Pocket Battleship: A LIFE Stolen2023

Patterson Cannamela, a.k.a "Pat", a.k.a. "Uncle Busty" — the filmmaker's great-great-uncle — was born the son of impoverished Italian immigrants in 1929, and raised in New London, Connecticut. Cannamela won a scholarship to play for the Trojans at the University of Southern California before appearing on the Bob Hope Show when the Football Writers Association, International News Service, and Newspaper Enterprise Association selected him as a first-team player for their 1951 College Football All-America teams. He was subsequently drafted by the NFL for the 1952 season as a linebacker for the Dallas Texans, and for a brief moment in time, enjoyed national stardom.

But after LIFE magazine defamed him, accusing him of intentionally maiming an opponent during a USC vs. Cal State game, his career and image suffered irreparable damage. He was later murdered in a random department store robbery in Los Angeles in 1973, where he lived and worked after abandoning his career on the field and settling into civilian life.

“Pocket Battleship: A LIFE Stolen” examines family, poverty, sports culture, journalism and mass media, and the mythos and fallacies of the so-called “American Dream” on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Cannamela's death.

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New York Premiere: Millennium Film Workshop, May 2023.