“Initially, I never thought film was an option. I grew up in Wisconsin,” says Michael Sarnoski, “and I didn’t have a lot of artistic, creative people around me or outlets to share in. I think storytelling, doodling, writing, and drawing comics — that was my hobby, my secret. It was very gradual.”

Overtime, Sarnoski met other kindred spirits who shared his same passions. “I was never like, I’m going to go write and direct feature films. That seemed very far away from a possibility. Instead, it “snowballed” over a long timeline.

Rather than go to Film School, the writer-director made a series of shorts, such as Love of the Dead, Mirrors, Fight Night Legacy (later a series), and That. “A lot of it was just building confidence,” he says. His debut film, however, really put Sarnoski on the map as a creative voice.

Nicolas Cage stars in Pig. The plot reads, “A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.”

“I was writing a feature with the hope of directing it,” he says of Pig. “Originally, I wrote it as something that could be done with really little money. If no one would pay for it, I was going to find a way to do it run and gun.”

The basic idea was “an old man in the woods with his truffle pig.” Sarnoski says, “But I was like, ‘I shouldn’t write a movie about that — that would be silly.’ But it didn’t leave my head and this happens with me. I need to write it just to get it out of my system even if it’s going to be silly or [I assume] no one is going to buy it or whatever.”

The script poured out of him. “It magically happened. In writing it, I thought ‘Who would get the chance to make a movie like this?’ I think the specificity of Pig was what helped people come behind it and make it. It also allowed me to Direct it.” Producers basically told him, “You know what it’s about so maybe you should direct it.”

“It’s always a messy process for your first film and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to work but it worked and just enough people got behind it that we were able to make it.” Producer Vanessa Block also helped with the script and to push it into production.

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