BINGHAM
A documentary series
Racism. Equal opportunity. Police brutality. Civil and human rights. All of a sudden, it doesn’t feel like the ‘60s anymore. This is the untold story of Howard Bingham, Muhammad Ali’s best friend for fifty years, and one the best photographer of the last century. With Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón and Jamie Foxx as Executive Producers, with Gabriela Rodriguez, Datari Turner, Dustin Bingham, Harlan Werner, Riccardo Romani in the producing team, Robusto is working at the biopic of man whose courage is exemplified here by a fascinating and sprawling body of work. A man who would risk his life to tell a story. In this climate of tension and division of all kinds, now more than ever is the time to take a risk to tell the personal and professional story of this extraordinary man. Howard left behind millions of pictures hidden in his archive, and now brought to life. Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Robert Kennedy. These are just a few names caught by Howard’s camera. The right man in the right sport, at the right time. Howard Bingham was one of the greatest builders of cultural “bridges” in American history. A message of unity and reciprocal understanding that should never go out of fashion.
THE BOUNCER
A documentary
Every night until 4 a.m., Armin Amiri was the most powerful man in New York—until someone decided he shouldn’t be anymore. This is the opening scene of a documentary focused on extraordinary journey of an Iranian boy who, after giving up his mother’s love to escape a tragic fate, found himself at the doors of Manhattan’s most exclusive nightclub. Told in his own words and enriched by the recollections of both celebrities and everyday people, Armin Amiri’s story traces the path of a man who, after risking his life in a Vienna refugee camp, became the most influential bouncer in New York, controlling the velvet rope at the legendary Bungalow 8. Armin wasn’t just the “door guy.” He was the gatekeeper, the one who decided whether you were cool enough, beautiful enough, glamorous enough, stylish enough—or simply enough—to get in. A curious fate for one whose very survival, for years, rested in the hands of others — those who choose whether to let him cross a new border, to grant the passage that meant salvation. In collaboration with John Sullivan’s Naked Emperor, The Bouncer is the classic Only-In-New-York tale where a refugee/starving actor went from failed auditions to creating his own nightclub — Socialista - a Cuban-inspired, bohemian hideaway financed by Harvey Weinstein, Giuseppe Cipriani, Damon Dash, and Ben Silverman… Glamour, reckless spending, battles with immigration authorities, brushes with low-level mobsters, beautiful women, and broken American dreams: Armin’s life reads like a movie script. Robusto Films’ The Bouncer offers as well a stark portrait of a city that, in those years, sold its soul to the devil. And Armin Amiri was the perfect eyewitness, stationed at the threshold of the most coveted club in all five boroughs. Mickey Rourke, Al Pacino, Sienna Miller…the cast of characters orbiting around him was extraordinary for someone who had fled his homeland hidden in a truck just a decade earlier. But this was New York in the early 21st century, a city whose soul had risen from the ashes of September 11 louder, bolder, and more excessive than ever. In those years, anything seemed possible.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
A Three-Part Docu-series
When the journey of hundreds of migrant ends, the search for the truth begins. Each human dispersed at is like a “message in a bottle”. A call for help, a cry for life. What does it take to solve the riddle? A stubborn forensic pathologist. A team of relentless detectives. The biggest cold case ever confronted. This be the perfect introduction to Message in a Bottle — a three-part mini-series that feels like a spy story, yet in reality sheds light on the tireless work of dozens of professionals around the globe. They operate much like intelligence agents, striving to give a name — and a dignified ending — to the thousands of men and women who lost their lives trying to reach Europe in pursuit of a better future. Hundreds of human beings remain without a name. With Alfonso Cuarón and Gaby Rodriguez on the production team, Robusto Film draws on the expertise of one of the world’s most respected forensic doctors, Cristina Cattaneo. She is the first scientist to create an international protocol dedicated to uncovering the identities of these nameless victims. The protocol mainly focuses on the objects that the migrants held, the most insignificant item can provide a very useful clue. The migrants are often adolescents, holding in their pockets the same objects that many of our teenagers have when we send them to school. The series is built on the dynamics of docs-fiction with a crime story pace, standing on the vocabulary of the series that have made forensic medicine popular and fascinating. The script is mostly based of documents recovered from reality but also foresees the possibility of recreating situations and circumstances using the reenact technique, if it is essential for the narrative. The structure will develop through three different layer of narrative.
- Using survivors recount and rescuers reports we establish the facts regarding a ship wreck in the Mediterranean.
- The post mortem examination results combined with the personal objects recollection by forensic experts in several European labs, whom will point toward the direction of the story.
- Chasing the identity of the defunct will come next, using every possible clue while inquiring around refugee camps, first welcome centers, consulates and main trail of European immigration.
Around one million human beings are forced to leave their country every year due to persecution, war, poverty, dire climate condition. Or each of these circumstances combined. Hundreds of them never reach destination. Forensic Expert Cristina is the leading character within a group of brave investigators at Labanof Lab who have devoted their spare time to identify the bodies of the migrants who have lost their lives, treating each case as if it is an ordinary crime scene. The motivation for the Labanof’s investigators? To solve any heinous and very public crime is as important as trying to restore the dignity of the dead migrants while providing closure for their families. Sometimes to give them hope, when the evidence proves the corpse to be of a different person. Giving back the bodies of sons or brothers it means giving peace. Identifying the corpses is not just a question of restoring dignity to the dead, it is also necessary for the health of the living.
