Director Matthew Bonifacio back at Tribe...

Director Matthew Bonifacio back at Tribe...

Matthew Bonifacio has several features and shorts in the works.

To a lot of filmmakers, the Tribeca Film Festival is like a New York version of the Cannes or Sundance fests.

Brooklyn native Matthew Bonifacio has a comparison thats a little closer to home.

I used to play baseball, and I played twice in Yankee Stadium for my junior college championship, says Bonifacio. And thats what I think Tribeca is for a director. Its like Yankee Stadium.

Bonifacio is at the fest for a third time. In 2006, his short The Watering Hole screened there, and a year later his feature Amexicano played. This year, his short Migraine is in competition alongside works by Edward Burns and Neil LaBute.

Migraine is a soulful but unsentimental 15-minute drama about a Seattle shoe designer (Michael OFarrell) in New York on business. A recovering addict, hes struck by a splitting headache and asks a hotel concierge he has insulted for the address of a 12-step group. The concierge sends him to a meeting of transgender drug abusers, and his eyes are opened.

With short films, you want to hook the audience fast, says Bonifacio. I knew this story had hooks. We find out hes a recovering drug addict so he cant take pills. Then he makes a homophobic comment and winds up at a very specific meeting.

Thats one reason I love short films. No matter where my feature career takes me, Ill continue to do them. They challenge me.

< p> Bonifacio was a self-starter as a director. Growing up in Flatbush, he first saw himself as a third baseman, but by his late teens moved into acting. Inspired by the indie films of the 90s, Bonifacio got behind the camera but didnt pursue film school.

I got the reading lists from the NYU and Columbia film schools, so I read and watched hundreds of books and films, he says.

He made his first feature, Lbs., over 27 months, as the story involved a man who undergoes a dramatic weight loss. Lbs. was my film school, Bonifacio says.

All the while, he made short films and worked on Amexicano, an immigration drama.

Hes currently preparing several features, including a Brooklyn-set dramedy hell direct and act in this summer, as well as a feature to be shot in Seattle and star OFarrell, a scrap-metal business owner who debuts in Migraine.

Michael OFarrell had been introduced to me by one of my producers, and he always wanted to act. So as we w ere prepping a feature, he said we should do a short, says Bonifacio, who lives in Midwood.

During filming, the crew would come up and ask what other movies Mick has done. And Id say, This is it, his only one!

YOU SHOULD KNOW

Migraine screens Monday at 2:30 at Village 7, Saturday at 12:15 at Clearview Chelsea and Sunday at 7:30 at Tribeca Cinemas. Go to tribecafilm.com for more information.