Stars and Creators of "Answer This!" Answer My Questions

Last Friday, October 8th, my colleague, Liz Parker of Yes/No Films, and I approached the Michigan Theater on the brilliant sunny afternoon. A red carpet blanketed the cement in front of and around the area. A stretched limo drove up, then the driver got out and opened its doors for glammed up VIP party guests. The Ann Arbor premiere of the film "Answer This!" already seemed to be the fanciest shindig I’ve attended at the Michigan Theater before I’d even walked through the doorway. "Answer This!" is the brainchild of Chris Farah (director & screenwriter,) and Michael Farah (producer.) Chris Farah is a University of Michigan alumnus and both brothers are Ann Arbor natives. I caught up with retired University of Michigan professor and actor in the movie, Ralph Williams, during the VIP party before the film. He agreed to play his part after Chris Farah, his former student, emailed him. “I didn’t know it was such an enormous project,” he remarked. Williams found his role in the production to be a mammoth learning experience. “Acting for the stage, you project toward the audience…in film, the camera studies you,” he observed. Williams also discovered the extensive power and significance of film editors. He explained, “There are so many takes and you never really can predict how the editor will deal with those.”  

Liz Parker & Christopher Gorham

Shortly after I talked with Williams, it was time to view the film. Ann Arbor pride radiated the filmmakers’ introduction of their work to hometown fans. Chris Farah, Michael Farah, their father, John Farah, and professor/actor Ralph Williams all psyched up local film lovers. And of course, the movie couldn’t start without a spirited organ-led chanting of “The Victors,” it being merely one day before the legendary ‘University of Michigan vs. Michigan State University’’ annual football tradition.

At the Ann Arbor inspired flick’s conclusion, I headed over to the Michigan League’s generously catered after-party. I spoke with Christopher Gorham (also in "Covert Affairs",) another leading actor. “Making a film is always a journey…the most fun is meeting new people,” he said.

Elyssa Eve & Arielle Kebbel

While it enthralled me to chat with some of the cinematic work’s main actors, I also met performers of smaller-yet-memorable characters, notably Brian Balzerini of Royal Oak. He elaborated on his experience. “When you see [the film as] words on paper, it is one thing, but when you see [the finished product] in real life, it’s incredible!”

Balzerini also reiterated the Farahs’ commitment to foster opportunities for Michigan grown talent.

Near the end of the evening, I conversed with producer Michael Farah, also the creator of popular website, Funny or Die. I asked for a word of advice to aspiring writers and creative professionals. “Make as much stuff as you can,” he proclaimed. “Take advantage of opportunities…Nobody is going to just give [success] to you.”

With those words of wisdom, I promenaded out of the League, heading back home to bed in anticipation of my 11:00 AM ‘day job’ the following morning.

 Ralph Williams

 

Chris Farah & Ralph Williams

Michigan Theater 

VIP Party 

 

Mike Farah

VIP Party

Ashley's "Answer This!" Pub Trivia

FiNdinG FaLL

Different Strokes

“It’s a gallery of ideas,” says Gloria Pritschet, co-founder of Gallery Project. “[We are] not just looking for technique but what the artist is saying.” 

Courageous and thought provoking subject matters drive Gallery Project's creative content. It is unique in that themes rather than particular groups of artists drive displays.  

Members of the collective that runs Gallery Project seek out creations of craftspeople traditionally deemed ‘artists’ as well as creations of folks that are not. They seek artists from a variety of imaginative avenues and networks.

Walking Through Hades by Carla Butwin
Photograph by Lea Bult

Various geographical regions, professionals in specialized fields, and educational backgrounds influence  artist selection of any given exhibit. “[We’re looking for] a big, broad demographic range,” Pritschet says. Most other galleries don’t span as many different inspirational avenues.

Scientists, architects, and other professionals often partake in creative natured projects. One scientist interested in animal behavior shot magnificent videos featured in an exhibit. The gallery seeks different voices from different people with different ideas and modes of expression. Pritschet will contact an interesting person she reads about in the New York Times, for example, and inquire if that individual wishes to contribute to a display.

Gallery Project’s governing collective also announces each show in advance to the public with the intent of receiving unsolicited submissions in support of emerging artists.

A unique pattern of exhibitions presents itself at Gallery Project. “Every six weeks…is like a different world in here,” Pritschet proclaims. Exhibits traverse a wider range of subjects and schools of thought than average. Recurring visitors quickly catch on.

Most recently, The Politics of Fear exhibit resides at Gallery Project through October 17th. “The politicization of fear is a familiar historical means to power and control achieved through the threat of danger and the promise of protection,” explains the gallery’s exhibit summary. Politicians, business officials, and endless other perceived leaders frequently employ such tactics. Numerous covert agendas fuel exaggerations of certain threats. The oil painting, Walking Through Hades, by Carla Butwin, is one exhibition piece that contemplates this topic.


Donations have been the primary financial support of Gallery Project since its insemination. While a large donor fully supported its first five years of existence, the gallery’s  funding is now dependent on several individual donations.


