Thirty years ago, the world was introduced to the film Back to the Future. At the time of its release, 3-year-old Teaneck resident Noam Aron was totally oblivious to the impact this movie was to have on his life. Now known to the world as Jason, Mr. Aron is the mind behind the documentary Back in Time, a retrospect of this groundbreaking cult classic. A graduate of Yavneh Academy and TABC, Jason went on to receive a degree in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University and a Masters in Sports Business from NYU. So how does an individual with those degrees end up a filmmaker? It’s all b’shert!
In 2012 David Lyons, a Long Island resident and doting father of three sons, was planning his eldest child’s bar mitzvah. A big ’80s movie buff, he decided to incorporate one of his favorite films, Back to the Future, into the celebration. He wanted to make a video using a “time machine” from the movie to transport his son back to when his father and grandfather were younger (these men being the bar mitzvah boy’s grandfather and great-grandfather). Lyons looked into getting ahold of a classic DeLorean, the time machine used in the movie, and was able to do so through the magic of the Internet and a man willing to rent it out for the day. As luck would have it, Jason was the man who made the video for the bar mitzvah, as he was working as a videographer for Jason Meyer, the face of Jerry Meyer Photography in Long Island, at the time. “I saw all of the interest the car was generating and realized there must still be an interest in the film,” Aron said.
Aron decided to see exactly how much interest there would be in making a documentary. He interviewed one person, Bill Shea, who owns one of the DeLoreans used in making the film and he put his idea and the interview with Bill on Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a website where you raise money for a given project. If you do not raise your set goal within a certain amount of time, you have to give back the donations. The response was overwhelming and Aron raised his initial amount in no time.
When the first Kickstarter bid was online, Aron received an email from a gentleman named Adam Goldberg. Goldberg is the creator of the hit show The Goldbergs and he told Jason that he wanted to be a part of the film. “I had just had knee surgery and I was kind of out of it from the pain medication so I sent an email to Louis [Louis Krubich, Aron’s partner and executive producer of Back in Time] asking him to vet this guy because I thought he was joking,” recalls Aron. Not only wasn’t Goldberg joking but they ended up shooting several of the interviews on the set of The Goldbergs. The Goldbergs is a sitcom based on the life of a preteen boy growing up in the ’80s. One of its episodes centers around the mystical hoverboard, which appears in one of the Back to the Future sequels and is featured in the documentary.
Over 50 members of the cast and crew of the film have been interviewed for the documentary. Most notably is Michael J. Fox, who had been simultaneously working on his hit television show Family Ties while making the movie. “He is just a great guy and a Rangers fan,” Aron reports. Out of respect for Fox and in appreciation for his help with Back in Time, Aron and his production team donated $8,888.88 to Fox’s charity for Parkinson’s Disease. The number 88 is significant in the film as it represents the speed needed for the time machine to travel back to the future.
Aron also shared an interesting fact about what happens when you play Jewish geography. Jason Myer’s cousin is married to Nancy Spielberg, the sister of the great Steven Spielberg and an impressive woman in her own right. Through that connection Aron was able to get in contact with Mr. Spielberg, who was the executive producer of Back to the Future. Spielberg makes an appearance in the documentary.
The film is going to be released on October 26, 2015, the date put into the time machine in the Back to the Future sequel. It is going to be premiered at Universal Studios. For more information about future release dates and all things Back in Time, please go to their website at Backintimefilm.com or their Facebook page. Cinematic history at its finest, and it all started with a boy from Teaneck.
By Banji Latkin Ganchrow
