Tom DiCillo

Tom DiCillo

Birth : 1953-08-14, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

History

Tom DiCillo is an American director, cinematographer, writer and actor born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina, and who studied film at New York University. During his early career he began working with director Jim Jarmusch as a cinematographer on films that include Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise. His experience as cinematographer proved invaluable and he was soon writing and directing his own films.

Profile

Tom DiCillo
Tom DiCillo
Tom DiCillo

Movies

Uncle Howard
Self
When Howard Brookner lost his life to AIDS in 1989, the 35-year-old director had completed two feature documentaries and was in post-production on his narrative debut, Bloodhounds of Broadway. Twenty-five years later, his nephew, Aaron, sets out on a quest to find the lost negative of Burroughs: The Movie, his uncle's critically-acclaimed portrait of legendary author William S. Burroughs. When Aaron uncovers Howard's extensive archive in Burroughs’ bunker, it not only revives the film for a new generation, but also opens a vibrant window on New York City’s creative culture from the 1970s and ‘80s, and inspires a wide-ranging exploration of his beloved uncle's legacy.
Down in Shadowland
Writer
A seven year project involving filming on NYC subway. Camera observes people and events unaware they are being filmed. Emotional, intimate and deeply human. All done by director Tom DiCillo. He shot, edited and mixed the film by himself with the aim of making a film without any financial or marketing restrictions.
Down in Shadowland
Editor
A seven year project involving filming on NYC subway. Camera observes people and events unaware they are being filmed. Emotional, intimate and deeply human. All done by director Tom DiCillo. He shot, edited and mixed the film by himself with the aim of making a film without any financial or marketing restrictions.
Down in Shadowland
Director of Photography
A seven year project involving filming on NYC subway. Camera observes people and events unaware they are being filmed. Emotional, intimate and deeply human. All done by director Tom DiCillo. He shot, edited and mixed the film by himself with the aim of making a film without any financial or marketing restrictions.
Down in Shadowland
Director
A seven year project involving filming on NYC subway. Camera observes people and events unaware they are being filmed. Emotional, intimate and deeply human. All done by director Tom DiCillo. He shot, edited and mixed the film by himself with the aim of making a film without any financial or marketing restrictions.
Kingdom Come
Himself
The documentary, Kingdom Come follows a first-time director (Daniel Gillies) as he tries to raise a million dollars to finance his first film, Broken Kingdom. This emotionally-charged journey is interwoven with over 30 rare interviews from acclaimed indie darlings including Mark Ruffalo, Illeana Douglas, Don Cheadle, Kevin Smith, Edward Burns, Tim Roth, Morgan Spurlock, Selma Blair, Robert Townsend, Bill Pullman and many more.
When You're Strange
Screenplay
The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America's most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison's death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
When You're Strange
Additional Music
The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America's most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison's death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
When You're Strange
Producer
The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America's most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison's death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
When You're Strange
Director
The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America's most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison's death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
Delirious
Director
Les, a small-time celebrity photographer desperate to make it big, befriends Toby, a homeless young man with no direction except a vague desire to become an actor. When by chance, Toby becomes romantically involved with K'Harma Leeds, the hottest pop star of the moment, Les grows jealous and plots revenge.
Delirious
Writer
Les, a small-time celebrity photographer desperate to make it big, befriends Toby, a homeless young man with no direction except a vague desire to become an actor. When by chance, Toby becomes romantically involved with K'Harma Leeds, the hottest pop star of the moment, Les grows jealous and plots revenge.
Coffee and Cigarettes
Director of Photography
Coffee And Cigarettes is a collection of eleven films from cult director Jim Jarmusch. Each film hosts star studded cast of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Double Whammy
Writer
Ray Pluto has many problems. He is satirized in the tabloids as the "loser cop." His partner is starting to seem suspiciously attracted to him. A pair of screenwriters across the hall keep bugging him for help. The superintendent of his building is stabbed by hoodlums hired by his own rebellious daughter. To top it off, a sexually aggressive chiropractor may just be Ray's undoing.
Double Whammy
Director
Ray Pluto has many problems. He is satirized in the tabloids as the "loser cop." His partner is starting to seem suspiciously attracted to him. A pair of screenwriters across the hall keep bugging him for help. The superintendent of his building is stabbed by hoodlums hired by his own rebellious daughter. To top it off, a sexually aggressive chiropractor may just be Ray's undoing.
Some Days in January
A short behind-the-scenes documentary shot by Tom Jarmusch while his brother filmed Stranger Than Paradise (1984).
The Real Blonde
Writer
An aspiring actor and his girlfriend handle life's frustrations, while his friend seeks fulfillment with a blonde.
