West End Cinema
WEST END CINEMA HOSTS WASHINGTON DC PREMIERE OF “MEN OF THE CLOTH” – A DOCUMENTARY FILM ON ITALIAN MASTER TAILORS
West End Cinema – ticket link: http://bit.ly/1t4WlkW
Web site: www.MenoftheClothFilm.com
Trailer: http://
Men of the Cloth is an inspiring portrait of three Italian master tailors who confront the decline of the apprentice system in the twilight of their career. The film features U.S. tailors Nino Corvato and Joe Centofanti (who both work as traditional custom tailors) and Checchino Fonticoli, who spends his entire career at Brioni, the luxury clothing firm based in Italy.
These artisans possess skills honed over the course of a lifetime, and create clothing that’s as beautiful inside as it is outside. Filmed over the course of eleven years, Men of the Cloth reveals how their passionate devotion to their Old World craft is akin to a religion.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Vicki Vasilopoulos and Sofio Barone, founder and head designer at Sofio’s Custom Clothiers and Tailors in Tyson’s Corner,VA, and moderated by Grant Harris, blogger and founder of the DC-based menswear consultancy, Image Granted.
23rd Street NW (between M and N), Washington DC
Click http://bit.ly/1t4WlkW for tickets or call 202-419-3456.
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MEN OF THE CLOTH has screened at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute in Pennsylvania, the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey, the Craft in Focus Festival in Amsterdam, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.
The film centers around Nino Corvato, Joe Centofanti, and Checchino Fonticoli, master tailors who have spent a lifetime perfecting the skills necessary to construct flawless custom-made suits for their clients in New York City, Philadelphia and Penne, Italy. Now in the twilight of their career, they fear that their Old-World knowledge will vanish with them.
Enter Joe Genuardi, a tailoring apprentice who reflects the resurgence of popular interest in artisanal craftsmanship as an alternative to corporate mass production, providing hope for the future of this craft.
The late Joe Centofanti was profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer and was the tailor to former ambassador Walter Annenberg. Vicki Vasilopoulos says, “I truly admire artisans like Joe Centofanti, who lived a life of meaning and purpose – and created clothing as beautiful inside as it was outside. Joe’s skills were honed over the course of a lifetime – and my film honors his legacy for a younger generation.”
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Director/producer Vicki Vasilopoulos was a Senior Fashion Editor at DNR, the men’s news magazine (now a part of Women’s Wear Daily). Vasilopoulos was also a contributor to Fashion Wire Daily and has had features published in The New York Times, Esquire, Time Out New York and New Jersey Monthly.
She has served as a film series programmer for New York Women in Film and Television. She is also a member of the Independent Filmmaker Project and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Vasilopoulos graduated from NYU with a B.A. in Journalism and has studied at the Paris Fashion Institute in France and at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.