Writer / Director

Paxton Stadler is a seventeen-year-old high school senior who was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. He became committed to studying film after being given an opportunity to participate in the Future Filmmakers Foundation program. He had always been engaged in the creative writing process but wanted to explore the idea of bringing his words to the screen. He had the opportunity to experience this firsthand by writing and directing his first short film titled “Four.” His other interests include amateur photography, guitar and vocal performance, songwriting, and social activism. After high school graduation, he plans to attend a film school with a diverse faculty that embraces and supports students with unique perspectives in life. He wants to tell stories. There are many creative ideas flooding his brain that he wants to bring to life in order to inspire people and take them on a journey that creates a significant, positive impact on their life. His priority is to create films where he has characters that are unapologetically diverse.

I wrote and directed the film “Four” depicting the life of a person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder based on my own experiences. The main character, Cole, struggles just to leave his home in order to get a diagnosis. I wanted to show that many aspects of his daily life, which most other people would consider as routine activities, can be affected by his OCD. I hope to bring greater awareness and deeper understanding of this form of anxiety disorder. My goal is to highlight characters that are minorities in order to help the world appreciate the perspectives of underrepresented people. I want those who have been left in the shadows to feel inspired by the characters and stories that I create. It is time to bring them to the light.