Tag Archives: community

Ralph Rotella: The Sole of Syracuse

Our documentary short Ralph Rotella: The Sole of Syracuse has completed its festival run and is now available for viewing on YouTube.

Logline: Ralph Rotella plies the craft of shoe repair while offering kindness and a sense of community to his customers and the residents of Syracuse, New York.

Since emigrating to the U.S. from Italy in the 1970s, Rotella has owned Discount Shoe Repair in downtown Syracuse. Each day he opens the store, fixes shoes, works with his hands using antiquated equipment, and converses with customers. In his daily interactions with people, Rotella reveals himself to be a witty, beatific figure who draws people to himself, building a sense of community with his shoe repair shop as a hive of activity. The film examines the value of work and what constitutes happiness, while also honoring an unsung hero in the Central New York community.

Photo Credit: Shane Johnson

Credits, Awards and Festivals:

Directed by Francis DiClemente and Shane Johnson
Produced by Francis DiClemente
Cinematography and Editing by Shane Johnson

Ralph’s work bench. Photo Credit: Shane Johnson.

Awards:

Winner: Best Director, Short Films
New York Documentary Film Awards (2024)

Gold Remi Award in Film & Video Productions, sub-category Community
57th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival (2024)

Film Festivals:

New York Documentary Film Awards
NewFilmmakers NY, Spring 2024 Screening Series
57th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival
Culver City Film Festival
Syracuse International Film Festival

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Just: Urban Art

I was walking along Walton Street in downtown Syracuse earlier this week and saw a large painting in a window that captured my attention.

Just by Tyrone Johnson-Neuland.

The work is part of a “street gallery” curated by Midoma Gallery co-founder Marianna Ranieri-Schwarzer.

The piece is entitled Just by Tyrone Johnson-Neuland. It reminded me a little of the stock image I used for the cover of my poetry collection Sidewalk Stories (Kelsay Books, 2017).

I like the aquamarine space in the upper two-thirds of Johnson-Neuland’s painting with the running black horizontal and vertical lines.

And forgive my digression, but can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the colors Aqua, Teal and Turquoise? Or are the terms synonymous? I never know if I am using the correct color.

When I hear aqua or teal, I immediately think of the Miami Dolphins.

When I first noticed the painting in the window, the stenciled letter “Just” in the bottom right corner provoked a stream-of-consciousness fusillade of words that popped into my head.

Just by Tyrone Johnson-Neuland.

The first was “Just what?”
And, of course, “Just do it.” (Nike)

But then:

Just jump.
Just smile.
Just hug.
Just leave.
Just love.
Just care.
Just try.
Just live.
Just die.
Just f%$k off.
Just cry.
Just quit.
Just keep going.
Just(ine).

I love experiencing art in the city, and in this case, the work is an open-ended conversation whereby the viewer completes the piece that Johnson-Neuland so beautifully created.

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Bocce Documentary Distribution

I want to share some distribution details for our indie documentary short, The World Series of Bocce: A Celebration of Sport, Family and Community.

The film will make its theatrical premiere on Saturday, May 18 at Cinema Capitol in Rome as part of a Local Film Shorts Showcase. I’m excited to see the other films on the schedule. The screenings start at 1 p.m.

It’s a fitting location for the documentary’s debut since the subject matter is about Rome. Side note: I saw my first movie at the Capitol when I was kid. I can’t remember which came first—but it was either Mary Poppins or The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.

Another screening will be held at 12 p.m. on Saturday, June 22 at Valley Cinemas in Little Falls.

The film will make its broadcast premiere on WCNY at 10 p.m. on Thursday, July 11. Additional broadcast dates are July 21 and 27. I’m waiting on broadcast dates for WXXI in Rochester. The film has also been accepted for national distribution to PBS stations via NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association).

And in a case of serendipitous timing, the screening at the Capitol falls on the same day my sister Lisa and I had planned the burial of our father’s cremated remains at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Rome. My dad passed away in 2007, and my sister had his ashes in her possession ever since. I even wrote a short poem about it:

St. Peter’s Cemetery

I extend a hand to touch an angel trapped in marble.
Its face is cool and damp, like the earth beneath the slab.
I pose a question to my deceased father,
Knowing the answer will elude me.
For his remains are not buried in this cemetery,
But instead rest on a shelf in my sister’s suburban Ohio house.

But I found out last year that my father had purchased a plot in St. Peter’s Cemetery and we could bury his remains there. After trying for several months, I was able to schedule the burial on May 18. I heard from the Capitol a week later that the Local Films Shorts Showcase would be held the same day. It was a nice coincidence or what my former boss, Stu Lisson, would call a “God wink.”

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