GenXX

Julie Harris Oliver: [00:00:00] Hi friends. You're listening to The Other 50%, a Herstory of Hollywood .I'm Julie Harris Oliver. For today, I got to speak with a group of female directors behind the initiative called GenXX. Maria Burton, Susan Dynner, Monique Sorgen, and Nandi Bowe. Maria and Monique have been on this podcast before, episodes 14 and 131 respectively, which you can still find on the website.

All of these women have banded together to create the Gen XX Initiative, which they're going to tell us all about. Now. You can find us at theotherfiftypercent.com, all spelled out in letters, as well as all the podcast places. You can find links to everything I'm up to on the link tree that is in the show notes and@julieharrisoliver.com here.

Have a listen. Okay? Welcome to the other 50%. I'm sitting with the founders of the Gen XX Initiative. Nandi Bowe, Maria Burton, Susan Dynner, and Monique Sorgen. Welcome everyone. Thank you. So, just to say, the Gen XX [00:01:00] initiative was created to promote the female directors of Generation X who have been enthusiastically pursuing your goals and building accolades for years as directors.

You started at the beginning of your careers facing sexism, and now it's butting right up against ageism. Between the four of you, you've directed numerous projects, won countless awards, participated in all the programs, including ABC Disney, CBS, Sony, Ryan Murphy's Half, Project Her, Sundance, Black Magic Collective, DGA's DDI, DGA's Learning Tree, and Film Independent.

You have premiered and or won festivals, including Sundance, South by Southwest, Cannes, AFI, et cetera. You've been doing all the things. And yet you're not at the studio level of career that you deserve to be, that you've earned, that you want to be. And so here comes this initiative, Gen XX. Let's talk about that.

What brought you together [00:02:00] to do this initiative? To start with Monique.

Monique Sorgen: Well, the initiative came to be so three of us had were having lunch. And we were kind of talking about our hopes and dreams as we want to do. And at one point, you know, we were sort of like, why are we doing all this stuff? Why have we done all this stuff?

And it hasn't happened for us. And I think that's a question a lot of people in this business. Ask themselves, but at that moment, I kind of realized and I was like you know, I think the sexism that I faced when I was younger led directly to the ageism that I'm facing today. And then Susan was like, Oh my God, that's so true.

We should start an organization. And Maria was like, and what if we call it Gen XX because of the double X chromosome? And so in that moment over a meal, we decided that we would do something proactive toward what we'd been facing all along [00:03:00] and, you know, Maria knew Nandi and loved her and introduced her to us.

And so we asked Nandi to be a part of our initiative and the rest is becoming history.

Maria Burton: That's right. We've actually, we're surprised to realize that was a year ago and in this year. The one positive thing about the strike for us was that all the studio executives had time to take meetings with people who were not talking.

We're not pitching because of course that was not allowed, but we were able to talk about Gen X, X. And an interesting thing is many of the studios have programs for television directing to, to try and increase the numbers for underrepresented directors. But not in feature films and in feature films, women are still 1.

5 directors to 10 male directors. So there's a big room for improvement and people were very receptive. So it was a [00:04:00] good use of the strike time.

Susan Dynner: And we also realized between the four of us. We each knew 50 other women who were uniquely talented, capable directors who also weren't getting that shot. So we thought there was a niche that needed to be filled and who better to do it than us.

So we got very actively involved and we're excited about this and we hope that it makes a difference.

Julie Harris Oliver: Exactly, Susan. And it's funny cause We do feel, well, I've seen some doors are being opened for younger women, right, or the women coming up and doors are being open for people of all kinds to get into this business, but there's a, Hey, wait a minute.

We're not done yet. Like, don't count us out. Just because we're opening doors for the next generation. It doesn't always have to be the brand new shiny person getting the Opportunity. I mean you are all bright and shiny people getting offered

Maria Burton: and I think one thing about the whole movement to bring in all voices and have all voices represented is the importance of [00:05:00] storytelling from Different points of view and one of those points of view would be people with more experience of life You know that so you don't want just a certain age group You want people along the whole spectrum of age as well as all races and all genders.

Julie Harris Oliver: Nandi we haven't heard from you what did you think when they came to you

with this idea?

Nandi Bowe: One of the things I love is that these are women who I admire These are our women. We are women who have done lots of work. We constantly sort of. Inspire each other because of all the things we've done.

And so I love the idea of a group of women who are not looking for, you know, we're happy to shadow, but we don't need to shadow in order to be ready to do the work. We're ready to do the work.

And that's what I love.

Julie Harris Oliver: Speaking of shadowing, should we talk about the programs a bit? Have all of you done programs?

And how were they in terms of success and getting you jobs out

of Nandi?

