Directed by
Set in the mid-1960s, The Featherweight presents a gripping chapter in the true-life story of Italian-American boxer Willie Pep—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. Painstakingly researched and constructed, the film is a visceral portrait of the discontents of twentieth-century American masculinity, fame and self-perception.
The Featherweight premiered in competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. It went on to be the closing night film of the 54th International Film Festival of Indie. The film won best feature at the International Sports Film Festival of Slovenia and the New Jersey International Film Festival, best performance from the On Vous Ment Festival de Films Documenteur à Lyon and was nominated for best film at the International New Talent Competition at the Taipei Film Festival.
As director, Robert Kolodny was awarded the John Schlesinger Narrative Award from the Provincetown International Film Festival and the Peter Brunette Award for Best Director at RiverRun International Film Festival.
“The film presents a humane yet critical look at this real person, who is an undersung hero of the sports world but simultaneously a deeply flawed, incredibly fractured American character. My aspiration for the film was to subvert the tropes of the boxing film genre and create something more rooted in a language of truth, compassion and fallible mortality. I strove for the film to feel as first-person and present-tense as possible—for honesty in camera and character. The entire cast and crew became almost fetishistic in our efforts to create an authentic world, one not imitating something else but rather fully grounded in the real.” - Robert Kolodny