John W. Comerford, who discovered the power of film at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, arranges major gift to the Brakhage Center for Media Arts

A gust of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ night air washed over John W. Comerford (’90 Psych & Film) like a tidal wave.

The ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder alumnus recalls stepping out for a breath of fresh air after viewing the hard-hitting Leni Riefenstahl Nazi propaganda piece Triumph of Will for a film-studies class.

Looking for a sign of where to take his career, that gust of wind led to an epiphany.

Film can change the world.

Under the wing of legendary experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, Comerford would go on to pursue a career in film and push the boundaries of what it means to tell stories on the big screen.

“I learned that the impact of film is a lot bigger than I had ever imagined,” Comerford says, reflecting on his time at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder.

At the top of the page: As principal at Paradigm Studio, John Comerford has helped produce and write a wide array of films. Above: Comerford hopes the gift he arranged to ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder will help inspire young filmmakers to pursue a career in the industry.

He also reflected on a propaganda film from the Spanish Civil War period that Brakhage chose to show in class. The piece depicted scenes of seemingly normal life while the narrator spoke of sickness and suffering among the people. By all appearances, the people were healthy. 

“This film demonstrated the power of narrative voice,” Comerford says.

He also pinpoints this as a pivotal moment in his career. He learned early on that film can be powerfully suggestive and that such power could be used to illuminate rather than manipulate.

Now, 30 years later, Comerford works as principal at , a production company. Comerford lends his visionary eye for the meaning of film to a wide array of projects and experimental pieces.

One of which, , co-written and produced with longtime friend and fellow ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder alum Tommy Rosen (‘90), is slated for its 25th-anniversary re-release this year. The award-winning coming-of-age drama explores topics like adolescence, drug use and the importance of music culture.

Comerford attributes much of his success to ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s spirit of discovery.

“I didn’t get a lot of direction from my parents growing up as far as what sort of career to pursue,” he says. “When my acceptance letter from ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder arrived, it was actually dated on my birthday, Jan. 18. I thought, well, that’s a sign.”

Comerford’s first on-campus experience is committed to memory.

He reflects, “Coming down 36 and seeing the Flatirons for the first time, I thought, ‘Well this is going to be amazing.’”

Indeed, it was the start of something special for Comerford.

He has helped produce and write a number of critically acclaimed documentary and narrative films via Paradigm Studio, exploring topics from jazz music to gun violence. Themes of late include the environment and media literacy.

Lynch: A History made a splash as an experimental piece. It stitches together more than 700 internet video clips of former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch to form a narrative on race, media and the world of professional sports.

Comerford notes the piece has received praise from athletes at all levels, including from Lynch himself. He says it has also sparked discussions about the media’s impact among players and coaches throughout the sports industry.

Currently, Comerford has several projects in the works. He is producing a narrative feature film based on a true story of the fight to preserve California’s native redwood trees, authored by David Harris.

He’s also working with fellow Boulderite, filmmaker and musician Charles Hambleton on . It highlights the search for a Japanese hospital ship laden with gold scuttled in the Philippines during WWII.

 

None of our productions happen without persistence. ... That persistence, and most importantly the persistence inspired by collaboration, is really essential.”  

The story is about more than treasure, though. It is a tale of justice and defeating personal demons.

In recent years, Comerford has been thinking about how to give back. “The first thing that popped into my head was Stan,” he says.

“I did some research, and I thought of the Brakhage Center and the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ. I just thought, ‘Wow, that is the perfect place to return to the world, if you will, the energy and spirit of that gift given to me by Stan.’”

Comerford helped arrange a gift of $30,000 to the Brakhage Center for Media Arts at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder. To be rolled out over three years, the gift is one of the largest ever received by the Brakhage Center.

He hopes the gift will help inspire young filmmakers to pursue a career in the industry. Comerford also hopes that students studying at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder will be able to gain a higher understanding of media literacy and its impact on consciousness.

