Full Transcript for Shine Global, Young Filmmakers, And The Power Of Impact Docs

children with us. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:43.439 Into a war zone. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:44.480 Into the war zone. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:44.959 Yeah. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:50.160 Um, I don't know, where is child protection services when when kids really need them? 00:05:50.399 --> 00:06:05.920 And um we went in search of this particular story, but by the time we got to Uganda, the circumstances had changed, and all of the families that had been living independently in their own homes had been herded up and put into an internally displaced persons camp. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:10.800 And so we got there and we thought, oh God, well, what's our story? 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:32.000 And and we by chance one day on a tour uh of schools, listening to a headmaster talk endlessly about his school's programs, uh, they mentioned the fact that for the first time in several years, children from the north would be allowed to participate in Uganda's national music and dance festival. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:45.360 And we just looked at each other and we said, That's our story, because we wanted to tell a story that would be real and would be gritty and maybe very sad, but we also wanted to tell it in a way that was hopeful. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:07:02.800 So when we could show these kids living in this camp, they they live in a camp called Patong, and it had been built to house maybe 5,000 people, but they were maybe as many as ten times that number actually forced to live together, and their life was very, very hard. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:12.639 But when they would rehearse for the music festival, their the singing, their dancing, a whole other side of them came to light, and that was what we wanted the film to reflect. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.360 And uh first we didn't know we were gonna make a film. 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:18.720 I mean, we we kind of thought, well, well, how can we help? 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:35.279 And uh Sue was sort of mulling it over and said, Well, we could adopt Patang and Montclair's a big town, and we'll do a fundraiser and maybe we'll send money, we'll be able and I was like, you know, I I don't know anything about fundraiser, but I know how to make a movie, and this sounds like a movie. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:41.439 And Sue was at the time still teaching and social worker, and she's like, Wow, movie, we can make a movie, that's great, right? 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:43.279 And I said, Yeah, and you can help. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.199 And I said, Could I help? 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.639 I w couldn't even dare to imagine that I could be part of this. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:49.680 Absolutely. 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:51.360 You're the executive producer. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:59.040 And I remember I was just walked out of the room kind of thinking about it, and then Sue looked and I heard her voice say, Well, that's great, what a great title, right? 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:00.000 What do I do? 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:02.160 And I

said, Well, you raise the money. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.079 The the that's the hard part, actually. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:07.120 That was hard part. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.319 When we went into the war zone, it was an incredible experience. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:19.680 And as Sue said, we took our children who was a teenager and a young woman at the time, and and felt this was a chance for them to see another part of the world and what was going on. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.000 That was the good part of taking them. 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:25.600 But it kind of went awry a little bit when we got in there. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:35.360 We we kind of went on the bus and we were looking at different locations, and one point uh one of the people with us said they gotta go to the bathroom, get off the bus. 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:40.240 They went to the front of the bus, and the colonel stopped them and said, You're not getting off the bus. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:42.080 Look out there in the in the bushes. 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.120 And he said, That's where the rebels are and they're watching us. 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:49.679 And we were like, Ooh, this is uh a little more dangerous. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:51.840 We got to our camp to stay where we were staying. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:09:02.399 Well, first, as we were trooping through the mud and the muck, we were really amazed that my daughter had brought her Gold Lamay sandals into this as a as a way to walk around. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:10.240 And uh, and outside one of the rooms was this really heavy-duty military boots, and we asked the person showing to the room, said, Who what is that? 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:19.519 And he said, Well, that belongs to a colonel who was in the Lord's Resistance Army who is staying here on the way to be reconciled with the tribe. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:21.679 They were gonna forgive him, I guess. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:28.559 This is a man who would no less than 20 kids into the army and turn them into deadly child soldiers. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:33.200 And I just remember my son looking at the door and go, killer, killer. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:34.320 I don't know. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:37.440 It was uh scary moments, but we we prevailed. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:39.600 Well, you you really prevailed. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:43.840 That was an Oscar-nominated film, your first film that you did. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:49.039 So how did you produce a film at that level for your first the first get out? 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:50.240 Did you bring a crew? 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:51.440 How did you film it? 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:59.360 We had an amazing director that Albi found when he was working at uh Spike TV, Sean Fine. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:08.879 And Sean assembled a small but really terrific crew, and they came to Uganda a couple of weeks after we were there, and they scouted. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:16.399 They they went to three two or three different

