Episode 194: Courtney Hope Therond

Courtney Hope Therond is an award-winning director whose films feature an unapologetically female perspective. She has screened short films at several film festivals and her latest short Rehearsal, which tackles the grey areas of consent, premiered online on Short of the Week and received a Vimeo Staff Pick after playing over a dozen festivals internationally. Her film The Dress You Have On won multiple awards including two jury prizes and is distributed by Revry TV and Seed & Spark. Courtney’s digital series Comedic Timing was recently acquired by WhoHaHa and the screenplay for her digital series Between Us Girls was a finalist at Austin Film Festival.

Courtney is a graduate of NYU and was a Cinereach Film Fellow. After four years in France, she now directs narrative and branded content in Los Angeles and is currently developing her first feature film

Episode 193: Sophie Max, Actor, Writer, Producer

Sophie Max is an actress, writer and producer based in London and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She is the writer, executive producer and lead actress in the film The Whole Truth and previous film work includes writing and starring in the award-winning Callie. As an actress, Sophie has been seen across theatre and film in New York and the UK. Sophie is also a poet and her book, lost and found, was published in January 2018 and is available on Amazon worldwide. Sophie is a proud advocate for womxn in the film industry and is passionate about elevating womxn’s voices and stories in media. In other words, she has come to the right place.

Episode 192: Melissa Center and Tanny Jiraprapasuke - Whole Self Systems

For this episode, I got to speak with Melissa Center, an award-winning filmmaker & actress, and Tanny Jiraprapasuke, a mindful coach, practitioner, & scholar, who met by chance in Los Angeles, at the National Women’s Political Caucus Summer Spritz event. As women in support of other women: they discovered a mutual desire to shift the moral paradigm around closing the gender pay-gap, reevaluating hiring practices, and transforming organizations’ cultures.

Melissa and Tanny decided to combine their talents, aligned values, and full dedication to affecting change for good. They are not trying to dismantle “systems,” but rather to interrupt the status quo “systems” by offering a new kind of system: Whole Self Systems. Through Whole Self Systems, Melissa & Tanny inspire new ways of communicating, empower ethical leaders (many from marginalized communities), and elevate workplaces that prioritize diversity, gender equanimity, & social innovation.

We spoke earlier this year, before we were all in isolation, but somehow this work seems even more relevant now, as many people are looking inward toward mindfulness and as the world is changing before our very eyes.

Episode 191: Ashley Shelton, Actor, Filmmaker

Ashley got her start starring in the critically-acclaimed film, Something, Anything. She was also featured on IndieWire's 2015 year end critics poll best lead actress list. Ashley is a graduate in Theatre from the University of Tennessee and is passionate about telling stories from the heart. Her goals include bringing to life stories that give light to social issues and connecting with people through cinema. In 2018 her writing and directorial debut came to life with MAGNOLIA & CLEMENTINE that was featured in Amazon Prime's first ever film festival.

We spoke remotely, before social distancing was the new normal.

Episode 190: Gabriela Ledesma and Callie Schuttera, Filmmakers

For this episode, I got to speak with the founders of the production company, Poison Pictures: Gabriela Ledesma and Callie Schuttera. The pair met in 2015 and have since written and produced countless projects together including comedy specials, feature films, live events, commercials, and documentaries.

​Their work has been featured and acclaimed by Film Pulse, CherryPicks, Film Threat, Film Inquiry, and more.

We talked about their journeys, both before each other and together, and their film Blue, which you can find on Amazon Prime.  

Episode 189: Mary Montiforte, Production Executive

Mary Montiforte is the Vice President of Physical Production at Endeavor Content. She originally came up through production accounting and producing as a freelancer, then moved into staff positions in production finance and physical production.

Her longest stint was as a staff production controller for NBCUniversal before moving on to Lionsgate and now Endeavor Content. Some of her credits include 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Santa Clause 2, Thirteen Days, Air Force One and a crowd favorite The Commitments - just to barely scratch the surface.

Amongst everything else, we talked about the tenacity and persistence it takes to have longevity in this career.

Episode 188: Carolina Groppa, Producer

Carolina is a Brazilian born Emmy nominated producer living in Los Angeles.

She produced the award winning and 2017 Emmy nominated documentary AUTISM IN LOVE, which explores how adults with autism find and navigate romantic relationships.   Her narrative feature films include MISS VIRGINIA, starring Uzo Aduba, the Netflix Originals GIRLFRIEND'S DAY and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. She co-produced THE FEMALE BRAIN, Whitney Cummings' directing debut feature film, and also produced SYLVIE'S LOVE which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. 

She also has her own podcast that you should check out – it’s called Life with Caca – It’s a podcast of intimate and honest conversations with producers from all corners of the entertainment industry.

