Miramax uses ‘Passion’ play to market bar mitzvah flick

If "Keeping Up With the Steins" becomes a major hit, Mark Zakarin may have to give a shout out to Mel Gibson.

Zakarin is the writer and producer of this coming-of-age movie, which opens locally Friday, May 26. In marketing the film, its distributor, Miramax, borrowed a page from the "Passion of the Christ" songbook. Like Gibson, Miramax did a great deal of grassroots marketing. Of course, rather than church groups, it held special screenings for Jewish groups and leaders in major markets around the country.

"I think 'The Passion' definitely created awareness," said Julie Fontaine, a vice president in the distributor's publicity and promotion department. "The ability to market to the Christian community had never been tapped into before. It took target marketing to a new level."

So in addition to standard ads, Miramax ran as many as 20 screenings in each of a half dozen major markets around the country. Jewish leaders — rabbis, cantors, officers of Jewish organizations such as Hadassah and B'nai Brith — were invited.

"Keeping Up With the Steins" is the story about the race to have the biggest Hollywood bar mitzvah ever.

Zakarin, 56, wrote the screenplay before recent news reports of multimillion-dollar extravaganzas such as a bar mitzvah in the Rainbow Room, where the parents flew in 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks to provide the entertainment.

When he finished writing "Keeping Up With the Steins," he was thinking more about "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" than "The Passion." That film, he said, "told an ethnic story that crossed over to the mainstream. It's about family and a wedding and shared experiences and people related to it.

"(Steins) is a coming-of-age movie about forgiveness and acceptance. I felt it could cross over in the same way."

Zakarin asked local religious leaders to vet the script. Both Cantor Chayim Frenkel, the cantor at Zakarin's own synagogue, Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, and Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, were enthusiastic in their support.

Rabbi Schulweis, "81 and still going strong," found the script sensitive and relevant. "It was art reflecting reality, and I found it particularly poignant that it was the kid toward the end who recognizes the shallowness of it all."

He was so enthused by the film, he volunteered to get a group of local Jewish leaders together for a screening. It was a pattern repeated around the country. One screening led to requests for more. Rabbis sent emails to congregants and friends telling them about the film.

Certainly this type of special marketing has been around for a long time. Mark Urman, head of the theatrical division of ThinkFilm, has been "experimenting with groups such as JCCs" for Jewish-interest niche films. ThinkFilm distributed "Fateless," a Holocaust drama, and "When Do We Eat," a comedy/satire, as well as the documentary "Protocols of Zion."

"You have to really target these audiences and make them almost a partner in the success of the movie," Urman says.

Ironically, he adds, "I must say it's been easier with other groups than with the Jews. I want to preface that by saying I am myself Jewish. And you know that old saying, you get three Jews in a room, you get six opinions."

That hasn't been Zakarin's experience, who claims he had no negative feedback. "I think one of the great things about Jewish culture is that Jews love to laugh. They love to laugh at themselves and they love to laugh at the culture. The reaction I've gotten from rabbis is that the values this film ends up with will make people proud of Jewish culture."