Writer/Director - "Dry January"

C.J. Arellano creates genre-forward narratives with empathy and weirdness as their key ingredients. His short “Griffica” has won several awards, including the audience award for Best Horror Short at Out on Film: Atlanta's LGBTQ+ Festival. C.J. edited “Art & Pep,” a feature documentary now streaming on Peacock about an iconic Chicago gay bar and wellspring of LGBTQ+ activism for over four decades. His screenplay The Ampersand Inn won First Place at the New York International Screenplay Awards in May 2022. At this very moment, he is running around Brooklyn, fueled by nothing but an iced green tea and a brownie, taking artsy pictures of garbage cans or something.