By Nick Christophers

It is without a doubt that the most iconic gangster film of our time, outside of the Godfather, is the 1996 HBO special “Gotti”. The only true reason for that fact is that it features one of the most prolific actors, Armand Assante. On November 14, 2024, the Garden State Film Festival hosted a fundraiser that held a special screening of the HBO film “Gotti” including a Q&A with Assante. To note Assante is an honorary board member of the Garden State Film Festival.

The sold-out event welcomed actors Gary Pastore (Don Q), Chris Mormando (Jersey Bred) and podcaster Pete (Premium Pete) Gibaldi. The film “Gotti” has been a measuring stick when comparing others in the mob genre. Assante captured the true essence of the “celebrity gangster” John Gotti Sr. Gotti Sr was not the easiest to portray and as Assante pointed out during the Q&A he needed to delve into the persona of Gotti via transcripts from his trial and visuals to illustrate the kind of person he was.

“Gotti was a very complex person who had to grapple with the type of dysfunction his crew was laying on his lap. The men around him their actions caused stress and a desire to breath when he couldn’t,” said Assante.

One of the individuals who put this event together was Lauren Concar who is the Executive Director of the festival. The festival itself takes place March 27-30 at two locations, Asbury Park and in Cranford, both in New Jersey. Only recently did it feature the project “Don Q” with the lead being Armand Assante. The festival has been running for over 25 years as is known as a filmmaker’s film festival. It has all types of films that everyone can enjoy from adult projects to children’s films.

“It was an honor to have Armand come tonight and support the screening of this mob genre gem of a film, which has never been shown in a theatre. We thank HBO for allowing us to show the film at this wonderful theatre. Tonight’s fundraiser was meant to assist the ongoing efforts of the Garden State Film Festival to showcase amazing indie film talents around the world and to continue in our mission,” said Lauren.

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