schools, and they found the three kids that they wanted to work with all in one school. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:18.320 And uh it was tough. 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:20.480 And you know, I I think about this a lot. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:22.399 There are a couple of scenes in that film. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:30.799 Very few of you have ever seen this film because it's been under litigation for 19 years because of uh the documentary films. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:36.639 Yeah, there was amazing films where he he got the trust of them and it it took a while. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:38.240 These kids were so damaged. 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.679 I mean, Dominic had killed somebody when he was nine years old with a tough. 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:42.320 They were tough. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:51.440 But he and I remember there was you know, it was our first film, their first film, and we didn't get any footage for like three weeks, and we were panicked because it cost a lot of money. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.360 And we were like, Sean, what's what are you shooting? 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:55.679 He goes, I can't shoot yet, I can't shoot you. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:04.320 Because every day he would go out to this tree outside the camp and sit there and wait for Nancy and some of the kids to come out to talk to him. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:07.360 And they would not come out every day. 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.840 And then after a while, he would be finally Nancy came out and he said, Well, why didn't you meet me? 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:18.559 And she said, Well, I was watching you to see if you were gonna come every day and really talk to me. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.120 So it took a while for him to get that trust. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:33.279 They got the trust, they shot these incredible films uh segments, one by a grave where she was weeping over her father, and there was the LRA was watching her also there. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:36.399 I think that's the key to a lot of what you were saying. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:48.080 Um we spoke before about your documentaries of documentary filmmaking in general, is that you need to get the trust of the people you're filming, and that takes however long it takes. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:52.879 And I'm gonna add that I spoke with Nancy this past week. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:55.440 She called actually seeking money. 00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:02.559 She'd been working for USAID for the last seven years, and of course, all funding has been cut from there. 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:12.559 And she she talked really movingly about the impact that that's had on families, especially small children, and how many of them are are dying from AIDS. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:20.559 And I thought, you know, she's one of several of the kids that we've worked with who've gone on to do amazing work themselves. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:26.399 And it's it's I'm sure being in the documentary had something to do with that, but it's it's very moving to see that. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:34.399 Well, the next film that we wanted to talk about is the, you know, you've started, you've had a lot of celebrities that have come on board. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:43.279 And I know that it I'm going a little bit chronologically that you had the the the harvest come up, and I believe that Evelyn Goria came on that. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:47.600 You told us a funny story about your first Zoom call with her. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:48.559 Can you share that? 00:12:48.960 --> 00:13:03.440 Yeah, first let me say before you tell that, which is like because we did that first film and it was an amazing journey, one at Sundance, and it you know, went at all these festivals, and it ended up at the Oscars, and we were there, and it was Seuss's first film. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:03.679 Yeah. 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:11.440 And you know, I've been making films for a while, but then we went to make the second film, and Seuss goes, Well, that's the way you do it. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:18.159 You make the film, you go to Sundance, you go to festivals, Oscar and you go to the Oscars, this is how it works. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:20.480 You got spoiled off the first. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:21.600 Well, we did get spoiled. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:24.720 It was tough to find the funding for the next film, which was amazing. 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:27.200 We thought, okay, we did this, we're on our way. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:31.120 I mean, you would think that, getting the recognition of being at the Oscars. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:44.960 Well, one of the things that we learn to our chagrin, honestly, and has been true all the 20 years since Shine first started, is people who come in to support one film, they come in because of the subject matter. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:54.159 You know, I mean now, yes, at this point I think Shine has a very good reputation, but it still doesn't really bring the big money in for for projects. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:59.519 So I I I was just operating on totally the wrong the wrong preposition. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:00.480 Proposition. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.639 So we were really kind of panicked. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.320 We didn't know what we were gonna do, how we were gonna find the money to make the harvest. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:21.279 And the harvest was the story of three of the estimated half million American children who leave school for months uh every year to travel with their families across the country to pick different crops. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:32.240 We were we reached out to a friend in LA, and she was a friend of Eva Langoria's agent and Christie, and Christy told Eva what we were doing. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.440 And Eva was an activist, and this was her issue. 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:43.360 She had been a close friend of Dolores Cuerta, who along with Cesar Chavez, had started the first strikes against farm owners. 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:57.120 I attended

