Thursday, October 1, 2026
The idea for his feature-length film started out with a dream — literally. Anthony Natoli, 37, of Valley Stream, dreamt that he was watching a film that he had made called “Sunday Sunday Sunday” in a movie theater. He turned that dream into a reality, which has already sold out at Merrick Cinemas.
Inspired by friends who were using their iPhones for photography, Natoli shot the entire movie on his iPhone 5S and 12 over the course of five years, in Valley Stream and in Pennsylvania. Merrick Cinemas will be screening the movie for one night only, on May 1. The show sold out in 24 hours.
Natoli describes his film as a “Rocky”-esque tale, with drag racing instead of boxing as the subject. The film is an underdog story of two brothers who inherit a junky jalopy that can’t hold a candle to some of the others on the track, but somehow claw their way to the top.
As the story progresses, they learn to make the most of each other’s skills to boost their dragster up the ranks. The moral of the movie is that “it’s not about what you want or don’t have,” Natoli said. “It’s about what you do have, and how you wield that tool to make the most of it.”
The car, a rusty 1967 Dodge Dart GT, undergoes its own transformation alongside the protagonists. “The car was an important character in the film … and I was like, I want the ugliest thing, something undesirable,” Natoli said, explaining the choice. He trudged through December snow in 2017 to get the Dodge from a guy who’d put it on Craigslist, blowing half of the film’s $5,000 budget on the vehicle. “I think we probably hold the record for the cheapest feature-length ever made,” Natoli chuckled.
Filming was a laborious, unpredictable, do-it-yourself project. Shooting at South Mountain Raceway in Boiling Springs, Pa., Natoli’s crew consisted of friends, family, musicians he’s toured with in the past and, occasionally, random drivers on the track he enlisted to be part of the movie.
Learning on the job and through YouTube videos, Natoli and the crew learned how to respond and adapt to nearly every situation thrown at them during the filming process.
“You have to be able to modulate,” he said. “Like if it’s raining today, do we make the most of it or do we cancel? … We wanted sunshine, but we got rain, but if you work with it, sometimes you come home with more than you expected.”
James Morano, Natoli’s right-hand man on the set, such as it was, agreed, saying the process showed just how anyone can “do a lot with very little.” Responsible for cinematography, choosing shots, editing, coloring, audio and drone footage, Morano said that because neither of them went to film school, they leaned more on experimentation rather than theory or convention. “That’s an interesting place to come from,” Morano said, “because there are no rules.”
The story was also personal for Natoli, who grew up in a drag racing family. “I feel like there’s this parallel that runs deeper than just the film …,” he said. “I went through this, [and] I guess that’s the big thing I hope people can see from this, that ‘this guy knows about the sport.’”
Local legends like Steve Buscemi and Ed Burns, who lived down the block from Natoli and went to Hewlett High School, helped encourage him. And his iPhone “opened the door to me, like, oh wow, this is a powerful tool,” he said. While he was filming chase scenes, for example, instead of having to use an expensive, heavy camera, he simply duct-taped the smartphone to the hood of the GT. “I was able to get exactly what I needed, and it looked phenomenal …,” Natoli said. “People are constantly asking me now ‘Did you really shoot this on an iPhone, because it looks that good?’ and I’m in a little bit of disbelief about it too sometimes.”
The film was also a personal “Rocky”-esque exercise in pushing through obstacles and accomplishing long-held goals. “I wanted to prove myself,” he said. “I wanted to show people that I could do this — I could go out and make a million-dollar movie.”
And yes, he’s already thinking about his next project. “The next thing I really want is all the big guns … I want a little bit more power and a little bit more freedom” in creating his next film, he said. “But I’ll never forget the experience and learned insights … being scrappy teaches you when you do have the money to” use resources wisely.
