350 Days Director Says Working On Cinderella Man Led Him To Wrestling Project

350 Days Director Fulvio Cecere recently spoke to Interactive Wrestling Radio on Wrestling Epicenter. You can see the full interview at this link, and check out highlights below.

Working on Cinderella Man leading to him doing this project:
“That’s kind of misleading in a way. Because of working on Cinderella Man, I became good friends with a guy named Angelo Dundee who of course was Muhammad Ali’s trainer, manager, and a boxing icon. It was through him I went to the Pro Boxing Hall of Fame a few times. This was 5, 6 years ago. Through Angelo, I met Darren (Antola) who is a famous cut man and another legendary trainer. It was there that we struck a friendship. He started telling me about this one project he was working on. It involved some wrestlers. Ultimately, I tried to help him with that but it didn’t go anywhere. But, then, he had this other idea. I thought it was pretty fascinating and he had access to these wrestlers. Now, I was not a wrestling fan at the time. You know, I was back in the 60’s going to see Bruno Sammartino and other staples of that time. I wrestled in high school in Hawthorne, NJ – The Hawthorne Bears! But other than that, that was it. So, it was through Darren – I liked the idea and that he had access to these wrestlers. So, I offered to direct it! So, I put together a crew. We got together with some of the wrestlers the first weekend and it was, from the very beginning, just gold. It went from that weekend when we got, I think, 6 wrestlers. It led to another 21 days of shooting, 120 hours of footage, and a total of 72 people interviewed. It took us 5 years to do that. But, it started that weekend in New Jersey! Our first interview happened to be Tito Santana who is a Jersey guy. “Superstar” Billy Graham happened to be in town. We shot him that weekend as well. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine was also there. We got Angelo Savoldi, also living in New Jersey, at the time he was the oldest living wrestler.”

On having so many deceased wrestlers in their final appearances in this film:
“Absolutely. Without question. And, if I may add to that, there are actually 12 people who have passed away since we first started. Some didn’t make it into the movie – Buddha Khan for example. Don Fargo did make it into the movie and he’s passed away. It is sad. But, the great thing, if there is a great thing to take away from it, is we have their last interviews. And, there are several others who aren’t doing very well with health issues. It is a time capsule.”