Episode 211: Austin School of Film, Faiza Kracheni and Carrie Cates

For this episode, I got to meet Faiza Kracheni and Carrie Cates of Austin School of Film, which for nearly two decades has provided alternative education programs and workshops for all ages interested in the arts & film. Faiza Kracheni is the Programs & Education Director, and Carrie Cates is the Artist & Community Director. These women have taken their passion for filmmaking and created a completely accessible space for a growing community of creators, breaking down barriers inherent in our society.  

They launched their newest program Play At Home as a direct response to the ongoing pandemic. Play At Home is an online/offline interactive experience featuring live workshops, events, screenings, and talks by artists and filmmakers from around the globe. Since the launch of Play At Home in April 2020, it has hosted 40 workshops and events with over 900 participants in 14+ countries. 

Episode 210: Kelli Miller, Co-Founder And/Or Studio

Kelli is the co-founder of creative studio And/Or, and has worked in motion design and branding for 15 years with brands like MTV, Netflix, and Amazon. She is a graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art and has taught and lectured at the College for Creative Studies, Pratt, NYU, SVA, Yale, and RISD.

Kelli has directed show titles for FX, HBO and Paramount’s Lip Sync Battle, as well as designing title sequences for a number of films and documentaries including The Assistant, Certain Women and critically acclaimed drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

https://and-or.co/

Episode 209: The Wolf of Snow Hollow: Riki Lindhome, Chloe East and Natalie Metzger

For this episode, I spoke with a producer and two stars of Jim Cummings’ much anticipated new film The Wolf of Snow Hollow, which opens October 9th in theatres around the country and streaming in the comfort of your living room.

Natalie Metzger, whom you will remember from an earlier episode of this podcast, Produced this movie under her shingle Vanishing Angle where she also produced Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road that won the SXSW Grand Jury Award along with about a million other awards. Riki Lindhome plays Officer Julia Robson in the film. You may also know her from Duncanville, Knives Out, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and the comedy musical duo Garfunkel and Oates, just to name a few. And finally, we also have Chloe East who played the role of Jenna Marshall in the film. Chloe made her TV debut in True Blood, playing Sheriff Andy’s daughter. Lately, she has been shooting Generation for HBO, Next Level, and Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.

Natalie, Riki and Chloe joined me from three different locations in this time of covid, so the audio is what it is, but have a listen to what it takes to actually make a film in tricky conditions, and how it is to work with Jim Cummings, then go out or order in and see this film tomorrow.

Episode 208: Stephanie Sanditz, Actor, Writer, Director

Stephanie Sanditz is a writer, director, actress and producer from BROKEN HEART, MO - the name of her feature screenplay that won a Tribeca Film Festival All Access Award for New Voices in Screenwriting. She recently optioned feature film DANCE PARTY, a body-positive dance comedy she co-wrote, with Queen Latifah set to star.

Recently, Stephanie wrote, starred and produced her pilot, THE HIGH LIFE pilot, starring opposite Amy Landecker, Linda Purl, Ron Perkins and Jesse Garcia then won BEST PILOT and BEST ACTRESS in the IMDB Independent Shorts festival, and the We Make Movies International and Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festivals and Dances With Films. She has just been hired to adapt an edgy female boxing feature, the PERFECT ADDICTION, with Constantin Films.

As an actress she is currently co-starring in 37 PROBLEMS, which you may remember from when I interviewed the writer Lisa Ebersole. It was just bought by Amazon Prime, Xfiniti, and Elizabeth Banks, Whohaha, and was accepted in the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival New Media category.

She has her hands in too many things to even list here, but a quick google search will lead you to many articles about her work.

Stephanie is prolific and busy, adapting to quarantine, and made some time to talk to me.

Episode 207: Deborah Sullivan, Executive Producer, Managing Director

As The-Artery’s Managing Director and Executive Producer, Deborah Sullivan channels her extensive background in advertising, production, design, and visual effects into each and every project that she brings to life. Formerly at DDB New York, FCB New York, Berlin Cameron & Partners, RadicalMedia, as well as PeepShow Post Productions (to name a few), her global body of work spans throughout feature films, television programs, commercials/branded content, and music videos.