Hanna Rose Shell, assicuarte professor and faculty director of the Brakhage Center for Media Arts, says the gift will do just that: “We at the Brakhage Center are thrilled to have the support and deep engagement from John Comerford, which will help enable students to enrich their horizons in the multiple realms of experimental film and beyond.” 

When asked to share a bit of wisdom with those interested in pursuing a film career, Comerford offered two words:

“Collaboration and persistence.”

“None of our productions happen without persistence,” he adds. “Particularly as a producer, where you have the longest relationship with the motion picture of anyone involved. That persistence, and most importantly the persistence inspired by collaboration, is really essential.”  

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ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder alumnus Sean Bailey talks about his uncommon path from the ground floor to the heights of the entertainment field

Sean Bailey and his dad saw Rocky in Texas in 1976. He remembers the long lines outside, the audience cheering inside and walking away feeling profoundly moved.

Rocky and Star Wars left indelible memories, but they didn’t make him dream about a career in movies, he says. “I didn’t really understand that people made those things.” 

Now, he is president of Walt Disney Motion Picture Production, and he makes those things.

Sean Bailey

Bailey, a University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder alumnus, has headed Disney production since 2010 and serves on the board of the Sundance Institute. In a recent interview with this magazine and in a speech to May 2021 ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder graduates of cinema studies and moving image arts, Bailey talked about his rise from his first job in the entertainment field—in a product-placement company—to a titan of film.

Bailey noted that he left the university knowing that he wanted to be in the entertainment industry but not knowing “specifically what that meant.”

“I knew I was interested in storytelling. I love music. I love film.”

His first job was in a product-placement company, which worked to put consumer products in shows. “We’d try to get Diet Coke into George Costanza’s fridge on Seinfeld,” Bailey said. 

After dropping off the Cokes, fruit juice or product du jour, he’d hang around and watch. Over time, he learned the key production roles: assistant director, director of photography, unit production manager. 

He once asked another crew member, “Who is that person sitting in the chair doing nothing?” Answer: “That’s the producer.”

“I said, ‘Well, maybe that’s a job that I could do.’”

Joking aside, Bailey recognized that “if you made something, you were a producer. There was nothing holding me back from doing it.”

He teamed up with “inspiring and creative” young people, raised some money and created a half-hour show. Meanwhile, he pored over screenplays and learned as much as he could. 

An intellectual omnivore, he tried his hand at screenwriting. He wanted to understand the craft and figured that, regardless of what role he played in the film industry, writing would give him a deeper understanding of the challenges that other writers and creators face. 

“Writing has never come easily to me, but I do love it. I love going in, closing the door, turning on music and being alone with your characters for five, six, seven, eight hours. It's a wonderful experience.”

Success was no fait accompli. “There were a couple of years for me of real hardship: living off of my credit card, not having any money in my bank account, living off of tuna sandwiches. But we kept going.”

 

Who is that person sitting in the chair doing nothing?” he asked. “That’s the producer,” someone replied. “I said, ‘Well, maybe that’s a job that I could do.’”

“And I failed a lot.” 

Just when he thought he’d have to seek other employment, 20th Century Fox tapped him and his colleagues to produce Best Laid Plans, starring Reese Witherspoon. 

Thus buoyed, Bailey and the actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, along with producer Chris Moore, launched the company LivePlanet in 2000, which focused in part on mixed-media, cross-platform storytelling. 

“That wasn’t part of my career plan,” Bailey said. “But this interesting opportunity happened because something interesting happened in the world, and I went through that open door.”

LivePlanet made movies like Project Greenlight and American Pie 2 for Disney and TV shows like The Runner for רC, which Disney owns. 

“I was very fortunate in that they let me work on bigger and bigger things,” Bailey said, adding that he was “really content and fulfilled as a writer and producer.”

But in 2009, then-CEO Bob Iger began wooing Bailey to head production at Disney. “Again, that wasn’t part of my plan. … An opportunity came, and I considered it, and I changed the path that I thought I would be on.”

