Offering students an opportunity to "learn by doing", PFI Productions produces promotional and educational videos for select non-profit, goodwill organizations that will allow significant student participation in the production process. Students gain valuable experience while working under the supervision of professionals in each production area. The client receives a quality production at a fraction of the market cost, while contributing to the education of motivated future film professionals. The inherent nature of goodwill subjects accelerates the learning process by inviting "heart" into the filmmaking process. Scores of PFI participants are now productive members of the professional production world.

IN PRODUCTION
(students learning professional filmmaking by "doing")

PFI was contracted by the US Army Corps of Engineers to produce a 60-minute television documentary, "The Pre-History of the Kanawha Valley (800BC – 19th Century)". This project went into production in the summer of 2005.

 

BUY PFI FILMS HERE

 

PAST PFI PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:

IN THE RINGER (2005)

Acclaimed filmmaker, Danny Boyd, is in for the shock of his life when he takes his family to a pro wrestling event and finds himself going from spectator to participant. Little does he know that 4-time XMCW champion, Mister X, has been carrying a bitter 16-year grudge for not being cast as a child actor in Boyd’s 1988 feature film “Chillers.”

That fateful day spurs a wild, five month course of events with X and his evil entourage that will lead Boyd from being the oldest man in XMCW history to win the XIC belt, to being scarred for life in the brutal aftermath of the title defense.
“In the Ringer” documents the agony and the ecstasy of a fan forced inside the cruel, real world of professional wrestling.

 

GHOSTS OF GREENBOTTOM (2005)

In 1825, William Jenkins did the unthinkable. He crossed the rugged Appalachians to establish a Southern-style plantation on the wilderness fringe of Western Virginia. At its peak in the mid-1800s, the sprawling estate employed around eighty slaves working seventeen hundred acres of rich Ohio River bottomland.

Being loyal Virginians, the family cast its lot with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Their actions would trigger a series of fateful events that ended the plantation lifestyle and nearly destroyed the family's once-proud legacy.
Over a century later all that remained of this massive enterprise was the family home.

With the support of the US Army Corps of Engineers, a team of archeologists turned a lot of dirt to rediscover the past and help interpret this lost era in American history.

From the award winning team that brought you “Red Salt & Reynolds,” explore this fascinating process as traditional research and modern archaeology combine to reveal the “Ghosts of Green Bottom.”

This film was a 2007 Regional Emmy Nominee and a 2005 Telly Award Recipient.

RED SALT AND REYNOLDS (2003)

Red Salt and Reynolds interprets the historic archeology at the Marmet Lock Replacement Project, in Kanawha County, West Virginia.
The excavations uncovered four salt furnaces, John Reynolds' mansion, the cabin occupied by his slaves and the cemetery where he and several family members were buried.

This film was a 2005 Regional Emmy Nominee,
and a 2004 Telly Award Recipient.

DUARA (2002)

Duara is the pilot project for the West Virginia State University/PFI/University of Dar es Salaam filmmaking program, TeleDrum.
Sponsored by John Hopkins Center for Communications, Tanzania Commission on AIDS, Healthscope Tanzania and the US Agency for International Development, the project has been featured at regional U.S. film festivals and in Africa.

Duara won the 2003 Francois Manchuelle Award
from the Association of African Studies Programs

SOUND THE DRUM (2002)

A student production documenting the birth of TeleDrum through the making of the short-feature film "Duara" in
Tanzania, East Africa. The documentary chronicles the challenges faced by crews from two dramatically different
cultures coming together in a short period of time to learn filmmaking.

CLICK-IT OR TICKET (2001)

A 30-second television Public Service Announcement, "Click-it or Ticket" produced for the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program. This was the first PSA produced by PFI and should open the door for many more in the future.

SMILIN' SID (2000)

Commissioned by the McARTS group in McDowell County to be used as a part of the original outdoor drama, "Terror on the Tug" by Jean Battlo, A PFI crew recreated a silent film originally made by the United Mine Workers in 1921. The vintage silent film was shot on location in McDowell and Mingo Counties.

APPALACHIAN BY DESIGN (2000)

Orientation and instructional techniques videos for knitters working through this non-profit manufacturing organization in Greenbrier County.

HUNTINGTON, WV: AN ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY (1999)

Sponsored by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the City of Huntington, this video chronicled the incredible economic comeback by this enterprising community.

VISION 20/20 (1999)

This production documented Putnam County's yearlong planning project where community members united to design a master plan for where they want their growing county to be in the near future and beyond.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS IN ACTION (1998)

Sponsored by the City of Charleston and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a PFI crew documented the Baptist youth organization, World Changers, rehabilitation of some 26 Charleston low to moderate income homes. The completed documentary is being used by various non-profit organizations nationwide.

THE COMMUNITY "DIGS" THE MUSEUM (1997)

Commissioned by Putnam County's Museum in the Community, the documentary chronicled 25 eighth graders hands-on study of archeology. Instructed and supervised by the WV Division of Culture & History – State Historic Preservation Office and the WV Archeological Society, the students conducted the archeological survey of the future site of the Museum in the Community.

DREAM MAKERS (1996)

Shot all over West Virginia, "Dream Makers" was produced for the West Virginia Housing Development Fund to promote new programs for creating housing opportunities for lower income residents.

A DOZEN COLUMBUSES (1994-95)

Sponsored and distributed internationally by the US Information Agency, student filmmakers from Russia and the U.S. produced a several-part television series on a variety of unique topics. The short documentaries served as a personal vehicle for discovery for the "strangers in a strange land" crew.