Searching for Camelot

A film by Roger Paradiso now streaming 24/7 on the Globalcinema.online channel

In my film, I interviewed many people and asked them where they were or what they thought about that dark day in Dallas. When I was asked what I would want to say for the paper’s memorial piece about November 22, 1963, I thought that those on the paper should have a chance to express their feelings about that day also. And of course, our readers can send in their thoughts to the letters to the editor page.

Question: Where were you on 
November 22nd and what were you thinking when you heard the news? And for those who were not born yet, what do you think happened that dark day in Dallas?

It was 1963 and it all seemed so innocent.  I was 12 years old and in class at St. Clare’s Parochial School in Clifton, New Jersey. Suddenly Sister Mary Rosena rushed into the class and said the president’s been shot. I remember how the announcement by Sister Rosena changed everything. Those horrible words that the President was shot.  We were dismissed from school and the walk home was a walk away from the past.  I was very confused by what was happening, and I started to run home to make sure my parents were ok. No one was home. I started to panic. Was there going to be a war? Then I saw our Buick Newport pulling up to the house with my brother and sister. We looked at each other and headed into the house. And that’s all I remember. I know I felt safe being with my family. I know we were all watching the television, but to break up the monotony I started to shoot hoops with my friend down the block. Not much was said. But a lot was said. While we were shooting hoops some neighbors were outside talking to my parents. I wasn’t ready to hear anything yet except the swish of the basketball.
– Roger Paradiso

As a grade school student at the time, while sitting at my desk, I vaguely remember getting the announcement through the PA system, a speaker way up on the wall of my classroom. Being so young, I just ‘heard’ it. I don’t recall it meaning much to me. What I clearly recall was getting out of school, then getting into my mother’s car who immediately told me that President Kennedy had been killed. Again, at that young age, I just remember the words and my actions of sitting in the car as she drove me to my grandparents’ apartment where it seems I sat on the floor glued to the TV the entire weekend including during the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. I can’t say how I felt at the time, or what I thought, but it must have meant something or it wouldn’t have been so 
memorable. —Joy Pape

I was walking down Green Street on my way to college classes on a sunny day in Champaign Illinois, when I saw the news on TV in one of the storefronts. I was shocked, stunned. It was all we talked about for the rest of the day, wherever I went. It was too horrible to absorb.
The doctrine of hatred had changed America, and I needed to find a path beyond that. It changed my life outlook, in ways I had yet to discover.
—Brian Pape

Why did I make this film? I guess I thought we needed to preserve history as best we can. This is our quest to search for Camelot and to find the answers hidden in the past. Rest in peace, John, Robert, and Jacqueline Kennedy. I hope you can watch my film someday. For those who collect DVDs, you can buy any of the “Searching for Camelot” trilogy for $10 dollars, or all three DVDs for $25 dollars. All money will go to the Village View. Send your check and mailing address to VillageView Media, Inc. a tax exempt 501c3 corporation. Contributions can be mailed to us at 225 Broadway, Suite 1902, NY, NY 10007.