Nandi Bowe: When I did Disney, we weren't even guaranteed an [00:06:00] episode. I think now programs are starting to realize that they really need to guarantee episodes. But when I did my Disney program, we weren't guaranteed an episode. So while it was wonderful opportunity it, it just didn't lead to the opportunities that we hope.

Julie Harris Oliver: As I feel like that's changing across the board, I know Karen Horne makes a big effort to do that.

Susan Dynner: Well, I'll just say, in my experience. Okay, Susan. I've done several programs. When we did the Sony, for example. They had 15 fellows and out of the 15 of us, only five were chosen to shadow because of their budget.

And a lot of it is down to the fact that they're just the, even the DEI execs are not supported in a way that they should be. I don't know that if it's just optics or if they really want to put their money where their mouth is, I know that the DEI execs really do. So I think it's a problem of prioritizing what they really want or need for their networks or studios.

Julie Harris Oliver: I mean, we can do a whole podcast on what's happening with DEI execs across the industry, but [00:07:00] Another time maria, go ahead.

Maria Burton: I've also done many programs i've done. Sony abc disney cbs ryan murphy And they've all been really great experiences, but I did them all just in the abc disney ended in 2020 And right after that is when they started guaranteeing episodes because I was an example of someone who i'd get teed up for a show I'd spend months shadowing Mostly on my own dime.

I mean, you know, some of them have a small stipend, but they don't even cover if you're, for example, going up to Vancouver to shadow and I looked at it as my grad school to be investing in this opportunity. And then the shows would either go away that pandemic hit. The strike, you know, it's really important that they are now guaranteeing so that people aren't already underrepresented and then jump through extra hoops and then still don't get the opportunity.

So I'm very happy that [00:08:00] the programs now are doing that.

Monique Sorgen: One of the big things that the DGA got in the new contract was that these programs are now required to guarantee an episode. And so that's a great thing because it's going to move the needle, but it's also means that they're going to be able to accept many fewer people each year in the program.

So it's a give and take, because less people are going to have opportunity to do the programs and learn the stuff that we learned in those programs, but more people who get the, all the people who get the programs will, if all goes well. Direct their first episode, and those will all be diverse people.

Susan, jump in there.

Susan Dynner: And can I just add, there aren't really many programs that exist at the studio level like they do at the network level. So that's why we feel like we want to get our fellows or members of the initiative opportunities to direct features, hopefully at the studio level.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah, so it seems like all the programs are aimed at [00:09:00] television.

And yet the numbers in films are terrible.

So what do we do

for that piece?

Maria Burton: I think it was easier to address television first because most of the programs, certainly when these, when the studio programs were started, the series would have 2022 episodes so they could. Look at the numbers and say, we have room to put in some new people.

Now, even that has changed so much because now they're limited series with fewer episodes, often even directed by only one or two directors. That model is changing. So we're lucky that these programs existed while there was a bit of a opening and with features, it's so much more difficult to insist.

Like, Oh, you have to put one person into an episode because the feature is the whole, the one director for the single feature. So I think that studios are having a difficult time [00:10:00] figuring out how that would work. And that's one reason that it's been nice to go in and talk with them about this and pitch our ideas.

Monique Sorgen: The other thing in TV that helps the studios feel assured is that the crew doesn't change from episode to episode. So, if a director comes in, you know, and they don't live up to the expectation, which happens, by the way, very rarely, but if that happens, The DP knows the show, the production designer is still going to get the production right.

The script supervisor is going to still be on top of it and the actors know their roles. So there's, you know, there's more of a safety net there. And that's why when they have tried to do like what is considered their feature department programs, they've ended up doing a series of shorts instead. But, you know, at the same time to take more to answer your question, like someone like Maria has directed six independent features already.

So if you talk about mitigating risk, you know, she has definitely [00:11:00] proven that, you know, and even when it comes to making the jump from shorts to features, like I have four different award winning projects. You know, each with multiple awards. So again, like while I haven't done a feature, I've done a web series, which is a lengthier than a short, and I've done several shorts and all of them are award winning.

So again, it's like that there are ways to mitigate the risk by just looking at that. And frankly, when it comes to men, they have always been willing to make that. Leap or we wouldn't have any directors at all.

Julie Harris Oliver: So amazing. Like if the attitude is in, well, you do web series. Oh, you do shorts, but it feels like the I have like 10 questions in my head at the same time right now.

One is

for this initiative, apart from

sharing awareness and Hey, do you know, you're leaving out this big chunk of talent when you're hiring? What else do you hope we do achieve with the initiative, Susan?

Susan Dynner: Our [00:12:00] goals are definitely mainly to first and foremost, to bring awareness that there are these talented women that are overqualified and ready to work, that have been doing it for years and that they should be hired.

