Rhode Island film director Tom DeNucci earned top honors this past weekend at the Cannes World Film Festival, along with producer Chad Verdi, also of Rhode Island, on their documentary about famous transgender boxing manager Kellie (formerly Frank) Maloney.
The documentary, “Knock Out Blonde,” won Best Documentary Feature Film at the prestigious festival on Sunday. DeNucci said he first heard about the win while watching the Patriots game.
“The Pats might have lost, but we won. I’ve never won a film festival before. To me though, it’s a team thing,” DeNucci told GoLocalProv.com. “Most of all, this movie is all about Kellie.”
Reports GoLocal:
“It’s a knockout punch,” said DeNucci, of the documentary three weeks in the making. “We’re on year three [of making it], so to be able to cross the finish line — we put it out there and hoped people liked the film. [The festival jury] were really the first people to see the movie outside of our team.”
DeNucci talked about focusing on Maloney’s story, after previously featuring Lennox.
“We’d done a documentary about Lennox Lewis, ‘The Untold Story,’ and I remember while I was editing, Kellie had had briefly gone over her story, and I said, this is the movie right here,” said DeNucci.
“This documentary is really about Maloney and her life story, and how when she was Frank Maloney when represented Lewis, she had to deal with a personal battle,” said DeNucci. “This is about how she was able to be true to herself. Coming up in that testosterone fueled world of boxing in the ‘80s, It was quite the secret she kept back then.”
“So how she was able to come out and inspire a lot of people, it’s about some of the challenges and ultimately the outcome,” said DeNucci. “My favorite part is her journey back into the world of boxing.”
The documentary, according to DeNucci, was filmed in Portugal, where Maloney lives now, as well as England — and Verdi Productions’ studios in Rhode Island.
Read the complete GoLocalProv.com story here.
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