Christopher Coppola’s Pah-Fest (Project Accessible Hollywood) Kicks Off on October 23 at LACC. Free Festival Helps Everyday People Use New Technology to Make Short Films.

Los Angeles, CA, October 01, 2010 --(PR.com)-- PAH Nation Chairman and noted film director Christopher Coppola has long championed the “intelligent advance” of digital media technologies. Coming from a storied Hollywood family, Coppola sees the ongoing advances in digital technology as a promise to swing open the storytelling doors to all who step through. “Even though we are surrounded by technology,” Coppola says, “many are still uncomfortable making full use of what it has to offer. Others are being left behind due to economic factors. Our PAH-Fests are helping to educate communities on using simple digital media to express themselves artistically.”

Participants who come to PAH-Fest are invited to create their own short digital films with pro-sumer cameras and video-enabled mobile phones provided by the Festival. Experienced industry “coaches” help festival participants realize their vision within the allotted timeframe. Winning films are screened in a closing ceremony, and posted online for an international audience.

PAH-FEST Hollywood offers five categories of competition to its participants.
(1) Mobiflicks – six minute digital films using digital cameras; (2) Cell Phone Art – a one minute or less video created on a video-enabled cell phone; (3) Digiportraits – using digital cameras, participants create a two minute portrait of themselves or another person; (4) Circus Vision Challenge – using a smart phone, children 14 and under gather a list of visual ingredients at the same, specific location, shooting and editing the piece on the phone; and (5) Cellular Tone Poem – allows musicians to record visual imagery on a cell phone that portrays a portion of their own original music.

The Hollywood festival begins at 9:00 a.m. on October 23, 2010 and runs until the closing ceremony on October 30, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Festival headquarters are located at the Faculty Center at Los Angeles City College, 855 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029. Story submission deadline for the main “Mobiflicks” category is October 15, 2010, and can be accessed on the PAH Nation Website. Other festival categories are open to those who show up to participate.

PAH-FEST (Project Accessible Hollywood)
Founded by Christopher Coppola in 2006, PAH-Fest is a non-profit organization (501(c) (3) that works to educate and engage the public in the use of new digital media to create visual story telling and art, to foster civic engagement within target communities through participation in the festivals, and to produce and promote narrative and documentary stories which will be shared and enjoyed globally. To date, Coppola has held 20 free, digital media PAH-festivals across the U.S. and abroad.

Christopher Coppola
Christopher Coppola is a seasoned film and television director and President of Christopher R. Coppola Productions. He has been a champion of and leader in digital media for over a decade. During his tenure, he has directed eight feature films and a number of television shows. His feature film “Creature of the Sunnyside Up Trailer Park” was featured at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. He has also developed and produced content for alternative distribution and interactive platforms. He premiered his “HD: American Portraits” on the Wal-Mart in-store network, which reached over 160 million people. Other projects in production include “The DigiVangelist” for REELZ Channel, a half hour non-scripted television series to premiere on October 9, 2010, where Coppola is the traveling host.

###