The Real Blonde
Director
An aspiring actor and his girlfriend handle life's frustrations, while his friend seeks fulfillment with a blonde.
Independent's Day
Self
Filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival discuss what it is like to be an independent filmmaker, and what Sundance has done for them.
Box of Moonlight
Writer
Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.
Box of Moonlight
Director
Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.
Living in Oblivion
Writer
Nick is the director of a low-budget indie film. He tries to keep everything together as his production is plagued with an insecure actress, a megalomaniac star, a pretentious, beret-wearing director of photography, and lousy catering.
Living in Oblivion
Director
Nick is the director of a low-budget indie film. He tries to keep everything together as his production is plagued with an insecure actress, a megalomaniac star, a pretentious, beret-wearing director of photography, and lousy catering.
At Sundance
Himself
A group portrait of filmmakers attend the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Featuring Matthew Harrison, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Todd Haynes, Greg Araki, Abel Ferrara, Atom Egoyan, James Gray, Robert Redford, Haskell Wexler, among many others. Co-directed by Amy Hobby. [Filmed in Pixelvision and blown-up to evocatively grainy 16mm.]
Johnny Suede
Writer
A struggling young musician and devoted fan of Ricky Nelson wants to be just like his idol and become a rock star.
Johnny Suede
Director
A struggling young musician and devoted fan of Ricky Nelson wants to be just like his idol and become a rock star.
End of the Night
Director of Photography
In this black and white independent melodrama, Joe Belinsky (Eric Mitchell) doesn't know how to cope with his wife's pregnancy and his loss of an insurance agency job, and feels adrift. As a consequence of that, he takes a job working the counter of a low-cost, somewhat hip eatery, and meets a French girl with whom he has a brief affair. Though the affair ends, it has created an obsession in him - first with the French girl, and later with slim young women in general. All of them reject him, and he leaves his waiting job to prowl around for these inaccessible beauties. Meanwhile, his wife is having their baby.
The Beat
Editor
A New York teacher indulges a mad high school poet who sees himself as a mythic hero.
The Beat
Cinematography
A New York teacher indulges a mad high school poet who sees himself as a mythic hero.
Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars
Cinematography
Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars is an in-depth documentation of Robert Wilson’s ambitious attempt to stage an epic, twelve-hour, multinational opera for the 1984 Summer Olympics. Filmmaker Howard Brookner follows the avant-garde theatre director as he confronts a hectic work schedule, funding difficulties and relentless international travel in attempt to complete his preparations. The film examines Wilson’s unique theatrical style during The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down, which involves the continual creation of evocative stage sets, owing to a unique juxtaposition of movement, sound, text and image. Known for his precise, painterly images Wilson’s work derives more from visual art than the orthodox literary traditions of theatre. As a result, Wilson often challenges actors to perform in a boldly minimalist style, as well as collaborating with non-actors, such as young autistic poet Christopher Knowles in Einstein on the Beach.
Robinson's Garden
Director of Photography
Kumi lives a hippie-like life in Tokyo's outskirts. One night while drunk she stumbles into an abandoned industrial site, except in addition to deserted factories, it is full of forests and greenery. She decides to move there, even further away from the civilization she had already left.
Chain Letters
Bob
Nine Manhattanites receive a chain letter. Depending on their decision to either pass the letter on or to break the chain, the various characters can encounter romance, fulfillment -- and sudden death.
Variety
Director of Photography
A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patron of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.
Stranger Than Paradise
Director of Photography
A Hungarian immigrant, his friend, and his cousin go on an unpredictable adventure across America.
Stranger Than Paradise
Airline Agent
A Hungarian immigrant, his friend, and his cousin go on an unpredictable adventure across America.
Kino '84: The Making of Jim Jarmusch
Interviewee
Documentary on American film director Jim Jarmusch made for German television.
Burroughs: The Movie
Director of Photography
An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, and William Burroughs Jr.
Give me a spell
Underground U.S.A.
Cinematography
The Sunset Blvd. of underground cinema, and a suitably ambivalent retrospect on the star-game casualties of New York's upper depths, with Patti Astor statuesquely hysterical as a 20-year-old Norma Desmond, made up to recall Edie Sedgwick and surrounded by Warhol's lost children. We've been here before, but without the hindsight: a camera cruise along a hustler's meat-rack, kitchen-talk over cold canned spaghetti, Taylor Mead grimacing in a spastic dance, the silent stud a sullenly passive observer. Mitchell's ear for campy native wit and eye for figures in a loft-scape happily keep at bay the otherwise contagious NY ennui.
Permanent Vacation
Cinematography
In downtown Manhattan, a twenty-something boy whose Father is not around and whose Mother is institutionalized, is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for more meaning in his life and meets a few characters along the way.
God Save the King
Writer
Two punk rockers are interviewed by a rock journalist.
God Save the King
Director
Two punk rockers are interviewed by a rock journalist.