Since joining The-Artery and helping to lead their team of artists, Deborah has partnered with some of the world’s leading brands including Pepsi, Under Armour, Verizon, Skyworth,  AppGallery, Johnnie Walker, Mercedes-Benz, Stella Artois, and more. She has also garnered an impressive roster of accolades across the Cannes Lions, Effie, Clio, AICE, AICP, D&AD, and The London International Awards.

https://www.the-artery.com/

Episode 206: Prathi Srinivasan, Writer, Actor

For this episode, I spoke with Prathi Srinivasan. Prathi is a talented writer and actress, known for “iZombie,” “A Girl's Guide to Her Early 20s,” and “Wasted.” As an immigrant who grew up in the bustling city of Chennai, India, moving to America was a culture shock for Prathi that resulted in her passion for characters who are stuck between where they come from and where they are going.

She is the co-creator of “Bollyweird” as both an immigrant story and as a complex and rich LGBTQ story, and, alongside frequent writing partner Joshua Levy, their credits include “Titans” (DCUniverse/Netflix), “iZombie” (CW), and the HBO pilot presentation “F**ked Up” (HBOGO, HBONOW). She graduated with a B.A. in literature from The University of Texas at Dallas, and she now resides in sunny California. Despite that, we still recorded this remotely, because pandemic.  

Also, this just in: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/natalie-morales-to-direct-plan-b-for-comedy-american-high-hulu

Episode 205: Michelle Amor, Writer, Professor

Michelle Amor. Michelle is a screenwriter and professor and last year she sold her show called THE HONORABLE to CBS. A one-hour drama about the city’s third elected Black mayor, a family woman of integrity, and a novice to politics, who rises from childhood poverty to the most powerful seat in the most politically corrupt city in the nation. Her other credits include PLAYIN’ FOR LOVE, OF BOYS & MEN, and TUPAC SHAKUR: BEFORE I WAKE, and this was all before finishing her degree.

She is also a passionate Clinical Assistant Professor of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University, and she was honored in Variety’s Entertainment Education Impact Issue as a “top educator around the world”. She is also serving her fourth elected term as co-chair of the Committee of Black Writers in the WGA, whose mission is to empower, increase visibility, and create career and networking opportunities for Black writers in Hollywood. In June 2020, Michelle penned an open letter titled Dear Hollywood addressing systemic racism that went viral. We will talk about that too.

We talk all about her decision to move west to pursue her dream, raising a family while doing it, and what it means to be black in Hollywood and how the system needs to change.

Episode 204: Dr. Nidhi Gupta, Filmmaker, Doctor

For this episode, I spoke with Dr. Nidhi Gupta. Nidhi is a medical doctor with England’s NHS service and a filmmaker. After working in the covid unit, she contracted covid herself and she is still recovering. At the same time, she is a filmmaker and is directing a documentary called Start. Stop. Repeat. for which she is currently crowdfunding with the backing of funding platform Greenlit, which will examine the history of pandemics in interviews with scholars, activists and political figures. You have a few more days to contribute so go to  https://greenlit.fund/project/start-stop-repeat and chip in.

Episode 203: Sonya JF Barnett, Intimacy Coordinator

For this episode, sat down with Sonya JF Barnett, Canada’s only IPA-Certified Intimacy Coordinator. Sonya has been working in the field of sexuality for over ten years. She founded Toronto’s esteemed Keyhole Sessions as a safe and welcoming community for artists to experience the union between sex and art. In early 2011, she co-founded SlutWalk as a way to combat victim-blaming and sexual profiling, for which she was named one of UTNE Reader’s Top Visionaries. She recently completed a specialist degree in Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, and is pursuing her Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, with a focus on sex therapy. She is also a feminist erotic filmmaker, with her short films touring world festivals and each winning multiple awards. A certified sexual health educator, Sonya is also part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community and is kink-friendly. She is currently working as the intimacy coordinator on Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming feature film Nightmare Alley and SEE (Season 2) for Apple TV+. 

I met Sonya on the live series Catch a Break podcast produced with GreenSlate called The Way Back where we talked about getting back to production in the time of Covid. You can see that series at Catchabreakpodcast.com or gslate.com. It is worth the watch or listen.

As you might suspect, we are going to be having a grown up talk about sex and sex education and some porn and you can decide whether or not to listen in your car if your kids are there. But, here’s your warning. Also, a pre-emptive correction, I referenced a piece Dan Savage gave talking about porn and the internet, but I called him Fred Savage. To my knowledge, Fred Savage hasn’t talked about porn on the internet publicly. Although we might be interested in what he has to say about it, that was a mistake. It was Dan Savage.

And in a wonderful full circle moment, Sonya talked about how hearing Amanda Blumenthal on this podcast, led her to seek her out and take her training. I love it when a plan comes together and this world is made a little smaller and more connected.

