Stefano Da Frè — a local filmmaker and president and CEO of Rosso Films International, along with his business partner Laura Pellegrini, has taken on a new endeavor with Coventure in Carbondale after recently finishing a TV pilot for Netflix Italy which follows “Stolen Dough” titled “A Slice of The Family Business.” “Stolen Dough” was a feature-length documentary by Da Frè looking at the origins of Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust pizza and a $1 billion patent infringement suit against them.
The funding for this pilot was made possible through Aurelio De Laurentiis and the National Italian American Foundation, which awarded $10,000 grants to five recipients nationwide. This show, which Da Frè hopes to develop into a full-length, six-episode season, will be shot in the style of an improvisational docu-drama following Anthony Mongiello and his daughter, Anna, as she attempts to take over the family business, with only one chance to do so.
“I love a story where the daughter goes, ‘Dad, you can’t sell the business. I have been in this business for 35 years; let me prove it to you. Give me two weeks so I can put together a product and show you I can take over the family business,’” Da Frè narrated. “That’s the story; it’s a true story.”
Da Frè, with the help of award-winning editor Krysia Carter-Giez and Dave Taylor of Cool Brick Studios, wrote and edited the pilot at CoVenture. Da Frè lives full-time in New York but has split his work between the East Coast and the Roaring Fork Valley after meeting Carter-Giez through local creative Alya Howe roughly a decade ago. The working relationship with Taylor followed. Da Frè found the approach to work here in the Valley to be collaborative and artist-forward.
“Krysia had done a few projects in the past and had recommended Dave, and it just made sense to have everybody in the same town to do a lot of the sound mixing together,” Da Frè stated. “Part of the reason I started coming back to the Valley, a lot, was because I realized how much the Valley values the arts, art programs and artists.”
He continued, “I felt there was a big emphasis on personalized stories here. The pace, I would say, is a lot more delicate and human. Whereas, when I was in New York editing a lot of my own work that I had worked on for TV shows and feature films, the pace of the work is so fast in the city. When I was in Carbondale, I just had a sense that I didn’t have a gun to my head. I didn’t feel like we were rushed.”
Additionally, Da Frè’s business partner and he tag team projects they have produced together, including completing post production on a feature film they have been working on for nearly nine years. This follows the story of a painter who slowly loses his eyesight, with two working titles — “A Dream Beyond The Dark” and “The Portrait of a Blind Painter.”
“It’s a true story based on a blind Belgian painter, but the narrative spin is a guardian angel visits him to reconnect and rediscover his connection to his art form. [The most prevalent theme of the story] is the stigma of disability when creating art, and the never-ending idea that the art we make isn’t good enough,” Da Frè explained.
This film will see Da Frè starring in the lead role opposite Clara McGregor, daughter of Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and production designer Eve Mavrakis, who will portray the artist’s love interest. Rosso Films International is hoping to have a rough cut of the film ready by December of this year.
Da Frè says differing perspectives are essential to his level of storytelling, and he is dedicated to maintaining this through the people he works with, as well as continuing to run his company and the projects rolled out from it through a lens of equal partnership.
“I subscribe to an idea of running a company with equal partnership because I’m gonna get a different perspective from editing and producing with a female producer who has a different background and will see footage differently. It expands you, and as an artist, you need people around you from all different backgrounds to make good art,” Da Frè said.
For more information or to stay up to date with new projects, visit www.rossofilmsinternational.com