Here Marta Mondelli at TRIP in Napoli, with Vittorio Siniscalchi (left) and film critic Alberto Castellano (right), joined in the second photo by producer Raffaele Piscopiello.
Back in October 2009, one of my very best friends, L’Italiana Suprema (as I have now officially dubbed her) Marta Mondelli, screened her new film, The Contenders, at the
LA Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles. She had just arrived back from her first Italian tour of the film in Salento, Italy and was very excited about this venue. Of course her husband Ben was still bemoaning their cancelled ‘oo la la’ vacation in Sicily. But she spent many dedicated, vigourous hours and Italian ways cheering him up. (wink)
Cut to: Sitting at dinner the night before the closing festival. And I say, “You are brilliant! I am so proud of you! How in the heck did you do it?” And she replies, “It was an act of desperation.”
What???!
How is it possible that a sheer act of creativity could be considered an act of desperation? Or rather why should it take an act of desperation to be creative.
“I needed something to do. I couldn’t take it any longer!”
Well, DO, she DID! And superbly!
Marta is a gorgeous, talented, actress, teacher, expertly bi-lingual, author, writer, (with her own off and on column in the Huffington Post online) and now producer, director. Yet here stands her statement – for the record.
I guess we all need fulfillment in our craft. To stretch. To re-invent. And it seems that we are all doing it in every art, profession and culture. Sometimes, we also need a little bit of recognition.
Well, The Contenders is now back from a successful second Italian Festival Tour and making its way to New York City where it is set to premiere on April 28th, 2010 at the Anthology Film Archives. So, well, you know what’s coming…if you are a New Yorker, will be visiting or have friends that like great independent films, get your butts to the seats and see this knockout champion still contending in the festival circuit!
The Contenders recently won the Aloha Accolade Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the 2010 Honolulu International Film Festival.
Not sure if that’s a TKO, but it’s a hit never-the-less!
THE CONTENDERS
New York Premiere
April 28th, 2010
32 2nd Avenue (@2nd Street)
Don’t miss it. I hear ticket prices are only $9. That should “knock your socks off!