And the age is not a barrier. If you look at, I think Monique brought it up earlier today, like they did the birthdays in the Hollywood Reporter of some of the directors and they were like age 75, 80, wait a minute, we're still young and vibrant. Well, how old is he? He's shooting right now. Exactly. All of them, you know, not going to name names.

Maria Burton: It's great for us because it means that we still have a very long runway ahead of us.

Susan Dynner: We've got like 40, 50 years. So we have plenty of experience and plenty of time ahead in our careers. But we want to also bring opportunities to women to direct. So one of our goals is to, you know, get a fund to direct feature films.

and or anthologies series, whatever we can do. We just want to be directing and we just want to showcase the work that all [00:13:00] these amazingly talented female directors who are of the Gen X age are able to do.

Monique Sorgen: And another thing we want to do is we want to create, we're going to create a Gen XX stamp, which we will put on projects that are directed by Gen X women starting with this year.

And that will also help raise awareness of the amazing work that Gen X women are already doing. And so the more Gen X stamps, Gen XX stamps that we get out there. You know, the more people will be able to say like, Oh, why isn't this person directing a feature? Why isn't this person directing television at the studio level?

So that's something else that is on our mission. And then there's also a whole component of giving back, which is, you know, we want to use these projects to hire gen X women. Keys below the line, and we also plan to [00:14:00] mentor the next generation of women in shadowing opportunities and lower level positions and really kind of pass on our expertise that we've gained over all these years to them.

Julie Harris Oliver: Oh, good. Thank you for answering the question. What about everybody else?

Susan Dynner: One more thing is we do also create a database of women who are Gen X directors where we can showcase their bios, but also what they are working on currently. So that if somebody is looking for, oh, we are looking for a thriller with this kind of lead who is directed by a Gen X woman, they can just look through the database and hopefully we'll become the go to database where we can help get people hired.

Excellent. And Nandi and Maria are trying to get in.

Nandi Bowe: I wanted to say that. We also are looking forward to the different stories that are going to be told when a different point of view is out there, not only in my African American, I'm also to say, and so to have stories about women who are [00:15:00] mature women and who have other challenges and who look different than whatever the status quo is, that's a huge, that's a huge opportunity, both for audiences

and also.

Julie Harris Oliver: And how much more interesting than another superhero movie?

Maria Burton: Right and relatable and another thing is we have a fiscal sponsorship through film independent. So Our motto is telling stories by women about women for everyone and There will be many stories under that umbrella And ultimately people can run financing.

If people are wanting to give money or the mission, instead of like through a LLC investment, they can run that through our gen XX fiscal fund.

Julie Harris Oliver: Oh, wonderful. And so then is the hope we might produce some more independent work that then showcases the talent that can then translate into studio work?

Cause [00:16:00] that's the bridge, right? How do we. How do we address that piece of it?

Monique Sorgen: Well, as we may have mentioned before, we've already taken a bunch of meetings at the studios with the DEI executives. And, you know, we've taken meetings with Film Independent, obviously, since they're our fiscal sponsor.

But our goal is to continue taking meetings with people, with agents, with producers, with showrunners and executives at all levels, and even beyond the DEI level. Just to continue to create awareness about the fact that these Gen X women directors exist, that we've been here all along, that we have the experience and we're ready to go, and that there are just a lot of us.

Maria Burton: And the way that Ava DuVernay was so successful with hiring directors onto Queen Sugar and showing that all you have to do is give the opportunity and these directors were fantastic and now they've all gone on to have great careers. It's the same idea. [00:17:00] Give people that opportunity to show their talents and then other people will continue to hire them.

Julie Harris Oliver: I know I err on the side of being a bit of a radical. I just want to say to all of the studio, just hire people.

Susan Dynner: We actually have some great statistics on, in our deck, which is available through our website, which is www. genxx. info. So you can come see some of those statistics for yourself. And it's pretty eyeopening, you know, in this day and age it's kind of still unbelievable.

Julie Harris Oliver: Just do it. Just do it. Tell me how you have kept your enthusiasm and your hopes and dreams and your energy around this work when I imagine, I believe it has been so hard. Monique.

Monique Sorgen: Well, I've tried quitting a million times. I mean, I've kept lists of other jobs I might be able to do, but none of them ever kind of sparked joy in me.

One time I even moved to Paris.[00:18:00] Because I thought to myself, Paris is beautiful. I love it here. I speak, I'm half French, so I can work in France. And I basically was there thinking like, Oh, maybe if I leave show business and I'll just get another job and I'll be happy because. I'll just be in this beautiful place.

Right. Within one week of being there, I was going to movie premieres and everyone I was meeting was in show business in Paris. And I kind of realized, Oh my God, this is who I am. This is what I do. So I ended up coming back to LA with the understanding that like, it's really about the journey.

