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“With all the stress in the world, now more than ever America needs to laugh and to escape to the movies to be entertained,” says Andrea Cohen Malamut ’78.Her efforts in that direction culminated in the Oct. 6 release of the film Domestic Import, for which she served as writer and producer.
Malamut will discuss the film and screen it during Reunion College 1 p.m. Friday, June 1.
“Domestic Import is a comedy based on a true story about the time my husband and I hired a live-in housekeeper from Kiev. It’s a throwback to the way feel-good comedies used to be,” says Malamut, an English graduate who believes the light fare of filmmakers Neil Simon and Woody Allen is almost a lost art.
The movie stars Howard Hesseman of the TV series “WKRP in Cincinnati”and “Head of the Class” fame and includes other well-established actors and actresses. It was shot at Los Angeles’ Culver Studio, where Gone with the Wind was filmed. More than 100 people worked on the production, which also went on location in California, Philadelphia, and Kiev.
“It was originally a stage play, so I really had to open it up more to be a screenplay,” she notes. “For more than a year, I woke up every morning at 5 a.m. to write for an hour each day before I went to work. After the draft was finished, I continued to rewrite and polish for several months.
“I have owned an ad agency for over 25 years. Every once in a while I need a change from writing advertising copy. I love to tell funny stories and writing comedy is cathartic for me.”
Malamut has strong connections to Lafayette. Her husband is biology graduate Jay Malamut ’76 and her daughter is psychology major Kate Malamut ’09 (Cherry Hill, N.J.).
“We enjoy seeing the college through her eyes,” says Malamut.
And they enjoy sharing the excitement others have for Lafayette. For more than a decade, the Malamuts have hosted a reception in southern New Jersey for accepted students. They do so because they know the value of the Lafayette experience.
“As part of my honors thesis, I co-authored a paper with Dr. Hana Wirth-Nesher that was published in Modern Fiction Studies,” she explains. “This one-on-one mentoring experience was invaluable. I also have a wonderful group of friends from Lafayette.” (Wirth-Nesher, then an assistant professor at Lafayette, is an author and associate professor of English at Tel Aviv University.)
The Philadelphia Alumni Chapter organized a trip to see the movie when it debuted in the area.
What are her goals for the film?
“I want to sit in an audience and listen to the laughter,” Malamut says. “I also hope Domestic Import heralds the return of the light comedy to the big screen for people of all ages.”
For more information about Domestic Import, visit the film’s web site.
Andrea Cohen Malamut ’78 (holding folder) is the screenwriter and producer for the film Domestic Import.