Giorgio John Squarcia, also known as GJ Squarcia, (Rochester, MINNESOTA, September 2), is a writer, director,  screenwriter, producer and Investigative Journalist.

Personal life

Squarcia was born in Rochester, Minnesota. After graduating in Philosophy at the Catholic University in Milan he moved back to the United States to study filmaking.

In the same time he started collaborating with the Investigative Department of the Newsmagazines Inside Edition and American Journal.

He left when he was Director of the Research Department and, in 2001, founded a production company based in Milan and New York and started creating TV Formats for the Television market.

THE AMERICAN PERIOD
Immediately after graduating in philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan he moved to New York where he worked for the Investigative Unit of the newsmagazines Inside Edition and American Journal.
In the following years he attended a master’s degree in screenwriting and directing at NYU.
During his stay in New York City, he also worked as a correspondent for Italy’s newspapers Panorama, la Repubblica and Il Giornale.
He ended the collaboration with Inside Edition and American Journal after he was promoted Director of the Research Department
THE ITALIAN PERIOD
In 1999 he moved to Italy and founded a production company of his own.

In 2001 Squarcia wrote, produced and directed the TV Series All in a Day which aired on the Italian Television Channel Italia 1with the title Tutto in un Giorno. All in a Day is the diary of a day through the actions of four real characters. The format’s concept is to bring together four points of view, as diverse as possible, within a context of a specific event, limited to a a 24-hour period. The show’s narrative device is similar to that ascribed to “real television”, however in All in a Day it is applied to an absolute reality: there are no selected contestants tested in artificially created situations, such as an island or an apartment; instead there are the lives of four real people, their four distinct viewpoints of one particular day, which is revealed through their tensions, faces, words, and feelings. With the TV screen split in four, the characters’ stories unfold simultaneously. When one individual’s prospective emerges as more riveting, his story takes over, filling the entire screen temporarily, and then it returns to its original small quarter screen, “passing the scene” to another protagonist.

The first of the 5 episodes of the movie takes place during the G8 meeting in Genova. Here is how it was covered by the media:

Unlike the newscasts or TV magazines of all the other networks, All in a Day offers the world an absolutely extraordinary wealth of visual information, from very distinct point of departure: Don Gallo, Catholic priest; Riccardo Germani, leader of an anti-globalization protest group; Alessandro Andrei, police officer and ex-Olympic Gold Medallist; and Gianni Tassio, shop-owner open for business during the eventful day. With the TV screen split in four, the characters’ stories unfold simultaneously. When one individual’s prospective emerges as more riveting, his story takes over, filling the entire screen temporarily, and then it returns to its original small quarter screen, “passing the scene” to another protagonist. His rapid, cinema-style edited program positions itself as a fresh and unique example of “real television”.

LA REPUBBLICA – Ernesto Assante

In the unending G8 coverage “4 a Day” leapt from the screen on Mediaset’s Italia 1 channel, as a statement of new territory and new rigor. Giorgio J. Squarcia, 31, has a clear taste for letting facts speak for themselves. His idea of presenting four Genovese, as diverse as possible, as the four characters who went about their routines on July 20, aimed to show trought real people how lives are never merely routines; that in living a specific life, narrative and meaning build. He hoped that the G8 could in some way be better understood by adding the context of lives that begin by getting up, drinking coffee, and end by pulling down security gates, after having esperienced different ideas about destination that day. The young director gives importance to risk-taking. In the hierachies of Italy, where consensus and even censorship make risk-taking un unnecessary inconvenience, he wanted to make a documentary on the G8 that spoke freely without scripts and without an outcome different from that which envolved through events. He was looking for a narrative power that often eludes television as it runs after sensation rather that context.

