Wilfred La Salle, an independent filmmaker, director, screenwriter, and founder of La Salle Productions, premiered his seventh film, “The Veteran,” on March 12, continuing his mission to create socially driven films with no budget and a one-man crew.
La Salle says his goal is not just to make films, but to become the greatest filmmaker in the world and stand out among a crowd of independent creators.
“There’s a lot of talented independent filmmakers all over the world, but they’re not doing what La Salle Productions is doing,” he said. “What we’re doing is revolutionizing independent filmmaking, one film at a time.”
For La Salle, filmmaking is a full-time pursuit.
He told amNewYork that he doesn’t have a film crew and that he does the job of multiple people, all on his own.
In his latest film, the story follows Jose Torres (Yanko Valentin-Perez), a homeless U.S. Marine Veteran who has been discharged from the military and struggles with an opioid addiction.
After losing his family in a car accident, Torres’ life spirals out of control until an unexpected act of kindness from Maxwell Cade (Lancelot E. Theobald Jr.), a wealthy CEO, offers him a path toward redemption.
“I wanted to make films for impact,” La Salle said. “The impact of The Veteran is going to be something that the audience truly remembers, and the reality is that no veteran should trade a battlefield for a cardboard box.”
La Salle said that he was inspired to make the film to highlight another social advocacy issue – the ongoing challenges veterans face when returning to civilian life.
“When we look at all of our veterans, they are denied so many different resources,” he said. “We’re talking about mental healthcare, the support that they need when transitioning back into civilian life, the struggles that they have with the veteran affairs hospital, all of these different things.”
According to Hope NYC, the city’s annual volunteer homeless outreach, 4,504 people were unsheltered at the start of 2025 when filming for The Veteran was taking place. The initiative canvasses throughout the five boroughs and estimates the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness each year.
Additionally, according to the NYC Department of Veterans’ Services, veterans face mental health disorders such as substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury at higher rates compared to civilians.
La Salle said that he knew he had to be the one to make this type of film, adding that “the villain” in The Veteran is “not a person, [it] is society.”
While filming scenes for The Veteran in public, La Salle said there were bystanders who believed the actors were mistreating a real homeless man, not realizing it was just a scene.
“They thought we were mocking him,” La Salle said, recalling that some even tried to attack one of the actors.
In another moment during filming, La Salle said that he paused production to speak to a woman upset about him filming a seemingly homeless man for social media.
“This is exactly why I’m making this film,” he said. “He was invisible until I decided to put a camera on him, and only then was he seen by the world,” he told amNewYork.
La Salle says that the film encourages audiences to look deep within themselves and reflect on how they treat others, but especially those who are less fortunate.
“One act of kindness can change a person’s life. It’s contagious,” he said. “We pass these veterans every day, we pass homeless people walking on the streets every day and we don’t realize who they are.”
“That’s what Jose Torres’ story is,” La Salle continued. “He’s a war hero, he’s a father, he is a man of bravery, a man who has served his country and has been forgotten.”
La Salle’s path to filmmaking was not the traditional one.
Over the course of seven years, La Salle was able to produce a new film each year with no budget and plans to continue doing so.
With his 2025 film, The Security Guard, La Salle highlighted the issue of mass shootings and gun violence in America.
La Salle shared that he grew up in poverty, raised by a single mother on public assistance in a New York City Housing Authority complex in the Bronx. His father struggled with addiction.
Growing up, he said that he would watch a lot of movies, which led to his fascination with filmmaking. When La Salle got to college, he admitted to spending $10,000 on camera equipment that he was not trained to use.
“My wife thought I was crazy,” he said. “I didn’t know how to film, I didn’t go to film school, I didn’t know how to edit or use the camera or even turn it on.”
La Salle says that he is self-taught and that watching YouTube videos helped during the learning process. During that time, La Salle was working as an NYPD school safety agent, but eventually decided to pursue filmmaking full-time and fulfill his childhood dreams. Seven years later, his work has been featured on multiple news outlets including Fox News, ABC7 and News12 Westchester.
The Veteran premiered at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas in Dobbs Ferry, New York on March 12. During the event, La Salle previewed the trailer for his next independent film, “Lucy,” which focuses on autism and is set to be released in 2027.
Despite his growing recognition, La Salle asserts that his work is still fully independent and self-produced.
“If you love something bad enough, you’ll either make it happen or make an excuse,” La Salle said.
The Veteran will be available on Fox Soul, and he is hopeful that it will be available on Peacock following a recent pitch to NBCUniversal. La Salle eventually wants his films released on other major platforms such as Hulu, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery.
During the premiere, La Salle told the audience: “This is our seventh annual premiere. We started this in a basement in Mount Vernon, in a boiler room, and now we’re here.”
For those looking to pivot and pursue their dreams full-time, La Salle offered a small piece of advice.
“If you want to kill a big dream, tell it to a small-minded person,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone your dreams, just show the world.”