You know, I love what I do. It makes me happy every day when I'm doing it. Not so much when I'm looking for work, doing it. But when I'm actually doing it, it just gives me so much joy. And I kind of realized that like giving up wasn't even an option. And once I had that realization, there was kind of, for me, there was kind of an acceptance of like, this is what I've signed up for.

Susan Dynner: Yeah, for me it's never even been an option to do [00:19:00] anything else. This is in my bones. It's what I love. I, it brings me joy, like much like Monique. I also produce, so I'll produce other filmmakers work that I don't direct. So I found a way to be in it no matter what, but I just, I have to do it.

There's no other alternative. And I feel like everybody can do it no matter what, whether it's a hobby or whether you do make it a career, you can always find a way of making money on the side or doing something to support yourself. But if it's really, truly a passion, you'll figure out a way to keep doing it.

Nandi Bowe: I came out of assistant directing. And so I've been on sets from the age of 20. I've watched some of the best directors in the world direct and I've helped them bring their vision to light. I am a writer as well. And so that's one of the ways that I've managed to sort of keep myself inspired during the times when I'm not directing.

Is that I write my own projects because, you know, especially as an African American woman, I've known [00:20:00] that the projects I want to see in the world aren't necessarily being written. So I've taken on writing as well as a way to create projects.

Maria Burton: Wonderful, and I feel very lucky to have a company also with my sisters our five sisters productions company because we are able to Continue to generate a lot of work.

We have a series called half the history sort of like your other 50 But it's about the stories of women that have been untold in history and The features that i'm passionate about telling are also stories of women that have been Not yet told and so I think between Being able to work as a producer and writer on the projects with my sisters and then do my own directing Whether it's something with five sisters productions or as a director for hire.

I'm Excited to always keep going and telling those stories

Monique Sorgen: [00:21:00] And I think Maria brings up an interesting point because like, we're not here because we chose to do this as a job. We're here because we're storytellers, because we have a voice that needs to be heard and stories that we wanna tell, and a point of view that we feel is not getting out into the world.

And a lot of people in this business are here for that reason. And so when you kind of go back to the root of your passion, like what is it I'm really trying to say with my projects? You know, like I have personally a lot of stories about being a single woman. That's really important to me because I feel like there's not enough acceptance of women just choosing not to get married or choosing not to have families.

And that's an important story that I've probably written four different ways, you know, and that's just one thing that I have to say, but that's something that's, you know, and I think we all kind of have that thing or those. Those categories of things where we're like, why won't people accept a woman [00:22:00] who does this or a person who does this?

Cause it doesn't necessarily always have to be about a woman. Sometimes there, you know, are people of all kinds. That we're just saying to ourselves, like, why isn't this person accepted? I want this person to be accepted. I want this person to be heard and understood. And I want this story to exist. And so that's kind of the driving force.

Why I think most of us continue to do what we do, despite all the heartache and all the challenge involved.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, we know how powerful it is and how quickly it can change culture. With film television, right? It's so, it's so important.

Susan Dynner: I mean, I, yeah, personally, like I've been a band photographer from the age of 15.

So I have stories to tell galore. Being on the red bands and stuff. And I'm also a magician and I'm doing a documentary right now about women in magic. So I feel like we all bring unique perspectives and unique life experiences. That, that would be amazing stories to tell. So [00:23:00] that's what we're trying to do here.

Julie Harris Oliver: I know the advice for so long has been

create your own work and do it that way. Is that still your advice?

Nandi Bowe: It's so important as a storyteller and as a filmmaker that you you're moved by the stories you want to tell. Because Who From beginning to end, it's a long road. And so I definitely feel like you have to, you just have to be moved by the story you're telling, whether it's your story or someone else's, it has to be a story that gets you up on the hard days and on something that matters.

Maria Burton: I, I agree with creating your own work, but I think this is a huge thing that we are trying to push with Gen X is to the whole reason to be allowed to work on the studio level is to have access to bigger budgets. And to tell stories on a bigger level or just tell bigger stories because sometimes I underrepresented directors have been ghettoized into a smaller [00:24:00] scale that can Translate into having to tell smaller stories and those are not the only stories we have to tell So this is a big reason behind our push

Monique Sorgen: And yes, you do have to create your own work when you're starting out because you have to prove to people that you know what you're doing.

But where GenXX comes in is that we have created our own work over and over again. And so what we're saying is we've proven to you that we know what we're doing now. Give us a budget so that we can do something that really has a bigger impact because it has a bigger audience.

Maria Burton: I think something that's interesting about the bigger budget too, is there's a myth that, Oh, if you've only worked on a smaller scale, it will be hard to jump to a larger budget when in reality it's so much easier when you have.

