Abandon All Hope - The Dante's Inferno Story

Abandon All Hope - The Dante's Inferno Story, has finally been completed and ready for its Premiere at major film festivals worldwide.

Please visit its official website www.AbandonAllHopeFilm.com for more information.

After Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes message was "re-edit", "keep working", "you are on the right track, but more must be done".

We listened! We re-edited, kept working and more has been done, a lot more!

The editing has been extremely tedious and very technical, but as much gratifying. The documentary is becoming a film that will make everybody proud to be in it.

We gave it a lot of thought and got a few great new speakers in to film in Hollywood during August, 2008 and they all did a great job. Got back to editing and re-made an extended trailer to make us confident in moving forward.

Then, we thought to go back to Italy to film some more, but after having a successful week at AFM we thought we had to stay and film the final round of interviews in Hollywood with the participation of some great artists that showed a lot of interest in being part of a historic documentary.

It is certainly refreshing when people follow you showing they believe in you. Then the big task becomes to deliver, and if possible to overcome their expectations.

We decided to take the challenge!!!

Cannes Preview

The Cannes Film Festival. It was a great experience to say the least. The preview of the Inferno documentary was received with enthusiasm and I got great feedback, particularly from a Canadian/American distributor, the kind of people that really matter. There were some celebrities that drove from Switzerland and Italy just to support me. Those were Lalo Cibelli, who interprets Virgil in the Divine Comedy live opera and Giulio De Bernardi, who owns The Divine Comedy spiritual bar chain. Also, Yeniffer Behrens from LA was there knocking on my brain. We had an after movie great party at an amazing villa called the Mint Festival House run by a lovely couple from England. It was not cheap but worthy and memorable, well all in Cannes is that way anyway.

It was great to have met Sean Penn and Quentin Tarantino, particularly Quentin. Yes, I had heard that he's crazy, but I must say that not only agree but also add that he's a very nice man. I wonder if being fun and loud makes anyone crazy. It was interesting to see what people think of others, and to realize, at the same time, that short descriptions must be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, I must continue working to finally present the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in Italy next August/September. It has to be premiered in Italy!

Ah, yes, I walked the red carpet along Milla Jovovich and Giovanna Mezzogiorno. I made a short video and some people took pictures of me which I will soon share with you. As soon as I get them all in. I'm attaching one though, it is called "the kiss", after the red walk and everybody was gone.

Filming in Hollywood

Filming in Hollywood was a gratifying experience. It was done at a studio in Universal City in March, 2008.

Everybody showed up on time or earlier, and studio owner, Mr. Don Peake, was very kind to myself and all my guests.

I filmed everybody using a green screen as background, which gives the editor the flexibility to later add any kind of images to accompany the speakers' narration.

What a day!

FILMING IN NORTHERN ITALY

Filming in the north part of Italy was an absolute pleasure. People there really appreciated what my projects are all about and in gratitude I can say "they extended the red carpet for us".

I got the feeling that the further north you go in Italy people are more professional and their words have better meaning.

We had the privilege to have a park opened just for us. That, however, is not where the delight was for us, but to be able to see, enjoy and film the only statue in the world of Dante and Beatrice together. So, beautiful and magnificent. A piece of art in full detail of that unique couple that only represents pure love.

We also filmed three great interviews at an amazing place, to be kept in secret until the documentary is shown at one of the major film festivals.

More to come.

Boris Acosta

FILMING IN FLORENCE, ITALY

We arrived in Florence and did not have a chance to have lunch. We just went to the hotel, left our baggage and picked up what we needed and hit the road again to our first location to film.

It was thrilling for me to finally see Dante's statue in Florence and even more to film someone reciting parts of The Divine Comedy at its feet. Then, we rushed to eat at a restaurant that even has Dante's name. Amazing!

The next day we had the pleasure to film at Dante's Restaurant and later interview one of the best professors at the University of Florence.

The president of the province was interested in being interviewed, however, after I asked him through his assistant to talk about politicians in hell, he suddenly got too busy. Sure!

Dante's house was closed, however, the president Museo Casa di Dante offered me to come back to Florence and make it available for me.

I did go back after filming further north. So, I had the enormous pleasure to walk around Dante's house, now a museum and art exhibit. Nonetheless, there is a room where still exists Dante's bed and table (desk), which its door is sealed with a glass. I filmed every possible detailed which will possible be available on You Tube since this part will not make to to the first documentary and I filmed it myself just to plan to do it right next time around. By then, my DP had already left Italy back to Holland.

More to come.

Boris Acosta

FILMING IN ROME, ITALY

We filmed several interviews in Italy - Rome, Florence and Bellagio. We had some ups and downs, but all in all we came back with great footage to create a great documentary on the best poem ever written, The Divine Comedy.

The next day after I arrived in Rome, we head to film a few interviews at the Divina Commedia theater, where the live opera takes place. I interviewed Vittorio Matteuci, who plays Dante, Lalo Cibelli, who plays Virgil and Gianmario Pagano, the script play writer. We all were very happy with the interviews and later went on to watch the show.

The next day we had planned on interviewing the actress who portrays Beatrice and the composer of the music and concept developer. However, for circumstances out of our control we had to miss them.

On the photo here, I'm holding up the image of the Banner of Hell.

Boris Acosta

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