Eddie O’Flaherty
Director

"Tis better to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety".

Unaware of the prophetic Melville quote that would anchor the heart of his feature directorial debut, "Fighting Tommy Riley", Eddie fled a series of nowhere jobs and the safety of family and friends to chase his dream of becoming a filmmaker.

With all his belongings packed in a rickety van, Eddie ventured from the Boston, Massachusetts suburb where he was born and raised and landed in Los Angeles in 1991.

Taking any job that would give him "on-set" experience, Eddie quickly rose the independent ranks from production assistant to assistant director. Looking to gain experience on larger films, Eddie began working at Paramount Pictures in 1995 as the Executive Assistant to the President of Production Management for the Motion Picture Group.

Eddie leveraged his position to use the studio as his film school; working side-by-side with, and learning from some of the film industry's most accomplished writers, directors, producers, actors and below-the-line talent. He also attended filmmaking classes at AFI and UCLA.

While working his "day-job" in the Production Department, Eddie continued honing his filmmaking skills by writing, producing and directing several short films, including producing the award winning USC School of Cinema-Television thesis film, "Trust Games".

Eddie then transferred to the Post Production division in 2000 where he became an apprentice film editor in the Local 700 Motion Picture Editors Guild and studied under numerous Academy Award winning editors and sound designers.

In 2000, Eddie partnered with J.P. Davis, the writer and co-lead actor of "Fighting Tommy Riley". Eddie and J.P. collaborated the next two years to further hone J.P.'s script while taking meetings with investors, producers, agents, managers and actors in an effort to get the movie produced. Their tenacity ultimately paid off as they joined forces with producer Bettina O'Mara and "Fighting Tommy Riley" began production in June of 2003.

contact: oeidde@sbcglobal.net