Last Chance Dance

A student film project at the the University of Southern California's film school. After winning the Best Student Film prize in 1984 for this film "Last Chance Dance", California-born Joanou was hired by Spielberg to direct episodes of the director's Amazing Stories TV show in 1986. It all began when inspired by Spielberg’s 1976 tour de force, 'Jaws', Joanou, born in 1961, began making Super 8 films as a teenager, progressing to hour-long shorts complete with music by his senior year in high school. After graduating from UCLA’s theater department, Joanou continued his education at USC’s revered film school. His senior project there was a short film called Last Chance Dance. “It was shown at various festivals and won some awards,” Joanou says modestly of Last Chance Dance. “Steven Spielberg saw it and tracked me down. At that point, I had no money and was living at home with my parents,” Joanou remembers. “And I got the job to do (the Spielberg produced) Amazing Stories. I did a couple of those episodes which led to Three O’Clock High in ‘87.”