This New Astoria Club Helps Film Industry Veterans & Performing Newbies Learn from Eachother

Phil Cappadora LOVES learning. But when his acting career wasn’t going as he hoped, he decided to take things into his own hands and start the Astoria Filmmakers Club this past summer.

Phil got his first film part in 2009 after being scouted by a student filmmaker, and “hasn’t been able to stop” since then. He studied at the The New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts, and has over 100 film credits.

“I miss training, I miss learning, and I miss talking to anyone who knows more then I do,” he said. “I discovered I could write while I was a student at the Neighborhood Playhouse and I was told by my teacher, Carol Kastindieck, that there is some ‘director’ in me. Carol told me that I see things the other students wouldn’t pick up on. So, I want to put her notes to the test,” he said of starting the club.

The Astoria Filmmakers Club is aimed at connecting filmmakers with any range of experience to network and collaborate. This includes writers and actors as well, with members ranging from 50 years of experience to someone who just started film school.

And though the club began this summer, it has actually been in the works for closer to five years. Phil and his friend JJ Condon started acting together in 2008 and moved to Queens in 2014, where they would “audition and take any job we could get.” After a year of not much luck, they wanted to meet up with other local actors, so he started a group called “The Neighbors” on Meetup, but there wasn’t enough interest to sustain it. When he was laid off from another job last year, Phil decided there was nothing to lose and gave the club idea another go—which has been met with lots of local interest.

And it’s already got off to a very community-centered, neighbor-helping-neighbor start. One member offered his music studio to do read-throughs or podcasts. Another director who also runs an accounting firm in Astoria offered his lounge for anyone to write or have a production meeting. Phil also runs a pet rescue program, so some members are helping him film clips for his Indigogo and Instagram for making the top 50 for the David Prize ($200,000 given to five New Yorkers working to make their community a better place).

As for how to get involved? The club hosts a weekly meetup for new members on Wednesday nights at Katch Astoria (31-19 Newtown Ave). Phil says it’s a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere (plus it’s BINGO night!).