My name is Michael DiPaolo and I have been in the room with more murderers than most police ever will, videotaping over 2000 confessions during more than sixteen years at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Simultaneously, I have written, produced and directed feature-length dramas based on fictionalized variations of those confessions.
My features include BOUGHT
& SOLD (1988)-Certificate of Merit-1988 Chicago Film Festival and REQUIEM
FOR A WHORE (1989), both distributed by Chiaroscuro Video. My first 16mm feature, TRANSGRESSION (1994) was at the NY Underground Film Fest, the Chicago Underground Film Fest, Rome's FANTAFESTIVAL, Manchester's Kinofilm. In 2003 I finished my first DV feature DADDY, a zombie revenge drama and wrote my first book which detailed the production of that film as well as putting together over 20 years of low-budget filmmaking experience. It’s entitled THE SIX DAY HORROR MOVIE, A NO-NONSENSE GUIDE TO NO-BUDGET FILMMAKING, is published by McFarland & Co. and is now available worldwide. In 2005 I completed production on MOTHER, a retelling of the Ed Gein story shot in B&W with no dialogue but plenty of sound including dissonant Russian choral music that plays like a surrealist-documentary and is my version of commercial suicide. I’ve finally completed my long gestating 16mm feature shot in 1997, SERPENT'S BREATH aka DEATH
DESIRE , a film-noir fugue of death and desire and I am beginning pre-production on my first High Definition feature that chronicles three generations of incest in one family and is entitled A SONG OF INFINITE SORROW.
In early 2000 I became involved with the light weight “Run & Gun” era digital production, producing and directing AFTER THE SKY FELL, a documentary on the effects of September 11th on 5 NYC artists, working as a Video Journalist for the New York Time’s TV cable series, “TRAUMA: LIFE IN THE ER”, producing and directing a documentary on IMPROV'S FORGOTTEN PROPHET, David Shepherd, editing and directing a documentary, A MIME’S LIFE on America’s foremost mime, Richmond Shepard, directing and editing a documentary on Performance Artist Elizabeth Streb as well as being DP on a documentary on Jazz great, Miles Davis. And I made it to Alaska as cameraman/editor on documentary about the pros and cons of oil exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, while I recently completed COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY WITH HEALTH CARE WORKERS, a DVD for the Veteran’s Administration, a corporate video that will actually help people, if you can believe that!
Born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY, I graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in Fine Arts, studying with artist Lynda Benglis and later received an M.A. in Fine Arts, with a concentration in Video from Hunter College in NYC, studying with video art pioneer, Juan Downey. My first job out of school in 1977 was producing, shooting and editing a feature-length, shot on video, improvised movie called SOPHA by David Shepherd, "the guru of improv" and the Co-founder of COMPASS, the forerunner of SECOND CITY in Chicago. A long working relationship, that continues until today.
After a couple of years of free-lancing I began producing and directing fashion videos from 1977 to 1985, first at the A&S Department Stores, then later for such clients as Danskin. I also produced and directed numerous dance, music and short dramatic videos for such artists as musicians Bobby Previte and Anthony Coleman and choreographer Marilyn Klaus. In 1987, I produced and directed a hidden camera documentary that examined New York City's hustlers and homeless after midnight in CITY
OF SIN, which has been updated with footage from early 2000’s Disney-like Times Square. Email
Michael DiPaolo