It shines a light on the many career paths that exist under the umbrella of producing, the messy, unglamorous realities behind the title, and why we love it so much.

Episode 187: Becky Morrison, Founder

The production process when it comes to film, television, and advertising has lately been seen as outdated and needs to be simplified to be able to adhere to society’s needs for more diverse creators and stories. When Becky Morrison founded The Light, a production studio in Brooklyn, NY, she did it with a simple mission: change the culture of production, overhauling an outdated model in favor of one founded on values of equality, transparency and inclusion. She aims to create a system that prioritizes people, profit and the environment, responding to the ever-evolving economic landscape of the advertising industry. With that set model, Becky and The Light team have been able to secure work for brands like Lexus, JCPenney, and A&E. We spoke in her Brooklyn studio on a snowy day in NY.

Episode 180: Kathleen Courtney, UPM

This episode is brought to you by:

Kathleen has enjoyed working in the film and television industry for over 30 years. She has worked “on location” most of that time, shooting across this country as well as internationally. Over her career, she has served as Producer, Production Executive, Production Manager and Production Coordinator on feature films and most recently on TV. She is currently working on the Netflix hit 13 Reasons Why. Previous credits include Chance, Steve Jobs, San Andreas, The Boy Next Door, and Because of Winn-Dixie. At one point, she was the head of production at a company called The Film Department.

We talked all about her career, how she helped organize Production Coordinators, start the Frog & Frigate, and continue her career, even after moving out of Los Angeles. It takes effort, but it’s possible.

Episode 179: Jessie Levandov and Nina Reyes, Co Founders & Directors of Mala Forever

This episode is brought to you by:

Jessie Levandov and Nina Reyes are the Co-Founders & Directors of Mala Forever. Mala Forever is an award-winning, women-run film and digital studio based in LA and NYC.

They develop and produce films, new media, and commissioned work that centers unheard voices. They are redefining the future of filmmaking through equitable production practices, and their growing community-based platform is a cultural hub for the radical femme revolution. 

Jessie is an award-winning community-based filmmaker, creative director, and educator. Her queer documentary series Signified was presented by the Guggenheim Lab, and her short film The Greggs won the Spirit Award at Slamdance. Her work has been featured in publications such as Teen Vogue, Huffington Post and Them. Jessie is committed to storytelling as a tool for social justice, and served as the longtime program director of Youth Documentary Workshop at New York’s Educational Video Center.

Nina is a countercultural filmmaker and creative director whose work is grounded in her point of view as a mixed-race first-generation Mexican-American and Jewish woman. Her feature-length screenplay La Paz was a finalist for the 2017 Latino Screenwriting Project; her short films, Organism and Invisible Men, have won press and played at festivals around the world including Outfest, Frameline, and HBO: New York Latino Film Festival. They both are fellow NYU alums with BFA’s from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts – go violets.

You can follow them on the social media @_MalaForever_

Episode 178: Natalie Metzger, Writer, Director, Producer

This episode is brought to you by:

For this episode, I spoke with Natalie Metzger, who is the VP of Development and Production for Vanishing Angle. Natalie is a Spirit Award nominated producer whose credits include Jim Cummings’ newest film THE WEREWOLF, GREENER GRASS (Sundance, SXSW), THUNDER ROAD (Grand Jury Award - SXSW), THE ROBBERY (Sundance), MATPAT’S GAME LAB (Streamy Award), Lil Dicky’s FREAKY FRIDAY (over 506 million views), HYDRANGEA (Vimeo Staff Pick), THE ARRIVAL (Jury Award - Napa Valley Film Festival), THE STOP (Vimeo Staff Pick), virtual reality miniseries GLOBAL GAMER, among numerous others. 

Her directing credits include AT&T original documentary ALONE IN THE GAME (AFI Docs, Frameline, Outfest); healthcare documentary SPECIAL BLOOD (Best Feature Documentary - CWFF); PSA “Topless Women Talk NFL” (featured in Washington Post, Huffington Post, Vice); and numerous award-winning commercials and short films. 

Also an accomplished writer, Metzger won the Gold Prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards for her sci-fi script IMMORTAL.

Metzger holds a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University

Episode 177: Susie Singer Carter, Writer, Director, Producer, Actor

This episode is brought to you by:

Susie’s website bio says this: “If you asked five-year-old Susie what she wanted to be when she grew up, she’d have placed her hands defiantly on either side of her pink tutu and said, “Everything. Duh!” And that is what she has done. She’s a writer, producer, actor, musician. She sat down, we became immediate friends, and talked about everything – marriage, divorce, parenting, daughtering. She recently made an autobiographical short film about alzheimer’s called My Mom and the Girl, starring the great Valerie Harper, which she’ll tell us all about, and you can see her dancing hip hop on facebook all the time. She has the media company called Go Girl Media.