my first Zoom session ever in a corporate theater and an enormous screen, and we're I'm sitting there, and Eva comes in and she sits down at her table and she introduces herself. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:00.320 Like she needed to introduce herself, right? 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:07.679 Um, and um and she I'll never forget, she leaned forward and she said, I am begging you to let me be a part of this film. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:10.720 And it was all I could do not to slide out of my chair. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.519 I was I was so surprised by that. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:28.720 And she came on board and um and then I they sent this contract that we had to sign that she had to go first class, she had to fly first class, she had to, you know, get limos, she had to have her hair and makeup done and whatever. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:34.799 And I said, unless she's willing for us to drive her and I'll do her hair and makeup, I can't possibly sign this. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.799 We we can't afford any of this. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:40.639 And Chrissy said, you have to sign it, but don't worry, she'll never ask you to do this. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:42.399 And to she never did. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:49.039 And she raised, she and her her close associates raised 80% of the funding for that film. 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:50.480 She worked the film. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.240 She and she has continued to any place that she has put her name. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:55.120 She worked it. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:58.720 She went to Washington with us to show it to congressional leaders. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:00.960 She showed it across the country. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:02.480 She was very committed. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:04.399 Um, we owe a lot to Eva for doing that. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:05.440 Impressive. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.000 So, Rachel, which movie did you want to look at? 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:08.399 Yeah. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:12.559 Well, we should talk about in a sense a the one that won the Oscar. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:12.960 Yeah. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:15.120 So soon after that, you did win the Oscar. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:16.080 So tell us about that. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:23.120 I'm laughing because the first time we were nominated for Wardance, I bought my first and only designer dress of my life. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.480 And it was um Donna Karen, I don't know how you pronounce the name. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:26.960 Donna Karen. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:27.440 Karen. 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:33.279 Okay, and it was this jersey kind of dress, and I just was defeated by it. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:38.240 I struggled with the shoulders, the shoulders of this dress the entire night. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:48.799 And the dress kept winning, and so I finally get the shoulder things down where they're supposed to be, and we're sitting in the audience, and and now they're gonna announce the the best documentary. 00:16:48.879 -->

00:16:50.080 And Albi's really excited. 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:53.919 He leans over, he goes, This is it, and I go, Don't touch me, don't touch me. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.879 And sadly, I but I thought, oh, this is our moment. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:01.679 Our kids are gonna see us, our friends are gonna see us, and they announced the winner, and it's not us. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:02.720 You almost got up. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:12.079 I wanted to get up to tell the people who'd gotten up in front of us to sit down, but it turns out that they were the winners, so they weren't sitting down, so they were going up to to collect the awards. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:14.880 But uh yeah, fortunately, we made another trip there. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:17.119 Sente came to us from again the fines. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:23.039 We we have consistently worked with first-time directors who have gone on to do other things. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:28.319 We we try to find new voices, particularly a lot of women voices in the uh directors. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.960 Andrea Fine was one of the directors with him. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:49.039 And they came back to us with a film they were working on about the resilience, about women who were resilient women around the world, and then it sort of fallen apart, but they were totally taken with this one 15-year-old girl in in San Diego who's homeless and was an artist, and they told us about it. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:18:01.119 They sent us the footage, and it was extraordinarily compelling footage, and she was also undocumented, so a lot of issues we wanted to help tackle with them, and we decided we would take that footage and turn it into a film. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:15.200 At that point, they wanted to do a feature, and I thought we needed to get the film out sooner, and also that just strategically at the time shorts were emerging as a more prominent uh documentary format, and there was less competition, actually. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:20.079 So, from a marketing perspective, I was like, hey, we might have a better shot if we do it as a short. 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:22.160 So they were like, okay, let's try to do that. 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:25.519 And we uh and we were able to complete that film. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:45.440 I will say there were moments there where, you know, from a talking to the directors and what they get and what they don't get, it's a it's a it's a uh collaboration, a process, but there's there's also these moments where you wish you could do things, but you're dealing with real-life subjects who have real life issues and are um uh in real time. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:54.319 And uh, you know, you fell for innocente Sue kept asking in the film, um, she's very estranged from her mother. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:59.680 Um, and there's a few scenes in it, but there could have been more, but she wouldn't talk to her mother. 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:05.759 And uh, although we kept asking, I think it was eventually was like, okay, this is the film we have, let's work with it. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:06.559 And that happens. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.680 So we couldn't go deeper, but I think if you saw the film, you'll feel we went deep enough. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.480 It's a very emotional, very compelling, visually stunning. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:16.240 The finds did an amazing job. