arts & entertainment Native Son Raised in West Bloomfield, Jason Potash is a film producer who enjoys bringing film projects to the Great Lakes State. I Suzanne Chessler Contributing Writer V acationers along the colorful beach- es of Charlevoix, Mich., may very well have found the setting pictur- esque, but Jason Potash has found the setting motion-picturesque. Potash, whose family summered around Charlevoix, thought of the locale as he was reading the script for Beside Still Waters and produced the film in the Great Lakes State. It is being released this month, rolling out in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 14, and available to the rest of the country with On Demand viewing on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The local theater premiere and only the- ater date for Michigan, with plans still in the works and cast appearances in play, is set for Wednesday evening, Dec. 10, at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township. Ryan Eggold, who starred in TV's The Blacklist, plays the main character, Daniel. Also in the cast are Beck Bennett (Saturday Night Live) as Tom, Will Brill (Muckland) as Martin, Brett Dalton (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as James and Erin Darke (The Wolverine) as Abby. "Beside Still Waters is about a young man who recently fell on hard times:' explains Potash in a phone conversation from his California office. "Daniel lost both of his parents in a car accident and invites his childhood friends to spend a weekend in the summer home he has to leave. "It's really a beautiful film about nostalgia and holding on to the past but also letting go how I spent some weekends and summers in looking to the future until I graduated and moved to California. Parts of the story were based on the experi- "I soon met with the writers' strike and ences of Chris Lowell, the writer and director looked for opportunities to meet new people. working with Mohit Narang on the script. I was able to get a job with a producer The storyline originally was set near Lowell's after the strike and worked on a short film, home in Atlanta but was moved after Potash Some Boys Don't Leave (winner of a Student showed Lowell the area around Petoskey. Visionary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival). As the production was being "I left my job to create a com- introduced to audiences, the pany and become an independent movie won the Jury Award for producer partnering with Paul. In Best Narrative Feature Film at March, we shot the drama Dial a the 2013 Austin Film Festival. Prayer, starring William H. Macy Potash, on this and other and Brittany Snow, with settings in projects, has worked closely Birmingham and Troy (anticipat- with Paul Finkel as they oper- ing a 2015 release dater ate Storyboard Entertainment. Although Finkel's dream job Finkel is based at a second office had been movie production, he in Novi. built a career in real estate and "I believe audiences will look Producer J ason property management before at the characters, listen to the being introduced to Potash by Potash story and relate to what is on Andrea and Harry Potash, the screen:' says Potash, 28 and filmmaker's parents. single. "I come from the generation of the Four years ago, Finkel decided to change characters, and I see my friends and I going careers. through some of the same experiences:" "I grew up spending summers at a cottage Potash started earning money from mak- on Union Lake so this story makes me nostal- ing movies when he was 15, attending West gic as it brings back memories and makes me Bloomfield High School and going to services appreciate the friendships I have had:' says at Temple Israel. He filmed bar mitzvahs and Finkel, 51, who lives in West Bloomfield. weddings with an eye for montage. "My daughters (ages 16 and 20) tell me Potash chose to go to Columbia College in they feel similar emotions as the film reminds Chicago so that he could fly home weekends them of going to camp. The film took us back to work with repeat and new clients to cap- to so many things in our lives:' ture special events. Finkel and his wife, Kathy, have been "In Chicago, I started working on commer- members of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. He cial movies and TV shows, starting out with also has been active with Yad Ezra, JARC and Hillel Day School. Prison Break for Fox," Potash says. "That was 6. "I have to travel to California a lot as we manage the business, negotiate contracts and handle social media; says Finkel, who went to Andover High School and studied building construction and management at Michigan State University. Michigan film incentives helped finance Beside Still Waters and Dial a Prayer. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to bring work back home and stay close to my family," says Potash, who enjoys yoga, espe- cially because he finds it the only excuse to turn his phone off for an hour. "I love that I can find stories that have meaning to me and potentially others while sharing them on a global scale. In doing so, I can evoke thoughts, dreams or change. "Beside Still Waters means a lot to me. I have friends who have gone though hardships similar to the ones in the film and have for- gotten their fun times and great memories. "I feel I've been given this great chance to share their stories through fictional characters that will let viewers think about the ways they live their lives:' ❑ Beside Still Waters will have a local theater premiere and show- ing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Maple Theater in West Bloomfield. Call (248) 750-1030 or visit themapletheater.com to find out about premiere plans and ticket prices. Otherwise, the film is avail- able for On Demand viewing begin- ning Tuesday, Nov.18. Jews Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News At The Movies Rosewater, opening Friday, Nov.14, is the first film directed and written by Daily Show host Jon Stewart, 51. It is based on a memoir by Iranian-Canadian Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari about his 107-day imprison- Stewart ment in solitary con- finement by the Iranian regime in 2009. A few days before Iran's presidential election, Daily Show correspondent 44 November 13 • 2014 m Jason Jones, pretending to be a "spy" (a put-on), interviewed Bahari at a Teheran coffee shop. The regime arrest- ed Bahari four days after the interview aired on the Daily Show and charged him with spying. After his release, he and Stewart became friends. Tonight (Thursday, Nov.13) at 7:30 p.m., Rosewater: Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert Live, a preview showing of the film followed by a live Q&A with Jon Stewart, interviewed by Stephen Colbert, will be broadcast from New York City to select cinemas nationwide. Visit www.fathomevents.com for local theaters; tickets will be available at the box office. Variety reports that Seth Rogen, 32, has been picked to play Apple co-found- er Steven Wozniak in a biopic based on the 2011 Walter Isaacson biography Steve Jobs (Apple's other co-founder). The screenplay will be penned by Aaron Sorkin. Wozniak, who isn't Jewish "at all," will have been a character in three major films, and, every time, been played by a Jew. Go figure. Worth Watching The History Channel of Canada made an original dramatic film in 2012 titled The Real Inglorious Basterds. It will be shown on the American Heroes Channel (AHC), formerly the Military Channel), at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov.15; 7 p.m. Monday, Nov.17; and 2 a.m. Tuesday, Nov.18. It tells the true story of two young American Jewish refugees from Europe, German-born Frederick Mayer, 93, and the late Dutch-born Hans Wynberg, who joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), a secret U.S. wartime intelli- gence agency. The two men parachuted into Austria in the last months of World War II and met up with a German army deserter. Together, they gathered invaluable intelligence and did sabotage work. Mayer was captured and tortured. But the Nazi head of the region was somehow convinced that Mayer was an important person and that all who mis- treated him would be killed if Mayer was shot. After surviving and meeting up with the conquering U.S. Army, Mayer was given the honor of accepting the surrender of Innsbruck, Austria. ❑