Both artists and the gallery, itself, profit from art sales, a major source of financial support.

Several fundraising events geared around art lovers and exhibits regularly occur at the gallery. “[We] try to keep fundraising separate from [but related to] art collaborators and themes,” says Pritschet.

Gallery Project’s next exhibit, which commences October 20th and features a reception on November 22nd, poses the question, “What’s So Funny?”

Gallery Project is located at 215 S. Fourth Avenue, 

Ann Arbor, MI.

Night Lights

Campus Inn Fountain

Campus Inn Fountain

State Street

Natural Science Auditorium Greenhouse

Natural Science Auditorium Greenhouse

                                                      

State Street

    

 

Law Quad

Law Quad

  

Law Quad

Green: The Color of CO-OPeration

The store known as the booming and bustling People’s Food Co-op (PFC) began as a U of M School of Social Work student project. Its founders initially intended to create a ‘buying club’ for low-income individuals to purchase nutritious and fresh products. Regularly, organizers would buy food from Detroit’s Eastern Market and allot a certain amount of goods into various bags. The collective would then sell each bag for $5.00 a piece. Items sold gradually expanded from purely produce to a multitude of nuts, grains, and other products.

As of February 1971, PFC volunteers who informally attended weekly meetings made all decisions about and ran the PFC. The group officially filed for the PFC’s incorporation in August 1971. Six years later, the PFC established a more formal leadership system featuring elected board members as well as paid management and employees.

Eventually, the PFC began wholesaling commodities to other co-ops around the state of Michigan, which led to the conception of the Michigan Federation of Food Co-ops. This federation later merged with the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCCA.)

Over time, the PFC expanded its mission. “We don’t only sell groceries and healthy food, but do outreach education and partner with organizations that are near and dear to our hearts,” explains Kevin Sharp, PFC Marketing and Member Services Manager. The PFC offers its support to the Ann Arbor City government with Recyclebank, for example, a program that rewards residents based on the volume of items they recycle. Each household’s recycling receptacle has a censor stuck to the lid that measures the volume of recycled material within. This program employes single stream recycling, which allows people to deposit various types of recyclable materials into a single bin. Citizens no longer need to take the time to separate different items into different containers. The process proves more easy and accessible to average busy (or not so busy) people.  

Multitudinous local families, in addition to the built-in student clientele of Downtown Ann Arbor, shop at the PFC. Sharp iterates how the PFC and its affiliated organizations encourage families to teach their children about ecology and sustainable agriculture from a young age so that it ingrains into their lifestyle by the time they’re adults. As an extra bonus, youngsters – who have a lot of more brain space to focus on recycling because they don’t burden themselves with nuisances like phone bills and insurance premiums – prove remarkably adept at holding their elders accountable.
 

Shopping at the PFC proves very similar to, yet simultaneously very different than, wandering through a traditional grocery store. Assorted products disperse throughout respective sections (i.e.produce, grains, etc,) a highly familiar setup to a wide range of shoppers. “The primary difference is that we’re cooperatively owned,” explains Sharp. “Everyone that walks in the store has a potential to be a part owner of the business.” Because the PFC is a not-for-profit organization, no top ranking CEO seeks profit from PFC sales, for instance, as all revenue goes back into running and improving the co-op, itself.

Another one of the PFC’s distinguishable aspects is its focus on local and organic products. Organic foods omit potentially hazardous additives such as artificial colors, chemicals, and hormone supplements to farm animals. While this sales practice ensures an investment in customers’ good health and longevity, it also increases the amount of money circulating throughout the local economy.

Cafe Verde

Over 6,500 people are now official PFC members. “The best thing you get from being a member of the co-op is you get the co-op,” proclaims Sharp. Member support and dues are naturally a major part of the PFC’s financial backbone. In addition, members have the opportunity to vote in elections for the PFC Board of Directors, subscribe to a monthly newsletter, and benefit from member discount weekends. Most discount weekends only apply to members but student and senior discount days are often also open to non-members. There is a one-time membership fee of $60, which is completely refundable.

Cafe Verde, Ann Arbor’s premiere fair trade coffee shop, opened within the PFC in 2000. It features fair trade coffee and tea drinks, freshly squeezed juice, pastries, sandwiches, and a hot food bar. Verde distinguishes itself in that all of its drinks are fair trade. An overabundance of other cafes, in comparison, advertise they carry fair trade coffee, though may also sell certain drinks that aren’t fair trade. I often stop by Verde, myself, to indulge in a delectable chai tea latte concocted with savory organic milk.

I have pleasantly nabbed a taste of the PFC’s yummy example of an alternative business model for awhile now and intend to continue.

Soothing Sunsets..............

Michigan: The Hollywood of the Midwest?

