Danbury Library Blog

favorite bio:

Jorge Moran was raised in rural Waverly, Tennessee by his great-grandmother, his mom who suffered from schizophrenia and his Cuban father. Early on Jorge was drawn toward the arts, spending much of his time drawing and watching films. He recalls how film even at a young age had a life changing impact on him. In the 4th grade he saw Rocky for the first time and it inspired him so much that he went from being a heavy kid of 139 pounds to a normal weight of 100 pounds in just three months. Jorge says that film has always been therapeutic for him, and that most of the personal revelations he has had in life have come from watching films. Films such as East Of Eden, Roots, Being There, 8 ½, The World According To Garp, The Shinning, E.T., Breakfast Club, Eraser Head, Dead Poets Society, Glory, Steel Magnolias, The Color Purple, Blue Velvet, Forrest Gump, Amelie, Lost In Translation, Mystic River, and recently; The New World have had a particular influence on him both personally and creatively.

In 1985, at the age of 18, he was awarded a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design for a drawing competition that he had won. Jorge left home and moved to Savannah, Georgia, majored in Video Production, and in his spare time performed in many theater productions. In 1988, Jorge won Best documentary and Best Drama at the SCAD Video Awards. However, Jorge struggled with depression while at college and due to the unexpected death of his great grandmother he left college his senior year without graduating. Jorge left his dreams of being a filmmaker behind and moved back home to help take care of his sick mother.

A few months later with his mother feeling better and after being laid off from a factory job in Waverly, he decided to move to Los Angeles, California to pursue his dream of being a film actor. Jorge found depression to be worse than ever in Los Angeles and struggled to audition as well as pay the rent. A profound loneliness began to overwhelm him. After three years in Los Angeles, in 1992, just after the Los Angeles riots, his dreams of being an actor were once again left behind and he moved back home to be close to his mother and father.

Jorge was diagnosed with Clinical Depression and began taking medication for his condition. He knew he had to conquer depression before his dreams of being an actor or filmmaker could ever come true, so for the next 10 years he began to make small but positive changes in his life, which led to his depression going away. At the age of 35 free of depression, he decided to pursue his dream of being a filmmaker once more. In 2002 he moved back to Savannah, Georgia to continue his education at the Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2006, with his first dream fulfilled, he had finally graduated, produced, directed, and written an original short film entitled "Theodore", about a lonely African American male who suffers from schizophrenia. "Theodore" was inspired from Jorge's mom who suffers from schizophrenia and his personal struggles with depression and loneliness. After twenty years of trying, Jorge saw his dream come true. And out of 65 senior student films his was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. "Theodore" has went on to win and play in 10 Film festivals around the world, thus far. And now he is writing this biography to pursue his next dream of finding investors to turn his Award Winning short Film "Theodore" into a Feature Film.

"Theodore" is Available at his DVD Store:
http://www.jorgemoran.com/DVDSTORE.html