Everyday ordinary extraordinary men: Jon

Everyday Ordinary Extraordinary Men

Meet Jon Artigo.
Jon is a husband, father, creative. He loves comedy and writing movies.
With over twenty-five years of experience in the film and television industry, Jon has written and directed numerous award-winning feature films, short films, and television pilots. Most recently, he wrote “Letters to Santa” for the Hallmark Channel, which premiered this last November, 2023. Jon served as the Senior Program Director for the Digital Filmmaking Bachelor’s Degree at the Los Angeles Film School. He created and launched the Cinematic Arts Major at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and chaired the department for five years before accepting a position at Universal Studios Japan, helping to develop Virtual Reality attractions for theme parks in Hollywood, Orlando and Osaka. Through his production Company, 444 Creative Content, Jon has written and directed various films and television pilots, including “Still Green”, “Breakdance Academy” and “Sorry I Killed You”. Jon, whose work has been featured at film festivals, including the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, studied at the highly acclaimed Improv Olympic with the late Del Close in Chicago. He has performed in over 250 live comedy shows and has shared the stage with Jeff Garlin acted alongside Amy Adams.

You can find out more about your hosts here: www.linktr.ee/martinacaviezel or www.linktr.ee/christinasweeny.
Context:
Most humans have a lot of preconceived notions and stereotypes about gender. Ex: Men are tough, silent, forceful; women are chatty, manipulative, emotional.
In doing that we put people in a box and often forget to see beyond those labels. And if someone is not fitting the mold we might call them tomboy or sissy. Those and similar labels often cause discord.
What would a world look like, where we go beyond our preconceived notions and understand that we are much more than our gender, that we humans are strong and soft and gentle, deep and powerful, tough, fierce and open, that qualities are not specific to a gender, that we all have all qualities available to express? What would a world look like where we all are free to be who we choose to be and express all our emotions?
When we allow ourselves to express the so-called masculine and feminine qualities within ourselves, we set ourselves free. When we allow others to do the same, when we accept all of them, we create synergy, peace and harmony.

You can find out more about your hosts here: www.linktr.ee/martinacaviezel or www.linktr.ee/christinasweeny.