I REGRET ALMOST EVERYTHING
A documentary
One February morning in 2002, a young journalist stepped for the first time into the Opera prison. Her name was Micaela Palmieri. Barely in her twenties, she had grown up hearing stories of the underworld and wanted to meet the bandit who, in Milan, still loomed like a kind of legend despite his four life sentences: Renato Vallanzasca. Renato had been Public Enemy Number One, the ultimate outlaw who – apart from some clumsy attempt to bring his exploits to the big screen - has never let anybody to tell his true story. Securing the interview had taken months. It all began with a letter Micaela had written to Renato, confessing that she wanted to meet him “to understand just how crazy he really was, as people said. Renato had replied immediately: “First, send me a photo.” Micaela didn’t hesitate: “If that’s your attitude, forget about the interview.” A few days later, Renato reached out again: “Alright then, we’ll do the interview. You seem crazier than me.” And so began a deep, uncompromising friendship, with Renato never seeking for redemption. Robusto Films in collaboration with Rai Documentary is about to bring to the screen the ultimate confession of Renato Vallanzasca, a 90-minutes uncompromising and gripping movie which represents a ruthless portrait of the last fifty years of Italian history. The escapes, the more than half a century spent in the harshest prisons, his defiance of the Neapolitan mafia, the murders he confessed to—and those he took the blame for without committing them. But above all, the painful, inescapable inner journey that Renato faces with Micaela’s help, up until just days before a degenerative illness slowly began to defeat him. “I Regret Almost Everything” is built not only on the bandit’s own words, but also on the previously unseen notebooks Vallanzasca kept during 17 years of solitary confinement. With the voice of Fabrizio Bentivoglio —winner of the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, among other awards—Renato’s words come to life, alongside those of his fellow robbers, the law enforcement officers who hunted him down, and even the woman he kidnapped in the 1970s, with whom he ultimately fell in love. In “I Regret Almost Everything”, Vallanzasca sometimes wonders if it was worth it. He stole. He killed. He lost so many friends.
A bit like the “Nameless One,” yes—the character from The Betrothed. In the end, he managed, in some way, to straighten out his life. Freely adapted from acclaimed book “Malanotte” by Micaela Palmieri, “I Regret Almost Everything”, proofs that not even fifty years buried in a prison have stripped this bandit’s story of the allure — and the many controversies — that have followed him since birth.
WETBACK
A docudrama by Danny Quinn
The Untold Story Of A Father Called Anthony Quinn
“Pop most likely would have hated the title of this film’, says Danny, Anthony Quinn’s son and also the man who embarks on the journey of his life, reaching out his siblings. The goal is to better understand who the father with a booming voice really was. The aim is to reveal the human being behind Anthony's over-sized personality, admired by so many all over the world but - as is often the case - at times unknown by his own children. In collaboration with Quinn Studio Entertainment, Robusto Films is playing a role in the build-up of this original docudrama, based on the life of one of the most charismatic Hollywood’s artist. Beginning in Los Angeles with the oldest son, Duncan, and proceeding with Christina in Canada, Lorenzo in Spain and so on, Danny is piecing together the profile of the man who - as a three-year-old - would gather little sticks around his humble yard to help his mother fire up the wood burning stove so they
could enjoy a nice hot meal. Through the work of Danny, the whole family will disclose the journey of a man energetic, full of zest, who loved to laugh. Tony the star admired by many, but also the human being full of conflicts. The battle to balance his personal life, was not the only one for Tony. Those who grew up close to him witnessed Quinn's personal conflict related to his background and heritage. At times he would be incredibly defensive about his origins, which were a mix of immigrants from Ireland, thus the last name Quinn, and what were peasants from Oaxaca, Mexico. Anthony Quinn felt he was an American with a Mexican-Irish background not to be denounced, but this is also what never allowed him to be fully appreciated and fully integrated in the American system, especially the Hollywood system. The one strategy that allowed Anthony Quinn to survive that ambiguity, was to embrace it by playing so many different ethnicities that it is stunning to see the fans sometimes were shocked to find out that he was Mexican and not Greek, for instance, or Italian. Of course Tony’s feverish search for a constant escape from reality, had a great impact in his large family’s wellbeing. Wetback is arrow, uncompromising portrait of a man and his relationship with his at time dysfunctional and large family. A story of love, betrayal, talent and humanity that is compelling, as timely as it is captivating.
HANDS OF GOD
A documentary
Jafaar is a dreamer, he walks the street of tormented Al-Sadr City hoping one day to be a hero. Saadi is a just a kid with two passions: boxing and shotguns. Waheed had no choice but become a soldier under Saddam Hussein’s tenure, the only option for him to be also a boxer and a good father. With Baghdad devastated by a sequence of car bombings, Jafaar, Saadi and Waheed begin their preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The journey of the Iraq Boxing National Team starts when ISIS forces are taking control of Fallujia, just 40 miles away from the Capital. While Jafaar will be the only one capable to keep a decent training regime, Saadi will be asked by the religious leader to go into battle to defend his Country. Wahhed will have to spend more time on duty, giving up the chance to partecipate to the World Boxing Championship in Doha. With the hope of making it to Rio de Janeiro fading, Waheed’s army is able to stop ISIS advance, while Saadi is allowed to go to Italy for a training camp and Jafaar travels to China for a qualification tournament where he loses by a controversial decision. Once back to hazardous Baghdad, despite losing friends over the frontline, Waheed, Jafaar and Saadi regroup aiming at the last chance to qualify for the Games: a tournament held in Baku. Saadi though will have to leave his teammates to join the mother of all battles: Falluja. Waheed and Jafaar will go on to Azerbaijan where their odds to qualify are close to zero but when the news of ISIS defeated in Falluja breaks, they receive an inspiration that will change their lives forever. Hands of God is the first documentary born by the collaboration between Riccardo Romani, Alfonso Cuarón and Esperantos’ Gabriela Rodriguez and has been released worldwide in 2020.