CLEMENTE FEATURE FILM ALMOST WRAPPED by Julia Frazier for Filmmaker's Quarterly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 26, 2011 --

The first feature dramatic film on the life of humanitarian and baseball great Roberto Clemente has almost finished filming, according to writer-director Richard Rossi who recently shot the tragic plane crash scenes in which Clemente dies on a mission trip. "We have just one scene left to shoot and we have already started post-production." The plane scenes were shot at a Merced, California airport last week courtesy of Florida Air Transport with Rossi and his skeletal crew consisting of leading man and Olympian Jamie Nieto, Jeffrey Griffith, Robert Amberry, and Joseph Gonzalez.

Clemente died in 1972 on a mission of mercy to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Rossi was a nine year-old boy in Pittsburgh at the time, the city where Clemente played his entire 18 season career in right field. According to Seamheads, an online baseball magazine, Rossi was brokenhearted over the death of his idol and vowed to one day tell his story on the big screen.

"Richard Rossi's film will show Clemente's baseball greatness and also that he was a marvelous human being who died giving," said Jose Diaz, curator of a museum dedicated to Latin American athletes in New York. Rossi hopes to release the film in 2012, the fortieth anniversary of Clemente's passing, according to Seamheads. To make that goal, Rossi needs finishing funds. Rossi raised the funds to start shooting the film through Facebook and Kickstarter. Tax deductible donations to finish the film can be sent by e-mail by going to http://www.paypal.com and send to the e-mail clementefilm@yahoo.com