Fighting The Mob: The Carmen Basilio Story to Screen Oct. 8

Carmen Basilio is pictured on the right with Dickie DiVeronica at a past Boxing Hall of Fame event. (Photo by Margo Frink)

Also pictured is a young Basilio. (Courtesy Boxing Hall of Fame)

(Canastota, NY – Sept. 2014) On Wednesday Oct 8 at 7 p.m. the Canastota Public Library will screen “Fighting the Mob: The Carmen Basilio Story.” 

Lou Buttino will be on hand to introduce the documentary and tell us a little about the story of Canastota’s own Carmen Basilio.  According to the documentary, Basilio couldn’t be bought by the mob-backed International Boxing Commission and that cost him in time, money and even a shot at the title.  But through it all, Basilio kept his honor and helped bust up the mob and realize his childhood dream of becoming welterweight and middleweight champion of the world.

In this documentary, an ESPN Classic, Buttino served as a consultant and on-camera interviewee.  The Basilio story is narrated by actor Paul Sorvino.  It was made in 2000.

Buttino, a 1962 graduate of Canastota High School, recently donated the Basilio documentary and another titled “Broken Brotherhood” to the library.  Both DVDs are available in the non-fiction DVD section in October for patrons to borrow.  The DVDs will circulate for a one week period.

“Broken Brotherhood” is an hour-long documentary which depicts the emotional scars left by the Vietnam War.  Buttino (director and co-producer) and Robert Aberlin (co-producer) were college friends during the 1960’s.  In ‘Broken Brotherhood” the pair look back on the 60’s through their time at Colgate University and the experiences of their fellow alums regarding the Vietnam War. Decisions made about serving in the war continue to haunt these men—more than thirty years later.  Many have never talked about what happened there-even to each other for decades.

Buttino is a college professor, an author and a filmmaker.  For more than two decades, he taught in the Political Science and Communication/Journalism Departments at St. John Fisher College in Rochester. In 1994, he moved to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he has taught in the Communication, Creative Writing, Film Studies Department as well as the Graduate Liberal Studies program.  At UNC, Wilmington, a special Manuscript and Film Collection of his work is now housed at the William M. Randall Library.   He has written three books and has been involved in the making of more than two dozen documentary projects in various aspects.