By Elyssa Pearlstein (A2-4U) & Liz Parker (Yes/No Films)

 Scene From "Youth in Revolt" (2009) Filming in A2,
Courtesy of the Kalamazoo Gazette

A few weeks ago, I was visiting with some friends in Ann Arbor and we decided to go to The Black Pearl on Main Street. Once seated, one of my friends (co-writer of this article, actually) asked me if the woman seated two bar stools down from us looked like Courteney Cox Arquette. I turned to look and was stunned – if it wasn’t Cox Arquette, it was definitely a really close look-alike. I thought that there was a good chance that it would be her since I knew that the movie she was starring in, “Scream 4,” had recently been filming in Ann Arbor. Our other friend thought that it wasn’t her; however, when fans started inching closer to her with cameras in tow, we knew that it was. Courtney graciously took pictures with us, and we left The Black Pearl a little bit starstruck.

The question, then, is this –  is Michigan becoming the “new Hollywood”? Fellow blogger Jackie at freeismylife.com posed this question in a blog post of hers, and I have to slightly agree with it.

The movie “Flipped,” scheduled for release on August 6th, was partially filmed in Ann Arbor, and ever since last year, a slew of movies have been filming there, including “Betty Ann Waters” (newly re-titled “Conviction”), with Hilary Swank; “Trust,” filmed on the University of Michigan’s North Campus, with David Schwimmer; and, most recently, “Scream 4.” “Conviction” actually put out a call for extras in the area during my spring break in 2009, but alas, I already had a trip with friends scheduled and was unable to participate. Last year, the movie “Whip It” was filmed partially in Ypsilanti, and co-stars Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page were spotted hanging out at a bar in downtown Ypsi. In addition, the movie “The Double” has been filming in Detroit and surrounding areas, which is part of the reason that Martin Sheen was in town and able to do a Q&A session with us after the recent screening of “The Way” in Bloomfield Hills. Richard Gere, the lead actor in, “The Double,” was spotted at the Starbucks on Main St. in Ann Arbor as well (I wouldn’t have minded running in to him!), and Cox Arquette’s husband, David Arquette, has been tweeting about Michigan’s glorious sunsets (twitter.com/davidarquette), as apparently him and his wife are renting a condo in Ann Arbor for the duration of the filming of “Scream 4.”

Film companies such as the Weinstein Company (“Scream 4”) have chosen a variety of locations throughout Michigan to yell, “Action!”  “Ann Arbor has been the surprise discovery,” remarks Ken Droz, Michigan Film Office Spokesman. Tree Town’s art galleries, scenic banks of the Huron River, night life, and cultural diversity are amongst merely a few of its appetizing aspects.

What propagates this sudden local film boom? Nothing other than the Michigan Film Incentive (MFI,) which provides a large tax credit (up to 42% of the money a film company spends on a production) to film making companies that choose to set up and run shop in “the mitten state.”

A film company’s expenditure must somehow benefit Michigan’s economy in order to qualify for the financial credit. Buildings and land used for on-location filming, in addition to equipment and services, must all be rented, purchased, and provided in-state. Additionally, the MFI mandates that all vendors to film production companies have a minimum one year long lease of an office building with at least one full-time employee in Michigan. Even if a film company from Hollywood, for instance, opens headquarters in Michigan, it would give local tradespeople revenue under the MFI’s conditions.

“When you get 380 million dollars injected into the economy, you’ll see results,” proclaims Droz.  On top of movie makers’ local economic stimulation in regards to actual filming and production, actors and crew members alike make expendable purchases ranging from hotel rooms and clothing to fine restaurant dining. Ann Arbor area hotels sold 19,000 room nights to film company related clients in 2009 according to Ann Arbor.com. Amongst these spenders are undoubtedly some wealthy and handsomely-tipping production personnel.

Who’d have thought that a movement for increased film production could also boost workers in other fields such as cosmetology and culinary arts? After all, movie actors don’t magically become mythically beautiful. Someone has to employ expertise in concealing their dark circles and crows feet from late nights of filming and after-partying; and they also need to eat, no matter how skinny some of them may appear. Chow Catering of Detroit, which provides all the meals for the film crew of “A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas,” is one such benefiting company, as read in The Detroit Free Press.

The think tanks of video game creation ––also a promotional facet of the MFI–- are just barely fired up in state and will likely also spark an influx of 'jobs, spawning jobs, spawning jobs.' Droz exclaims, “Once we get new media in place - digital and games - it could be an explosion!”

Upgraded film and computer programs at colleges and other educational institutions naturally tag along with the MFI.  “[There is] a large galvanization and effort of university communities amping up their programs for current and future students,” proclaims Droz. Local educational circles have already begun to refurbish departments of film production along with video game design.

The Michigan Creative Film Alliance between Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University is just one new collaboration with a mission of sustainable local film production.

A recent result of the MFI is the increasing amount of students and workers seeking jobs in and remaining within Michigan. “People that were going to leave aren’t,” says Droz, regarding the MFI’s allure for in-state college students to seek in-state jobs.  I know that as a relatively recent University of Michigan grad with a BA, I feel ever-so-slightly more secure about having remained in Michigan.

Michigan being the new “Hollywood,” I’ll believe it when I see – oh, wait, is that Drew Barrymore? Walking up the street with an ice cream cone?

Gotta go.