metro
Inaugural Film
Passon's film, Concussion, a hit at Sundance;
set for commecial release by Weinstein.
Louis Finkelman
Special to the Jewish News
I
n her first full-length film, Concussion,
former Detroiter Stacie Passon, 43, has
written and directed a winner.
The film's most recent success on the
film festival circuit has significant financial
consequences: RADiUS-The Weinstein
Company acquired North American rights
to Concussion at the recent Sundance Film
Festival, reportedly for a seven-figure
amount. The company expects to release
Concussion this fall. Another company,
Content, has bought European rights to the
film.
RADiUS co-presidents Tom Quinn and
Jason Janego said in one report, "We were
mesmerized by Concussion and the job Stacie
did in creating such rich, relatable charac-
ters."
The film was a hit at the 2013 Sundance
Festival, where it was nominated for
the Grand Jury Prize. Before Sundance,
Ark
Concussion already had earned awards for
Passon, its writer and director. She won
the Adrienne Shelly Award for Best Female
Director and the Calvin Klein Spotlight on
Women Filmmakers Live the Dream Grant
at the Gotham Awards in New York.
After years of working on commercials,
Passon breaks out in a new professional
direction with her feature film.
Yet Passon has been working toward
an artistic career in the performing arts
all her life. Her mother, Michelle Passon,
says Stacie has loved the theater ever since
Carol Rosenberg, a teacher at Temple Israel
and now director of the Jewish Senior Life
Foundation, gave young Stacie a small part
in a Sunday school play.
Michelle, who has led numerous local
community agencies, used to tell Stacie: "Do
what you love; believe in what you do; do the
best at what you do; that's the only way to
succeed"
As a teen, Stacie Passon transferred
from West Bloomfield High School to
Imagine a World Without Hate
100
100 Years of Impact
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
The Berman Center for
the Performing Arts
7:30 P.M.
Tickets - $11.00
Purchase tickets:
• By phone from the box office (248) 661-1900
• In person at the Berman Box Office,
6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield, MI, 48322
• Online www.theberman.org
Co-sponsored with
DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS
of Metropolitan Detroit
[MEM
THE CENTER
DEARBORN
MARDIGIAN
LIBRARY
Interlochen Center for the Arts to concen-
trate on art. As a college student, she acted in
plays for the Jewish Ensemble Theater, and
made a well-received film about black-Jewish
relations before graduating from Wayne
State University and going on to study at the
Columbia Film School in Chicago.
As the years passed, though, Passon
cut back on her career, as her domestic
role became more important. She was the
housewife, the stay-at-home mom. Her wife
worked as a lawyer to support the family.
The arrangement seemed to work well for
everybody. And then, one day, as she was
playing baseball with her son she got hit on
the head. As she recovered from the bean-
ing, she realized that she wanted something
more, something different. The next day, she
began her career as a writer.
She wrote about Abby, who plays baseball
with her son, gets beaned on the head and
❑
Mark Your Calendar Now!
You Don't Want To Miss This One!!
The Anti-Defamation
League's Centennial
lecture series...
Please join us:
Jewish Family Service
Stacie Passon
decides that she needs to do something
beyond being a suburban housewife and
mother.
Passon's heroine does not become a
writer. Abby decides to begin a career
rehabilitating apartments in the city for
resale. In place of flipping the apartment,
Abby makes the apartment her workplace
in her new career as a prostitute catering
to women.
Concussion traces the heroine's double
life as she develops skill in this new line of
work, while keeping her work secret from
her wife. Inevitably, aspects of her parenting
and marriage change and, eventually, the
secret gets revealed.
Passon says at its heart, this film is about
marriage. As she sees it, even good and suc-
cessful marriages do not satisfy all of our
needs, that even in stable marriages parts
of us remain hidden from our partners, and
parts of us remain hidden from ourselves.
After writing the film, Passon secured
financial support and then directed it herself,
with seasoned actors in the lead roles: Robin
Weigert, Johnathan Tchaikovsky and Maggie
Siff.
Passon currently lives in New Jersey
with her wife and two children. She is the
daughter of Steve and Michelle Passon of
Commerce.
Featuring
Frank
Meeink
Author of Autobiography
of a Recovering Skinhead.
Experience the raw story
of Frank's descent into
America's neo-Nazi
underground and his
ultimate triumph over
hatred and addiction.
CEU Credits available -
Call ADL for more information
(248) 353-7553
January 31 • 2013
23