel D'Alimonte. As part of his graduate thesis work, in 2009, he 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. Following his departure from Los Angeles in 2009, Tatalovic gets an offer to teach film and media studies in Ohio, earning an academic tenure in 2014 (Cuyahoga Community College) and an Indie Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award for Teaching (International Indie Gathering Convention, 2016). Besides full-time academic engagements, he continues to work on film productions in his home state of Ohio. 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 comedy, starring Ohio's charismatic character actor Rick Montgomery Jr., gets completed and released in 2012, earning couple of awards at indie festivals. In 2014, Tatalovic entered preproduction of his next feature Lux in Tenebris (2017), a complex socio-cultural urban drama about contemporary America (co-produced by Alex Russo and Deborah Ochwat). Created on union's ultra-low budget, on numerous locations and with 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., 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, [nm=nm2881352], 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, and Robert Swanson. Tatalovic's accolades include: independent 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 worldwide: over 100 film festivals and conventions, including video 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 media 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 coproducer Deborah Ochwat.