PAH in the Press
Observer & Eccentric, 11/30/2007
Madonna University hosts Christopher Coppola’s PAH-fest
by BY KEN ABRAMCZYK
OBSERVER & ECCENTRICThursday, July 12, 2007
MADONNA UNIVERSITY HOSTS CHRISTOPHER COPPOLA'S PAH-FEST
By Ken Abramczyk
staff writer
Digital technology is Christopher Coppola’s paint brush.
And Coppola wants digital media fans of the latest technology to stroke that brush onto a canvas at PAH-Fest Motown.
PAH-Fest (Project Accessible Hollywood) is a digital media festival that celebrates the stories and voices of everyday people through digital cameras, cell phones and tech portraits, set to run July 16-22 at Madonna University in Livonia.
Coppola, movie director and the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and older brother of Nicolas Cage, founded the festival to promote stories and messages of “common people.” Hollywood filmmakers are under enormous pressure to create moneymakers, and those who don’t produce, are subjected to fewer opportunities later, so creative and bold ideas are less likely to hit the big screen, Coppola said.
“The problem with Hollywood is it is such a big business that you need to be careful with it,” Coppola said. “People are doing the same old thing. They have so much riding on it, and as a result, we’ve lost some of our fresh voices.”
Coppola will assist six pre-selected teams of filmmakers for three days in their production of six-minute films as part of a competition.
Coppola will discuss digital media Tuesday, July 17 and Elmore Leonard will screen the movie OUT OF SIGHT, based on Leonard’s novel, on Thursday, July 19.
Coppola started PAH-Fest after working on the FLICKS ON 66 FESTIVAL in New Mexico in 2004 and DUKE CITY SHOTOUT in 2006, both of which were digital media festivals. “Two years ago, I thought we should do a common man category,” Coppola said. “I was hoping to do something more refreshing.”
Coppola’s interests in telling the common man’s story were further fueled by a construction worker, who read Coppola’s blogs and responded to them. The man had suffered a horrible accident that disfigured him and his appearance made people shy away from him, Coppola said. The man told a story at one of the festivals, through Charlie Chaplin footage and poetry with the message that all people are here to help each other and “do good things.” “It was a beautiful experience for me as it was for him,” Coppola said of the man.
The festival (Coppola’s eighth) allows anyone with digital technology at their fingertips to tell stories their own way, Coppola said. The Mobiflicks competition, the highlight of the festival, features six teams of four who will produce a six-minute digital movie in three days at Madonna. Each team will be provided a digital camera, editing system and coaches, and a one-day crash course with Coppola to help prepare for production. Movies will be screened at the end of the festival, and a cash prize awarded to the winner.
Coppola said Mobiflicks taps into the creative process of the local communities. “We’re using digital technology as our paint brush,” Coppola said.
CELL PHONE ART
The festival also features other events and contests for digital media fans. Members of the public can shoot a one-minute piece of video using a cell phone on Thursday or Friday. A topic will be given and the contestants will have two hours to make their video.
“Everyone will be given a topic, and they will go out with their phone or one donated, and make a one-minute video,” Coppola said. “Just the act of doing that is fun.”
Other events include Your Tech portraits (featuring one-minute video portraits with Apple computers and Web cams) and learning seminars on high definition workflows and storytelling (with Josh White Jr.).
Coppola doesn’t make money off the festival, but he is making connections between communities. “The more things I do that help celebrate the creative process, the more I build my brand,” said Coppola.
“If I can help digital (video producers) hone their craft and give them voices and not have the ‘same-old, same-old,’ we’ll have something fresh.”
Suzanne Boyd, TV facilities and production manager at Madonna, is responsible for bringing PAH-Fest to Madonna and the Detroit area, and has been a Coppola fan for a while. “I used to read Christopher’s blog and I was intrigued by it,” Boyd said.
Boyd took three students to PAH-Fest in New Mexico last year. The three students, (Katie Freier, Jeanette Henson and Rachael Moreri) and Boyd entered the Mobiflicks competition. “They did all the work,” Boyd said of her students. “It was life-altering for them. It was a wonderful experience for them, and now they are helping others tell their stories.”
Freier started her own production company, Henson works at a production facility and an ad agency and Moreri lives in Utah, working in film as a production assistant, Boyd said.
Boyd could not bring students to this year’s event in New Mexico, because of scheduling conflicts with the event in June.
“So he (Christopher) said, ‘what if we bring it there for you guys. We’ll do the same thing in Detroit,’” Boyd said, remembering Coppola’s words.
And, of course, Boyd is thrilled that Coppola is bringing the festival to Madonna. “He’s all about getting people to empower themselves. I’ve never met a nicer person in my life. When he does PAH-Fest, everyone is a part of it.”
PAH-Fest is a Brave New World, a daring adventure that challenges individuals to buck convention and use their own thoughts and ideas in artistic ways.
“I just see this cyberworld as a whole another continent,” Coppola said. “If MYSPACE was another continent, it would be the seventh largest on the planet.”