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In the Bardian

By William Stavru '87

During the past year, Gia Coppola ’09, somewhat reluctantly, has become a regular on the film festival circuit, with her feature film directorial and writing debut, Palo Alto, being screened—and lauded—at such prestigious venues as the Telluride, Venice, Toronto, and Tribeca film festivals. Coppola says, “Film festivals are scary to me, but if the cast and crew are with me, then they can be fun. We’re able to celebrate the work.” Based on the eponymous collection of stories by James Franco (Scribner’s, 2010), who also stars in the film, Palo Alto details the troubled lives of a group of high school students in Palo Alto, California, exploring the teenagers’ characters and how their exploits and relationships become searches for meaning.

Coppola, who admits that her own high school years were neither fun nor productive, says she felt a kinship to the characters and was drawn to the dialogue and sense of teen malaise conveyed in the book. “In 2010, I met James Franco and we started talking about photography and about his book. I read it and thought the language and mood were spot on for the world he was creating, so we decided to turn it into a film,” she says.

In the book, myriad characters wander in and out of interlinked stories, so Coppola had a challenge in adapting the collection. “I had to combine characters and focus on the meatier stories, letting others go. James gave me some good advice along the way,” she says. “One of my biggest surprises in writing the screenplay—aside from discovering how lonely and draining writing can be—is that the film goes through several filtrations until it becomes something very different than what you’ve started with. Over time, the script almost starts to tell you what it needs to be.”

Coppola and her small crew started filming on Halloween 2012 in Woodland Hills and other neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. She says, “The shoot was low-budget and very familial; the boys [the crew] lived in my mom’s house and I often cooked dinner for them.” They wrapped in 30 days.

With the surname Coppola, one can expect that Gia is genetically predisposed to a life behind a camera lens. She is matter of fact when discussing her large, dynastic Hollywood family. Sticking to a short list of who’s who: Her grandfather is director/writer/wine producer/hotelier Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now); her aunt is director/writer Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides); her cousins are accomplished actors Nicholas Cage and Jason Schwartzman. She appreciates the many talents of each, especially her aunt and grandfather. “I love my grandfather’s work—I just rewatched The Conversation—and Sofia’s films,” she says.

Although she was determined to maintain a healthy distance from her family in order to find her own voice as a writer and a filmmaker, she did seek guidance regarding the business aspects of filmmaking. “My grandpa gave me some advice in dealing with industry executives and the money people—it’s incredibly hard to find financing, and even harder to figure out distribution. Sofia, as a young, soft-spoken woman director, had dealt with the same issues I was facing. Even though I know I have great people to turn to, I didn’t want my family’s ideas to infiltrate my work too much or rely too heavily on those connections.”

Coppola maintains that, regardless of the amount of help, nothing could have equipped her for directing her first project. “There’s no way you can be prepared for your first film; you just feel like a teenager going through very teenage insecurity,” she says. “My grandpa likes to say that directing is all about problem solving and that you need to learn to love anxiety. That’s true.”

Postproduction brought the young filmmaker other important teachable moments. Coppola says, “I learned the most in the editing room. When you’re shooting, you work from a script and let the film take its course. But I didn’t fully understand how important editing is and how it can dramatically change the look and tone of the film.”

One thing Coppola did understand before directing her film is how to use a camera, which she learned as a photography major at Bard. She chose the College in order to study with Stephen Shore, Susan Weber Professor in the Arts and director of Bard’s Photography Program. “I was a fan of Stephen’s work, so I studied photography,” she says, adding that she also enjoyed working with Gregory Moynahan and Robert Culp, both associate professors of history, who taught “an interesting class on revolutions.” Shore agreed to advise Coppola; her Senior Project was an exhibition of street and diaristic photography. “I liked the idea that Bard was close to New York City, but I could have a rural college experience,” she says. “I also liked that Bard is a liberal arts college but one that has a very creative environment.”

After graduation she tried bartending (“I liked making gin martinis, served cold, cold, cold!”) and booked work as a fashion photographer. “I was just trying to find work that inspired me. Then I shot behind the scenes on the set of Twixt, my grandfather’s film that came out in 2011. That’s where I learned a lot about how a movie is made.”

Variety said Palo Alto “brings a fresh humanity” to the topic of disaffected modern youth: “Coppola’s adaptation balances the tired sensationalism of kids behaving badly with a welcome dose of sympathy. . . . Coppola cycles through a wide range of emotions, from humor to horror, as these not-quite-kids, not-quite-adults pick fights, deface public property and seek easy gratification . . . [Palo Alto] boasts a clear and confident voice of its own, and it will be exciting to see where the young Coppola goes from here.”

With her first feature film complete, Coppola is enjoying having more down time, which she spends reading books (she was in the middle of John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra at the time of this interview) and considering future projects. “I’m not sure what I will do next,” she says. “I have some original ideas, but I don’t know if they will go anywhere. A dream project would be to adapt a story by Raymond Chandler. It would be fun to modernize an old mystery the way [director Robert] Altman did with The Long Goodbye.”

Palo Alto is set for wide release in June, following a limited release in Los Angeles and New York.

Read the spring 2014 issue of the Bardian:

"Abstract painting is on the move in 'Amy Sillman: one lump or two,' a spirited midcareer survey at Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies."

Nina Stritzler-Levine, gallery director at the BGC, gives NYC-Arts a tour of the exhibition Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture.

