Francis DiClemente

About Francis DiClemente

Francis DiClemente is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with a disability who lives in Syracuse, New York. He is the author of multiple poetry collections, most recently Poecabulary (independently published, 2025), The Truth I Must Invent (Poets Choice, 2023), Outward Arrangements: Poems (independently published, 2021), and Dreaming of Lemon Trees: Selected Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2019).

DiClemente can discuss committing to creative pursuits while working a full-time day job and balancing a busy family life as a husband and the father of an autistic child.

His new book, Poecabulary, released in June 2025, is a minimalist poetry collection that blurs the line between vocabulary and verse. Words appear in unexpected pairings, creating connections that surprise, challenge, and invite reflection. Each combination is a deliberate act of linguistic play, where alliteration, sound, appearance, randomness, rhyme, and meaning collide.

DiClemente directed and co-produced the documentary short The World Series of Bocce: A Celebration of Sport, Family and Community (2023). The film is available for viewing on the PBS app and for broadcast on public broadcasting stations via The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).

He produced and co-directed the documentary short Ralph Rotella: The Sole of Syracuse, which earned a Golden Remi Award at the 2024 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. I

He co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the documentary short The Real Bedford Falls: It’s a Wonderful Life, which earned a New York Emmy award in 2021. The film was produced by Honest Engine Films, broadcast on WNET, and distributed by Virgil Films, Kino Lorber, and American Public Television.

His full-length stage play, Beyond the Glass, inspired by the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, was produced by a regional theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017.

He received a bachelor’s degree in communications/journalism from St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, and earned a master of arts in film and video from American University in Washington, DC. He is employed as a senior producer in the Division of Marketing at Syracuse University.