Holiday Madd Psa Inspired By Tragic Death Of "A Christmas Story" Director

Online, November 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - DENVER, CO- "ClarkWORLD", written and directed by filmmaker, Deren Abram, 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, when Clark's car was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Clark was the friend and mentor of the ClarkWORLD filmmaker, Deren Abram, who has used the film to tell Clark's story but also to raise awareness and funds for MADD.

"ClarkWORLD" had its premiere on last Holiday season at the Starz FilmCenter in Denver, CO, 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 available everywhere digitally and on DVD, and will have its U.S. television debut on The Documentary Channel beginning Nov. 25th and throughout most of Europe and Asia this Holiday Season.

Resulting from the "ClarkWORLD's" growing audiences, 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". Additionally, Ian Petrella who played Ralphie's little brother Randy in "A Christmas Story", does the Voice Over within the PSA.

So far, Altitude TV and WGN TV have generously agreed to run the PSA commercial. Abram and MADD hope many other networks will also agree run the PSA, especially the Turner Networks where every year, over 40 million people tune in to watch the 24 hour marathon of "A Christmas Story" on TBS.

Unfortunately, nationally thousands of drivers make the deadly decision to drive drunk. In 2008, an 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, good or bad, didn't particularly care what the rest of the world thought", says Abram. 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.

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. 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.

Maybe it will.

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Contact:
Dorene Englert
Mgr of Internal and Executive Communications at MADD
469-420-4411
Dorene.Englert@madd.org