Feature film about CT boxer finally hits screens across the state

“The Featherweight,” a new movie about prizefighter Willie Pep, is finally bobbing and weaving its way into a Connecticut theater near you starting Friday.

The movie is not just about a Hartford sports icon known for his fancy footwork, it was filmed in the city.

The indie film is a feature directorial debut for Robert Kolodny. Before “The Featherweight,” Kolodny was known for his cinematography, documentary work and short films. His work is known for its attention to detail, and that is shown in “The Featherweight.” The film is set in the 1960s, at a time when Pep made the curious decision to come out of retirement in his 40s to resume boxing.

The film has been a passion project for its star James Madio, whose career began as a child in Steven Spielberg’s “Hook,” is best known for “Band of Brothers”, and its writer/co-producer Steve Loff. Planning for the film started in 2008. Fundraising was difficult, there were numerous rewrites and just when it looked like they could start filming, the COVID pandemic happened.

“The Featherweight” shot in the Hartford area for several weeks in late 2021. The look and feel of Hartford over 60 years ago is carefully recreated. The story of Pep’s life at that time, including some difficult family situations, is told in what seems like a mix of newsreel footage and home movies.

Madio said he’d had “no prior experience in Hartford” before shooting the film. “My only experience was Willie Pep,” he said, adding that he had grown up hearing about the legendary boxer from his father.

“Imagine doing a film about Willie Pep and not doing it in his hometown, on the streets he walked, in the social clubs,” Madio said. “I felt like I was walking in Willie’s footsteps. I had people who knew him all around me. There were a lot of eyeballs on me. It was so important to interact with the people who knew him.”

The role of a famous boxer with a highly recognizable fighting style was a special challenge for the actor.

“When you’ve been trying to play someone for so long, been learning about this man for so long, it’s tough to really juggle all that and learn how to fight,” Madio said. “Willie Pep was such a winner in the ring. It’s unreal, his record. Everything about him is unreal. He had these funny gestures, he had his own sort of Yogi Berra-isms.”

Madio was also deeply involved in getting the film made and is credited as one of the producers.

“When we first started, we thought we could get 20, 30 or 40 million dollars together,” he said. “Then it started to dwindle down to ‘How can we get this done?’ We took a new approach. It came around to what it was supposed to be in the end.”

That approach was to hone in on Pep’s later years, heighten the personal drama and create a more intimate film. Madio’s Willie Pep is the central focus of every scene. He’s not dwarfed by grand sets or special effects. “The Featherweight” stands out from other films about sports celebrities by being up-close and human. It also makes the strong creative choice of showing an athlete in decline rather than at his peak.

Would Madio do another film on this scale, having now seen all the potential obstacles and difficulties? “With indie films, I’m learning as I’m going,” he said. “I would definitely do this again. The process of it makes you learn patience. I learned a lot in the pre-production phase.”

The important thing to him was to have such a creative, detail-conscious director. “Robert Kolodny is the real creative genius behind this. He and his team blew us away.”

The team that created “The Featherweight” is thrilled with its success so far. “It’s done super well,” Madio said. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and has been in many other festivals.

“The Featherweight” had an invitation-only Hartford premiere in January at The Bushnell, the same week the film had its public Connecticut premiere at the Norwalk Film Festival. At the Hartford event, Kolodny said, “We owe a huge debt to this city. We are incredibly privileged,” adding that “Hartford is so much a part of the script that Steve wrote.”

The panel for a post-show Q&A included Kolodny, Loff, Madio, fellow cast members Ruby Wolf (the New York actress/musician who plays Pep’s wife Linda Papaleo), Michael Siberry (who plays Hartford Courant sports writer Bill Lee), Irma Aiello (who plays Pep’s mother), music supervisor Will Felker. Many people who worked on the film were in the auditorium, as well as many people who’d known Pep (among them his sixth wife Barbara).

At the Bushnell event, Madio thanked his father for insisting he play Pep in a movie. Wolf, who gives a stand-out performance as Linda, noted that this was her first film role, and that her mother grew up in Manchester.

“Now it’s opening all over Connecticut,” Madio said. “Connecticut deserves to see it.”

“We hope to get a bigger release around the country,” he added. “Nothing’s stopping us now. We just keep punching.”

“The Featherweight” can be found on cinema screens throughout the state starting Friday, including at Apple Cinemas Waterbury, Bethel Quad Bethel, Holiday Stadium 13 Wallingford, Madison Cinemas, Metro Movies 12 Middletown, Riverview Cinema 8 Southbury, Westbrook Cinemas 12 and Regal Waterford 13.