What I Do
Feature-Length Documentary Films
I’ve scripted and produced docs on topics as varied as aviation security, mortality and dyslexia.
TSA: Please Remove Your Shoes
“…scary…”
CNN
“…picks apart the TSA.”
ABC News
“…U.S. airport security is disrobed before our critical eyes.”
Washington Post
“…damning indictment…”
Kansas City Star
Aside From That
Director Richard Tilkin said he planned to do “person on the street” interviews about mortality with 20- and 30-somethings on their lunch hour. I said, “You’re crazy.” I was wrong.
Blame It On Gutenberg
“… a documentary that managed to weave research, science of reading, neurobiology, child development, speech/language, teaching literacy, a personal ‘real life’ story, without overwhelming the viewer.”
Aletta Sinoff, BCBA-D, PhD, CCC-SLP Speech-Language Pathologist
Corporate Videos
I’ve done hundreds of projects for enterprises ranging from higher ed to high tech, construction equipment to creative services, working directly as a qualified vendor or in partnership with multimedia, film production and event companies.
H.O. Penn CAT
“…CAT D8…It was rough and tough and you couldn’t kill it, and you could push a mountain down with it.”
Bristol Myers Squibb
It came to my attention that some of my biggest clients were experimenting with drugs!
UMass Lowell
Competition drives excellence, and not just on the playing field. Just ask college athletes. Start with UMass Lowell.
Fort Point Shorts
In collaboration with director/producer Henry Dane, I’ve scripted and performed in several short films that, to my enduring amazement, have screened at dozens of festivals all over the world.
FuturePhobia
What does the future hold? According to “the experts”:
“We’ll be zooming around in private helicopters and booking vacations on Mars.”
“We’ll be annihilated by nuclear war, a new Ice Age or global warming.”
Soundproof
The quiet suburban lifestyle of a reclusive writer is threatened when he relocates to an urban artists cooperative and must confront the prospect of chaos. And noise.
Landfill
A short film about Fort Point, a rapidly gentrifying arts district in Boston, MA.
Scriptwriting
Scriptwriting is a specialized discipline requiring a thorough knowledge of the medium, the ability to think visually, a finely tuned ear for narration and dialogue, and a talent for writing persuasively in any style, about any subject.
A few examples of documentary and independent film projects:
Please Remove Your Shoes: The Myth of America’s Airport Security
As a young army officer in Vietnam, Executive Producer Fred Gevalt and the men under his command drove into a deadly sheet of tracer fire at the beginning of the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Twenty-three years later Fred, now a successful entrepreneur, was piloting his Beech Bonanza twenty minutes out from NYC on 9/11/2001.
Fred wanted to know why, in his words, “we keep on getting caught with our pants down.” He knew just the guys to ask. Their story is profoundly disturbing. Producer/Director Rob DelGaudio and I are proud we could help them tell it.
Aside From That: A Film About Everyone’s Least Favorite Topic
Most kids don’t think too much about death, a concept that seems impossibly remote, if not impossible. Five-year old Richard Tilkin not only thought about it, he rejected it outright, at least as it might apply to him personally.
Of course, it does apply to all of us personally, raising a highly pertinent question: How do we live, knowing we are going to die?
Decades later, Richard and I talked about doing the documentary that became Aside From That, beginning a journey that led us to a terminally ill poet determined to become a clown, a cancer-stricken student facing 50/50 odds of survival, and a combat medic whose traumatic experiences erased his fear of death.
Blame It On Gutenberg
A documentary about the evolving science of dyslexia, dueling theories over how to teach reading, and one family’s landmark struggle with an unresponsive school system.
Released in November of 2022, Blame It On Gutenberg has been screened by major literacy advocacy groups across the United States as a catalyst for parent and educator outreach. Why is the topic so important?
Because failure to teach reading using the best evidence-based methods has devastating consequences for children, parents and society.
The problem is exacerbated by parents’ lack of information about their rights and resources, along with the tendency of all too many school systems to “hide the ball” rather than fulfill their responsibilities.
Rob and Celia DelGaudio of Black Pearl Productions and I produced this 64-minute documentary as a 501c3 nonprofit project under the umbrella of the Filmmakers Collaborative.
“Blame it on Gutenberg reminds us that it is important to connect research to practice. It shares proof that parent advocacy can help to keep us accountable for the instruction we provide.”
Jen Cyr, Reading Specialist, IDA-NNEA secretary
Welcome to Fort Point, FuturePhobia, Exile On A Street, Soundproof and Landfill, independent short films produced and directed by Henry Dane.1
I love them all, but my favorite is Landfill, From Guppies to Yuppies. I like to tell people it’s based on Robert Ardrey’s 1966 classic The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations.
On one level, it’s about the battle between artists and entrepreneurs for possession (and I mean that in the demonic sense) of Fort Point, where I’ve lived since 2005.
On a more personal level, it’s about how my remark that my neighborhood resembled
turned me into
1 Henry Dane is a Genius℠
About Me
In my varied (some would say “checkered”) career, I have worked as a medical photographer, media personality, college lecturer, rock band roadie and communications consultant, as well as a freelance writer.
One happy result of this broad-based experience is my ability to handle any kind of content, and to write in whatever style works best for the job at hand.
What others have said about me:
“We rely on Roc’s story prowess and ruthless editorial instinct to help us craft tight, engaging program narratives – whether it means poring through reams of interview transcripts, writing witty dialogue, or creating nuanced voice-over copy. He’s an excellent collaborator, a brilliant brainstormer, and a master of any deadline.”
Rob DelGaudio, Black Pearl Productions https://www.blpearl.com
“Rocco is a rarity among writers – he limits all intrusions of ego in order to work with a team, while still maintaining his point of view and the clarity of his work. He is prolific, incisive, and creatively articulate. And he keeps his sense of humor front and center while most around have lost their patience and their wits. What more could a client possibly ask for?”
Frederick C. Gevalt, Executive Producer
Please Remove Your Shoes: TSA and the Myth of America’s Airport Security
“Every one of the many times I brought Rocco in to write (and often perform) for one of my broadcast TV projects, he exceeded my demands and expectations in every possible way. His incisive research skills, pinpoint accuracy, and compelling storytelling capabilities were focused with laser-like intensity on the needs of the project, not only heeding constraints, but creatively applying their challenges to his approach to enhance his solution. When you need a writer to bring the highest quality results for content and style, call Rocco Giuliano.”
Henry Dane, TV Writer/Producer/Director/Editor
Contact Me
