Joanne Caputo

Writer/Director Joanne Caputo has worked in film and video production since the 1980s. After creating educational, commercial, and corporate productions for a variety of clients, she began her independent filmmaking career with a children’s video, Ballerina, Ballerina! (1995), recommended by Sesame St. Magazine. Caputo's first documentary, On A Roll: Family, Disability and the American Dream, was filmed over four years and broadcast nationally by PBS Independent Lens, where it won the 2005 Audience Award. Recommended by The New York Times, Anti-Defamation League and others, On A Roll represented the USA at international disability film festivals, and was selected for (PBS) True Stories: Life in the USA international programming through 2017. Following On A Roll, Caputo released Cutting Loose, a seven-year documentary study of an American prison artist, and Letters From Frank, featuring her parents' love letters during WWII. In 2008, Caputo published Margaret Garner, a dual non-fiction book based on American slavery research for her Margaret Garner feature-length screenplay (recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Screenwriting Fellowship). From her book, Caputo has crafted a television series, co-written with Writer/Director Michael Ivey.