New York City native Raúl daSilva recalls his boyhood in the lower East
Side of Manhattan and its surrounding neighborhoods as fascinating. He
was educated at Adelphi University and later attended Hofstra
University's PhD program in clinical psychology but changed his mind
and through some networking from his acting curriculum taken in
undergraduate school ended up at Paramount's Creative Property
Development Group in the Brill Bldg. near Times Square.
During his tenure there he received a notice of acceptance from the US
Navy Flight Training Command at Pensacola, Florida that he had applied
for with eight friends on a lark and accepted it to fulfill a boyhood
dream, later realizing that flying is just hard work and little or no
glamour. Subsequently, he returned to the film industry but chose to
work in informational films so that he could have a hands-on experience
in the entire spectrum of filmmaking. He was hired by the preeminent,
historically important studio in Detroit, Michigan, The Jamison Handy
Organization. This had been the second film studio organized for
business in the United States and the last employer or the famed
animator Max Fleischer. There, he began as a writer in the animation
department but quickly moved to live action and began his climb up the
ladder as a director-producer. During this period he worked at every
aspect of the film craft, including, cinematography editing, art
direction, stage management, post production and audiovisual
production.
He left the studio to join Cessna Aircraft where he could take
advantage of his US Navy aviation background. There, he set up their
first audiovisual and screen communications in the marketing of their
line of aircraft. He then began a lengthy experience as an advertising
and public relations agency film producer-director with firms such as
the internationally important Burson-Marsteller where with Vice
President Bob Carter he started the genesis of their first screen
communications division. With a background in promotional writing
Carter suggested that he take journalism writing courses at that time
at the University of Pittsburgh. It was there that he had a mystical
experience which redirected his life and set him firmly on a path of
spiritual searching.
His final agency work prior to becoming a freelancer was with Eastman
Kodak's industrial ad and pr agency as their Executive Producer for all
of their clients, including Kodak's Motion Picture products division.
Raul then began his work as a freelancer and to some extent returned to
work in entertainment films and as a creative consultant to
organizations such as Time-Life Films, Xerox, Warner Bros. and Fortune
top 20 corporations. His film work is critically acclaimed on an
international level. He is the author of seven books (one on aviation
and six on filmmaking) and has lectured on screenwriting and directing
at several universities including RIT, NYU, Brooklyn College and Ithaca
College. He taught screenwriting at St. John Fisher College in
Rochester, NY. Along the way he met the legendary director Frank Capra
who became his mentor for some years and he befriended and was a
co-worker of Rod Serling. Among his other friends in the industry were
the late John Cassavetes and Sterling Hayden. It was Hayden who
motivated Raúl to create his magnum opus, a visualization of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with Sir Michael
Redgrave. In this effort he brought back much interest in the United
States for this 1798 epic poem that speaks to the sanctity of all life
on Earth.
He currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut and is active in writing
and filmmaking.
