JASON ROSETTE: Directing Performance and Narrative Architecture
Filmmaker, Educator, Communicator
For over three decades, I've worked at the intersection of storytelling, media production, education, and performance. As an award-winning filmmaker, university educator, and executive communications coach, I've created feature films, documentaries, and training programs across North America and Southeast Asia.
Today, through VoiceStoryPro, I help executives, experts, and organizations communicate with clarity, presence, and narrative power - drawing directly from techniques I've developed in directing, voice performance, and instructional design.
Terrific.LA Times
Superb - mesmerizing.NY Film Critics Circle
Utterly compelling.Jacksonville Film Journal
Hilarious.The New Yorker
Building a Career Through Storytelling
My career began in Ohio, where as a teenager I made Super-8 films using practical effects and volunteer casts. That hands-on approach continued at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where I earned a BFA in Film and Television on merit and private scholarships.
After graduation, I supported myself as a bookseller in Greenwich Village while independently producing BookWars - my breakthrough award-winning documentary. In 2005, I relocated to Southeast Asia. Over the next two decades, my work expanded into university teaching, media development for international organizations, festival founding, and communications consulting - including helping establish Cambodia's first university video production program at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
These experiences - directing non-actors in remote locations, building training programs from scratch, and shaping thousands of hours of recorded performance - directly inform VoiceStoryPro and my executive coaching practice. The transition from filmmaking to communication consulting was not a pivot; it was an extension of the same discipline applied to a different stage.
The Foundation
Education
BFA Film and TV - NYU Tisch School of the Arts
MA International Development - Royal University of Phnom Penh (Nagoya University supervised)
MoMA Collection
BookWars (2000) - Museum of Modern Art Circulating Film and Video Collection, New York City
Awards
Best Documentary - NY Underground Film Festival
IFP Gotham Award Nominee
Multiple international festival selections across USA, Europe, and Asia
Teaching
15+ years university teaching in Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar - directing, documentary, public speaking, academic writing, LXD. Helped establish Cambodia's first university video production program at RUPP.
Festivals Founded
CamboFest (2007) - first internationally recognized film festival in Cambodia post-Khmer Rouge
Bangkok IndieFest (2010) - CNN Go Asia pick
Broadcast and Distribution
Arte/ZDF - SVT - NHK - Bravo! - PBS - Metrochannels - Amazon - Tubi - Kanopy - Plex
Narrative Architecture and Executive Coaching
VoiceStoryPro methodology: narrative structure, vocal delivery analysis, audience psychology, and performance coaching. Clients across IT, hospitality, C-suite leadership, academia, and marketing.
Selected Projects
BookWars
I spent four years documenting the gritty world of New York City sidewalk booksellers - shot entirely on location while I was one of them. The result was what the LA Times called "Terrific" and the NY Film Critics Circle called "Superb." BookWars is now part of the Museum of Modern Art's Circulating Film and Video Collection and streams on Amazon, Tubi, Kanopy, and Plex.
Lost in New Mexico: The Strange Tale of Susan Hero
I wrote, directed, acted in, and edited this microbudget sci-fi road movie on location in New Mexico with a 100% local cast and crew - taking an approved leave from the Screen Actors Guild to make the budget work. "A unique and interesting take on the fluidity of technology versus the recurring commonality of the human condition." - Moving Image Journal. Now streaming on Amazon via lostinnewmexico.com.
Social Impact and Commissioned Documentaries
A series of prosocial documentaries and training media for international development organizations. My clients included Conservation International (Have Forest, Have Life - shot in remote Cambodian highlands via off-road motorcycle), WildAid, USAID / DAI (15-part Cambodia garment industry series), and Microsoft Philanthropies Asia. These projects required directing indigenous non-actor talent, building voiceover booths from local materials in jungle locations, and operating under exceptional logistical conditions. Full credits at jasonrosette.com/portfolio.
CamboFest - Cambodia Film and Video Festival
I founded and co-organized CamboFest, Cambodia's first internationally recognized film festival since the end of the Khmer Rouge era, working with the Ministry of Culture to secure permits and public exhibition rights. CamboFest laid the groundwork for subsequent festivals including the France-EU funded Cambodia International Film Festival and the Luang Prabang Film Festival in Laos.
Vuth Learns to Rock
A homegrown rockumentary and festival favorite I made in Cambodia - one of several independently produced short-form works from this period exploring music, culture, and character in Southeast Asia.
Bangkok IndieFest
I founded and produced the first public cultural event in Bangkok following the Red Shirt protests - organized under curfew conditions and selected by CNN Go Asia as a pick upon launch. A sister event to CamboFest, extending my regional festival network into Thailand.
