(upbeat music) - [John] First thing that I do is I bring the menus to the table.

Then, I ask what kind of drinks that they want.

Then, I go to the back, give the order to my kids, then bring the food at the table while I'm figuring out the check in my head.

And then I refill their drinks and then they come to the register and they pay.

(register dings) I'm not sure when they notice if I'm blind or not.

Just as I'm walking around, they get it.

Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kickoff this One-on-One program part of our Arts Connection series.

You've just seen a clip from Bendix: Sight Unseen.

Anthony Scalia.

Anthony Scalia joins us, documentary filmmaker.

He's responsible for that.

Anthony, great to have you with us.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- The film follows John.

Tell everyone who John is.

- John Diakakis is a blind diner owner here in New Jersey.

He's the owner and waiter at the Bendix Diner.

He's also a man of many facets.

He's a single father of three children.

He's a stand-up comedian.

He has an unbelievable shoe and cologne collection.

So, all of these crazy things make whole, and that's exactly what I did for the last three years is follow him around telling these pieces, getting this whole together and making this documentary.

- You grew up where?

- I grew up in Lodi just about five minutes down the road from the diner.

- The diner's in, and where is it again?

- Hasbrouck Heights.

- Hasbrouck Heights.

So up, up Bergen County, you, you know the area.

Did you know John before?

- I didn't, no.

I went into the diner late one night simply because it was the only place open and, um... - That's the way it is in Jersey sometimes.

(laughter) Go ahead.

- It is.

I knew something was a little off because when he handed me my drink he didn't put it on the table.

He kind of just hovered it, waited for me to take it.

But it took me a minute for everything to click.

And I said, "Are you blind?".

He's like, "Yeah, I am."

And he said, "My son over there, he's working the front grill."

And the kid must have been like, in high school.

It was like, late.

It was like, 2:00 or 3:00 AM and I was like, this is a story.

So, it took me a while to convince him, but eventually I just started hanging around there and I kind of wouldn't leave until I got the shots that I needed.

And that's how this film came, came about.

- You fell in love with film when?

- When I was a child.

My dad owned a video store pre-Blockbuster and just had a plethora of classic films.

I grew up on old Warner Brothers and Universal Studios movies.

And as soon as I got into high school I started making films with my friends.

My cam, my family, when I was young bought me a video camera.

So, I'd always been doing that and then took it more seriously into high school.

And then when I went to college the choice was sort of easy.

I was like, I gotta go for film.

And I went to Ramapo College.

- Is that how we know you?

We know who you are.

- No, actually that, but that is another connection.

But, but, I - - Give, give me the Jersey connection because we, for years, we do our, the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Awards there.

And there are, actually our executive producer Georgette Timoney voiced them over and produced a lot of them.

They're special.

There's short segments on extraordinary people who are honored at that Make a Difference ceremony.

And a lot of that video is shot by the students up at Ramapo.

Were you involved in that at all?

- I shot and edited a lot of those.

Yeah.

- You did that?

- I did.

(laughs) - So you got great experience in college creating content in this way?

- Absolutely.

You know, I learned a whole lot from my professors while I was there.

They were fantastic.

In fact, the Ramapo is having a, a screening of Bendix next week and they're asking me to speak to the students and things like that.

But New Jersey and PBS have both been long-standing connections.

I was an intern at American Masters back when I was at Ramapo.

And, - Does it get better I worked for an, - than that?

I'm sorry?

- It doesn't get better than that.

- It doesn't.

I also work currently as a freelance editor for PBS.

I've done their pledge breaks for All Creatures, Endeavour, The Evolution.

And I'm working on The U.S. and the Holocaust right now.

- Documentary filmmaking.

By the way, how long is the Bendix piece?

- 26 minutes.

Where is the market for a film of 26 minutes?

- Online.

There's a pretty heavy market for it.

Things like Netflix, things like HBO, where they're not so television-oriented at the time.

They're more likely to host a film like this.

I've been in talks with distribution to several companies since I've done the festival route.

To be honest with you, this is my first film outside of college that I filmed and had never really considered distribution before this.

I just made movies to make movies.

And however long it was, was however long it was.

And now I'm finding that it should probably fit into a little bit of a window.

- You should do a documentary on the business of making documentaries.

- It's pretty fascinating stuff.

(laughs) - Yeah, you're learning quickly about being an entrepreneur, aren't you?

- A little bit.

I've also learned about how to make a documentary.

So, in my mind, before I started this, I had done a few seven-minute pieces about places and interesting people in New Jersey.

I thought that this would've followed that same format.

That this would be a seven-minute, you know, piece about John and in and out.

But the longer I spent with him, the more time and more things I've realized that he did, I was like, "Wait a minute, this is bigger than this."

And I thought I was doing something wrong because it wasn't fitting into my cookie cutter mold of how I always made things.

Come to find, after talking to many people at festivals who make documentaries, that's exactly how a documentary is made.

You often start one way and end up in a totally different direction.

And that's part of the process.

I wish somebody had told me that.

It would've saved me a lot of anxiety.

But it's okay.

- (laughs) We're better for it.

- Tell us more about John.

What makes him so special?

- The thing that really makes him special in my mind is just how good of a father he is.

I've seen him around his children.

Obviously his disability and his ways of managing and handling his disability are inspiring not only to the people who come into his diner, who've known him for years, but people who are driving cross-country and stop into that diner you know, just by chance.

Everybody's amazed by him.

His ability to take money at the register and bring the food to the table without a hitch.

But to me it's his skills as a father.

He genuinely cares about his children.

Is always up to date with information about them, wants to know how they're doing in school, "What grade did you get on the Spanish test?".

Like, it's a way that, I mean, I know my parents were with me, but it's a rare sort of trait to see him so involved in his children's lives in a way that isn't over like a helicopter parent.

He genuinely cares.

And I think that's what makes him so special.

- Be, before I let you go, obviously, John can't see the documentary, but he experiences the documentary.

Real quick, got a few seconds.

What did he tell you?

- He said he loved it.

We, I had let him listen to it privately and he called me back and was happy that as much crazy stuff as he did made it into the documentary.

Cuz he was so, he's like, "I think you were gonna cut some of that stuff."

I was like, "No John."

- Nope.

"This is you."

This tells the whole story.

- Stays in.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

The best stuff is the stuff that people think should go out and stays in.

That's Anthony Scalia, documentary filmmaker.

Check out Bendix: Sight Unseen, part of our Arts Connection series.

Hey, we look forward to your work in the future, Anthony and wish you all the best.

- Thank you so much, Steve.

Thanks for havin me.

- Yeah.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Anthony Scalia.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Prudential Financial.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

Johnson & Johnson.

TD Bank.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

- At the Turrell Fund, We know childcare creates transformative early learning experiences for young children, and helps families succeed.

Childcare is essential for the economy, driving financial growth and sustainability across all sectors.

The Turrell Fund envisions a New Jersey in which every infant and toddler has access to high quality, affordable childcare In order to grow, develop and thrive.

Our children are our future.

For more information, visit TurrellFund.org.