Current Events
The
screenplay for Stealing
Mama
was presented with an
actors' reading at the Visual
Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y. July, 99. 115 people attended the afternoon presentation, which was
dedicated to the filmmaker's mother, Helen Bonadio-Fortunato. Ray Salah read the lead role of 35 year-old Gino Bonadio, and Daniel
Effron read the role of Gino in his younger years.
Other roles were read by Mary
Catherine Bosner, Lee Ann Orasin, Daryll Heysham, Renee Bonadio,
Christine Vanacore, Adele Fico, Ralph Meranto, Darcie Shelton, Toni Ann
Attardo and Bridget Staley. A
reception followed. The reading was supported with help from: Articles
about Stealing Mama were published in: The
NIAF News, Fall 1999
p.18 National
Distribution. Three
paragraphs with contact information. Includes picture. ComUnico,
Oct. 1999 p.10 National
Distribution. Two
columns with contact
information. America
Oggi, Wed. July 8, 1999 p.26
(Community section) National
Distribution. Half-page
newspaper article written in Italian, announcing the reading in
Rochester, NY, and giving background on the film project and the
director. Includes two pictures. IACN
(Italian American Community Newsletter), July 1999 p.5 Rochester,
NY and surrounding areas. 2/3
page newspaper article about the reading in Rochester, NY and giving
background on the film project and the director. Includes two photos. Messenger-Post
Newspapers,
Week of July 5, 1999 p.3 Rochester,
NY and surrounding townships. Half-page
article including one photo distributed in the weekend section of the
daily newspaper. Article lists actors and discusses background of the
film, and announces the reading given in Rochester. Rochester
Democrat & Chronicle,
Friday July 9, 1999. Listing
in the 'happenings' section under 'readings'. Rochester,
NY daily newspaper. WROC-TV,
Sunday July 11, 1999 Interview
by Rochester TV for the nightly news; broadcast
twice. On-Location,
Fall 1999 p. 13 Publication
of the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film and Video Office. Two-paragraph
report on the reading that took place in Rochester. Express
Exchange,
September 22, 1999 p.1 One
paragraph in Member News reports the reading given in Rochester, NY. Member
publication. Coming
January 2000 LaGazzetta
Italiana,
January 2000 Background
article about the filmmaker and the film in
a publication distributed in Ohio. National
Org. of Italian American Women,
January 2000 Article
in their national newsletter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Release:
Immediately
June Fortunato, an award-winning writer and director, was born and raised
in Rochester, NY. She's resided in Philadelphia, PA for the past 17 years.
Fortunato returns to her 'roots' to make her Italian-American
comedy, Stealing Mama. The
screenplay is set in Rochester, NY and in Southern Italy, and recalls
stories of her culture, family
and former neighbors.
Stealing Mama, is an emotional, loving and funny story about
loss of memory and accomplishing a dream. Fortunato says, "Like most Americans, I don't
really know much about my family history and I think this is part of the
definition of being "American."
I wanted to express this phenomena, so I created a character, Gino
Bonadio, who's an inventor. Gino doesn't know much about his past, but as an inventor,
this doesn't stop him from making it up!
The rest of his family gets upset, and living or dead, jump into
his stories to correct him. The
fluidity of time is drawn from the Italian tradition of addressing one's
dead ancestors as if they're standing there. In this particular comedy,
the ancestors also talk back!" The magical screenplay has been
compared to Like Water For Chocolate, The Joy Luck Club and
to The Singing Detective.
Fortunato, who intends to shoot the film in Rochester and in
Calabria and Sicily, is producing Stealing
Mama to provide an alternative to the violent and racist films made
about Italian-Americans. She
says, "The cinema is not providing a balanced or accurate picture of
Italian-Americans, very few of whom can even relate to the Mafia.
I understand why the violent stories sell: people want to feel, and
terrifying images have an immediate impact.
However, I believe that delight and laughter also make us feel, and it is the sweet sensations that we most willing recall. Stealing
Mama is a story about gentle and emotional people who try to make a go
of it in this world."
She also says, " I know very well that I could sell my script
if I was willing to let others take it and add what they wish. I'm not
willing to compromise my work, nor am I willing to add to the pile of
dirty and unreasonable images of our culture. That's why I'm making this
film as an independent producer and director.
The work has already garnered kudos.
Stealing Mama was originally commissioned by a Pennsylvania Council on
The Arts (PCA) fellowship, and recently won a second PCA fellowship in the
Media Category. The script
has had two public readings with actors:
one in Rochester NY summer, 1999. and another at the Philadelphia
Filmmaker's Lab which premiered the work.
The project is endorsed by the National Italian-American Foundation
in Washington, DC and by the Italian-American Community Center in
Rochester NY.
Stealing Mama follows the
story of one momentous day in the life of Italian-American inventor, Gino
Bonadio. If all goes well, he
will sell one of his inventions and make
his family's American dream come true.
His mother, who always believed in him, now has dementia and cannot
understand a thing. This
moment draws a barrage of emotions, images and memories which Gino
scrambles to compose into the family story (before it changes).
It's one day that hilariously and movingly encompasses the lives of
three generations of the Bonadio family, and a day in which Gino's
frustrating but tender-hearted acceptance of his family allows him to step
boldly, and happily, into the future.
Fortunato says, "In the end,
Stealing Mama is about being and becoming American. We, in the
American spirit of invention, reinvent ourselves.
We forget the past and become part of the new society. Many years
later, we wake up and we don't know who we were, or where we came from.
Everywhere we can see a different phase of this process: it is echoed in
the new immigrant communities of our cities, and in those who are the
children and the grandchildren and the great great grandchildren of those
who came before."
Stealing Mama is Fortunato's 18th script and ninth project as producer. She
has directed more than 60 productions of interdisciplinary drama,
audio-drama and theatre. Her
"living film", Dual Life, was shot on locations in Mexico, and won numerous awards
including a National Endowment for the Arts grant , many corporate grants
and a feature-article in American Theatre Magazine. The film, Stealing Mama will cost $2.5 million to make and seeks investors. Fortunato says, "The people who invest in Stealing Mama must believe, as I do, that we can change the world by allowing people to feel empathy, happiness and by carrying them away in a good story".
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