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:20.559 And to this day, that film is used as our most successful film in outreach. 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:27.839 It's used in education, classes for art, uh promoting art education and promoting immigration issues. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.480 And Inocente herself is grown into an amazing lady. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:35.200 She's a successful artist, she's a teacher. 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:49.440 And just uh last month when we had our gala, she came to speak, and the day before she went out to Brooklyn with the film to show it to uh a community center uh and advocate for arts education. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:51.440 Uh and so she works on it all the time. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:53.359 It's incredibly heartwarming and so. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:20:08.000 And the film Incenta uh is about a homeless girl that is kind of escapes through her art, and she nobody at high school knows that she is homeless, and she now was part of your 20th year gala. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:10.240 It is really an incredible film. 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:12.079 I watched it and recommended. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:16.079 So you told us about a film that We didn't tell you anything. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:18.480 You told me we talked to you beforehand. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:21.519 It was all spontaneous. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:28.400 There is a film that you spotlighted that was kind of pivotal in your filmmaking career. 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:30.079 It became an expose. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:34.960 Can you tell us about the film that changed the The Wrong Light? 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:43.759 Yeah, we have a film in the festival uh this, I guess, Sunday, The Business of Trouble, and that was an intended investigative film. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:49.359 But the The Wrong Light, which I think was our fourth film, did not start out to be that. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:21:02.799 It was we we were visited one day by a young woman who'd spent two years in Thailand on a Fulbright uh scholarship, and she went to study one thing, but became fascinated by the sex trafficking of children. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:18.240 And she, in that time that she was in Thailand, she visited several different programs for exploited children, and she came back really enamored with this one program, KOSA, Children of Southeast Asia, and it was run by a man named Mickey Chutesa. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:23.920 And so, you know, one one of the things that's interesting, I'll just take uh as a quick aside. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:39.440 Over the years there have been so many stories that we've

learned about that would be would have been really, really fascinating documentaries, but but so often they revolved around a one very charismatic person who was making the difference through their organization. 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:41.440 And that was always a challenge for us. 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:46.640 We never wanted to make a film that was really telling the story of another organization. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:52.160 And in effect, that's we did we did end up doing that to some extent with Mickey. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:22:10.559 So Alby and I had a chance in the summer of 2013 to go to Thailand and we went with this young woman, Natalie Yashanka, and we traveled to Northern Thailand to meet Mickey and to see his his um his center and to scout for some of the subjects for the film. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:12.880 And we were just blown away by him. 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:14.720 We were really enamored. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:17.599 He wasn't the easiest person to understand. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:28.480 He he was Thai, but he'd spent some of his childhood in the States, and so he spoke passable English, and I'm assuming very good Thai, but because I can't speak a word of it. 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:37.279 And he also spoke a dialect of the Mian dialect, which was the language spoken in this remote village in Northern Thailand. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:44.720 And that's where the girls who he he was bringing to his program came from, from this tiny village. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:47.599 And he said, Oh, sure, I'll help you make this film. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:55.599 And by the way, the the golden triangle there is also where all the it's not just drug smuggling, it's child smuggling. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:56.400 I'll take you there. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:03.519 I'll take you to a town meeting up in the village where you'll see the parents decide which children are going to be sold. 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:16.319 And um and and we'll watch we'll we'll follow them on their trip into Thailand and Well, he he said that the all the girls in the program were ones that were going to be trafficked or that he had rescued from trafficking, and that's was on his website. 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:30.000 That was part of his uh promotion to raise funds, and that these uh girls that we met there that we interviewed and we put on tape for our director, we're all had these different stories of being trafficked in some way, shape, or form. 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:35.359 We went and talked to a former trafficker who we weren't allowed to ask certain questions of. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:46.799 He was very charismatic, and we did a lot of due diligence as much as we could on the organization, which was registered in the United States, and we had background checks and seemed like a really powerful story. 00:23:46.960 --> 00:24:07.119 We sent these directors there, and he also insisted usually when we do films in foreign countries, we have what's called a fixer, a