The tools and the experience crew and [00:25:00] plenty of crew instead of people doing multiple jobs. And so it's having that opportunity as well.

Monique Sorgen: And not being in charge of everything. Like to me, the dream is to get to direct a project where the only job I had to do was to direct. I mean, on my projects I have had to produce, I have been the writer, I have been the production designer and in post production I'm the head PA.

Julie Harris Oliver: So bring in the donuts, right? So seeing what's been going on with the business this year, all the strikes, the

shutdowns, the mergers, the, it feels to

me, and I would love, I'd love to hear what you think about it. It feels like the business itself is undergoing a revolution and the business model feels a little broken and needs to be remade.

Do you have any thoughts

about the whole business model of it all, Nandi?

Nandi Bowe: We forget how young the film business and [00:26:00] television is in general. And so I think we sort of revolutions and evolutions make it possible for new openings. And so that's what I'm banking on is the fact that as the industry evolves, there'll be new opportunities and new openings.

Certainly the internet has provided that for us. I just have to keep imagining that there's going to be new openings as the industry progresses.

Susan Dynner: Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, when I first started in this industry, creatives ran studios, it's hard to think of that now, right? Cause it's such, such a business model and investor and all this other, I think the studios were far more successful back then than they are now.

And it was being run by creatives who actually cared about the product that they were putting out, which happened to be a film, but we want to kind of disrupt that. That's why we started gen XX. We want to do something different. We're trying to think of new creative ways to finance films at a studio level where it doesn't have to be just all about the business.

It can be about. Also being passionate about what you're making or having a message [00:27:00] that you want to, you know, get out there to the masses. Yeah.

Julie Harris Oliver: I think it, what does success look like is being changed or has changed. So it feels like it needs to shift away from wall street and shift back to. art.

Susan Dynner: I mean, if you think about it, the movies that were winning Oscars back 20, 20, 30 years ago, we're all studio films. And now in the past 10 years, none of them are studio films are all indie films. So it's something's got to give.

Monique Sorgen: Yeah. So there's a couple things that play obviously with the shift. One is that the studios went from being private to being public.

So now they're valuated based on their potential rather than being evaluated based on how much money they're actually making. Whereas during the time that Susan was talking about when creatives were running the studios. You know, the studios were private and they were just concerned about how many hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars they made that year.

How much were they in the black? And the numbers were astronomical [00:28:00] now that, you know, now that's not how they're evaluated anymore. They're evaluated on like how much growth they've had. And this is not necessarily a growth business. This is. A profitable business. So I think that's problem number one.

The second problem is technology and the technological changes to the industry have come in two ways. The first is the streaming revolution where everything has gone on to streaming faster than they were able to figure out how to monetize streaming. So that's also caused them to be less profitable.

And the second technological issue that we're facing up against now is AI. And the fact that if the studios have their way, they will be making projects entirely with computer engineers and leave the creatives out of the process at all. Now that's a possible negative, but how I see it is that's where the opening is, that people are probably, some [00:29:00] people will want to watch AI made movies.

But there's going to be a whole side industry that will crop up with going back to the old, the older model where studios are private and they're just making a profit. They're just in the black every year. And they're making movies about humans with humans, about the human experience, because fundamentally the reason.

That we appreciate art as humans is because it reflects our life and our society back to us. And AI is going to have a harder time doing that than humans. And yeah, so basically I think there's going to be a second branch of the industry that's going to start to crop up and the way I see it is going to be like with groups like us creating New material using creative ways to find finances and new avenues for that, but also with like the smaller companies like a two, four and neon, these companies, they're going to kind of lead the [00:30:00] way to be that branch.

And there will be now two branches, right? The branch of studios making AI driven projects, and then the branch of humans making human driven projects. And so I do have hope for where we're going. It's just a matter of finding the money that wants to invest in that. And that's the kind of thing we want to do.

Susan Dynner: I just wanted to say that ironically, you know, AI is never going to be a substitute for humans because we are the creators. We are coming up with all these new and revolutionary ideas, thoughts, and concepts. Ironically AI can do the algorithms that the studio heads do. So I don't know who should be watching out here more, us or them?

Cause they can't do their job without us. That's so funny. Who should be more worried?

Julie Harris Oliver: What do you hope your legacy will be as a group and

individually?

Nandi Bowe: I would love just for us to be another opening for experienced directors.[00:31:00] To have opportunities to tell stories that aren't being told and to support each other in that.

Maria Burton: It's interesting to think about because my mother worked very hard as a feminist in the 70s and pushed open doors for people not least of which were her five daughters. And she felt that the world would be different for us and we believed that when we were kids and I hope that The world is different for my nieces.

