Bio

Chicago based Director and filmmaker Arnoldo Jesus Cardenas (AJ) has been honing his skills for the past 11 years. His inspiration for filmmaking started in Junior High working with Final Cut pro and Photoshop. And in High School AJ has taken multiple digital media art classes working in Maya, Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. Since AJ’s first job at the age of 15 he has managed a work schedule and school schedule congruently. AJ’s work experience has taught him many lessons in managing and responsibility. His work experience starts at Dairy Queen when he was trusted to have the store under lock and key at the age of 16. A year after that AJ had the same responsibilities, but was promoted to manage a pizza store that made just under $100,000 in revenue a month. AJ was able to handle the stores responsibility with the trust of his crew and superiors. At a young age, AJ was able to learn lessons in leading a team and being in charge of any rectification while problem solving on the fly and under pressure. All these lessons help him tremendously when directing and producing a film. Since enrolling into Film School with Flashpoint College in 2014 AJ collided his work ethic with his passion for filmmaking and team building. AJ has been able to challenge his boundaries and find his voice by making diverse projects such as interviews, commercials, portraits, documentaries and narrative films.