James Dalessandro is a novelist, journalist, and screenwriter based in San Francisco. In 1973, he founded the Santa Cruz Poetry Festival, the nation's largest literary event at the time, with friends Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, and Charles Bukowski.
From 1980 to 1995, he lived in Los Angeles, where he attended UCLA Film School and joined the Writer's Guild of America, West. He's published four books: "Canary in a Coal Mine,"(poetry); "Bohemian Heart," (a noir thriller novel set in San Francisco); "Citizen Jane," (the true story of Jane Alexander, who spent 13 years tracking down and convicting the man who murdered her 88-year-old aunt); and the best-selling novel "1906," (an epic re-creation of the great San Francisco Earthquake).
He is the executive producer and screenwriter of the Hallmark Channel movie, "Citizen Jane" (Airing September 12, 2009 @ 9pm on the Hallmark Channel) and screenwriter of "1906," a Warner Brothers/Pixar film, directed by Oscar-winner Brad Bird. He is also co-screenwriter and producer of "The Italian Girl," a film based on the internment of Italian-Americans by the federal government during WWI; currently in pre-production. His article, "Petrosino — The Man Who Fought the Mafia," the story of Joseph Petrosino, the former shoeshine boy drafted into the NYPD who fought a 26-year battle with the Mafia, appeared in Playboy in late spring, 2009.
James is the award-winning writer/director/producer of the documentary film, "The Damnedest, Finest Ruins," about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. He also the instructor of 'Advanced Screenwriting' and 'Writing for Television,' at one of the nation's largest film and animation schools, Academy of Art University, based in San Francisco. |