I think we saw a Statistic recently that was things wouldn't change wait monique. I think you had the statistic Can you jump in there with it? It was

Monique Sorgen: Yeah, it was just put out by Women in Film, I believe, that if we continue to progress by 25 percent every five years, women directors will reach parity in 2072.

But history has shown us that we don't incrementally progress. [00:32:00] By 25 percent or even 5 percent or even forward without also going backward, like, you know, progress goes up and it goes down and it goes up and it goes down. And so the fact of the matter is, we're not going to get there by the time any of us or any of our grandchildren die.

The only way to really progress. Is to just do it the way what made a change was Ava DuVernay saying, I'm just going to hire women moved the needle. That's how you make progress. You just have to decide to do it and do it right now. And we could be at parody next year. If we just did that.

Susan Dynner: And that's one of the goals that we strive for.

I mean, we'd love it if in the next 10 years, we are obsolete because all Gen X women are actively directing films and TV, you know, that's a dream. In terms of legacy, that would be amazing.

Monique Sorgen: Yeah. And in terms of legacy for me, I will say probably why Maria and I get along is my father was also a civil rights lawyer.

[00:33:00] And so he really moved the needle through the legal system on a lot of really important issues. And so I have a high bar to reach with my filmmaking. And I know that's one of the reasons I went into filmmaking. So as a filmmaker, I really hope that my films Change the way women are perceived in the world and open up the possibilities for who they can be and what they can do with their lives.

As Gen XX I also hope that our legacy will be to move the needle greatly for all women who want to be directors and who want to be anything they want to be in this business. And we're going to do whatever we can to move the needle as far as we can, as long as we have this organization. And

Maria Burton: i'll jump in Also on the projects that we do.

I know for me We're talking about this organization opening up the opportunity for women And on the projects I make I feel it's so [00:34:00] important to change the culture for all people like people You know what we the movies and television that we make both reflects and creates our culture going forward And so I have four nieces and four nephews and I want them to value all people equally and grow up seeing that and then if it's modeled to them, then they will perpetuate that and It's so such a strong thing that we can do with what we create.

So I want to create that myself. I want to give other people the opportunity to create that and then affect people who are not in this business, just the world in general.

Monique Sorgen: And one more thing in regards to gen XX, you know, we're talking about generation X directors. Who are meeting the intersection of sexism and ageism and one thing that we're doing for future generations that maybe they aren't thinking about or don't want to think about.

Is we're confronting [00:35:00] ageism, and that's something that every single filmmaker of every gender and every race and every ability is going to come up against at some point if they make it that far. Right, so we're really confronting something that everyone's going to have to face if they're very lucky.

The alternative is not better. Exactly.

Susan Dynner: And really quickly, just to speak to that, although we are specifically focused on Generation X. We hope that older women also get the same opportunities. I mean, we want to try and hire as many women directors as possible. So although we in particular are focused on Gen X women we hope that all women of all ages get direct jobs.

Julie Harris Oliver: I want to say thank you for your service to the business and the culture. I also want to point out, I know that you all came onto this recording today, like from continuing education with the Alliance of Women Directors. Like you are [00:36:00] still

in it,

training, working, learning. The constant work that I know you all do.

I don't know if it's unique to women in this business, in this organization, but the dedication to the continued networking and learning and growth. I think is just another thing that sets you apart and makes you that much more qualified.

Susan Dynner: I think you have to. I mean, I always learn in just life. I learn things all the time.

So why not in film technology is ever evolving. We have new tools at our disposal. There's now virtual production. There's, you know, all kinds of new things that are coming up and we need to be ready and know how to utilize that. And

Maria Burton: also shout out to Marnie cage. All Evans is the one who's teaching this morning.

Rachel Ramis teaches for free all the time. I think we are such a community of sharing and trying to pull each other up. And [00:37:00] that's a wonderful thing that has happened in the community of women. Filmmakers. And

Julie Harris Oliver: there was something you said earlier, Maria, about the two steps forward, one step back. Cause it felt like we made a lot of progress and then 2020 happened and then recovering from 2020 and then the strikes happened.

And I think we all have to try to push through and keep the momentum going and not just let the industry revert back to, Oh, now we're just going to hire all the people we know again until we get this going. It's not the right time for all this diversity business. I think we really have to push to continue the momentum and keep it all going.

Maria Burton: Thank

you. Well said.

Julie Harris Oliver: I would love to hear just what each of you either are working on or just recently worked on or want to promote, want us to go see, want us to look up. I'd love to hear from each of you. I'm going to go around the,

around the horn here. So Monique.

Monique Sorgen: All right. So what am I working on? Well, I spent a lot of time working on the GenXX initiative recently.

Good [00:38:00] job. Good job. I also have a short film that just finished the festival circuit. And another short film that's currently on the festival circuit and a web series that I have just released called codependent socks, which you can find on a website called cold open. com cold with a K and so that. Is a family, a traditional family sitcom starring sock puppets.