And here are all the links:

MY MOM AND THE GIRL

TRAILER - https://vimeo.com/183072790

AMAZON VIDEO - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NDQPGXL

ITUNES - https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/my-mom-and-the-girl/id137275414

GOOGLE PLAY - https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/My_Mom_and_the_Girl?id=P6LORPD00no

Women writer documentaries

Women Who Wrote The Way - https://vimeo.com/207360299/bbbf9385e6

Breaking Good - https://vimeo.com/266981218

Music Video

Bad Dreams in Hollywood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF00Et4vHxE

Episode 176: Eline Mets, Writer, Producer, Motocross Racer

This episode is brought to you by:

Eline Mets is creating a series about women in motocross. She got tired of waiting for someone else to do it, so like a real badass woman, she’s doing it herself. Originally from Estonia, Eline is a motocross champion and the first woman in Canada to jump her dirt bike onto an airbag. Passionate about motorcycles and filmmaking, Eline is dedicated to telling stories of badass women. With a background in creating non-fiction content for years, Diaries of Badass Chicks is her directorial scripted series debut. She started a crowd funding for a webseries, and then realized it’s much bigger than that when she received videos and encouragement from women all over the world.
www.badasschicks.tv

Episode 175: Marquette Jones, Filmmaker, Professor, Podcaster

This episode is brought to you by:

Marquette Jones began her filmmaking journey in her hometown, Youngstown, Ohio. Marquette is an alumna of New York University’s Film and Television Production graduate program. Before becoming a filmmaker, Marquette was a public interest attorney and social entrepreneur in Oakland, California.  

Her feature film screenplay, AFTER THE JUMP, http://www.afterthejumpmovie.com/, which is currently in development, was recently selected for the Athena Screenwriting Lab in Los Angeles and was a finalist in the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, Broad Humor Film Festival as well as a semi-finalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. It was also selected to participate in the Women in Film/ Sundance Institute’s Film Financing and Strategy Intensive.

Her directing work includes FORGIVING CHRIS BROWN, ROUND ON BOTH SIDES, TUNK, HEROES WANTED and STREETS 2 SUITES (lensed by Bradford Young).  Her films have been featured on Amazon Video, PBS, Showtime, KweliTV, Aspire TV, BET, IFC, StreamPlix and other broadcast & digital outlets. She has also directed several commercial spots, which led to both a Telly Award and Aurora Award for excellence in storytelling.

As a producer, Marquette’s credits include Andrea Williams’ SPOONFUL OF SUGAR, Alrick Brown’s ADVENTURES OF SUPERN*GGER, and Tamika Guishard’s JACKIE. Her past filmmaking-related awards include: New York University’s Warner Bros. Production Award, Panasonic‘s “P2 for a Cause” Grand Prize Winner, Fotokem Film Processing Grant, Woods Hole Film Festival, Best Short Screenplay Winner for “Free’s Rain”, ProMotion Pictures / Heineken Branded Entertainment Shorts Competition Winner, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival Best Short Narrative, and First Run Festival’s Producing Award.

When she is not busy writing, producing or directing, Marquette hosts the Directing Magic podcast,http://www.directingmagic.com/, and teaches creative media at The University of Alabama.

Episode 174: Leslie Belzberg, Producer

This episode is brought to you by:

Leslie is a producer, most notably working with John Landis, on all of your favorite things, such as Three Amigos, Beverly Hills Cop III, Coming to America, Trading Places, Thriller, Sliders, Dream On, Blues Brothers 2000, Honey I Shrunk the Kids series, Crazy Heart and the list goes on and on and on, before she transitioned to being a production executive in house.

At the time of this recording, she was at Gaumont, but has since transitioned to the Head of Production for Imagine Entertainment.

Leslie has always worked toward diversity, even and especially when she was the only woman in the room. She has incredible perspective and experience and it was such an honor to get to have this conversation.

Episode 173: Eleanor Wells, Filmmaker

This episode is brought to you by:

Eleanor was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was a lover of film, writing, and storytelling from an early age. She has written and directed several short films, including Feature Presentation, about three lonely people in need of connection who find it at the movies as well as Tales from the Airwaves, a Mercury Theater-esque radio drama. She fell in love with the classics as a teenager, and is especially interested in portraying other eras. She firmly believes storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to empathize with and understand the lives of others.

She tells us all about her current film, Eagle Rock, which dives deep into the psychology of what might make a young woman join a cult. It’s pretty fascinating.

