(bright acoustic music) - I grew up in Pittston, Pennsylvania and went to school in West Pittston.

Graduated in 1956.

Joined the Air Force in 1957.

And when I was transferred to Germany, I purchased a Bolex and I started taking film in Germany.

And then from there, it stayed with me for the rest of my life.

At that time there were not many film schools in the country.

In fact, I didn't know of any except the one in Santa Barbara, California: Brooks Institute of Photography.

We had to make a little two minute film or three minute film.

We had to do two of them, and then you graduated.

And after that, I moved to Hollywood.

That was a transition period into making serious films.

(mellow piano music) There was a program that Australia had about assisted passage and they would pay your way if you wanted to migrate to Australia.

So I was contracted by Channel 9 to do a television series called "The Link Men".

- Could you place identity, nationality?

- He had an accent, sort of thick.

It could have been German.

- And then I went on my own and made a film called "...and it was called JOADJA", which was a documentary about a rather eccentric American lady who owned a property, and it was about a shale mining town called Joadja, and she lived on it and there was still ruins there.

- [Narrator] Eventually they put the railway in and it done away with the bullet teams.

- [John] It won honorable mention at the Australian film awards for that year that we released it.

While I was in Australia I met a writer from Hungary named Gregory Marton.

He had written a play called "Silo 15" which was a about two American officers in a missile silo.

- Silo 15 to (indistinct).

- [John] "Silo 15" was eventually sold to BBC Two and was televised on September 6th, 1969 at 9:30 at night.

And that was really one of the highlights of my career that I was able sell a drama to the BBC.

When I left Australia, I came back home for a couple months and decided I wanted to go to Europe.

I tried to put together a film on the Catalan architect, an Antonio Gaudí.

- [Man] All visual art, contrast and color.

Color and light.

- The film that was lost for over 30 years is now on YouTube and I have close to 200,000 hits on it.

And it's since then been placed in the archives in Barcelona.

The film is 50 years old and it's still being seen by a lot of people.

When I left Spain, I came back to America in 1976.

During the time I worked at WVIA, one was a documentary called, "A Journey to the Endless Mountains".

And it became a very popular show at the station, still is.

(lively acoustic music) And then I came onto something called The Mature Workers Program.

And it was on that program that I returned to WVIA.

My career has gone full circle.

I started making short films.

Because of the expense involved you just couldn't go out and make a long film because it would take a lot of money to do it.

So we all in those days made short films to express ourselves.

And now I'm back again making short films called "Short Takes" for WVIA.

Since working at WVIA I've managed to make three or four short takes.

All of these have a historical reference, which I think is very important that we keep alive some of the local history that we have in our area.

Well, presently, I'm still in the process of learning the whole system of how to edit and do everything in one program, which in my time, in my day would take weeks and weeks and weeks, to do the sound mix, to do the editing to do the final cut, to run the film through the moviola.

And here you just sit in front of a computer and it's all there in front of you.

Very easy once you know the system and very sensible.

Retirement is a word that I don't really know much about.

It was never my... As long as I could work in this business, if I had the opportunity I would do it.

Creativity is something I think you're born with and it stays with you, whether you're a young man or an old man, it's just something that is inside you that you want to express.

And I think that's what keeps you going, and that's what kept me going.

And I was lucky to have the opportunity to continue expressing my creativity.

I think that's important that you have the opportunity.

If someone says I'm happy yeah, I'm happy 'cause I was able to do what I wanted to do and I'm still to doing it.

I think it was Thoreau who said, "You can't go home again."

Well, I'm not so sure about that because I'm home right now doing what I've always done and bringing a lot of joy in my life.

At the present time, I see no reason to retire.

I think you retire when you really get bored with what you're doing, and I don't see that happening.

I'm never bored making films, ever.

My name is John Alaimo and I'm a producer, director at WVIA TV.

(inspiring music)