Los Angeles, CA: When ex gangster Henry Hill, immortalized by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas (1990), died on June 12th interest swelled in his final documentary appearance. The Boston College Fix recounts the largest point shaving scandal in sports history through the eyes of Paul “Paulie” Mazzei, the Mafioso mastermind behind it all who teamed with Hill to collect an estimated $400,000 during the 1978-79 Boston College Basketball season. Most remember Mazzei as “The Pittsburgh” connection in the Liotta film. In the documentary Paulie goes back to his hometown, Pittsburgh, after 35 years to meet up with and confront his former accomplices, including Hill.
“He was a normal guy who had lived an extraordinarily historical life,” said Cayman Grant, director of The Pittsburgh Connection. “You’ll see a very human side of Henry in the film. He had demons he didn’t know how to overcome and like many others he was just trying to survive.” The film began production in August of 2011 is slated for a 2013 release. Grant had always planned for Hill to see the completed film, but is now planning to capture goodbyes and the response to his passing, which in itself will be a rare and historical chronicling. Having been labeled a rat that latter half of his life Hill maintained that anyone would have done the same in his position. “You never know what you’ll do when you’re in someone else’s shoes,” agreed Mazzei.
When production wraps Grant and Co-Director, Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria will begin the arduous process of pouring through the many hours of footage. Steel Titan Productions has continued to seek out the best financing methods for the film including network interest and allowing history buffs and mob fans the opportunity to purchase a thank you in the credits. “It’s about finding the best possible audience for this story,” said Grant. It will be a changed perception of organized crime. “It’s not as “organized” as people think,” chuckle Grant. “Lots of risks are taken but they are the same as any other criminals. They just have a hierarchy and have to share their money. I think this doc will show that despite their pasts, they are just two guys who got old, had no education and had to struggle until the end to make ends meet. It’s a completely different life than their early high rolling days. As Henry says ‘In them days, money was like confetti.’ Today, both men struggled to make ends meet. Basically, fallen rock stars…but fallen criminals.
###
ABOUT THE BOSTON COLLEGE FIX
During the 1978-1979 basketball season at Boston College, a points shaving scheme was taking place under everyone’s nose. It would later go down as the infamous Boston College Fix, but anyone involved could tell you that they were never able to fix a thing about it. Players were paid to beat the spread, by not winning or losing by the required margin in order for high profile gangsters to bet on the games for great profit. However, the games just couldn’t be fixed. www.bostoncollegefix.com
ABOUT STEEL TITAN PRODUCTIONS
Founded in the fall of 2007, Steel Titan Productions is the brainchild of award winning director Cayman Grant and producer and industry executive Terry City. STP is an independent house focused on partnering dynamic, people driven projects with qualified investors and hungry, targeted audiences. Their acclaimed short, His Good Will, was an official Academy Award entry for best live action short film, 2009. Current projects include a reality cooking series, a political drama based on the life of Bertie Bowman and Blood Land, a historical feature film based on the book “The Osage Indian Murders”.
