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Mazzotta-Land

The legend of "the mob" looms large across the cinematic landscape.
The mean streets of New York and Las Vegas as portrayed by Scorsese; the journey from the hills of Sicily to the social clubs of Mott Street as pictured by Coppola. Bathed in bloodlust and red gravy, these are touchstones of Mafia film history. Casino, Goodfellas, Sopranos – these films and programs all have their place in the mob genre ranks. But who can show "the family," the Mafia "famiglia," in a completely different way? Who has the gift of grit to carry on mob cinema while maintaining the glory of Italian heritage? Who can show not just shoot-em-up storytelling, but the proximity of familial lineage?

Perhaps it can be found off Exit 3 of the Jersey Turnpike, in Runnemede, where screenwriter/actor/producer Sal Mazzotta lives.

Along with having supporting roles in locally-shot films Twelve Monkeys (1995), Up Close & Personal (1996) and Animal Factory (2000), Mazzotta created his own opportunities; not only by starring in and writing his movies -1998's spooky The Evil Within and his new feature, Mafioso: The Father, The Son. He's cast the latter with Hollywood-branded actors (Leo Rossi, Johnny Williams, Robert Constanza) and leading local lights (Louis Lippe, Tony Luke Jr.). He has a producer he trusts (Jersey's Anthony Sparano, yes, that's his name), a veteran film editor (Robert Ferretti, of Die Hard II fame) and a releasing company currently selling his DVD in outrageous numbers throughout the United States (Ardustry Home Entertainment.)

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And he's made it all seem as cozy as Sunday dinner.

On a warm Saturday, Mazzotta, Sparano and the Mafioso cast are signing posters and DVDs of Mafioso at a Washington Avenue Hollywood Video in Philadelphia. Rather than face trickles of well-wishers, they’re greeting hundreds of fans of Mazzotta's exploits. Filmed throughout South Jersey/Atlantic City/Philadelphia, audiences recognize not only the local surroundings in his films. They understand well the heir-apparent storyline behind the "Paradiso family" of which son "Frank" (Mazzotta) and "Don Antonio" (Constanza) find themselves challenged from without and within. Though touched by violence and cruelty, Mazzotta's Mafioso is a blue collar environ of working class criminals trying to uphold themselves to a moral base: family first.

For Mazzotta, 40, filmmaking is about more than just showing up in front of, or behind, a camera. There's a determined passion to see his stories through; imperfect tales of things that go bump in the night and old relationships torn asunder by greed.

"I always wanted to be an actor, since I was a kid," says Mazzotta. "But I couldn't actually get there, to bring myself to do it. Couldn't tell my parents. Too old-fashioned. They're from Sicily. I waited." Mazzotta was an independent sort. Owned video stores like Spectrum Video. Owned restaurants, like Papagallo's in Wildwood.

"To know him is to understand one thing--he's fearless," says Sal's wife Christina. Upon watching his friend, the late Rodney Harvey, succeed with a starring role in My Own Private Idaho, Mazzotta left to try his luck in Hollywood. Determined to get his Screen Actors Guild card, he was cast in commercials within six months.

Upon returning to New Jersey, he knew he wanted to make movies…his kind of movies. What made him think--what gave him the audacity to believe--that he could produce, write, act? Guts; plain and simple.

"You have to take a chance. You can't listen to friends who think otherwise," he says. But he didn't only want to be cast as the heavy, as the bad guy. Mafioso may show off his mean side. But the movie also shows Mazzotta's character to be a deeply loving husband, son and brother, as well as a killer. His roles and his films are not categorized by simply Mafioso alone. "I don't like the idea of typecasting. I may have made this a mob film. But I've got comedies and supernatural films in me," he says.

Sal knows what he looks like - Italian. Swarthy. There's no hiding it. But he won't be solely defined by that. "I'm not going to play Soprano types my whole life," he says. Mazzotta recently turned down a role in his friend/co-star Leo Rossi's (Analyze This) mob film, 10th & Wolf to promote Mafioso.

"I could give up filmmaking and be in a dozen gangster films a year. That's not what I want to do," says Mazzotta.

"He single-handedly took an independent film and took it to the heights of a major," says co-star Freddie Ganno, a Manhattan actor who also has digs in Philly. "Not just its look. He stayed with Mafioso and nurtured it."

"My life has been a mess ever since I met him," jokes Tony Luke Jr., who met Mazzotta when they shared bit roles in Up Close and Personal. "No, really; [Mafioso] is doing as well as it is due to Sal's tenacity. He doesn't quit." Before Luke can finish, Mafioso co-star Tony Devon shares the sentiment. "I saw the script for this film years ago, so I know how long he's carried it with him. It takes a lot of belief in yourself and your vision to hang on and not give up disappointed."

"I think we're breaking into this business slowly but sharply," says Sparano of a small-fish-big-pond scenario. But they're making waves in the pond. "It's been a four-year struggle--a genuine risk--that's finally paying off," laughs executive producer Jay Parker. And, Parker must be confident. He's currently raising monies for Mazzotta's next two films, Who Shot Jimmy Gumdrops? and a soon-shooting sequel to The Father, The Son – Mafioso: The Revenge.

"This team could honestly wind up as one to reckon with," says Sparano. This isn't just braggadocio. He has the silent confidence only a pragmatic producer could have. Plus, he knows Mazzotta is a hustler. When they met seven years ago, Mazzotta was trying to raise money for Mafioso by showing off a trailer he'd shot on a shoestring budget from a VCR in the back of his car. "You could tell then he was working his ass off to get it made. And he knew what he was doing. The trailer looked great," says Sparano. That seems to be the earmark of a Mazzotta film. (While made for under a million dollars, Mafioso looks as slick as most Hollywood fare). From that day forward, Sparano and Mazzotta became producing partners.

It's that passion that turns people on to Mazzotta. Rossi and Williams, film vets both, were told by their agents not to work with a small fry like Sal. "But Johnny and Leo—separately--told me the same thing; that my eyes burned with intensity when I discussed this little movie. And now that this movie isn't so little, they're as overjoyed as I am."

Published in South Jersey Magazine, January 2005.
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Author: A.D. Amorosi

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