PRODUCTION UPDATE



  Howard Posner's The Offering takes St. Paul's story and couches it in the contemporary pathos of a rebellious suburban teen whose family is a waking nightmare - his mom's replaced his abusive dad with a young man he can't stand, and his dad's started stalking the family. The film's Paul finds his only refuge in drugs, and when a Christ-like figure nobody else seems to see starts making appearances at his home and school, his visions are variously interpreted as repressed rage, drug psychosis, and surfacing mental illness. "There's an ambiguity throughout the film as to whether Paul is hallucinating or whether a deeply metaphysical event is occurring," says Posner.

Posner, 36, grew up in Chicago and spent six years in an Oregon monastery before returning to college at University of Massachusetts and starting to make films. He got his MFA in film from Boston University in 1993 and spent the next year making a pair of hour-long documentaries about Boston painters Jason Berger and James Kenway, screening both at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the local PBS affiliate. The super 16mm Offering was financed through private investments totalling "significantly under $100,000."

The Offering shot in Long Island towns Dix Hills, Westbury, and Glen Cove for 30 days, beginning last December. Posner couldn't afford to dress sets extravagantly, so he worked with the Suffolk County film commission to find houses whose interiors reflected the kind of opulent look he wanted. "[The film is] designed to reflect the iconography of the Catholic church," he says. Because the film is set in autumn, the production was plagued by January's incessant snows; Posner was organizing a trip to the Carolinas for final pick-up shots by the time the last of the snow melted in February. At press time he was working on The Offering's soundtrack, described as a fusion of African and western classical music, and preparing for a blowup to 35mm. The Offering gets its first public screening September 12 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; all rights are available.

Cast: Jason Parkhurst, Michael Ann Rowe, Roy Innocenti, Dave Conelli, Orran Farmer, Jacqueline Torres, Vishnu Seesahai. Crew: Producer/Screenwriter/Director/Editor, Howard Posner; Associate Producers, Dave Conelli and Pamela Deichman; Executive Producer, Carmen Posner; Line Producer, Tim Lies; Assistant Director, Joe Richards; Cinematographer, Brendan Flynt; Sound, Najja Noon; Music, Quentin Chiapetta, Beo Morales. Contact: Howard Posner, Scorpio Films, Inc., 853 Broadway, Suite 1516, New York, NY 10003. Tel/Fax: (212) 677-1924.



 
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