And it's a seven part web series. It takes about 26 minutes to watch the whole thing. And the great thing about the platform cold open is it's basically aggregating web series with the purpose of exposing them to executives and agents. To get them picked up for ongoing series. So you may notice what I did there is I made a 26 minute show and then made it a web series that serialized with seven episodes to show that it can work [00:39:00] both as a web series.

And as a pilot for an ongoing sitcom that could be made either continuing with stock puppets or could also be made live action with what puppeteers would call fleshies. So those are some of the things that I have done recently. And and aside from that, I am looking for financing for a feature film.

Julie Harris Oliver: Can you tell us the titles of the shorts?

Monique Sorgen: So the short that just finished was called random check and that was actually a dramatic short I normally do comedy but I was hired to do that one and it's about a woman who wears a hijab who is stopped for A quote unquote random check at the San Diego Airport on her way to Comic Con And it really just shows how she's just an average woman trying to get to Comic Con But she's still being treated differently because of her hijab and her religion and the way she looks in the country.

She's from the one that's currently on the festival circuit is called lying [00:40:00] is complicated and it's about it's actually, that one's actually a proof of concept for my feature film, bad BFF. So I will tell you first what bad BFF is about. Bad BFF is about a woman who pretends she's getting married in order to get her best friend.

To hang out with her as the maid of honor. So it's a story about female friendship and how women can get left behind when their friends go off. To start families and do the whole marriage thing. So again, as I said earlier, really focused on, you know, being a single woman, and validating that lifestyle choice.

So the short film is a proof of concept taken from that, which is basically about a, about the same woman trying to convince her fake fiance to go to dinner with her to keep up the ruse.

Maria Burton: And I would just like to co sign that I have read that script and it is, laugh out loud, hilarious.

Monique Sorgen: Thank you, Maria.

I love you. And I did not pay [00:41:00] her for that, although I would.

Julie Harris Oliver: Okay, maria,

what do you have to go?

Maria Burton: So I have been spending much of the last few years shadowing on different television shows through the studio programs, working to get my episodic break But then this summer, when we were in this prolonged couple strikes, I decided I'd need to go back to doing some of my independent features because ironically, that's something I have a little more control over.

aNd I was invited to the NASA launch in earlier this spring of one of the commanders or the commander of this launch up to the international space station is a fan of the project and invited me down. And the launch kept getting pushed. And so I spent a lot of time at NASA with different astronauts and they were all saying, you've got to make this movie now because we're going to have a woman on the moon in 2025.

And the mercury 13 is the story of the women who were tested to be [00:42:00] astronauts in the early sixties. It's the same time as hidden figures, but it's like the women who were the right stuff at that time. And the script has won a lot of awards. It's been optioned a number of times, but it's been a little bit on the back burner while I've been focusing on episodic.

So that has come back to the front burner and I am making progress on that and very excited.

Julie Harris Oliver: Exciting. Okay. Susan.

Susan Dynner: Oh, I've been very busy besides obviously gen X, X, I have several projects. I was Casting one right before the pandemic called Fall of Eden, which is a story that follows three women whose lives unexpectedly intertwine.

One is a 15 year old from South Central whose crush turns into a nightmare. One is a 19 year old runaway punk rock girl living in the streets of Hollywood who's reunited with the lost love. And one is a 29 year old law student who has discovered that the law is not just. So that was starring Dylan McDermott and Brianna Hildebrand and I get, I'm excited to get back into casting that now that the strike is over.

I just wrapped shooting [00:43:00] on a proof of concept for a feature called The Soul Trader, which stars Shane West and Donna Mills and Shawna Grace, and we're very excited about that. The writer just finished the feature version of the script, so we're going to be going out with that shortly and doing the festival circuit.

Also I am currently shooting a documentary about women in magic, as I mentioned. I'm a magician member of the Magic Castle, so this is my community and my other passion. And I'm really excited about it for everyone to meet these extraordinary women and men who support them. And with that, I should also mention which NXX, we really appreciate like all of our male allies and younger allies, I mean, it takes a village.

And we should mention, it's not just us doing this alone. We have an amazing advisory board that's there to help us. We. Met with countless people who have been supportive and generous with their time and energy. So, That's also something that we should definitely mention. But yeah,

Julie Harris Oliver: I love it.

Nandi. What are

you up to?[00:44:00]

Nandi Bowe: I am developing a series based on my real life When I moved myself and three kids with my husband to india Soon after my diagnosis of ms He was offered a job opportunity and I felt like I just didn't know what else to do during that time. I wrote a book, and I'm developing a series that stars Tiffany

Haddish based on that story.

