The metro’s small but robust cinema community includes Film Streams and the Omaha Film Festival (see related story on page 42) along with several working industry professionals, among them Oscar-winning cinematographer Mauro Fiore (Avatar). He’s among three Academy Award recipients residing here. The others are editor Mike Hill (Apollo 13), and filmmaker Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants).
Fiore’s most recent director of photography feature work came on The Equalizer in Boston. The projected 2015 release reunited him with Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington from Training Day.
But Fiore, originally from Italy, isn’t the only film pro in his own household. His wife Christine Vollmer Fiore, a native Nebraskan, is a costume designer now developing a feature adaptation of The Persian Pickle Club. Mauro’s slated to light it.
The couple actually met in 1997 on an independent picture largely shot in Nebraska, Love from Ground Zero. At the time each lived in L.A., traveling wherever projects called them. Christine finds it “ironic” the film that brought their itinerant lives together happened in her home state. They settled here after marrying. He regularly goes off to do commercials and features.
They are the parents of three children—Olivia, Tessa and Luca. The Fiores view the state as a healthy grounding from the hustle, bustle and hype of L.A., where they also have a home.
“We knew we didn’t want to raise kids in L.A.,” Christine says. “It’s kind of nice to be here and have blinders on and not be affected by what’s out there.”
It’s a stable sanctuary they can count on.
“It’s nice to have a firm place and not really worry about Christine when I’m gone because her family’s here,’ Mauro says. “I feel really safe there’s somebody here to support her. I’ve come to really appreciate it because when I’m here it’s all about the family and helping Christine any way I can.”
During his absences Christine runs a tight ship. “I’m very schedule and routine-oriented,” she says. She purposely doesn’t make a big deal of his departures.
“It’s kind of no-nonsense, no-tear because it’d be too tough emotionally. It’s like, ‘Dad’s leaving but he’s going to come back and now I need help around the house from all of you.’ Then when Mauro comes back home we still have the same routine. Dinner’s at 5:30. I think it makes it easy for Mauro to kind of slide back in.”
That normal, laidback lifestyle is what appeals to the Fiores.
“Omaha is manageable,” Christine says. “It’s easy to go to the airport and to the zoo...”
“It’s easy, it’s familiar,” Mauro adds. “We’ve found several friends around the community of schools the kids attend.”
They enjoy, too, how much more house they can afford here. They lived in Hawaiian Village before moving into their present home over a year ago. The ranch-style in Elkhorn sits on a six-acre lot with a view.
“We really love the property,” Mauro says. “It has a piece of land that stretches out to the river. You don’t really find that too much anymore.”
They appreciate the open floor plan, banks of tall windows and homey features.
He says, “It’s just the uniqueness of the place and the fact we can really grow into this and make it our home.”
“It’s not like a builder’s model home,” Christine says. “It’s different, it has personality.”
They’re now updating the downstairs to accommodate a craft room for the sewing Christine and the kids do.
In her spare time she wears her producer hat trying to get Persian Pickle Club financed. Setting up a film is a new experience for them.
“It’s been a great learning process to see the inner workings because I never really knew what it took. I’m never on that side of it,” he says.
He admires how “Christine’s done it all from here—figuring out ways to push it along.”
They’re admittedly anxious to start production because making films is what they know best.
Mauro eagerly shares his expertise. He photographed an Omaha Film Festival promo. He’s served as a panelist-presenter at OFF and Film Streams. The couple supports the opera, the symphony, KANEKO and other local arts-cultural offerings they find on par with anywhere.
The family often visits his far-flung movie locations. His Hollywood colleagues are surprised he lives far afield from film industry centers.
“They find it very odd,” he says. “But with Alexander Payne, Nebraska also sort of has a mystique. They appreciate it’s a different way of living, more old fashioned or traditional.”
