COMMUNITY
MAGNUM OPUS
Award-Winning Producer
Brings the Bacon Back Home
West Bloomfield native Jason Potash plans to begin
production of his next film in Detroit this month.
By Karen Schwartz
ason Potash has been glued to a video
camera since he was 5 years old. His
passion lured the West Bloomfield
native to Los Angeles, where celluloid
dreams are most apt to be realized
despite Michigan's fledgling film sector;
but he is determined to bring his movie
making home.
Last year, the 25-year-old produced a
short film called Some Boys Don't Leave,
which debuted at film festivals around
the world, winning an award at New
York's Tribeca Film Festival. Starring The
Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg and
Lone Star's Eloise Mumford, it tells the
story of a boy who lives, post-breakup,
in the hallway outside the apartment he
shared with his girlfriend in hopes they
can work it out.
Potash became involved in the project
after being approached by director Mag-
gie Kiley during the summer of 2009.
Kiley, who was directing a short film for
the American Film Institute's Directing
Workshop for Women, was referred to
him by family friends.
"He came in and really took charge
and took ownership of the project with
the same passion and commitment that
I had;' Kiley said. "Everything about the
experience with him was so top notch."
After six weeks of scouting hallway
locations, Potash and Kiley wound up
constructing an apartment inside a Los
Angeles house. The film was completed
that fall and premiered at the Florida
Film Festival in April 2010. Potash and
Kiley both flew to Orlando for the screen-
ing.
"And that's the exciting part about
filmmaking," he said, "to take something
that we've stared at for six months on
a page, or that we've worked on for a
year in an editing room, and share what
you've read and talked about with an
audience that can actually see it."
The short is an emotional rollercoaster
they've seen resonate with all ages
and walks of life, Potash said."I was
on a plane once and started talking to
the woman next to me," he said. "Her
boyfriend was sleeping on her couch for
four weeks."
Kiley and Potash spent the better part
of 2010 on the road with the film, meet-
ing other filmmakers, seeing their work
alongside others' and hearing about the
evolution of their shorts. Since then, the
film has appeared in 40 film festivals in
the U.S. and abroad, and in February
2011 launched on iTunes.
And following its critical acclaim,
people started pushing the team to
adapt the short into a feature-length
script. So that's what they're going to do,
said Potash. Basing a feature film off the
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short "allows our characters to evolve."
Shooting the movie is scheduled for
this May in Detroit, a process Michigan's
current film incentives could help en-
able, Potash explained, adding that the
project has seen a lot of interest that is
helping drive it forward and that bring-
ing it home has always been a priority
for him.
"My goal is to eventually open a
production company in Michigan to
continue shooting films here in my home
state," he said, and because his family
is still local, they've "already tucked my
sheets in and fluffed my pillows."
Director Kiley, in her mid-30s, hasn't
been to the Motor City yet but says she
trusts Potash's instinct that Detroit is
the right place for filming. "He was so
passionate about bringing the film to
Michigan,"she says."So he sold me on
that." She said she's looking forward to
reaching a larger audience and "pulling
more people into the vision of the film."
Moving along the film circuit has not
changed his Midwestern sensibilities,
Potash quipped. He's just another nice
Jewish boy from West Bloomfield:"I'm
still making my bed, still taking the dog
out for a walk;' he said.
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Actor Jesse Eisenberg (left) on the set of "Some Boys Don't Leave," speaking with producer Jason Potash.
Potash is set to begin production of his new film this month; he plans on filming in Detroit.
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May 2011 11