The characters, who he contacted nearly two months before the shooting, were followed but not acted upon during the filming. They were to pursue their respective realities freely. The camera was to keep well out of the way. Father Gallo, a priest interested in a social activism; Gianni Tassio, a shopkepeer who decides to stay open during the demonstration; Riccardo Germani, a leader of the Tute Bianche protesting globalization; and Alessandro Andrei, an ex-olympic gold medal winner on duty as a policeman were the show’s protagonists, appearing simultaneously in four frames as they lived through the day. Like four chess players, with specific minutes binding all of them, they moved separately through Genoa bound by common needs like hunger and thirst, and caught up by the same game of life. The stories, with their direct perceptions of the G8, unfolded as a day took shape. Mr. Squarcia Aristotelian prospective on the unifying and democratic role of time in four lives with different destination breathed new life into the sensations we collect about reality. We need the narrative powers of innovative work such as “Tutto in un Giorno” to break down images, such as violence, which for all they terrifying power, are too simplified to be real.

HERALD TRIBUNE – Wallis Wilde

All in a Day won the Anart Award for best TV program in 2001

In 2007 Squarcia wrote and directed the TV Movie I giorni dell’Odio, about the scariest massacre in recent italian history. I giorni dell’Odio is the incredible story of the arrest of a quiet couple from a small village in northern Italy accused of a terrible massacre. They killed three women and a little baby who lived next door and managed to live for over six months with their secret.

In Cold Blood was aired during prime time on Channel 5 and reached 3 million 448 thousand spectators (17.65% share).

In 2008 Squarcia wrote, produced and directed the TV series Passing the Buck.

Italian title: Cash, viaggio di una banconota. Take two ten euro bills (Romeo & Juliet), keep your eye on them as they leave the automatic teller, let them live their lives and try to follow them, when they pass from hand to hand, from shop to shop, city to city. The program’s aim, besides that of satisfying the curiosity always linked to the mysterious circulation of money, is to describe a little piece of the country through the exchanges of two ten euro bills, called Romeo and Juliet, and through the interviews made with those who managed and spent these bills. The trip begins in the Frankfurt Mint where the banknotes are “born.” The two that are selected are sent to a bank in the center of Milan where they are marked with the names Romeo and Juliet and inserted in an automatic teller. And the adventure begins: the following of the banknotes by the film troop and the interviews with people in whose pockets they settle, even if only briefly. The interviews offer the real opportunity to take up the theme of money, salaries, relationships to money, life styles. Every city, village, region lends itself to this way of telling. A trip from Emilia Romagna to Sicily is not only a journey north to south, but also a journey from the region with the highest per capita income to the one with the lowest. It’s the money that chooses the people. The work puts in focus the relationship Italians have with money, beyond their economic conditions. The program succeeds in making Italians speak about a subject that they usually speak about reluctantly.

Between 1999 and 2000, he is the author of the television programs Fuego! aired by Italia 1 channel and Europe on Rai 3 channel.
Between 2000 and 2001 worked as a consultant for the content and promotion of several thematic channels such 24ore.tv, Europsort, TVGuide, and Smau channel.
From 2002 to 2012 he wrote and directed more than 100 pranks for the Prime Time Practical Jokes TV Show Scherzi a Parte.
In 2002 he wrote and directed the advertising campaign of the arrival of the Euro Currency.

With the TV Show Le Iene (Italy 1) he returns to investigative journalism exposing a publishing house which blackmailed VIPs threatening to publish their name in the biographical book of a porn star.
In 2011 he wrote and directed the TV series 24/7 on Deejay TV

In 2012 he wrote and directed the TV series Sognando Italia on Rete 4
In 2013 he wrote and directed the documentary Ballo del Doge for Sky Arte
In 2013 he wrote and directed two seasons of the television series Le strade di Max on Deejay TV
In 2014 he wrote and directed the Art Basel Miami documentary for Sky Arte
In 2014 his format Rent a Brain is bought by Warner Bros. International Television.
In the 2013/14 television season he was the executive procducer of the TV Show Lucignolo on Italia 1.
In 2015 he is the creator and producer of the Lost In Translation comic session of Striscia la Notizia, Canale 5

In 2018 He wrote and Directed the documentary “Lo Stato Social” for the tv channel “Sky Atlantic”.