An unpublished novel, a record deal, and crumble for dinner ... Hayley Campbell, author of The Art of Neil Gaiman, reveals fun facts about legendary writer and Bard faculty member Neil Gaiman.

In this interview, director Kevin Newbury describes how Euryanthe, in spite of being conceived nearly 200 years ago, remains unfortunately contemporary in addressing the shaming of a woman who is accused of infidelity.

Bard Conservatory faculty comprising the group So Percussion "lavished their talents" while Bardian ensemble Contemporaneous "attacked, with passion" at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City.

The Bard MFA is noted for its unique low-residency program, in which "the focus is on creating art, rather than credits, grades, or classes."

Four covers from Bard's La Voz magazine will be displayed in the exhibition “Vive La Guelaguetza: An Encounter with Oaxaca” at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, through July 19. The exhibition commemorates La Guelaguetza, a world-famous cultural festival from Oaxaca, Mexico, which for the last five years has been celebrated locally at Waryas Park in Poughkeepsie. The festival, which attracts thousands of spectators, will take place on August 3 this year. The La Voz covers on display feature the town's past La Guelaguetza celebrations, and are on view alongside paintings, photography, and traditional costumes from the state of Oaxaca. Bard College students Mariel Fiori '05 and Emily Schmall '05 founded La Voz in 2004 as a Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) project, aiming to serve the Latino community of the Hudson Valley with a free Spanish-language magazine. Fiori is still editor at La Voz, and the award-winning publication now has an estimated 20,000 readers in the area. La Voz will mark its 10th anniversary with a celebratory evening at the Spiegeltent at Bard's Fisher Center on August 12.

Bard alumna Michelle Dunn Marsh, the new executive director of Photographic Center Northwest, is not only a photography expert but also the owner of an impressive collection.

Jay Nelson blurs the lines between art and architecture with his remarkable and functional creations, including refurbished boats and campers as well as one-of-a-kind tree houses.

This summer The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College presents three new exhibitions opening on June 28. Amy Sillman: one lump or two, a major traveling exhibition, is the first museum survey of New York-based painter, Bard MFA faculty member, and alumna Amy Sillman '95. SCORE!, curated by Amy Sillman and Cheyney Thompson, comprises works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, works on loan by John Cage (from Bard College’s John Cage Trust), Carolee Schneemann, and a new painting by Cheyney Thompson created for the exhibition. Anne Collier is the photographer’s first major exhibition, tracing her career from 2002 to the present with a selection of more than 40 works. All three exhibitions open on June 28 with a reception beginning at 1:00, and will be on view through September 21.

Photographer Arthur Tress '62 unearthed a trunk of negatives in his sister's closet and rediscovered San Francisco's summer '64.

Professor Shore's new book is the culmination of his extended project photographing Palestinian and Jewish communities in Israel and the West Bank. He spoke recently at the International Center for Photography in New York City with Jeff Rosenheim, curator of photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bard alumni Joel Clark '05, Tavit Geudelekian '05, Andrew Kopas '08, and Mark Perloff '08 are part of King Post Studios, which last year launched a board game based on Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and is now working on a new game for the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.

Judy Pfaff has recently been given the International Sculpture Center’s 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. In this interview, she discusses using new materials, how she constructs large installations, and what makes her "a little bit feral" in the studio.

Gideon Lester, director of Bard's Theater and Performance Program, invited Dutch actor Adelheid Roosen to teach her "adoption method," in which actors live with a stranger for two weeks and develop a performance together.

The world-renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, in residence at Bard College this spring, gave a site-specific performance at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, New York, on May 7. The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), which operates one of its six academic programs at Fishkill, invited the Company to perform and meet with students. Bill T. Jones choreographed a new piece for the event, entitled Fishkill / Movements 1 Through 45.

Hundreds of men incarcerated at Fishkill attended the performance, during which Jones also collaborated with a BPI student who sang duets of Down by the Riverside and We Shall Overcome with Rev. J. Edward Lewis, the prison's Protestant chaplain. Following the performance, Jones led a question and answer session, which included in-depth discussion about the role of the arts, and particularly dance, in American society.

In the program Jones wrote, "Movements 1 Through 45 is yet another opportunity to identify that important conversation that happens between the performers in the Company and a specific audience. In our life as a dance company, we travel a great deal and perform for many people we don’t really know. We are excited when we run into a situation such as this one, where we can create a dialogue and even the possibility of sharing the stage with members of the community."

This performance was made possible by the partnership between New York Live Arts and the Bard College Dance Program.

Bard alumnus Chris Claremont '72 revitalized the X-Men comic book series, creating some of its most iconic characters ... with a little help from studying political theory at Bard.

Judy Pfaff, acclaimed artist, Richard B. Fisher Professor in the Arts, and codirector of the Studio Arts Program at Bard College, has won the International Sculpture Center (ISC) 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. ISC awarded two world-renowned sculptors, Judy Pfaff and Ursula von Rydingsvard, with the award. Pfaff will be presented with the award at the 23rd Annual Lifetime Achievement Award Celebration later this spring in New York City.

The 2014 annual Bard SummerScape festival opens on Friday, June 27 at 7:30pm, with the first of three performances of Proscenium Works: 1979–2011 by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Now making its farewell tour, these will be some of the esteemed ensemble’s final performances in the New York region.