Many college students are often told by their relatives, professors and other adults to pay attention to the relationships they build with their classmates, as they will serve as the foundation for personal and professional connections in the future. But it can be difficult to take this advice seriously since life after school feels so distant and removed from the campus bubble. However, Justin San Antonio ’20 serves as a prime example of how your friendships can turn into partnerships that produce tangible results.
San Antonio spent his freshman year of college at Lehigh University, where he met his best friend Shazeb Fahim, a standup comedian at the time, through social events for their residence hall. The two immediately formed a creative relationship — San Antonio would attend Fahim’s performances and later give him feedback on his sets to refine his jokes. San Antonio describes his friend as “a writer at heart” who wrote not just jokes but stories, books and screenplays as well. Their shared love of film and television only strengthened their bond.
When San Antonio transferred to Cornell University to finish his undergraduate studies in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, he stayed in touch with Fahim who, after graduating in 2020, approached San Antonio with a script titled First Fall. The reunited duo went on to make the film with no budget. Fahim served as director, writer and one of two actors while San Antonio edited the script, produced and operated the camera (an iPhone). They edited the film together and submitted it to various film festivals, eventually becoming semi-finalists for entry to the Rhode Island Film Festival.
With an impressive result and another screenplay written by Fahim, the duo knew to strike while the iron was hot. They got to work finalizing their script for Before We Begin, a romance film that follows the connection between a determined artist and an eccentric philosophy student as they weigh major changes in their lives. San Antonio and Fahim crowdfunded a budget of $750,000 with support from friends, family and other connections. They then began securing permits for shooting locations in Boston and hiring a cast and crew.
Although they worked with a casting director to secure most of the actors, they ultimately went with their own choice for the actress who would co-lead the film alongside Fahim: content creator Yesly Dimate, whose rising platform has now accumulated over 5 million followers on TikTok and around 2 million on Instagram. The filmmakers knew that someone with an established and growing presence would only help get more eyes on the project.
In my interview with San Antonio, he stressed the importance of adaptability as a producer, a skill that he learned firsthand during filming of Before We Begin in 2022. His role required him to put out the many fires that inevitably occur during production such as crew issues, location changes, catering failure, communication with actors’ agents and, as was commonplace at the time, COVID outbreaks that delay shooting. He refers to Fahim as the “Creative North Star” and himself as the “Operational North Star” — which means playing the parts of “camp counselor,” therapist, teacher, coach and HR department all in one. After editing the film in 2023, San Antonio and Fahim abstained from entering the festival circuit out of solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, instead waiting until the following year.
San Antonio likened the film festival submission process to college applications; they made a list of most of the significant festivals, then narrowed it down to apply to the ones that would be the best fits for an independent rom-com. The film was eventually accepted into several festivals, including the 2024 Chelsea Film Festival, where it made its premiere with special designation as the closing night film.
From this momentum, San Antonio and Fahim managed to connect with a sales agent who helped them sign an agreement with Buffalo 8 for licensing and distribution. They also signed an executive producer agreement to finance their next project, Moment to Moment. San Antonio describes his first three feature collaborations with Fahim as a triptych of romantic comedies following adults at different points in their 20s, trying to balance their personal and professional lives, a theme which he himself can relate to.
Outside of his filmmaking career, San Antonio worked as a Financial Analyst at American Express post-graduation and is now a Director of Product Management at Mastercard. Through taking advantage of his personal time and vacation days, he balances his two jobs in order to pursue what he loves: creating art with his best friend.
The dynamic duo plans to build on its success and accrued knowledge to make every new project leave a bigger mark than the last. When I asked him about his end goal, San Antonio explained that he and Fahim aim to establish their own production company to not only make their own films, but invest in other independent films as well.
Before We Begin is now available to watch on Amazon, Tubi and other streaming platforms. For the full list, see here.
Colton Sears is a member of the Class of 2028 in the Nolan School of Hotel Administration. He is a contributor for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at cds284@cornell.edu.
