Film School

An "entertaining" memoir of a very non-typical film student making his way through USC's famously competitive program (Los Angeles Times).

When Midwestern journalist Steve Boman applied to the University of Southern California's vaunted School of Cinematic Arts, the world's oldest and most prestigious film school, he had more than a few strikes against him: His wife was recovering from thyroid cancer. His beloved sister had just died of leukemia. He lost his job. He had three young children. He was in his late thirties. And he had no experience in filmmaking.

As Boman navigates his way through USC's arduous three-year graduate production program, he finds that his films fall flat, he's threatened with being kicked out of the program, and he becomes the old guy no one wants to work with. Defeated, he quits and moves back home to be with his family. Urged by his wife to reapply, he miraculously gets in for a second time . . . only to have a stroke on the first day of classes.

But instead of doing the easy thing—running away again—Boman throws caution to the wind and embraces the challenge. He slowly becomes a gray-haired Golden Boy at USC with films that sparkle. And then he does the impossible: While still in school, for a class project, he dreams up a television series that CBS catches wind of and develops into Three Rivers, a primetime Sunday night show.