Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Emmy nominated director, producer screens latest film

An “inspiration” was how director and producer Chris Moore described his 2009 documentary “The People Speak,” which was screened in Point Park University’s GRW Theater last Saturday evening for an audience of approximately 100 film students and faculty from Point Park, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. The film, based on the late historian Howard Zinn’s best-selling book “A People’s History of the United States,” was followed by a panel discussion hosted by Moore and Christopher Sepesy, adjunct cinema and digital arts professor and faculty adviser for Point Park’s John P. Harris Society.”[The People Speak] is a great platform to tell the story of America from a different perspective than what we learned in eighth grade in our history classes,” said Eric Odioso, a junior cinema and digital arts major and treasurer for the John P. Harris Society.  “It certainly questions what being a patriot is.  It brings up great examples of people who weren’t just sitting down and obeying, and they’re more patriotic than some of our greatest war heroes.”Zinn, who died on Jan. 27, 2010 at age 87, was an American historian whom his supporters prefer to call an “activist.”  He described himself as “something of an anarchist [and] something of a socialist” in a 2003 interview with Paul Glavin and Chuck Morse and,earlier in his life, even drew suspicion from the United States FBI for his active campaigning against the Vietnam War and alleged involvement with the Communist  Party of the United States.  In his literary career, however, he authored more than 20 books, achieved critical acclaim for his memoir, titled “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,” and “A People’s History of the United States,” the basis of Moore’s documentary. “After watching the film, I was ready to go out and protest,” said Sam O’Connell, a freshman cinema and digital arts major.  “It was very inspiring.””The People Speak” was shot in Boston at Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theatre and at the Malibu Performing Arts Center in Malibu.  It features dramatic and musical performances of the letters, journals and speeches of lower and middle-class Americans who fought for equality and justice in historically significant matters such as slavery, women’s rights and abortion rights. It seeks to present a view of American history as experienced by common men and women, rather than political and economic elites.  The renditions, created by popular actors like Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Marisa Tomei, Viggo Mortensen and Morgan Freeman, were interspersed with songs like Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” and “Dear Mr. President,” performed by folk rocker Bob Dylan and pop singer Pink, respectively. “It was very powerful,” O’Connell said, “and it showed what these stars are very passionate about.”Opened with a reading of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence by Damon, the documentary examined what Zinn saw as America’s ongoing failure to recognize that “all men are created equal.””It is a great effort toward creating a more fair world,” said Randy Kovitz, an adjunct cinema and digital arts faculty member.  “[It] makes you want to participate more in the world and have a human experience.”Moore has been nominated for several Emmy Awards as the co-creator of HBO’s “Project Greenlight” reality television series and produced the Academy Award-winning film “Good Will Hunting,” as well as the “American Pie” series and the recent blockbuster “The Adjustment Bureau.”  In a rare change of focus from the businessman to the creative head of a project, he decided to helm “The People Speak” to both restore “balance” to his life and ensure that Zinn would make an on-camera appearance before his death.”The last couple of projects I worked on before this, we killed a lot of teenagers and we learned how to make a lot of fake blood.  The third ‘American Pie’… was a crass example of everybody trying to cash in,” Moore said.  “I was just sick of it.  It just seemed like [this] needed to get done before he died. I felt like Howard needed it.””The People Speak,” which premiered in December 2009 on the History Channel, has also been screened in part or in its entirety at the Democratic National Convention, the New York City Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight and the Toronto International Film Festival. International versions of the film, which will explore other countries’ histories in a similar format, are currently in development, as are educational materials intended to “inspire a new generation of people working for social justice,” according to the Voices of a People’s History of the U.S. website.”We’ve done a lot of stuff in schools [and] we’ve done a lot of stuff with unions,” Moore said.  “[We’re] just trying to remind people that this is America, too.  People need to remember how screwed up the country can get, and that people have to stand up and say what kind of America they want.”Although Moore screened his film to inspire students to more energetically pursue social change, he also offered advice for the generations of budding filmmakers that would soon graduate from Point Park and either survive or perish in a highly competitive entertainment industry.”What you need is the one thing that gets people’s attention,” Moore said in response to a question about post-college job prospects from Nick Marro, a senior cinema and digital arts major.  “You have to get the people that are around you to focus on you for some period of time. You will not get plucked off the street and turned into somebody else.  If you’re a smoking hot girl … it might happen.  Other than that, you’re going to have to work.”Moore also narrated his rise to fame, claiming that he was not one of the biggest contemporary Hollywood producers, but merely one of the “luckiest.”  Born in Chicago, he did not study film but attended Harvard University.  A contact there allowed him to enter the world of sports production, which he remained in for three years.  Curious about the larger film industry, he traveled to Los Angeles, took a job in an agency mailroom and landed an agent position when the company expanded.  He was sent to Boston and asked to meet and sign three actors, one of whom was Damon, then a Harvard freshman.

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