My name is Ryan Macri – I am the founder of the House Of ValaStarr and this is a little bit about who I am and how Cinema has shaped my life.

Film in the theatre. Film in my mind. The house lights dim, and a shaft of image-filled light cuts through the dark. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be part of that magic — to create moving images that shimmer on the silver screen and live in the hearts of an audience.

My journey has never been straightforward. I’ve struggled with dyslexia, with systems not built for me, and with circumstances that demanded resilience. But every obstacle sharpened my vision. Trial and error became my teachers. Resourcefulness became my style. I once built a wooden dolly on makeshift pipe rails to capture a moving shot. Another time, I constructed an entire room in an attic with fabric walls when no set existed. For me, mistakes are not failures — they are the forge where art is born.

My work is often about feeling out of place in the world — and creating surreal, mythic spaces where the uncanny collides with the everyday. I’m drawn to Magical Realism, to Classic Hollywood glamour, and to the strange beauty of experimental cinema that plays with the very language of film. I love genre — science fiction, fantasy, westerns — for the way it lets me bend conventions and transcend them. My background in painting, theater, and improvisation has given me a visual and performative instinct for storytelling, while my obsession with cinema’s history fuels my drive to innovate.

Every film I create is an invitation: to dream, to question, to laugh, to feel wonder.

I live my life — and make my art — with the same philosophy: through risk, reinvention, and generosity of spirit. I want my audiences to feel what I felt as a child, sitting in the dark, heart racing, waiting for that first beam of projected light.

I will always be looking for a way to turn daydreams into projected light.