Cristiano's flair as a writer and poet is translated into his short films to capture the bewilderment of everyday life. For example, his short films
Il mio umore (2000) and
Intervalli chiaroscuri (2002) are based on his homonymous poems. In
Infinitely Near (1999), which appeared at the
30th Student Film & Video Festival of
Montreal World Film Festival, Cristiano explores the issues of everyday life and human relationship through the mathematical concept of limit. The character of the mathematics professor in
Infinitely Near was played by Patrick O'Donnell, a physics professor at University of Toronto, who also appeared in
Gus Van Sant's
Good Will Hunting. Cristiano also uses short film to express his scholarly ideas. Screened in New York, his
A Matter of Style discusses cinematic theory as the dialogue between two different styles of chair.
A Self-Conscious Mise-en-scene(2006) is based on Cristiano's short story "The Millenary Man". In his scholarly article about this short film, titled "A Self-Conscious
Mise-en-scène: Experimenting with 'Disownment and Appropriation'", Cristiano explains his experimental work as a way to solve a communicative crisis. On May 28, 2015, "A Minute Life (1-20)" film screened at Collegium Maius, Toruǹ (Poland). ==Filmography==