Left to right, Dwayne Johnson, Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, Jaume Collet-Serra, Emily Blunt and Alan Bergman, content chairman at The Walt Disney Company, arrive at the world premiere for Jungle Cruise, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California in July 2021. Photo Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Bailey, who played in a band while in school and is a Metallica fan, noted the similarities between music and film. 

Like favorite songs, great movies soak into your memory, prompting years of reflection about lines, sequences or images that become “imprinted upon you,” he said. 

When he thinks about his life, “I think very often about the music I was listening to and the movies I was seeing in that chapter of my life.”

It’s no accident, Bailey notes, that he associates Rocky with his father, who is no longer living. “It becomes a primitive, imprinted memory, like a great concert, or like the first time you heard one of your favorite songs.”

But could a movie today have the same cultural significance as Rocky? 

“That’s the question on everyone’s lips today,” Bailey replied.

 

I often say these stories only make sense when you look back on them,” he said, noting that young people often ask him to reveal “the path” to success.

“I, for one, happen to believe in the communal movie experience,” Bailey said, noting that hits such as Game of Thrones and The White Lotus on HBO are also cultural touchstones. But for the right movies, “people will still want to go see those in a communal setting.”

Meanwhile, to better reflect the whole community, Bailey champions efforts to diversify film. 

“The entertainment industry has a lot of work to do on diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. “But I believe we are starting to make significant moves. There’s a long way to go.”

The fact that he’s now in a position to make such moves would have surprised him three decades ago. 

“I often say these stories only make sense when you look back on them,” he said, noting that young people often ask him to reveal “the path” to success.

“The only commonalities are that the stories are uncommon,” he said, mentioning colleagues who started out as artists, accountants, athletes and more.  

Such multiplicity in viewpoints helps the industry adapt to a rapidly changing world, he suggests. He still loves the big theatrical experience and appreciates the stories that can be told in half-hour sitcoms or one-hour dramas.

But a world altered by streaming video has wider horizons: “Storytelling’s been upended,” he said. “I think that enabling of different people telling different kinds of stories, unrestricted by format, is going to lead to a lot of really exciting stuff.” 

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This legendary plane was used by the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard on search and rescue missions

Working at an independent movie rental store was the perfect job for young Dirk Braun (Film’11), growing up in Connecticut.  

“I loved working there; it was a highlight of my youth,” Braun said. “My mother is a cineaste and loves foreign and independent films. She was always encouraging us to watch those types of films.” 

This was during the VHS era, so Braun would rewind the cassettes, restock them and even watch a few movies while on shift, adding, “I watched as many movies as I could.”

[video:https://vimeo.com/553573016]

That little snapshot of his youth underscores the long path to where Braun has arrived today, a professional filmmaker who is debuting his film—a documentary called “”—this summer.

It’s a 77-minute piece on the legendary Grumman Albatross, a seaplane the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard used in search and rescue missions during the latter half of the 20th century. Braun resurrects the plane’s story and history through 10 passionate mechanics and pilots who restore, fly and maintain the few remaining planes.

Dirk Braun (Film’11)

After more than five years of production, Braun will unveil the film on July 25 for one of the aviation industry’s most prominent weeks, the 68th annual Experimental Aviation Association meeting in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where more than 600,000 people are expected attend. Additionally, the plane featured in the film will do a special appearance on July 24.  

The first time Braun saw an image of the plane was during his freshman year at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder. A friend had started a men’s accessories business and chose the plane as his company’s logo. It left an indelible mark. 

“The image never left me,” Braun said. “I deemed the albatross the greatest adventure machine and was fascinated by its capability and design, and all of that transferred to my making this film. As a person interested in film, I pictured flying the albatross to iconic and exotic places and could envision that being something very spectacular.”  

Braun also credits his ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder film classes where he dissected and analyzed movies. 

“The way we did it was something that has greatly helped in the film’s development,” he said. “The screenwriting class was also a highlight … hearing other people’s work and discussing the stories as a class.”

