Something Extra

OPEN HOUSE

ALL FOUR SCHOOLS

DOER PROFILE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2005 • 1 PM TO 4 PM

made my first documentary at
Country Day when I didn't get ' -
into the school play my senior
year. Film was something I had never
really considered before, but was the.
best thing-that ever happened to me.

I

I wasn't at the very top of my class
academically, or a star athlete, but
I knew what I was good at and
Country Day helped me pursue it.
So much attention is paid to each
student in every way. They allowed •
me to focus on what I knew I could
do best. Getting into N.Y.LT. Film
School and having a film exhigted
at Cannes were d reams come true.

I used to limit myself I don't do
that anymore.

Agteit*Cetsjway with the
you re a . w inner.
,mindset

Everything that you do and

-

everythitig*tu pmsent to the
world is done with such enthusiasm
xid in the right spirit, Everybodv I
who graduated from Country

Adam Schwartz

Home: Los Angeles
Kudos: Filming Spoofs

Day is on such a beautiful path.

bigger than an educational
rience - its a life experience.

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n a boomerang move, 27-
year-old Bloomfield Hills
native Adam Schwartz's
career in movies has returned to
where it began, with the opening
at the Emagine Theatre Canton
of My Big Fat Independent Movie,
which he co-wrote. The movie is
a spoof of independent films.
Schwartz is a graduate of Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit in Farmington Hills and
Birmingham Groves High School
in Beverly Hills. He holds a
degree in film and video studies
from the University of Michigan.
A 2005 winner of the Talent
Scout TV Writing Contest, he has
also written for television's MTV
Movie Awards and Talk Soup. In
film, he has directed the Star
Wars-American Pie hybrid
American Jedi and co-directed
Project Redlight, a Project
Greenlight parody.

I

Your mother, Sharon, said, "Other
families attended sporting events
but the Schwartzes always went to
the theaterf Did this background
and the hours you spent at play
rehearsals your mom directed at
Hillel for many years influence
your future professional choices?

"I don't know if it directly affect-
ed my career path, but it certain-

ly made me comfortable in the
world of theater."

Somewhere between performing at
Cranbrook Schools Summer The-
atre, the Jewish Community Center,
Hillel, Groves and U-M, you creat-
ed the film Dangerous Chutzpah:
The Jew Crew. What was it?

"It's a short film I wrote and
directed in high school for a
video class. It was a spoof on
Dangerous Minds, a very serious
drama that opened around that
time. It was a comedy about a
bunch of Jewish high school stu-
dents who banded together to
fight anti-Semitism. Yes, that's
right; it was a comedy"

What is your involvement in the
acting-comedy troupe, Skits-0-
Phrenia?

"I started Skits-O-Phrenia in
1999 at U-M with [classmates]
Matt Plumb of Milfordand Josh
Herman of Farmington Hills. It
now continues in L.A. with most
of the same people. It's a cast of
10. My parents have seen every
Skits-O-Phrenia show out in L.A.
and my father [Dr. Larry
Schwartz] even cameos in some
of the shows. My sister Beth — a
very talented drama writer who
works on the ABC-TV show

November 10.2005

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