The Making of The Featherweight: The Willie Pep Movie
Steve Loff, writer and producer, will discuss the long road to making The Featherweight, the feature film based on the true story of Hartford legend and boxing great, Willie Pep. The movie was filmed in Hartford in November 2021 and premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival in September 2023. It is set for a wide digital release in early 2025.
 
The Featherweight
Set in 1964, a camera crew follows Willie Pep, retired featherweight boxing champion. Down and out in Hartford CT, married to a woman half his age and with a drug-addled son and mounting debts, Pep decides to make a return to the ring.

Steve is a film & TV industry veteran who has worked in all facets of physical production. He has managed and line produced a number of independent film and TV projects over the last 20+ years. His producing work for Al Gore’s Current TV gained him a 2008 Silver Telly Award. He was the lead production accountant for Season 2 of HBO’s The Gilded Age. He has worked as an accountant for a bevy of studios, including Netflix, A24, and Apple TV+.

Steve’s first feature script, Lester, placed top 10% at the 2008 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. His writing/directing debut Desert Rain premiered at the 2011 Cinequest Film Festival. The film was nominated for Best New Filmmaker and won Audience Choice Best Feature at the 2011 Staten Island Film Festival.

Steve wrote and produced the critically acclaimed The Featherweight, which premiered at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival in 2023 and is set for a theatrical release in September of 2024.

 

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