I Pledge Allegiance to Myself

I Pledge Allegiance to Myself is a portrait of Daimon, a 17 year old trying to find a sense of self in the middle of the early 80’s punk explosion. A brush with Hare Krishnas introduces him to the idea of bhakti, the concept of devotion, something he cannot find in the suburban landscape. Daimon takes off and dives headfirst into the music scene with the other punks.
He joins a band and is thrown into a world of testosterone, drugs, and music. Though it promises community, he is still unsettled. Daimon must figure out his own moral boundaries in a world defined by the rejection of traditional codes. As the band gains popularity, its members are faced with the cost of success in a landscape littered with lost souls.
Note from Joy
I finished writing the screenplay in 2012, shot in 2013, and in 2015 finished editing the film but I hated how it came out so I never showed it to anyone. During Covid, I started to work on it again but this time with Ziggy Gamble, the editor for I AM THAT. We are currently working on the re-edit. The entire process has been do it yourself and I intend to follow that through by self distributing the film in early 2021.

Production Team
writer/director
writer/director
Joy Marzec is a writer and director who has always liked fairy tales, myths, ghost and surrealistic stories. As a kid she wrote scenes and directed her friends in plays. In 2018, she finished her first feature film, I AM THAT, which is available on Amazon Prime and DirectTV. I AM THAT won Best New Mexico Feature at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Excellence in Film at the Defy Film Festival, Critic's Choice at the L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival, and Best Feature at the Houston Pacific Islander Film Festival.
Her second film, I Pledge Allegiance To Myself, will be released winter of 2021. Staying true to punk and DIY or DIE she will be self releasing this film.
Her third film, Survival of the Holy Fool, is set in Philadelphia and is an urban drama about a politically divided neighborhood that erupts into a riot and is brought together by an outsider who changes the community forever. She will be shooting this over the course of 2020 and 2021.
She recently completed a short film, Pumpkin Shoot Out, which will be released fall of 2020.

DP/Production and Costume Designer
DP/Production and Costume Designer

Christine Meyers is a Costume Designer, Production Designer, and Cinematographer who has created for opera, theatre, dance, and film. Collaborations spanning these genres include experimental dance company zoe|juniper, music videos for The Head and the Heart, and classic Tartuffe at Seattle Shakespeare Company. She has created dissolving dresses for an Alice in Chains’ video and worked with the Handel Festival in Göttingen, Germany and Drottningholm, Sweden.
Regional Credits: Sex with Strangers (Portland Center Stage)Circle Mirror Transformation, This, Speech and Debate(Seattle Repertory Theatre) Peter Pan, The Highest Tide, Little Bee(Book-It Repertory Theatre) Twelfth Night, Tartuffe, Julius Caesar(Seattle Shakespeare Company) Film Credits: Lethal Cotillion, I Am That, Bhakti Boy, 21 and Over(dyer) Tom and the Domme, Buried Girl Broadway Assistant Credits: Matilda, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Groundhog Day, Escape to Margaritaville.

Composer
Composer

Mitch Marzec’s love of recording began when he purchased his first four track at age 15. A self-taught recording artist, Mitch has spent 20 years producing his own projects (two albums for the band An American Chinese –CMJ best emerging artist award). His self recorded songs got airtime on XPN, the Deli Mag and Y-Not radio, which quickly led to freelance recording/mastering work for bands in Philadelphia, Seattle, Brooklyn and Albuquerque. Very organically Mitch’s body of work expanded as he was asked to do sound design/composition for plays and films. He has written soundtracks for all three of Joy Marzec’s films, The Medicine Wheel, I Pledge Allegiance to Myself, I AM THAT, Pumpkin Shoot Out, and he's working on her next film, Survival of the Holy Fool. Mitch owns and records bands out of his Philadelphia recording studio, Siamese Twin Studio. You can follow his band, An American Chinese, on Facebook.
Cast

Christopher Morson
Daimon
Christopher Morson
Daimon

Christopher Morson is an actor from Seattle and graduate from Cornish College of the Arts.

Joe Cummings
Vinyl
Joe Cummings
Vinyl


Matteo Scammell
Dean
Matteo Scammell
Dean

Matteo Scammell earned a BFA from the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts - the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and has performed in 37 professional productions. He has worked with most of Philadelphia's finest theater companies including: The Walnut St. Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Arden Theater, The Wilma Theater, Theatre Exile, 11th Hour, Theatre Horizon and EgoPo. In the 2016/17 season Matteo performed both Elvis Presley and a Drag Queen as the title character in The Legend of Georgia McBride (Arden), featured as the "perpetually horny and aggressively homophobic bully" in Robert Askins' Hand To God (PTC) as well as Tracy Scott Wilson's "meditation on gentrification" in Theatre Exile's Buzzer. He appeared at The New Ohio (NYC) in Holden and at Ars Nova: Ant Fest with Red 40 & The Last Groovement. He toured Pig Iron's Gentlemen Volunteers to Saratoga Springs, Colgate & Virginia. He has been a company member of Obie Award winning experimental Theater Company, New Paradise Laboratories (NPL) since 2012 featuring in 4 original works. Matteo has created original theatrical and musical material for NPL, Pig Iron Theatre Company, George & Co., Lear deBessonet, Marcel Williams Foster, Martha Stuckey and Sam Tower. Feature films include Traffickers (2015 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival “Best Local Feature”), and I Am That. In addition to being a full-time actor, Matteo performs in the pop-rock funk band Red 40 & The Last Groovement. A two-time artist-in-residence at Orchard Project and four-time resident at FringeArts. In 2014 and 2016, Matteo was nominated as “Best Actor” by BroadwayWorld, and in 2015 Matteo was extremely honored to be the recipient of Neal Zorn's "Best Actor" for his work as Yank in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape. In 2016 he received a Barrymore Nomination for "Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play" for his work in "Smoke."

James Grixoni
Loud
James Grixoni
Loud

James Grixoni was born and raised in Seattle Washington. He attended his local conservatory for four years at the age of fourteen and began doing professional theatre at the age of eighteen with his debut of Peter-Pan at Book-it Theatre. After a couple years of professional theatre, James decided to stay true to his original focus, film. Whilst creating a comedy troupe, performing skits and starring in local indie films, James was granted the opportunity to shadow Tobey Maguire as his body double in "The Details", directed by Jacob Aaron Estes. The education he received was invaluable. A few years later, James found himself performing in a punk band in Philadelphia; and subsequently the film, "I Pledge Allegiance To Myself", directed by Joy Marzec. The experience allowed him to grow as an artist and really work on honing his skills in front of the camera. Upon returning to the west coast, James had the pleasure of working on films, television series, music videos and shorts. A few favorites include "Worst Laid Plans" directed by Mark Jones and Nesib CB Shamah, "You Cant Win" directed by Robinson Devor and "Twin Peaks" directed by David lynch. James continues to grow in his craft and his community. He practices yoga and meditation and has noticed a significant improvement in his reality. He also practices comedy on the daily for he believes laughter is the foundation to health.