local person who knows the territory and speaks the language, and is there to help and assist with the production and the relationships with the locals and any permitting or things that you need. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.720 But Mickey said, I'll be the fixer, don't worry, I got it all taken care of. 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:13.519 So directors when they first went did not have that. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:17.039 And they did all these interviews and things got strange. 00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:18.880 We kept getting reports back. 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:23.119 That that really violates the first rule of documentary filmmaking. 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:26.000 You find your own fixer, it's an independent person. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.319 You don't rely on, you know, certainly don't rely on your film subject to do that. 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:36.559 So what ended up happening was that he was he was just he was hard to understand. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:38.319 We we were all sort of struggling with it. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:42.880 And each one of us thought, well, maybe it's me that's having the problem. 00:24:43.279 --> 00:25:05.839 But when Josie and Dave, who were who were the co-directors, uh and their team went to uh Thailand in September of that year, it was 2013, and we we'd been there in July of that year, and they started filming and um and they they finished the shoot, they they sent us all the footage, they said, Can you get this translated for us? 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:20.240 And so we f we found translators who work not only in Thai but in Mian, and we we got them the translations and we get a call from Josie and she says, I don't know what's going on here, but he didn't ask any of the questions we asked him to ask. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:26.720 And still you would think with that in mind, we would all say, Hmm, something's really wrong with this guy. 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:31.039 Long story short, they went to Thailand three times to do shoots. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:35.359 Um turned out that he had totally misrepresented the children. 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:37.519 Their parents had not sold them. 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:45.839 They he had gone to their village and had said, Look, I have this program, it's in a you know, in a much better city, the schools are good. 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:49.920 Send your your your kids to your daughters to us and we'll take care of them. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.240 And they did so very trustingly. 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:58.960 And um until we got there and until Josie on the second shoot said to Mickey, You cannot be my fixer anymore. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:06.799 And you know, and she found she brought in a Thai woman to to be the fixer, and immediately that woman saw real, real weird things happening to her. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:25.680 There was a very dramatic moment if you watch the film in which she's interviewing a mother for the second time with the real heart translator, and the mother's asked, Why did you you know your daughter works as a your older daughter works in town as a escort, and this one was going to be trafficked, and now she's here. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:26.880 Do you feel good about it? 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:30.960 And she goes blank and she doesn't know, she's like, What? 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:40.079 And she says, No, no, no, and then she looks over at Mickey and she stops talking, and you realize there's something really wrong. 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:42.559 And from there on it took a dramatic turn. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:49.279 We found out Mickey was probably running guns, there were a lot of guns in his uh his compound. 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:53.440 The directors were terrified, decided maybe we should shut the film down. 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:54.799 We brought our board in. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:27:00.319 They decided in the end to support it and say maybe we can go forward with this. 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:14.319 And the issue again was that the kids were getting an education, but he was raising a tremendous amount of money and buying cars and land off of it, and we knew the funders, so we basically were able to turn the film around, said to the director who didn't want to do it. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:21.119 So the only way we could tell this story now is if you have to be part of it and and tell the audience what's going on. 00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:23.039 And so she reluctantly agreed. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:31.039 We were able to bust up the ring, got their funder who was Australian and uh former military. 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:34.480 He pulled the funding, he persecuted Mickey. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:39.119 The girls, he actually was amazing because we wanted to make sure the girls were taken care of. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:44.559 He guaranteed all of them their scholarships and their money so they were taken care of. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:46.000 We felt good about that. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:56.720 Uh Mickey was run out of town, and uh so there was, I think, a good ending, but it was it was really kind of terrifying, and then there was a coda to it that was even crazier. 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:15.839 But it's I mean it's an interesting thing for a documentarian that has an idea of what their documentary is gonna be about, and how you have these high hopes that you're gonna tell a really good story, you're passionate about it, but then you realize somewhere along the line that there's corruption in the story. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:19.839 And to be forthright and not stick to shift the story is a fascinating. 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:26.000 We thought we had put to bed the whole thing, and then Sue and I want to say, we gotta get out of town, take a little vacation. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:27.200 We're on our way there. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:31.359 We get a call in the car, the car phone, and we had just hired a new assistant at Chine. 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:37.200 Two new assistants were in the office