You can find more here:

website: https://www.eaglerockshortfilm.com/

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eaglerockshort/

imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9108344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

THE 6th ANNUAL LOS ANGELES 

DIVERSITY FILM FESTIVAL 

AUGUST 23 - 25 IN WEST HOLLYWOOD

WITH FILM SCREENINGS, PANEL DISCUSSIONS AND GUEST SPEAKERS

 emphasizing works created by and featuring diverse 

stories, artists and experiences. 

August 22-24, 2019: The Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival (LADFF) is a three-day event featuring 7 different film screenings that provide the audience with a unique, fun and profound experience in an inclusive and multicultural environment.  Now in its sixth year, the growing festival features 40 films, guest speakers, panel discussions, and Q&As with filmmakers, all presented at the Let Live Theater (916 N. Formosa Ave, LA 90046).  LADFF kicks off Thursday, August 22 at 8PM with a screening of six global shorts with selections from Israel, Iran and the U.S. featuring films about magic, mental health, menstruation, falling in love with Cerebral Palsy, misconduct in a Southern Baptist church, to name only a few.  The screenings will be followed by a Q & A and will be capped with an Opening Night Party and meet and greet with the filmmakers; food and beverages will be served.  For tickets to opening night and other festival programming: https://filmfreeway.com/LADFF/tickets. 

Episode 167: Farhoud Meybodi, Wayfarer Entertainment

This episode is brought to you by:

As EVP of Creative at Wayfarer Entertainment, Farhoud Meybodi sets and executes Wayfarer’s overall creative vision across feature film, documentary, series, and commercial content, further strengthening the company’s mission to create entertainment that compels social change.

At his core, Farhoud is passionate about storytelling that entertains, educates, and inspires. He also believes in the transformational power of empathy and shared human experience to heal the political-social divide of the present day.

Mostly recently, Farhoud directed and executive produced several episodes of Wayfarer’s flagship series, My Last Days. He received a Television Academy Honors Award, Muse and Clio for his work on the series. Farhoud also executive produced and wrote Man Enough, for which he received a Telly and Adweek Arc award, and created Project Upgrade, an unscripted series featuring YouTube stars, The Merrell Twins, as they set out to design and build a new consumer product with the help of successful female mentors.

Farhoud serves as a board member of the Wayfarer Foundation, The Muslim Public Affairs Council, as well as Loyola Marymount University’s Business School A-LIST Marketing Pathway, where he teaches a course on Branded Content for Social Impact.

We talked about many things, but one of them was how to invite men into the conversation about equality that promotes healing and forward movement.

See more of Farhoud’s work here:

My Last Days: Meet Anthony: https://www.facebook.com/mylastdayssoulpancake/videos/391034138419712/

Man Enough: #metoo: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreManEnough/videos/2129001024007697/

Episode 166: Maria Mealla, Filmmaker

This episode is brought to you by:

Maria was born in Bolivia and raised by storytellers that encouraged her to pursue filmmaking, a path which eventually led her San Francisco. She ventured into movie-making in 2010 and learned the craft through work trade by collaborating with other talented filmmakers on their projects. She has since written, produced and directed the feature film Women and Cigarettes, a collection of romantic short films titled Business Affairs, and a handful of shorts on lower-middle class millennials. She is the chapter leader of the SF Cinefemme Director’s Collective as well as an active member of Film Fatales. Her most recent film Bring me an Avocado, premiered in March and took home the audience award at Cinequest. When she’s not working on narrative films, she freelances as a video producer throughout the Bay Area.

We talked about her path to filmmaking, the state of inclusion within commercial advertising, and her film Bring me an Avocado.

Episode 165: Lisa Hammer, Filmmaker, Writer, Musician

This episode is brought to you by:

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 158: Ingrid Kleinig, Stunt Performer and Coordinator

This episode generously sponsored by:

Ingrid is a stunt performer and stunt coordinator. She grew up in Australia and fell into the world of stunts while performing 140ft above the arena in the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games. Having toured the globe with renowned physical theatre company Legs on the Wall as well as the Sydney Theatre Company, she had formed a wealth of physical, technical & artistic vocabulary across multiple fields including directing & rigging that lent itself precisely to the stunt industry.

Ingrid hails from a long line of professional drivers so vehicles became an early niche. She was one of only two female stunt drivers on Mad Max: Fury Road, can drive a Big Rig truck & hold her breath underwater for five & a half minutes. She is also the first female to be officially graded as an Assistant Stunt Coordinator in Australia where, to date, no female has ever held the position of Stunt Coordinator. She is one of handful of female stunt coordinators here in the US.

Her story is remarkable and we talk about her journey, how it was to rise in this field as a woman, and how she is navigating motherhood as a stunt performer, proving once again that it is foolish to underestimated a working mother.

Her credits include: Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and Wasp, Justice League, Suicide Squad basically everything. She is formidable and she laughs at fear. Literally. Wait for it.

You can reach Ingrid here: info@ingridkleinig.com