Paul Willistein
Program HostPaul Willistein is Editor of the Lehigh Valley Press Focus section, a position he has held since 2008. He has received more than 30 Keystone Media state newspaper journalism awards and an Allentown Arts Commission Arts Ovation Award. He reviews movies and theater and writes features stories about arts and entertainment, news stories about municipal and school topics and takes photographs for Lehigh Valley Press newspapers and websites.
He has taught screenwriting and media studies at Northampton Community College. He was marketing and public relations director at The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. For 22 years, he worked at The Morning Call, where he was Features Editor, Arts Editor and Entertainment Editor. He worked for the former Bethlehem Globe-Times as Arts Editor, Night Editor and News Reporter. He studied American Studies and film-making at Syracuse University and attended Southern Lehigh High School.
He has written, directed and produced documentary films, some of which have been telecast on public television stations, and narrative fiction films, some of which have been shown in film festivals. He was host and producer of “Hot Splices,” a movie review-interview show; producer and co-host with Michael Gontkosky of ”The Movie Show,” a movie review show, and “Valley Arts,” a Lehigh Valley arts interview show, all telecast on RCN. He is a songwriter, having co-written “Do The Dutch (Hey Now)” with Steve Brosky and Mike Krisukas.
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The documentary tells the story behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono's One to One concert and includes never-before-seen footage, phone audio, and concert clips. -
The animated feature film tells the Biblical story of Jesus, based on a story by Charles Dickens. -
Paul Willistein and George VanDoren welcome poet Ann E. Michael to talk about her latest poetry collection Abundance/Diminishment and highlight the winners of this year's Student Poetry Project. -
The live-action, CGI combination explores the world of the popular video game Minecraft, with plenty of fun for players of the game and non-gaming movie-goers. -
The comedy drama is based on the true story of a teacher who rescues a penguin, and is directed by Oscar nominee Peter Cattaneo. -
The fantasy film draws from the 1937 animated Disney classic and features Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. -
Steven Soderbergh directs the thriller about married British intelligence officers who must stop the explosion of a nuclear power plant. -
The dystopian science-fiction film by writer-director Bong Joon-Ho features Robert Pattinson as the title character, who finds himself in a sticky plot when a usual cloning process goes wrong. -
The next installment in the Paddington franchise sees the return of the loveable, polite and kindly bear title character on a journey to find his family in Peru. -
The only documentary ever authorized by the famous rock band, the film features new interviews with the surviving members and archival interviews with the late drummer.