He said the film started out “very small, but my ambitions were big, and the ideas grew, especially after meeting the potential characters of the film who speak with a sincere appreciation of this great machine.”  

Braun describes the work behind the film as, “a huge rollercoaster ride” of efforts and emotions. 

“There are so many years of effort of not knowing where the film would go and whether or not I actually had a worthy enough story and whether or not I could finish it,” he said. 

“We were well into postproduction, and I continued to go back and film new scenes or had ideas for different ones. It was a very long process, but after each shoot was accomplished, it was extremely satisfying.” 

After the showing in Oshkosh, Braun anticipates a larger theatrical run by making the movie available via streaming and on DVD. 

In celebration of the movie, Braun donated sales from 100 signed and framed limited edition fine art “Flying Boat” film posters to the Pan Am Museum Foundation, the Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh and the Aspen Flight Academy.  

Braun has plans for more filmmaking on aviation and surfing. 

“I also welcome other projects and love to explore and investigate them in as much capacity as I can,” he said. 

More information on the film is available on the .

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Puerto Rican native Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz has his eyes set on the next era of West Side Story

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and chair of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts

Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical West Side Story has played a pivotal role in the life of Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and chair of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, ever since his father introduced it to his children. 

“My brother and I played (the album) over and over, and by the time we finally saw the movie on a pan-and-scan Betamax videotape sometime in the early 1980s, we were both sold on it,” Acevedo-Muñoz writes in his 2013 book, West Side Story as Cinema: The Making and Impact of an American Masterpiece. 

“First, I was intrigued by the words, ‘Puerto Rico … my heart’s devotion’ on the album, for I had rarely heard the name of my homeland mentioned in any movie. Later, I was overwhelmed and giddily proud to see ‘Puerto Ricans’ represented onscreen, however inaccurate or stylized the portrayal.” 

Acevedo-Muñoz even says the Oscar-winning 1961 film version of “West Side Story”—a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, set in 1950s New York and replacing Capulets and Montagues with Jets and Sharks—is the reason he went into film study.

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz book "West Side Story as Cinema"

“Years ahead of its time, unlike any other musical film, West Side Story continues to explore ethnic, sexual and social anxieties and to underscore dystopian polyrhythms within a fantastically utopian genre,” he writes.

These days, many of Acevedo-Muñoz’ introductory students have never seen the film, though many know it through the television show Glee, which featured the musical in 2011. 

Which isn’t to say that West Side Story has become a relic. The show has been revived on Broadway several times, most recently in 2009. Perhaps more significant, says Acevedo-Muñoz, “it has been produced thousands and thousands of times by regional, high-school and amateur companies. West Side Story has never disappeared.”

This year, the beloved—and to some, controversial—classic is set for two major revivals, with a new and radically different stage version now in previews on Broadway and a Steven Spielberg-helmed remake of the film set for release in December.

“This is not quite the same as the little summer-stock theater company doing it out in Horseballs, Nebraska,” says Acevedo-Muñoz, who is widely considered one of the nation’s experts on the film and has recently been  on public radio about the coming revival and remake. 

That new versions arrive at this particular point in American history is no accident, he says.

“I think it’s a direct consequence of current political tensions having to do specifically with immigrants,” Acevedo-Muñoz says (though he’s quick to point out that technically, Puerto Ricans are not immigrants, since they had citizenship—but crucially, neither voting rights or representation—imposed upon them in 1917).

He also notes that just two years ago Hurricane Maria—ironically, the name of the female lead in West Side Story—devastated Puerto Rico, highlighting the second-class status of the island’s residents. The federal government was slow to respond to the disaster—two weeks after the storm hit, 89 percent of the island still had no power—and the Trump administration cut promised relief funds.

“On top of all that was the public humiliation of Donald Trump throwing rolls of paper towels” in a photo-op, Acevedo-Muñoz says, “as if that’s what was needed or useful.”

