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Podcast: Commonwealth Club of California Podcast
Episode: The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story
Description: Francis Ford Coppola is one of American films’ most dramatic director-dreamers, and his most transformative dream has been American Zoetrope, the production company he founded in San Francisco when he was only 30 years old―years before his gargantuan successes. Through Zoetrope’s experimental, communal utopia, Coppola attempted to reimagine the entire pursuit of moviemaking. Now, more than 50 years later, despite myriad setbacks, Coppola’s dream persists, as demonstrated by the culmination of his utopian ideals: the anticipated release in 2024 of his decades-in-the-making film Megalopolis.As Sam Wasson makes clear, the story of Zoetrope includes the story of Coppola’s...