Julie Harris Oliver: What's the book called?

Nandi Bowe: Well, the book is called Hollywood to Bollywood, but I think I'm changing the name, and the

series will be called Nandi.

Julie Harris Oliver: Is the book out? Can we read it?

Nandi Bowe: No,

I'm going through the editing process now. I didn't know how to write a book when I wrote it. And I, in fact, I sort of paid one of my kids to, to read through, well, to, to count words in books to find out how many words a book was a book.

So, I have more words than I need, and so I'm in the editing process right now.

Julie Harris Oliver: What is some [00:45:00] advice that you would leave us with for women coming up in the business? Nandi, can, we start

with you.

Nandi Bowe: I guess it would be the same advice that I give myself on a regular basis, which is just to follow your heart and keep pushing and find allies.

I mean, that's what GenXX is a group of allies and just found find allies in the business. Find ways to keep yourself inspired and to continue telling the stories that move you regardless.

Susan Dynner: Yeah, I agree with that. I think there's so many resources out there now that we didn't even have coming up.

You've got Sundance Collab. You've got Film Independent. You've got all these great Alliance of Women Directors, Film Fatales. All these amazing organizations that, you know, you can find your tribe, find the people that you want to work with. I love working with these three women here. I mean, they're all amazingly talented, as you can see.

I'm so glad that we, you know, we're working on this project [00:46:00] together. And also just do it. You know, you can figure out ways to just do it these days. You can take out your phone and just film. It doesn't have to be professional, just to practice and learn your craft. Great. Maria.

Maria Burton: They've said very much what I would say but just the thing about just keep filming you always develop even if You are making mistakes.

It's good to make mistakes on things that are not You know the professional thing and that's something that you can learn by doing shoots on your cell phone But that also can be a wonderful project and then you have things for your reel and those things lead to work they lead to connections that You, this is a long career and you never know how the connections that you build early on will pay off later.

Like I think Nandi is working with people she went to film school with and it all comes around. So just keep working.

Julie Harris Oliver: It's so true. It's such a small town. [00:47:00] Monique.

Monique Sorgen: So I'm the joyful cynic of the group. And I just want to say, make sure you know why you're doing this. If you're doing it for the money, you're going to be gravely disappointed.

You should quit now. This is not great. Gold rush. You know, you have to do it for the love and for the passion. And because there is literally nothing else you can think of doing. Almost every other job out there is easier than this one. So you really have to be honest with yourself about that. But if you do find this is the only thing that you're happy doing.

You know, congratulations, you found your calling, you know, and then at that point, I would go to the advice that everyone else gave, just like, find your tribe, stick with it. And remember to look at what's fun about this business. Cause there are so many fun things that we get to do [00:48:00] that nobody else gets to do.

Like, you know, you don't necessarily get rich doing this, but you do get a lot of opportunities to go to free screenings and Meet people that no one else got to meet and hear from the pros and connect with the pros. And sometimes you even get to work with the pros. So, you know, there's a lot of fun to be had, but first make sure you're here for the right reasons and that you're not wasting your time.

And also, by the way, one other thing, a lot of people start out wanting to direct and in the process fall in love with something else. Let yourself fall in love with acting if that's who you are. Let yourself fall in love with production design. Let yourself fall in love with makeup if you find out that you actually like that more.

I mean, there are so many jobs to be done here and a lot of people really learned along their path where they actually belonged.

Julie Harris Oliver: Really good advice. And could you say where to find GenXX again?

Susan Dynner: You can find it online at [00:49:00] GenXX. info. And

Monique Sorgen: at the bottom of the page there, you can sign up to be on our mailing list and you'll be kept, you know, abreast of anything we're doing, whether we're doing talks or panels.

We're going to have a launch party. We have not officially launched yet, so we're going to have a launch party. You'll be invited to that. You know, sign up at the bottom of the page and we'll keep you. informed about whatever is going on when we're going to be rolling out our next, you know, fellowship opportunity and all of that.

All right. All right.

Julie Harris Oliver: I can't wait to see what you all do. I want to thank you all for doing this. Nandi Bowe, Maria Burton, Susan Dynner, Monique Sorgen. Thank you.

Maria Burton: Thank you.

Susan Dynner: Thank you.

Julie Harris Oliver: You've been listening to The Other 50 percent A Herstory of Hollywood. I'm Julie Harris Oliver. Thank you to Maria Burton, Susan Dynner, Monique Sorgen, and Nandi Bowe for the conversation and for telling us all about Gen XX.

You can find them at GenXX. info. And [00:50:00] special thanks to Jay Rowe, Dani Rosner, and Alison McQuaid for the music. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and rate and leave a review to help other people find it. You can reach me at julieharrisoliver at gmail. com. Thanks for listening. See you next time.