Publish or Perish

**Written by Gregory Weinkauf for Medium

link to original posting at the bottom

Film Festival Success PUBLISH OR PERISH Releases Nationwide: A Discussion with Writer-Director David Liban, and Producer Jonathan Miller

Tenure thriller. Roll that around on your tongue. Tenure thriller. We don’t get a lot of those, do we? Not your conventional programmer! Seeking to fortify this underserved subgenre — or, perhaps, to create it — the new dark-comic film Publish or Perish explores the struggles of an ambitious, Colorado-based English professor desperate to reach that academic promised land. However, a cantankerous dean, conniving students, a lethal mishap, and some seriously unfortunate choices yield considerably more than status and job security. Fresh off the festival circuit in which it picked up several awards including Best Feature (the U.K.’s Crystal Palace International Film Festival), Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Actor (Beaufort International Film Festival), Best Comedy (Sunscreen Film Festival), plus other awards and many official selections throughout the U.S. and U.K., Publish or Perish, acquired by Alation Media, bows on iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and cable across the U.S. on August 18th.

As it turns out, the writer-director of Publish or Perish, David Liban, also happens to be a tenured professor in Colorado —he’s the chairperson of the University of Colorado-Denver, Department of Film & Television, and holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and is a Fulbright Scholar — in addition to making films for over two decades. Producer Jonathan Miller, making his feature-film debut with Publish or Perish, serves as President and CEO of Alation Media, and its parent company, diversified financial services firm Parsonex Enterprises, having founded both companies. I spoke with Mr. Liban and Mr. Miller — hereafter David and Jonathan, respectively — and I began with an obvious but useful note of irony in the wake of their edgy production, asking Dav...