Episode 202: Felischa Marye, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator

For this episode, I got to meet Felischa Marye, a graduate of the MFA screenwriting program at UCLA, who transitioned into the film industry after a successful career in public relations/integrated marketing in Chicago, where she was born and raised. While still in film school, she sold her first comedy pilot to HBO. She most recently created and produced a raunchy friends comedy series, set in Atlanta, called “Bigger,” for BET’s new streaming service, BET+, with Will Packer producing. Bigger Season 2 is currently in development. Felischa also wrote on two seasons of the hit Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.”

Felischa currently resides in Los Angeles, and is proud to have made LA her home, largely because of Chicago’s whether and its indiscriminate cruelty.

Episode 200: Saraswathi Balgam, Director, Writer, Creative Producer

For this very auspicious episode, I sat down with my friend Saraswathi Balgam, aka Vani. She is a writer, director and creative producer with several award winning shorts and documentaries to her credit.  She is currently developing a slate of animation and live action projects based on her original stories. Under the banner of her production company, Dancing Atoms, Vani is also overseeing several hand picked projects conceived by creatives in the USA and India.

Previously, Vani served as the Head of Creative Management for DreamWorks Animation in Shanghai, where she championed Chinese storyboard artists to tell authentic Chinese stories designed for global audiences. Vani was also the Executive Director of Rhythm & Hues India, a multiple Academy Award winning Animation and VFX studio.  She started the studios in Asia, and managed the teams of artists and technicians that created the digital characters in “Life of Pi” “Snow White and the Huntsman” “Night at the Museum”, “The Golden Compass”  “X-Men”, and “The Chronicles of Narnia”. 

Vani, along with her husband Prashant Buyyala, who was instrumental in connecting Vani to Rhythm and Hues in 2000, led the Rhythm and Hues Studios International. Prashant worked with Rhythm and Hues for 18 years and Vani worked there for 12.

Vani is extremely passionate about supporting the artistic community.  She has volunteered tirelessly and served as the President of ASIFA India and Women In Animation India for 10 years. Through her efforts, she has become an indisputable icon in the history of Indian animation. 

Episode 197: Lorena Gordon, Filmmaker

Lorena is an award-winning writer-director. Hailing from Queens, Lorena began her journey working on sets at the age of eighteen with directors such as: Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, and Ben Stiller. The stories Lorena is most passionate about telling are about the human condition and the complicated facets of life. Lorena feels it’s her responsibility as someone who is a woman, Latina, and gay to be a voice to the disenfranchised.

She has directed and produced short films: including Fallen Hero, The Uninvited, The Cure, Alone, and Times Like These. Most recently, Lorena wrote and directed the short film At Last. Lorena has also combined her love for music by directing several music videos, and commercials

@atlastshortfilm

@lorenagordon 

Links: 

At Last: https://youtu.be/i3xwW_iIM1U

Times Like These: https://youtu.be/YNF2vLrfp8I

Episode 196: Paige Henderson and Nicole Murray, Creators

For this episode, I got to catch up with Paige Henderson and Nicole Murray. Together, they have Svelte Dog Productions, under which they wrote, produced, and star in the webseries called Dead Friends. They both are from the Seattle area and graduated from the University of Washington, and by a weird coincidence moved to LA at the same time, and became roommates and collaborators. We had a great time doing this, maybe because we recorded this last January, before the world went completely mad.

PAIGE HENDERSON

Paige graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature: Cinema Studies from the University of Washington. Amongst various film production jobs, she spent a year travelling the world.

Upon her return to the U.S. she set her focus on acting. Where she starred in feature film “Vellai Pookal”, as well as directed and produced her short “To Build a Forest”.

After moving to Los Angeles, she has frequented short film sets as actress, producer, director and art department. Paige co-founded Svelte Dog Productions, where she wrote and produced short films “Nacken” and “Josie’s Song.”

NICOLE MURRAY

Nicole has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from the University of Washington. She has years of research experience between an addiction and an individual differences laboratory, and continued research after graduation. All throughout her schooling, Nicole had quenched her passion for acting through plays and making films with friends.

Nicole began pursuing film acting in tandem with research in Seattle, starring in shorts and a pilot entitled “Vashon”. She moved down to Los Angeles, to hit her dream full-force, where she starred in various short films alongside producing, directing and writing. She co-founded Svelte Dog Productions and currently works at a Renewable fuels facility.

