Bensonhurst director and boxer team up for film on mafia and faith
Growing up in Bensonhurst in the 1980s and 90s, Craig Syracusa and Paulie Malignaggi were immersed in a tight-knit Italian American community defined as much by their shared culture as their shared faith.
A big part of that community identity also included the “entrepreneurial conglomerate called the Mafia,” which ran “this particular section of Brooklyn. . . like its own city-state [and] invested time and money to build invisible walls of security” that secured them the trust and loyalty of residents.
Now the two friends – who have since built successful careers for themselves in the church and competitive boxing, respectively – have teamed up to put a face and story to some of their and their friends’ adolescent experiences, with a new film, “Omertá: The Act of Silence,” which will be featured on Saturday, September 20 at 6 p.m. at The Golden Door Film Festival in Jersey City, New Jersey.