Hamid Castro's Independent Film LAKE GEORGE Shows Brilliant Elements of Tarantino and Scorsese - The Interview

My guest today is a self-taught, first-generation Colombian-Iranian filmmaker Hamid Castro. He was an NYU business graduate and former celebrity trainer in Manhattan.

Hamid made a bold transition into filmmaking driven by raw determination and a love for storytelling. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his debut feature film, LAKE GEORGE, a raw and gritty, psychological thriller inspired by true events.

Hamid Castro fully self-financed the film with over $2 million of his own money and launched it independently, including a sold-out red carpet premiere at AMC Lincoln Square. His work reflects a deep connection to New York culture, real-life intensity, and a fearless independent filmmaking spirit.

Ladies and gentlemen, Hamid Castro’s feature film LAKE GEORGE is fast-moving, raw, gritty, tension-filled crime drama. Four years after a heist gone wrong, two childhood friends, Rio and Psych, are thrust into a high-stakes journey.

When Psych discovers his imprisoned father is being held for ransom with only 24 hours to pay $100,000, the pair embarks on a desperate mission to secure the funds. With the clock ticking and tensions rising, the two friends must navigate a series of wild and harrowing events, testing their loyalty, resilience, and the limits of their morality. As the story crescendos to a shocking finale, Lake George explores themes of friendship, sacrifice, and the blurred lines between right and wrong in a world driven by desperation. Hamid gives no secrets away in this film.

Each scene is a surprise and the audience has no clue where and how it will end. This is one of the very few films I have ever seen where you never figure out the why and how until it is revealed at the very end. In today’s world of moviemaking, even the most famous directors in the world don’t make us wait, so much praise to Hamid Casto for his instincts and raw determination to tell the story his way.

The cinematography is raw, dark, gritty, and the use of shadows and the colorization of the film plays a huge role in guiding the audience’s emotion from beginning to end. 

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