Every film festival has at least one film that offers a welcome break from the brooding art house dramas, issue-driven documentaries, or extra-gory international thrillers.
This year’s Hamptons International Film Festival is no exception, and one of its short documentary selections, “Rocco Up,” is one of those films.
Featuring a Montauk family and a fixture in the Ditch Plain surfers lineup, Rocco Intonato, the film is an examination of the life a 9-year-old boy with autism and how he finds peace and connection in the water.
As his father, Ben Intonato, recalls in the film, his son’s diagnosis at around 2 years of age was initially crushing. It began to turn around when Mr. Intonato shifted his focus from limitations to possibilities. “I wanted my son to be happy as possible, to have as good of a life as possible,” he says in the film. “He’s my son, he can’t be that different from me.”
That realization led him on a mission to instill in Rocco the same love of the water and surfing that he had, so he could “be his own kind of surfer.” Father and son started together with Mr. Intonato holding a boogie board as Rocco stood on it. They eventually graduated to a long board that he continued to guide while Rocco rode waves and his mother, Sara Intonato, cheered from the beach.
At home, the family (including Aurelia, his younger sister) is shown helping Rocco with his communication skills. His official diagnosis is autism spectrum disorder and apraxia. As Ms. Intonato noted, “The biggest difference between Rocco and a typical 9-year-old -- in the way he perceives the world or interacts with the world -- is at first glance it might seem like he’s not really interested, when in actuality he is. He just can’t express that interest in words.”
It turns out his mother isn’t the only one cheering from the beach or in the water. Over time, the family began to attract admiration and fellowship from other surfers and beach regulars. “Rocco Up,” what Mr. Intonato says to his son to get him to stand on the board, has become a group chant and an affirmation.
The scene also caught the notice of Kevin McCann, another surfer in the mix, who goes to the beach regularly with his wife. He recalled noticing them possibly as early as 2017. “We just watched this guy and his dad with his dedication to teach his son how to surf.” After Rocco’s rides, he began to help them, steering Rocco back out and returning the board to Mr. Intonato so he could stay in the water. “I became like a buddy. And when I watched them I was very impressed with the love and the dedication.”
Mr. McCann grew up witnessing a brother who was blind rise to the top of his class in a regular high school and go on to attend Harvard Law School. He is also a great musician and leader, becoming “president of every organization for the blind he touches,” he said by phone last week. “When people are surrounded by love and support, and the families are fighting to get special needs children all the resources that are out there, great things can happen, and that’s what has happened here.”
In 2019, he approached the family about making a documentary. He brought Mr. Intonato and his friend John Madere, a photographer and filmmaker, together at the beach in July of 2019 for a two-hour interview. That meeting became the start of making the film.
“It was very touching, very moving,” Mr. McCann recalled. “Ben got very emotional.” In the film, Mr. Intonato says that “as a special needs parent at times you feel very, very alone, that no one can relate to you.” But at Ditch Plain, that wasn’t the experience. The surf community noticed him and was pulling for him.
The filming presented a number of challenges, from working without a crew during Covid-19 to learning how to operate a drone camera and getting a drone license from the F.A.A. Other challenges, according to Mr. Madere, were lighting (they shot mostly at dawn and dusk on clear days), surf conditions, the school calendar, and the days when Rocco didn’t feel up to it. As a result, the shooting took much longer than usual.
“But there were advantages, in that I was able to film Rocco’s progress over the course of about two and a half years,” Mr. Madere said. “That added to the depth of the story, and you could see him grow up a little bit.” Given where and when they were filming, the scenes chosen for the movie are particularly striking.
In the end, there were thousands of hours of footage, including the family’s archival stills and videos, surf scenes, and interviews with extended family and community members and an expert on water’s calming effect on the human body. Nearly all of these were shot in Montauk in natural light. “In a situation like this, you just have to keep trying,” Mr. Madere said of the number of takes needed to successfully tell the story. “There were so many factors that could make the filming less than what it should be.”
Taming it all down to 22 minutes was the job of Ruth Mamaril, a film editor who is also credited with writing “Rocco Up.” Friends with the filmmakers, she has a natural affinity for the subject matter through her own experience with an autistic brother and as an advocate for autism education. She, too, has a passion for surfing, as does almost everyone involved in the film.
Rocco's grandfather Donald Intonato has formed Ditch Plains Productions, a company with a mission to make the film available for home viewing through its website. “We look at it as a ‘Rocky’ story, something inspiring to give hope and encouragement to folks, families with special needs children," Mr. McCann said. “So we’re really trying to get it out to that community.” They are raising tax-deductible donations through a website, roccoup.com, to make that happen.
They’re also taking the opportunity to spread the word about surf camps for special needs children, like A Walk on Water and Surfers Healing, so others can benefit from a similar experience.
Mr. Intonato says in the film that looking at the ocean as an epic journey he could take with his son allowed Rocco “to be the supercool surfer he is.” Meri Intonato, Rocco’s grandmother, notes that in the water he has all the abilities he needs. “That’s his element.”
In addition to its New York premiere in the Hamptons Film Festival’s Views From Long Island Shorts Program, “Rocco Up” has been shown or accepted in several other festivals. The shorts program will be screened at the East Hampton Cinema Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
