From Filmmaker
VITO BRANCATO

The lives of JFK, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Sam Giancana intertwine leading to the mysterious death of Marilyn in Los Angeles and an assassination attempt on President Kennedy in Chicago in the fall of ‘62…one year before Dallas.

***OFFICIAL TRAILER***

First, he wrote the television screenplay, a series about how the lives of JFK, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Sam Giancana intertwined to sway the 1960 presidential election and changed the course of American history. Then Brancato adapted it into a novel – PRINCES & THIEVES – with all the dialogue intact – each of the ten chapters in the book version representing an episode. And now, a feature length docudrama BEFORE DALLAS (based on the novel) that brings those historic and iconic characters to life.

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Winner of several festival awards including the prestigious Silver Remi at Worldfest Houston, Vito Brancato’s film Driving John Lennon lets viewers eavesdrop on a dramatic and revealing conversation between rock and roll’s two biggest icons.

Based on true-life characters and actual events, Vito Brancato wrote and directed this gritty, low-budget crime thriller about a botched Mob jewelry heist and the bloody and political aftermath that followed. THE DEAL was shot completely on location in Chicago in a record 13 straight days and premiered at NYC’s IFP in the summer of 1998.

Set on the outskirts of Chicago’s infamous West Side (in a building once owned by Al Capone), Brancato’s old-world coffee house doubles as his production office and served as an authentic film set for his dark comedy Gangster Café. The series follows a local crew of hoodlums who use a coffee shop as a front for their criminal activities – while a bumbling (and sex addicted) FBI agent stumbles onto their scheme to smuggle heroin in bags of espresso beans.

Brancato indulged his love for jazz when he wrote, produced and directed this 2010 long form music video about a small-town girl with a big voice who competes in an open mic competition in a rough Chicago night club. Andrea Prestinario belts out a powerful version of the George Gershwin classic…SUMMERTIME