The screenplay  for  Stealing Mama  was presented with an actors' reading  at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y. July, 99.  115 people attended the afternoon presentation, which was dedicated to the filmmaker's mother, Helen Bonadio-Fortunato.

Ray Salah read the lead role of 35 year-old Gino Bonadio, and Daniel Effron read the role of Gino in his younger years.  Other roles were read by Mary Catherine Bosner, Lee Ann Orasin, Daryll Heysham, Renee Bonadio, Christine Vanacore, Adele Fico, Ralph Meranto, Darcie Shelton, Toni Ann Attardo and Bridget Staley. 

A reception followed.

The reading was supported with help from:
The Pennsylvania Council On The Arts
The Visual Studies Workshop
Tom & Charlene Fortunato
Helen Fortunato
Keith & Donna Walker
Ross, Bill & David Fortunato
The Jewish Community Center
The Rochester Film Office
The School of the Arts
Audience donations
The Actors
and many others.

Articles about Stealing Mama were published in:

The NIAF News,  Fall 1999 p.18

National Distribution.

Three paragraphs with contact information. Includes picture.

ComUnico, Oct. 1999 p.10

National Distribution.

Two columns  with contact information.

America Oggi, Wed. July 8, 1999  p.26 (Community section)

National Distribution.

Half-page newspaper article written in Italian, announcing the reading in Rochester, NY, and giving background on the film project and the director. Includes two pictures.

IACN (Italian American Community Newsletter), July 1999 p.5

Rochester, NY and surrounding areas.

2/3 page newspaper article about the reading in Rochester, NY and giving background on the film project and the director. Includes two photos.

Messenger-Post Newspapers, Week of July 5, 1999 p.3

Rochester, NY and surrounding townships.

Half-page article including one photo distributed in the weekend section of the daily newspaper. Article lists actors and discusses background of the film, and announces the reading given in Rochester.

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Friday July 9, 1999.

Listing in the 'happenings' section under 'readings'.

Rochester, NY daily newspaper.

WROC-TV, Sunday July 11, 1999

Interview by Rochester TV for the nightly news; broadcast  twice.

On-Location, Fall 1999 p. 13

Publication of the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film and Video Office.

Two-paragraph report on the reading that took place in Rochester.

Express Exchange, September 22, 1999 p.1

One paragraph in Member News reports the reading given in Rochester, NY.

Member publication.

Coming January 2000

LaGazzetta Italiana, January 2000

Background article about the filmmaker and the film in  a publication distributed in Ohio.

National Org. of Italian American Women, January 2000

Article in their national newsletter.

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Release: Immediately

            June Fortunato, an award-winning writer and director, was born and raised in Rochester, NY. She's resided in Philadelphia, PA for the past 17 years.  Fortunato returns to her 'roots' to make her Italian-American comedy, Stealing Mama. The screenplay is set in Rochester, NY and in Southern Italy, and recalls stories of her culture,  family and former neighbors.

            Stealing Mama, is an emotional, loving and funny story about loss of memory and accomplishing a dream.   Fortunato says, "Like most Americans, I don't really know much about my family history and I think this is part of the definition of being "American."  I wanted to express this phenomena, so I created a character, Gino Bonadio,  who's an inventor.  Gino doesn't know much about his past, but as an inventor, this doesn't stop him from making it up!  The rest of his family gets upset, and living or dead, jump into his stories to correct him.  The fluidity of time is drawn from the Italian tradition of addressing one's dead ancestors as if they're standing there. In this particular comedy, the ancestors also talk back!" The magical screenplay has been compared to Like Water For Chocolate, The Joy Luck Club and to The Singing Detective.

            Fortunato, who intends to shoot the film in Rochester and in Calabria and Sicily, is producing Stealing Mama to provide an alternative to the violent and racist films made about Italian-Americans.  She says, "The cinema is not providing a balanced or accurate picture of Italian-Americans, very few of whom can even relate to the Mafia.  I understand why the violent stories sell: people want to feel, and terrifying images have an immediate impact.  However, I believe that delight and laughter also make us feel, and  it is the sweet sensations that we most willing recall. Stealing Mama is a story about gentle and emotional people who try to make a go of it in this world."

            She also says, " I know very well that I could sell my script if I was willing to let others take it and add what they wish. I'm not willing to compromise my work, nor am I willing to add to the pile of dirty and unreasonable images of our culture. That's why I'm making this film as an independent producer and director.

            The work has already garnered kudos.  Stealing Mama  was originally commissioned by a Pennsylvania Council on  The Arts (PCA)  fellowship, and recently won a second PCA fellowship in the Media Category.  The script has had two public readings with actors:  one in Rochester NY summer, 1999. and another at the Philadelphia Filmmaker's Lab which premiered the work.   The project is endorsed by the National Italian-American Foundation in Washington, DC and by the Italian-American Community Center in Rochester NY.

            Stealing Mama follows the story of one momentous day in the life of Italian-American inventor, Gino Bonadio.  If all goes well, he will sell one of his inventions and  make his family's American dream come true.  His mother, who always believed in him, now has dementia and cannot understand a thing.  This moment draws a barrage of emotions, images and memories which Gino scrambles to compose into the family story (before it changes).  It's one day that hilariously and movingly encompasses the lives of three generations of the Bonadio family, and a day in which Gino's frustrating but tender-hearted acceptance of his family allows him to step boldly, and happily, into the future.

            Fortunato says, "In the end, Stealing Mama is about being and becoming American. We, in the American spirit of invention, reinvent ourselves.  We forget the past and become part of the new society. Many years later, we wake up and we don't know who we were, or where we came from. Everywhere we can see a different phase of this process: it is echoed in the new immigrant communities of our cities, and in those who are the children and the grandchildren and the great great grandchildren of those who came before."

            Stealing Mama  is Fortunato's 18th script and ninth project as producer. She has directed more than 60 productions of interdisciplinary drama, audio-drama and theatre.  Her "living film", Dual Life,  was shot on locations in Mexico, and won numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts grant , many corporate grants and a feature-article in American Theatre Magazine.

            The film, Stealing Mama  will cost  $2.5 million to make and seeks investors. Fortunato says, "The people who invest in Stealing Mama must believe, as I do,  that we can change the world by allowing people to feel empathy, happiness and by carrying them away in a good story".