HARTFORD, Conn. — Ahead of the release for a new movie featuring legendary Connecticut boxer Willie Pep, the filmmakers held a special screening for Hartford residents Wednesday.
The biopic is titled “The Featherweight,” following the story of Pep, a two-time World Featherweight boxing champion, the filmmakers said. Hartford residents saw the movie in a screening Wednesday, two days before a wider theatrical release on Friday.
“Set in the mid-1960s in Hartford, Conn., “The Featherweight” presents a gripping chapter in the true-life story of Italian-American boxer Willie Pep (James Madio)—the winningest fighter of all time—who, down and out in his mid-40s and with his personal life in shambles, decides to make a return to the ring, at which point a documentary camera crew enters his life,” a movie synopsis included. “Painstakingly researched and constructed, the film is a visceral portrait of the discontents of twentieth-century American masculinity, fame and self-perception.”…