Episode 165: Lisa Hammer, Filmmaker, Writer, Musician

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Lisa Hammer is a film director, writer and musician. She is best recognized as the voice of Triana Orpheus on the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. She has written/directed independent dark comedy feature and short films such as Pox and Pus$bucket, and the CMJ Film Festival winner The Invisible Life of Thomas Lynch which she co-wrote and co-directed with James Merendino (SLC Punk). Lisa's films have won awards from dozens of festivals including: the CMJ Film Festival, Telly Awards, Hugo Awards, It Came From Kuchar Film Festival, the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Canada International Screenplay Festival, Ontario Film Festival, Antimatter, Indieworks and two from New York Press. She has had one-woman shows at the Olympia Film Festival, Perth International Film Festival, and the Duolun Art Museum in Shanghai, China. Her surrealist silent film Empire of Ache was recently acquired by The Getty Museum’s feminist film collection, curated by Miranda July. Her storytelling abilities support not only writing, but her editing, gaining her the reputation for saving shelved films as “The Edit Doctor”.

Hammer’s most recent film The Sisters Plotz, starring Eve Plumb (The Brady Bunch) was recently acquired by Amazon Prime, the Roku Channel and FandangoNow. Hammer co-created and co-writes the original series Maybe Sunshine now on the Seeka TV channel on Roku. Her new "Environmental-Comedy-Sci Fi- Horror" screenplay Ghostapus is winning and placing in dozens of festivals and screenplay contests and is in development. 

We talked about her career and the gritty days in New York where you could have rent control and live as an artist.

Episode 164: Sigrid Gilmer, Writer

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Today I talked with Sigrid Gilmer. Sigrid makes black comedies that are historically bent, totally perverse, joyfully irreverent and concerned with issues of identity, pop culture and contemporary American society. Sigrid burst onto the national theater scene with her play Harry and the Thief, an action film/historical/time travel play about a thief who is blackmailed into traveling back in time to deliver a cache of arms to Harriet Tubman. It has since been produced across the country, including runs at the Pavement Group (Chicago), the Know Theatre (Cincinnati), and the Skylight Theatre (LA).

Additional select works include Slavey (Clubbed Thumb), Seed: A Weird Act of Faith, It’s All Bueno (Cornerstone Theater Company), Frilly, and White 3: Manifestdestinyland. Her television work includes: A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix) and Claws (TNT).

Sigrid’s play Mama Metal is playing right now at IAMA Theatre Company at the Atwater Village Theatre through June 23rd. You can get tickets here iamatheatre.com.

Episode 163: Angela Cohen, Actress, Writer, Filmmaker

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I spoke with Angela Cohen for episode 163. Angela is a writer and an actress with a degree from Emory University in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. In 2012, Angela founded Charley Bear Productions Inc, with a vision to affect change through art, showcasing the female perspective in front of and behind the camera. Charley Bear produced the dramatic short film, Without Grace, starring Angela alongside award winning actress Ann Dowd. It is wonderful and you should watch it.

In fact, you should watch it today, as it is in the All Voices Film Festival on Amazon through June 17th. Finalists are based upon the numbers of views in the time period. Angela would love to recoup her angel investor’s generous contribution in making this film and stir your heart with emotion in the process. It's 18 minutes- you have 18 minutes!  

Here's the link to watch Without Grace. Tell your friends! 

Angela is fascinated with the brain and the overlap of art and science. The synergy of this will be actualized in her work in Virtual Reality, which she will tell us all about.