Not for Nothing is a film that held its first screening at the 31st Philadelphia Film Festival on October 21. The film’s plot follows a group of modern-day Italian and Irish American men who get tangled up in a mob war when the bar owner’s teenage daughter is found dead from a drug overdose. It was written and directed by two Philly natives, Frankie Tartaglia and Tim Dowlin.
“Frankie and I met at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts here and Mark (Webber) and several other of our actors are also CAPA grads. I told Frank that I wanted to write something together with him, a modern-day, South Philly Mafia film. From there, we explored who was the next generation of the Mob, and what they were up to, and went down the path of who were their sons and daughters and what were they up to,” said Dowlin.
When crafting a story about the Mafia, Tartaglia and Dowlin started with an identity crisis of entitlement, ego, whose father was important, and where the respect is when there’s little organized crime to be attached to and backed up. They started there to make something realistic and authentic, using some of South Philly’s most notable locations and actors.
“We’re proud of the look and feel that we put together for this. The backdrop was already great – places like Capitolo Park, Pat’s and Geno’s, Connie’s Ric Rac, the Garage – but Frank put a lot of work into our storyboards. As the production was delayed due to Covid, he had extra time to drawing, drawing, drawing. Every left-to-right pan, every frame. They really translated as a blueprint for Michael’s cinematography.”
The cinematographer in question was Michael Regalbuto. To represent old Philly, he and the other filmmakers used a lot of Earth tones, while the Italian flag’s green, white, and red became crucial as well. According to Dowlin, sometimes they barely had to light the scenes as they relied on the natural look of what was on the street around them. In addition, with the Christmastime theme of the film, they played around with those lights as well, never going over the top but not being shy about it either.
The Characters of Not for Nothing
“I thrive on telling stories that haven’t been told, and South Philly is such a rich place for a diversity of characters, faces and voices. We wanted to use characters and actors that could never be fake or faked. We didn’t want to dehumanize anyone or be cliché in our characterizations, but rather fully flesh out people in pain, people struggling, people dealing with tragedy.”
Some of the cast members bringing the characters in the film to life are Carmin Yukso in his feature film debut, Mike Bash, who’s appeared in episodes of Westworld and Shameless, Mark Webber, whose rock band appeared in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Peter Patrikios, who appeared in Boardwalk Empire, The Blacklist, and Gotham, and Lauren LaVera, who’s been winning the hearts of legions of horror fans with Terrifier 2.
“Drugs too, blatant as it is, became its own character. If you’re from Philly, you know someone who is battling with addiction and have overdosed. We wanted to tap into that, make that a motivating factor for revenge, for dealing with someone who is coming onto their turf and peddling poison.”
Not for Nothing is scheduled to have three screenings in October. The third and final screening at the Reading Film festival, which is on Saturday, October 29, at 9 pm. You can find more information about that here.