In 2018 He wrote and Directed the Music Video “Nessuno Vuole Essere Robin”

In 2018 He wrote and Directed the Web Campaign for Nescafe’

ORIGINAL TV FORMATS

Tutto in un giorno

All in one day is a Tv Series aired on Italia 1 starting in 2001.
The series has a positive response from the public and critics, also was awarded by the Association of Television and Theater Authors (ANART) for Best Series of the Year Award and by the Venice International Television Festival

Cash
It’s an eight episodes TV Series broadcasted by All Music TV, which follows the journey of two 10 euro banknotes, christened Romeo and Juliet, across Italy and beyond. The rights of the format were acquired by the Canadian distribution company Distraction and aired internationally with the title Passing the Buck

Rent-a-Brain
Is a scripted reality series. The program allows anyone to become someone else. In the first episode the show made the dream of a father who wanted to get into his 14-year-old daughter’s head come true. 2014 Rent a Brain was bought by Warner Bros. International Television.

Worst Case Scenario
A TV Series which explores situations in which none of us would ever want to be.
A “normal” person who has to face an “exceptional situation.” Each episode is based on true stories.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Investigative Journalist
  • Inside Edition (NBC)
  • American Journal (ABC)
• Creator
  For a Day  (2001) – ITALIA 1
  Passing the Buck (2008) ALL MUSIC
  Rent a Brain (2009) –  Warner Bros Intl.
  Worst Case Scenario
  The streets of Max, (co-creator) DEE JAY TV
  Lo Stato Social, Sky Atlantic
• ScreenWriter
  • Fuego (Italia 1) The Diary (Italy 1)
  • Europe (RAI 3)
  • Scherzi a Parte (Channel 5)
• • Link, Italia 1
  • Superstar, Italia 1
  • For a Day (Italy 1)
  • Matrix (Channel 5)
  • In Cold Blood (Channel 5)
  • Passing the Buck (All Music)
  • Jonathan (Iris)
  • 24/7 (Deejay TV)
  • Sognando Italia (Rete 4)
  • The Streets of Max (Deejay TV)
  • The Wedding Crashers (Italy 1)
  • The Night of the Doge (Sky Arte)
  • Art Basel Miami (Sky Arte)
• • Mi raccomando, Canale 5
• • Lost in Translation, Striscia la Notizia (Canale 5)
• • Lucignolo (Italia 1)
• • Lo Scherzo Perfetto, Italia 1
• • Lo Stato Social, Sky Atlantic
• • Le Iene, Italia 1
• • Una Notte a San Siro, Rai2
• Director
• • The Diary (Italy 1)
  • Europe (RAI 3)
  • Scherzi a Parte (Channel 5)
  • For a Day (Italy 1)
  • Matrix (Channel 5)
  • In Cold Blood (Channel 5)
  • Passing the Buck (All Music)
  • Jonathan (Iris)
  • 24/7 (Deejay TV)
  • Sognando Italia (Rete 4)
  • The Streets of Max (Deejay TV)
  • The Wedding Crashers (Italy 1)
  • The Night of the Doge (Sky Arte)
  • Art Basel Miami (Sky Arte)
• • Lucignolo (Italia 1)
• • Lo Scherzo Perfetto, Italia 1
  • Nescafe’ campagna Web (2018)
  • Nessuno Vuole Essere Robin, Videoclip
  • Lo Stato Social, Sky Atlantic
• • Le Iene
• Producer
  • All in one day (Italy 1)
  • Cash, travelers of a banknote (All Music)
  • Rent-a-Brain
  • Worst Case Scenario
• Advertising
• • Euro Fever
• •  Non Aprite quella bocca.
  • Nescafe’ Web Campaign
• Music Video
• • Nessuno Vuole essere Robin, Cesare Cremonini

Awards

• 2002 – Anart Award (National Association of Authors Radio-Television and Theatrical) for All in a day, awarded best program of the year
• 2002 – Venice International Television Festival for “4 a Day”

• 2012 – Ideona Award for the show “Le strade di Max”