Asia Short Films - and Pirate's Curse (Forensic Re-Edit)
Festival-selected shorts from this period include Crab Ladies (eco-documentary), Bangkok Traffic (experimental time-lapse), Mysterious Workers Atop Bokor Mountain, I'm Sorry I Forgot (starring Poppy the Orangutan), and Burma Bong. In parallel, I took on a forensic re-edit of the troubled $500,000 feature Pirate's Curse - reconstructing missing story elements and reshaping it into a viable TV movie, saving the producers half a million dollars.
Freedom Deal: Story of Lucky
I directed this supernatural historical drama set during the 1970 US-ARVN Cambodia Incursion in Khmer, with a Cambodian cast and crew. Crowdfunded on IndieGogo - one of the first Cambodian projects on the platform. "A strong, interesting story with good characters and excellent acting, and the supernatural element was bizarre but just right." - Highway 61 Film Festival. Stream it on Amazon or visit freedomdealmovie.com.
The Crunch - Gone Marshall
My debut full-length album under the Gone Marshall persona - an alt-rock and indie folk project drawing from Lou Reed, The Kinks, Kurt Vile, and Johnny Cash. Composed, performed, and produced entirely by me. Available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms.
Bad Guys EP - Argosy EP - Gone Marshall
Two EPs released the same year - both composed, performed, and produced by me under the Gone Marshall name. Spanning alternative rock, alt-folk, neopsychedelia, and spoken word.
KLEEN EP - Gone Marshall
Dual vocal and instrumental versions under the Gone Marshall name. Includes Bad Guys (German version, featuring RJ Rike Marshall), Rainy Window, Superhuman, and Babylon. Available on all platforms.
GI Says
An antiwar documentary I produced exploring the experiences of veteran Kenneth Anderberg and the underground GI press movement during the Vietnam era. Combines historical storytelling, archival context, and character-driven documentary technique. Now streaming on The Stash Military History Channel - watch on YouTube.
Singles and 25th Century Crooner EP - Gone Marshall
A run of singles including Bazooka Joe Don't Live There Any More (2020), Hey Miss Clementine (2021), and Seven Steps West (2022), followed by the 25th Century Crooner EP (2023) - a creative bridge between the Gone Marshall persona and the emergence of my Robert Marleigh jazz project.
VoiceStoryPro - Strategic Communication and Presentation Coaching
VoiceStoryPro emerged from a career spent directing actors, interviewing documentary subjects, training university students, producing educational media, and evaluating thousands of hours of recorded speech.
The methodology applies narrative architecture, vocal delivery analysis, audience psychology, and a director's lens to help professionals communicate more effectively in presentations, meetings, interviews, video recordings, podcasts, and high-stakes conversations. Clients submit recorded material and receive detailed timestamped feedback with practical recommendations - no scheduling required.
Particularly valuable for executives, founders, technical experts, educators, consultants, and non-native English speakers who need to communicate expertise with greater confidence and authority.
A master of the craft. Jason's unparalleled expertise and insightful guidance are evident from the very first session.- Philipp M., CFO, MarineQuip Ltd.
He is both analytical and practical - engages with your specific needs to help you find the best strategy.- Roser, UK - Graduate Student / Thesis Presenter
What Remains - Visual Rock Opera (in development)
In 2024, while researching a fiction project, I uncovered that my late father - King H. Rosette - was a Q-level cleared nuclear physicist at Atomics International during the height of the Cold War. He developed scintillating crystal detection systems for portable nuclear reactors, including the SNAP-10A: the only fission reactor the US has ever launched into space. He died at 43 under Federal gag orders. My family did not know the truth for fifty years.
This discovery - state-level secrecy colliding with private loss across half a century - is now the emotional core of What Remains, a three-act visual rock opera I am currently developing. An active EEOICPA compensation claim on behalf of my mother - my father's 86-year-old widow - is in progress through the Department of Labor. The full investigation is documented at my Substack journal.
Needle on the Rim - Robert Marleigh
My debut jazz EP under the Robert Marleigh name - a cinematic vocal jazz project channeling Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bobby Darin through a Future Noir lens. Six tracks: Great American Songbook standards, a reimagined Soundgarden cover, and an original spoken-word title track evoking Burroughs and Chandler.
I produced, mixed, and mastered the entire EP across four countries - Cambodia, Thailand, New Orleans, and Italy - with an ensemble of five nationalities, during an active regional border conflict. The inaugural release of my Shared Frequency Initiative. No AI audio. 100% human.
"One of the most compelling collaborative projects of the decade." - Indie Boulevard. "Vintage aesthetics meet modern perspective in magnificent fashion." - Plastic Magazine.
A project that further demonstrates my ongoing exploration of voice, performance, and cinematic storytelling. Stream on all platforms or visit robertmarleigh.com.
Let's Discuss Your Project
Media Production • Learning Experience Design • Narrative Architecture • Executive Communication • Public Speaking • Workshops • Consulting
Ready to strengthen your on-camera presence or narrative impact? Get in touch.
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