Though widely acknowledged as a Hollywood classic, West Side Story has long drawn fire from critics who say it presents negative stereotypes of Puerto Ricans, offers a retrograde view of relations between the sexes and committed “brown-face” by using white actors to portray Puerto Ricans. 

Dutch director Ivo van Hove’s Broadway revival reportedly seeks to redress some of those issues, jettisoning Maria’s “I Feel Pretty” and using Puerto Rican actors to play Sharks, among other changes. 

Spielberg’s version—set, like the original, in the 1950s—will feature Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in the original, both as an executive producer and playing Doc, the wise counselor to the Anglo Jets gang who is based on Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet.

“And they are making the effort to get the casting to be more accurate and reflective of reality, using real Latinx Puerto Rican actors to play the Sharks,” Acevedo-Muñoz notes.

He applauds efforts to find new ways to address troublesome aspects of the musical and film but notes that remakes and revivals often disappoint fans and critics alike.

“The 2009 Broadway revival directed by Arthur Laurents included some lyrics adapted and translated to Spanish by Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) in an effort to make the play more inclusive for contemporary audiences,” he says. “But theatergoers responded negatively to this change, and eventually dialogue and lyrics were changed back to the original English.”

 

Years ahead of its time, unlike any other musical film, West Side Story continues to explore ethnic, sexual and social anxieties and to underscore dystopian polyrhythms within a fantastically utopian genre,​"

Regarding the Spielberg remake, Acevedo-Muñoz says he is “cautiously optimistic, given what we know about the casting and location work, but the recent track record of musical and other remakes suggests it could be a risky enterprise.”

Then again, he has little patience for remakes in general, and wonders why Hollywood continues to greenlight them when nearly all bomb at the box office and are savaged by critics and fans alike.

“Who asked to see a remake of Dirty Dancing? Who asked to see a remake of Fame? Who asked to see a remake of West Side Story?” he asks. “Nobody.”

Acevedo-Muñoz praises West Side Story for its “revisionist approach, political commentary and social satire” and “visual and aural elements,” calling it “the musical film equivalent of the great American novel.” But he’s not blind to its faults. 

“The plot is really silly. Tony and Maria know each other for all of 24 hours!” he says. He even likes to open lectures about the film with a classic joke by Robert Wuhl that puts the spotlight on just one of the story’s implausibilities: “Tony runs through the Puerto Rican neighborhood yelling ‘Maria!’ and only one girl comes to the window.” Ba-dum-tsss.

Even so, Acevedo-Muñoz has little patience with the contemporary propensity to judge art out of context. 

“It appears that Maria doesn’t start existing until Tony notices her,” he says about “I Feel Pretty.” “That’s problematic. But it’s also perfectly in tune with the 1950s context of the play.”

In general, he’s no fan of hindsight sensitivity.

“Let’s not burn West Side Story because it doesn’t get a lot of things perfect; there’s no such thing as perfect,” he says. “No work of art deserving of attention is not controversial. … It’s dangerous to pretend we can protect anyone from anything because ultimately, this is what helps us erase racial, social and class conflicts that have permeated this country since its founding.”

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The ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts has made The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the in the nation.

The department, formerly the Film Studies Program at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, hailed the recognition by the top trade journal in the movie industry. 

“For an academic unit like ours, this is comparable to a mention in the US News & World Report—at least for minor bragging rights,” said Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and chair of the department.

He continued: “This humble feather in our cap joins the list of honors such as the Film Society of Lincoln Center naming in 2010 five of our faculty among most important experimental filmmakers of the last decade, and our naming as ‘Best in the West in Cinematography’ by MovieMaker magazine in 2017.”

Muñoz added, “Yes, we came in at #25 among the ‘Top 25,’ but we’ll take it.”

In June, the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Board of Regents voted to rename the Film Studies Program and to grant it the status of a department. 

Acevedo-Muñoz said the move made de jurewhat is already the de factoplace of the unit in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

At the time of the vote, he added, “Our students are better served graduating from a department rather than a program, which might be erroneously perceived as having somewhat lesser standards or rigor.”

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