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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HOLIDAY
MADD PSA INSPIRED BY TRAGIC DEATH OF “A CHRISTMAS STORY” DIRECTOR
In 2007, Bob Clark, director of
the holiday classic film “A Christmas Story” was killed by a drunk driver. MADD is now launching a new Holiday
PSA to help prevent Drinking and Driving that incorporates scenes from a movie just released, called “ClarkWORLD”.
Clark was the friend and mentor of the “ClarkWORLD” filmmaker, who has used the film to raise awareness and funds
for MADD and has now created and donated the PSAs.
DALLAS - December 21, 2009 – “ClarkWORLD”, written and directed by filmmaker,
Deren Abram (now a Denver resident), is a heartwarming and poignant documentary film about Abram’s friend and mentor,
Bob Clark, the film director of the holiday classic “A Christmas Story”. Bob Clark and his 22-year-old son, Ariel,
died April 4, 2007 in a drunk driving crash.
“ClarkWORLD” had its Denver premiere on December 10th
at the Starz FilmCenter, with all ticket proceeds benefiting MADD along with profits from a silent auction that included leglamps
and other memorabilia from “A Christmas Story”. “ClarkWORLD” is now available on the local Movies
on Demand cable channel, on Amazon VOD, the
UK's BlinkBox, and on DVD.
Resulting
from the premiere’s success, Abram and MADD are now using clips from “ClarkWORLD” in a new Holiday campaign
to help prevent drinking and driving. The PSA centers around “A Christmas Story” fans in celebration and
quoting their favorite line from the movie with a dramatic shift to reveal the preventable tragedy of the revered director’s
death, followed by MADD’s favorite line: “Don’t Drink and Drive”. The sixty-second version of the
PSA includes comments from Scott Schwartz who played “Flick”, the kid in “A Christmas Story” whose
tongue stuck to the pole, and comments from Kim Cattrall, a fave of Bob Clark, who appeared in many of his movies including
her career changing role in his raunchy box-office hit “Porky’s”.
Unfortunately, nationally thousands of drivers make the deadly decision to drive drunk.
In 2008, estimated 11,773 people were killed in crashes where a driver had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or more.
The holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day are one of the most dangerous times on the nation’s roadways.
During last year’s New Year’s Eve enforcement period, 578 people were arrested for DUI. Increased law enforcement
on highways is a critical deterrent for party-goers, and helps stop drunk drivers before they kill or injure others.
"ClarkWorld" is a celebration of a Clark’s
work who tried to make the movies as he saw 'em and didn't particularly care what the rest of the world thought. Though
it does not dwell on the circumstances of Clark's death, it clearly sends the message that drinking and driving senselessly
kills and needs to end now.
For Abram, putting together
the picture was a form of therapy. "Bob was my friend and mentor for over a decade," Abram says. "It was just
such a senseless, tragic loss. My whole philosophy behind these projects is doing something good and maybe something good
will come out of it" says Abram.
MADD hopes so
too. With MADD’s continuous efforts against drinking and driving, and the cooperation of the networks airing this PSA,
maybe something good will come out of it by saving lives.
About
MADD
Founded in 1980, MADD's mission is to stop drunk
driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk
Driving calls for intensive, high-visibility law enforcement, mandatory ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers,
development and exploration of advanced vehicle-based technology and community support. MADD is a 501c(3) non-profit,
grassroots organization with approximately 400 affiliates and 2 million members and supporters nationwide. MADD’s
trained victim advocates served 46,000 victims/survivors in 2006. For more information, please visit www.madd.org or
call (800) GET-MADD. Victims/survivors can reach MADD 24 hours, seven days a week, 1-877-MADD-HELP
ABOUT ClarkWORLD:
Every
year, over 40 million people tune in to watch the holiday classic film “A Christmas Story” which has become more
than just tradition--it’s truly part of American culture. “ClarkWORLD” is an inside look into the
life, works, and tragic death of famed film Director, Bob Clark, who brought us some of the greatest movies ever made... but
also some of the worst.
“ClarkWORLD” celebrates
the good, bad and ugly of Bob Clark’s career. A warm tribute and a sentimental story of a storyteller that is
jam-packed with big stars like Kim Cattrall, Jon Voight, Denise Richards, Mary Steenburgen, Scott Baio, and of course, Peter
Billingsley who plays “Ralphie” in Bob Clark’s legacy film, “A Christmas Story”.
“ClarkWORLD”
is now available everywhere on DVD and is also available on the local Movies on Demand cable channel, as well as on Amazon
VOD. The DVD is also available from the film’s website at www.clarkworldfilms.com with $5 per DVD sale going to MADD.
About Deren Abram
In 1998, Deren formed his own company, Film Pharm, Inc.-- where he continues to serve as the company’s
Visual Supervisor and C.E.O.-- working for various TV projects including ESPY Awards, X-Games, Food Network’s “Everyday
Italian” and ABC Sports/ NFL’s Monday Night Football-- for which he won an EMMY (2003) and was twice nominated
in 2004.
Abram recently lost his other close friend
and mentor, comic actor Dom DeLuise who is remembered in another new release, “According to Dom”. Starring Burt
Reynolds, Charles Durning, Dick Van Patten, Jeffrey Ross and David DeLuise.
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For more visit www.clarkworldfilms.com or www.madd.org
To view all versions of the MADD Holiday PSA visit:
www.filmpharm.com/id22.html
Paul Milinac
Dorene Englert
Public
Relations Mgr of Internal and Executive Communications
at MADD
818-314-0452
469-420-4411
press@filmpharm.com Dorene.Englert@madd.org
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