Bill Publiano

From foodie to filmmaker: Keith Famie's new career is nothing short of delicious. View larger photo

Keith Famie, the Oakland County chef who became nationally known as a “Survivor” contestant, has staked out a second career as successful documentary filmmaker.

In 2006 Famie embarked on a project called “Our Story Of” — a series of documentaries about metro Detroit’s ethnic communities. Famie’s programs have drawn strong ratings when they have aired.

“Our Italian Story”, the first hour-long documentary, won three Emmys from the Michigan Chapter National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in May 2007.

Since then, Famie has completed Polish, Greek and Arab-American versions, all of which won Michigan Emmy Awards on June 7. “Our India Story” is set to premier later this year.

Unusual path

At 22, Famie was chef de cuisine at the acclaimed Chez Raphael in Novi, and by the late 1980s he opened Les Auteur in downtown Royal Oak, a move that helped launch the city’s rebirth as a restaurant center.

“That was the hottest place in the city,” said Matt Prentice, CEO of Bingham Farms-based Matt Prentice Restaurant Group. “Keith has always been quite the showman. He is a very bright guy. He is a very well-schooled culinarian. I think he used his showmanship to promote his credibility as a chef when he was at a really young age.”

Famie later transformed Les Auteur into Durango Grill, a “cowboy” restaurant that closed in the mid-1990s. He then became executive chef at Forte in Birmingham when it opened in 1996.

Throughout the 1990s, Famie was involved in producing a variety of food programs for television. Famie established Visionalist Entertainment Productions L.L.C. in 1998 and unwittingly began to lay the groundwork for a second career.

“I was doing at the time a lot of news segments, but I would try and always go and film things in different parts of the world that were film adventure stuff,” Famie said.

He landed a half-hour show on WDIV, Channel 4, called “Famie’s Adventures in Cooking.”

Then, in 2000, Famie landed a spot on “Survivor II: The Australian Outback,” a CBS show that would catapult him into households around the world.

“Survivor” was then the biggest show on television. And even though Famie’s most notable moment on Survivor was cooking rice that fellow cast members complained about, Famie said the experience helped him land a show on the Food Network called “Keith Famie’s Adventures,” a show that lasted for 32 episodes.

Getting behind the camera

Until that point, all of Famie’s television experience was related to food, and most of it was with Famie in front of the camera.

“My first behind the camera experience, which I seemed to enjoy more than being on camera, is when we did ‘Ice Warriors,’” Famie said.

Filmed in 2005, “Ice Warriors” follows the Red Wings Alumni team as they tour Russia and play seven hockey games against retired Russian hockey greats. Famie was immediately hooked.

“I was so thrilled about telling this story,” Famie said. “I really never thought I’d ever be doing anything like this.”

Prior to filming “Ice Warriors,” Famie’s father, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s and had adopted Famie when he was 6 weeks old, died.

“When he died and took his last breath and I was there holding his hand, I was still just kind of dumbfounded by the fact of — this is it?”

The loss of his father prompted Famie to dust off an old idea he had set aside a few years earlier that was originally called “Rags to Riches.”

Famie renamed it “Our Story Of” and set off to catalog the stories of metro Detroit’s immigrant elders and the communities they helped create.

Now 47, Famie has parlayed his experience into a knack for getting people to talk about deeply emotional struggles.

“Keith is no stranger to television production,” said Marla Drutz, director of programming at WXYZ. “But I think he has really honed his skills. I think if you specifically look at the storytelling, the editing and the photography — it’s all first class.”

WXYZ broadcasted the “Our Story Of'” documentaries commercial free, typically airing them at 7 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday evenings. “Our India Story” will debut on Saturday, December 20th on the channel.

Both the Italian and Polish documentaries drew household ratings of between 5 and 7, or between 100,000 to 140,000 households, the same rating that WXYZ typically draws during that time slot.

Drutz said WXYZ charges Famie for the airtime, but declined to share the specifics.

“I think the fact that Keith travels to his destinations, and so much of the program is shot on location, that I think it is visually very stimulating and extremely well-produced.”

In “Our Greek Story,” Famie and his crew follows Despina Kartakis to visit her childhood town of Galatas, Crete, where she hid in a cave during WWII while the Nazis bombed her homeland.

During the film, Kartakis points to the cave where she hid and describes how shrapnel from a bomb destroyed her lower jaw and tore through her shoulder.

“In all of the documentaries, I look for that ‘Oprah’ moment ... where something we film really engages the viewer and helps make them feel close to that culture,” Famie said.

But while Famie has a knack for finding people to profile and prompting them to tell their stories, he said he hates the process of raising money to fund the films.

In 2006, Visionalist’s total revenue from “Our Italian Story” was about $175,000, Famie said. In 2007, Visionalist’s annual sales topped about $600,000. This year, Famie projects his company’s revenue to fall between $350,000 and $400,000.

Key members of Famie’s team are Detroit freelance writer Chris Kassel; cinematographer Kevin Hewitt; Visionalist director of business relations Bill Harvey; and Kinetic Post, a video editing, sound and production company in Southfield.

Famie said it costs between $200,000 and $250,000 to create each film. However, that is a shoe-string budget. Famie said many of the people he works with charge less than their normal professional fees because they believe in the value of the project.

Raising funds

Much of the money raised from past projects is spent immediately on filming the next installments.

Russell Ebeid, president of the glass group of Auburn Hills-based Guardian Industries Corp., said he decided to help fund the Arab-American project by donating $150,000 of his own money after being approached by an Arab community group and viewing “Our Italian Story.”

“I thought, well, this is a way of honoring my parents and memorializing the attributes they gave my brother and I,” said Ebeid, a Lebanese-American.

But while Ebeid’s support was a tremendous help for the Arab-American installment, Famie said it might have been impossible to complete any of the projects without the support of Toni Wisne Sabina and her restaurant company, Epoch Restaurant Group.

Wisne and Epoch have donated, on average, about $50,000 to each project, Famie said.

Famie’s ties to Wisne are deep. Her family owned Chez Raphael, and Forte is part of the Epoch Restaurant Group.

Epoch benefits from the sponsorship relationship because the pre-screening events take place at the Rock Financial Showplace, where Epoch has an exclusive catering contract, said Steve Sabina, Wisne Sabina’s husband.

But Sabina said they also believe in the value of the project. Plus, both are Polish and wanted to support the Polish installment.

Next year, Famie plans to complete Irish and Armenian segments of “Our Story Of.” Also in the planning stages are Jewish, Chaldean, and African-American versions. In fact, Famie says there are 24 different ethnic communities in Detroit that he would like to document.

“The hardest part is we shoot on faith. I have no money raised (for the next installments), but we can’t set our schedules. Society sets our schedules,” Famie said.

Because it is so difficult to find funding, Famie and Visionalist are branching out into projects with higher profit potential.

Famie has begun a film called “Can You See How I see,” a documentary following the journey of two individuals from Chile who have come Rochester Hills to train dogs at Leader Dogs for the Blind, a dog guide training school for the visually impaired, for their eventual return and use in their native Santiago, Chile. Famie has also begun a film called “Saving America,” a documentary about Arabic doctors who work in U.S. hospitals. It’s slated for a 2009 release. Famie believes these films may appeal to PBS or The Learning Channel.

With all of these projects under way or in planning, Famie now doubts he will ever return to the kitchen full time.

“That was an exciting part of my life. ‘Survivor’ was a fun part of my life. But this is something that I can truly say is emotionally gratifying on another level.”

Doug Brown Contributed to this report.