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September 16, 2024

Hartford-based movie about boxing champ and CT native Willie Pep hits theaters

A still frame image taken from a video trailer for the new film 'The Featherweight," which was filmed in Hartford and chronicles the life of Connecticut boxing champion Willie Pep.

A movie about featherweight boxing champion and Connecticut native Willie Pep will debut in theaters across the state on Friday, Sept. 20.

The film, “The Featherweight,” is set in mid-1960s Hartford and was filmed in the Capital City. Numerous Connecticut-based people worked on the production.

Filming locations include local institutions The Hartford Club, Pratalona Social Club, The Polish National Home, The West Indian Social Club, Carbone’s, Hartford PAL Gym on Broad Street, Four Ropes Boxing and Bushnell Park.

“The making of ‘The Featherweight’ in our beloved Hartford is a case study on how filmmaking can create community pride, honor the legacy of a hometown hero and provide local economic impact,” said Donna Collins of Rocky Hill, who served as one of the film’s executive producers. 

Robert Kolodny

“The Featherweight” was directed by Emmy winner Robert Kolodny, known for “Procession” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”

In the film, a camera crew follows Pep, known as “the winningest fighter of all time,” as he returns to boxing in his mid-40s after the deterioration of his personal life.

The film has been described as “painstakingly researched and constructed” and “a visceral portrait of the discontents of 20th-Century American masculinity, fame and self-perception.”

“The Featherweight” premiered in 2023 at the Venice International Film Festival, where it received a six-minute standing ovation.

The cast includes James Madio as Pep, along with Ruby Wolf, Stephen Lang, Ron Livingston, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. and Hartford local Imma Aiello as Mama Papaleo, who plays Pep’s mother. 

Connecticut-based executive producers involved with the film include Collins, former associate publisher of the Hartford Business Journal, along with Dan Adams, Greg Butler, Mark Contreras, Manon Cox, Angelo DeFazio, Robert Feiner, Karl Krapek, Alan Lazowski, Robert Patricelli and John Wolfson. Also, Hartford-based Joe Young was a co-producer. 

Hartford-based Real Art Ways will host a preview of the movie on Wednesday, Sept. 18. 

Also on Sept. 18, Charter Oak Boxing Academy in Hartford will host a press conference with several cast members and producers at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Pep mural on Pope Park Highway. 

Madio trained for the role at Charter Oak Boxing Academy with John “The Iceman” Scully, also a Connecticut native, who knew Pep for more than 30 years.

On Sept. 18, the producers and cast will revisit various filming sites throughout the day to promote the film’s opening.

“The Featherweight” has played at film festivals around the world, including the Provincetown International Film Festival where Kolodny received the John Schlesinger Award for Best Director of a narrative film. 

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