Summer in a college town, stolen TCBY signs, selling popcorn to John Cougar Mellencamp, and meeting one of your best friends in Sociology class after you’ve spent the night in jail. That’s Jim Granato, our first guest. Jim grew up in Unionville, a little town right to the east of Bloomington. He and Josh became fast friends during high school, which is also when Jim found himself at home behind the camera. Jim is now a freelance filmmaker in San Francisco. His films and documentaries have appeared on PBS, including A Day with My Boy: Slug War and D-Tour, a documentary that follows professional drummer and Bloomington native, Pat Spurgeon, as he does daily dialysis and searches for a new kidney while on tour with rock band Rogue Wave. Spurgeon’s story is deeply intertwined with those of several other Bloomingtonians.

More about Jim:

Jim Granato is a self-taught, award-winning filmmaker based in Oakland, California. Born in Chicago, Jim moved to the Bloomington area with his family when he was 5 years old (1978) and his earliest memories there are seeing the movie trucks and lights that were set around town when BREAKING AWAY (released 1979) was being filmed. He grew up fascinated with movies ever since, making up scenarios with childhood friends creating movie drawings and shooting polaroids and occasional super 8 before video cameras were available. In 1991, he started making short films on VHS with a dedicated group of friends that included trick or treaters getting run over, killer puppets, nude serial killers with plenty of the era's local underground music scene sprinkled in between. Jim left Bloomington in 1994.

 Since 1996, he has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and has directed and produced several short films and music videos.  His shorts, A Day With My Boy: Slug War (2014), was licensed by PBS and premiered as part of their series PBS Indies, and Angels (2013) was nominated for a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. He has made music videos for Sonny & The Sunsets, Rogue Wave, Ramon & Jessica, Pancho-San and The Bobbyteens.

 D TOUR (2009), which partially takes place in Bloomington, is his first feature film as director and producer. D TOUR won several awards including the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Feature Documentary from the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Jury Prize for Best Documentary from the Bend Film Festival. D TOUR premiered nationwide on the PBS Emmy award-winning program Independent Lens in November 2009. He is currently working on a second feature film project with underground "budget rock" legends, The Mummies, and has plans to write and direct a feature length project based on growing up in Bloomington.

Check out some of Jim's projects: 

Jim's vimeo

Mummies Movie

Mummies Facebook

D TOUR

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