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BOB SIROTT (narrator) is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster in Chicago. A fixture on local radio and television for more than 30 years, Sirott began his career as an on-air personality for WBBM-FM, the CBS radio affiliate in Chicago. After a move to ABC affiliate WLS in 1973, Sirott would become the number one afternoonradio personality in Chicago for seven years. Sirott has been a regular on Chicago television since 1980 when he became WBBM-TV’s (CBS) first lifestyle and entertainment editor. His stories appeared on the station’s 10 p.m. newscast, where he earned a Peter Lisagor Award for his reporting on the death of John Lennon. Sirott was named anchor/correspondent for the CBS News network magazine West 57th in 1985, winning a national Emmy for feature reporting. He returned to Chicago television as NBC5’s noon news anchor, feature reporter and program specials host in 1990. It was at that time that he began his Emmy Award-winning One More Thing commentaries that now end his newscasts. Sirott went on to develop the station’s First Thing in the Morning, 6 to 7 a.m. program, which he co-anchored. He then took the format to Fox Chicago, where he anchored Fox Thing in the Morning for seven years, during which time the program won a dozen local Emmys. Sirott’s co-anchor at Fox, Marianne Murciano, became his wife in 1999. Sirott most recently anchored the NBC5 news at 4:30 p.m. Currently, he anchors WGN Radio’s weekday Noon Show news hour and co-hosts the WGN Sunday Night Radio Special with Murciano. |
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JIM DISTASIO (director, writer, producer) holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from DePaul University and a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. A full-time magazine writer and editor, Distasio currently serves as editor-in-chief for a chain of health and wellness magazines titled Community Health. His writings also have appeared in American Profile magazine, Chicago Tribune Magazine and Fra Noi, Chicago’s Italian-American newsmagazine. As a filmmaker, Distasio has produced and directed several music videos, local commercials and corporate videos. His first documentary short, Sawdust: Life in the Ring, was an official selection at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and the River’s Edge Film Festival. 5,000 Miles From Home marks his feature film debut. He currently resides in Chicago with his wife, Kathy, and is a devotee of the Chicago-style hot dog. (Ingredients should include mustard, sweet relish, onion, tomato, sport pepper, pickle and celery salt. Under no circumstances should ketchup be allowed on anything but French fries.) |
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MARK McCUTCHEON (director, producer, editor) holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from DePaul University. He is an agency film/video editor at the advertising firm DraftFCB in Chicago, where he works on national broadcast advertising campaigns for clients such as S.C. Johnson, Kraft, Coors, Dow and KFC. His first documentary short, Sawdust: Life in the Ring, was an official selection at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and the River’s Edge Film Festival. 5,000 Miles From Home marks his feature film debut. When he’s not rocking Final Cut Pro, McCutcheon can be found rocking out as the drummer of the band My Canadian Girlfriend. The group’s first album, recorded at the famed Electrical Audio studios, was released in 2006, with their sophomore effort due to drop in 2009. McCutcheon lives in Chicago with his wife, Colleen, and the two are expecting their first child in July 2009. |
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ANTHONY J. FORNELLI (executive producer) has been a leader in the Italian-American community on the national and local level for four decades. He has served as president of UNICO National, the Chicago Amerital Chapter of UNICO, the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans and the Justinian Society of Lawyers. As chairman of Festa Italiana in Chicago for 16 years, he was instrumental in raising more than $1 million for a wide range of worthy causes, including the Neediest Children’s Fund, Mexican Earthquake Relief, the American Jewish Committee and Cooley’s anemia research. He is the publisher of Fra Noi, the Chicago-area Italian-American newspaper; founder and chairman of the Italian American Veterans Museum and Library (IAVML), which sponsored the documentary; and a founder and past chairman of Casa Italia in Stone Park, Ill., where the IAVML is located. Fornelli spearheaded the creation of the museum and the documentary in memory of his uncle James Orlando “Lon” Fornelli, an Army sergeant who earned a Silver Star while serving in the jungles of Guadalcanal during World War II. In the larger community, Fornelli has served on the boards of the Jane Addams’ Hull-House Museum, International Museum of Surgical Science and Hall of Fame, National Hemophilia Foundation, Austin School for the Mentally Disabled and Illinois Ethnic Consultation. An attorney and currency exchange owner, Fornelli has served as vice chair of the Chicago Plan Commission, director of the Department of Financial Institutions for the state of Illinois, assembly member for the Illinois State Bar Association, assistant corporation counsel for the city of Chicago and commissioner of the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. Fornelli and his wife, Angela, live in Chicago and have five daughters, two of which, Marquerite Petitte and Toni Petric, serve on the IAVML committee. |
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PAUL BASILE (producer, writer, border collie) is the editor of Fra Noi, the Chicago-area Italian-American newspaper. In the course of his two-decade tenure, he has transformed Fra Noi from a dying enterprise into one of the most highly regarded publications of its kind in the country. (He had quite a bit of help, of course.) A founding member of the Italian American Veterans Museum, Basile has overseen its growth from a small collection of memorabilia to a dazzling array of exhibits honoring Italian-American bravery from the Revolutionary War to the present. (He had quite a bit of help here, too.) A driving force behind the documentary as well, he wrote grants, lined up interviews, co-wrote the script, gathered historical photos, and in general drove Distasio and McCutcheon to distraction with his constant calls for an end date. The opportunity to work so closely with so many real-life heroes made it all worthwhile. “There’s a reason they’re called 'The Greatest Generation,’” Basile says. “They have a strength and humility that you rarely encounter and can’t help but admire.” Basile and his wife, Sheryl, live in Skokie and have one daughter, Arielle, who helped with the documentary. |
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