Director's Note

As a young man, I had the pleasure of meeting, privately speaking with, and even sharing lunch with John Cassavetes and Telly Savalas. Both were early inspirations to me, reminders that storytelling can be raw, human, and deeply personal. Their influence helped me find the courage to move on from civil service, raise our four children, and a decade ago, step fully into film and acting school.

Thirty years of working on the streets of New York left me with more than scars; they left me with stories. I had to put them down and try to get them out of my mind. I would scribble them on dirty napkins stained with hamburgers, gyro and pizza grease, and cheap Chinese takeout, or on the back of ambulance reports during long nights on the job. By the end of three decades, I had five coffee cans filled with those moldy scraps, sealed under plastic lids, holding the heartaches, the grit, and the truths of my life.

I was always a cinephile, drawn to great and compelling storytelling and unforgettable performances, the kind that pulled my gaze, my mind, my body, and my soul away from the grind of daily life. Some of those artists are no longer with us, but many I have had the great fortune to cast in Once a Week for Life.

At last, I decided to take all that emotion, those experiences, and those stories, and shape them into film.

Those earliest choices afforded me the opportunity to bring me here to Once a Week for Life.

When the times got the roughest, the headwinds were the strongest, the funds the tightest, and all surmounted odds were against me, I remembered an inspirational quote from the famous inventor Henry Ford.

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”

I thank my extraordinary cast who have helped bring this vision to life and the litany of professionals that gave me their talent, compassion, camaraderie, loyalty, love, and respect to get me the lift off the ground and away into the airwaves for viewers to witness.

In Once a Week for Life, we bring together an extraordinary ensemble of acclaimed veterans and rising stars whose credits span Academy Award winning films, Emmy recognized television and celebrated independent work. With grit, authenticity, and emotional depth, this cast embodies the raw spirit of New York cinema. Together, we deliver a performance tapestry that bridges Hollywood’s legacy with the next generation of storytellers. Contained herein are just a few, and Once a Week for Life is only one of those many stories.

George Zouvelos’ work is grounded in lived experience. His storytelling draws directly from decades spent serving New York City on the front lines, witnessing humanity at its most vulnerable, resilient, and unguarded. These moments, often unseen and unspoken, form the emotional backbone of his films.

As a filmmaker, Zouvelos is committed to authenticity above artifice. His approach favors character driven narratives, unfiltered performances, and environments that feel inhabited rather than staged. He believes cinema should not merely entertain, but bear witness to pain, to dignity, to survival, and to quiet acts of grace.

Once a Week for Life represents not only a culmination of long-held stories, but the beginning of a larger body of work dedicated to examining ordinary lives under extraordinary pressure. Zouvelos continues to develop projects rooted in social realism, moral complexity, and the enduring human need for connection.

He lives in New York with his family and remains deeply connected to the city that shaped both the man and the filmmaker.

George Zouvelos

Writer and Director