Watch their series here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DeadFriendsWebseries?sub_confirmation=1

Episode 195: Naomi McDougall Jones, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer, Activist

I first spoke with Naomi for episode 57. I recently caught up with her to see what she has been up to in the last couple of years, and it is a lot. She has written a book called THE WRONG KIND OF WOMEN: INSIDE OUR REVOLUTION TO DISMANTLE THE GODS OF HOLLYWOOD, and toured with her movie called BITE ME. She's also teaching online filmmaker classes that you should check out: naomimcdougalljones.com/class

 

Episode 148: Ayser Salman, Author

This episode generously sponsored by:

Today I interviewed my friend, Ayser Salman, for the second time, because her book, The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in is coming out on March 5th, so I wanted to have her on to talk about it. She was previously on episode 47, so that was awhile ago and if I am remembering correctly, it was hilarious, and maybe because we were having wine and cheese. So, if you want to hear her entire story, go listen to that episode, or more relevantly, buy her book. Which you can order here.

Get the book

Episode 145: Eden Young and Catherine Natale, Creators

I got to speak with the creators of the webseries called All About Manos – Eden Young and Catherine Natale. Eden is an actor and stand-up comedian turned creator and Catherine is also an actor and writer turned creator. They will tell us all about the show and how they came to do it. You can find All About Manos at allaboutmanostv.com and on a bunch of digital platforms including Amazon Prime. They are killing it on the festival circuit also.

We recorded remotely, and it must have been during Mercury Retrograde, because it took us several tries on several platforms before we got something to work. So, the audio quality could be better, but this conversation couldn’t be. They are a delight.

Episode 134: Julia Lynn Huffman, Storyteller, Filmmaker, Coach

This episode is brought to you by:

Julia started out in broadcast journalism and acting, and then transitioned to working behind the camera. Having worked in the television industry for over two decades and cutting her teeth as a coordinator, writer, producer, shooter and editor for companies like E! Entertainment, Steven Bochko Productions and HGTV, Julia went on to direct, write and produce her own feature film and become one of a handful of female directors to win multiple awards in the film festival circuit and secure world-wide distribution for her first feature film, endorsed by Dr Jane Goodall, Medicine of the Wolf.

Julia just finished her short film WOLF SPIRIT starring world renowned National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg and will be using the film as a tool for education about the value of wolves and their necessary place on the north American landscape.

We talked about her passion projects, tenacity in the business, and the state of women in the world. As we do.

You can reach Julia via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-h-30a7734/

Episode 132: Sasheen R. Artis, Writer/Producer

This episode is brought to you by:

Sasheen is a Writer/Producer with over 20 years of experience in live events, documentaries, talk shows and scripted programming, such as “Fight for $15” and its impact on small business, the school-to-prison pipeline, the plight of New Orleans residents on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and a “one-night only” Prince concert at the Conga Room in Los Angeles. Sasheen also produced the late-night talk show, Tavis Smiley.

Currently, she is in development with several TV and film projects and co-chairs the Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master Workshop. 

This summer, she was invited by the Royal Film Commission - Jordan to develop a curriculum and teach a 5-day Workshop to their local filmmakers on how to prepare their projects for the marketplace. The Workshop culminated with the filmmakers pitching their projects for feedback to top Hollywood execs from Sony, Fox, Paramount, Media Rights Capital and HBO. 

We talked about her incredible journey from homelessness to producing, and broke down the business case for diversity. This is a good one.

Episode 130: Ellen Gerstein, Actor, Writer, Producer, Director

This episode is brought to you by:

Ellen is an award-winning writer, director, producer, and actor. She is a member of: Women In Film, The Alliance of Women Directors, LA Film Team, Film Independent, The Actors Studio and SAG-AFTRA. Apart from having a million credits in film, television and theatre, she has also worked as a psychotherapist, and a stand-up comic.

Without sounding too biased, this is one of my very favorite interviews. If you have ever studied acting in New York, this will take you back. Ellen is delicious, and prepare yourself, you are about to fall in love with her.

You can find Ellen here: www.ellengerstein.com

Episode 123: Chelsea Rivera and Taylor C. Baker, Showrunners, Actors

This episode brought to you by:

Chelsea and Taylor have a series on Seeka TV called Female Friendly, about two unemployed friends who decided to start a female friendly porn production company. They are Writers, Producers and Actors, and we had a great time chatting at my table. They tell me all about their journey finding their way in Hollywood and all the creeps that have offered to sleep with them to help their careers. And spoiler alert, you don’t need to sleep with creeps to make it in Hollywood.

And what does sexy mean, anyway?

You can find their series here: http://www.femalefriendlyseries.com/