for a week, and we get a call, and they're like, Help me, Sue. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:38.720 We're in the bathroom. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:40.480 I'm like, What what do you mean? 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:41.759 There's somebody at the door. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.319 I'm like, okay, it's your job to answer the door. 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:47.039 No, no, no, it's it's the FBI. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:49.039 I was like, the what? 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:50.799 Well, can I tell the background of that? 00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:59.519 So somehow our film got to the State Department at at one point, and um the woman who was our liaison there showed it once, twice, three times. 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.160 She kept getting requests to show the film within the state. 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:05.839 Well, because it turns out Mickey was an American citizen, so they had a stake in it. 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:07.119 So they had a stake in it. 00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:13.440 So we get we get a call from the uh from the FBI, and they want they want access to our footage. 00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:21.359 They want to take a look at what you know what we've got, what they what they can learn about Mickey, and we said, sure, it's no problem. 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:25.599 Just let us know when you want it, we'll send it over to your office. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:32.400 But instead, these two very macho guys, shoot uh suit jackets open so you can see their guns. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:36.319 Because the the assistants had come up in the elevator with them and seen their guns. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:43.759 The funny part of this story is that Albi is being very good, very deferential, and I am so pissed off that they've done this. 00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:45.119 I'm like, okay, go. 00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:46.160 Did you see their credentials? 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:47.680 They go, Yes, does it look legitimate? 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:48.240 Yes, okay. 00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:50.799 Open the door for the FBI, put them on the speakerphone. 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:54.480 So they they come in and they, you know, uh, where's the footage? 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:57.200 And uh and we said, Well, you were going to make an appointment. 00:29:57.279 --> 00:29:59.359 We're not there now, come back when we're there. 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:02.480 And we'll talk to you, and I'm being trying to manage it. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:05.920 And Sue got her her real mom voice on, I'll tell you. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:12.319 Yeah, because I had this voice, it was my mother's voice, and every once in a while it comes out when I least expect it. 00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:15.440 It always scared the crap out of us when we were kids. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.640 And it works effectively on other people too, as it turns out. 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:20.079 And this voice came out of me. 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:22.240 I remember I was and I said, How dare you? 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:24.559 I said it with a few expletives, probably. 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:25.759 Oh do the exorcism. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:27.680 You know, how how dare you do this? 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.480 You've embarrassed us in front of our everybody in our building. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:37.119 I was afraid we were gonna get kicked out of our our office because of this, you know, and we said we told you we would send it, and blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:40.000 So Well, that does take us into Anuja. 00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:46.160 So I don't know uh how many people have seen Anuja, but it's on it's on Netflix, so you should go see it. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:48.240 It's a beautiful short film. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:54.799 Um and it's about uh two girls and it leaves your hand, which is why I really like it. 00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:58.319 But um made me give a little synopsis just about that. 00:30:58.640 --> 00:30:58.799 Sure. 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:10.640 Well the film is about two uh first our first narrative sh it's a narrative shorts about two uh girls and uh India sisters who work in a factory, which is part of what actually is the fabric of their lives. 00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:12.000 They're homeless again. 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:26.000 And one of them is uh a math genius and gets a chance to go to on a scholarship to a school, but it has implications for the family that are uh they face every day in India about substance and working versus going to school. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:31.920 It's about women and education and and they have two sisters, and one of them was homeless, not an actress either. 00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:37.839 She did a remarkable job, and uh it it it's it's really being used in advocacy quite effectively now. 00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:41.839 You had said that this film was brought to you already made. 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:44.160 Can you explain how that works? 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:47.519 That someone brings a completely finished film to you. 00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:49.920 It's the first and only time it's ever happened. 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:59.039 Adam Grays is the the director, and his wife Suchitra Matai is this a very wonderful Indian artist who works in textiles. 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:11.519 And I I don't know how he found out about Aaron Cobb, who was our director of Liana, but was another another really beautiful film that he'd made that was half documentary and half animation. 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:14.319 But Aaron suggested that he come to us. 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:16.480 And so the film was done. 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:24.640 It was a chance to join this film without having to pay anything to do that, which is as I said the first and only time that's ever happened. 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:27.920 Um and he came because he needed help with festival strategy. 00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:36.240 And they they were having mixed success in festivals, but they did win the LA Shorts Festival, and that qualified them for the Academy Award.

00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.160 And then Mindy Kaylin came in. 00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:44.400 God bless her, the the film was shortlisted, and she campaigns so dramatically for the film. 00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:50.240 I always feel like she's the reason we got nominated because of the I've watched that film twice. 00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:51.519 It is so good. 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:52.480 It is so good. 00:32:52.559 --> 00:33:02.559 It's such a beautiful storytelling of how this sprite girl makes enough money, has to make enough money to go take the test, and how her sister helps her. 00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:03.279 It's really beautiful. 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:07.599 And it's told from their point of view, and this is like a shine mantra. 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:16.319 So there's a lot of films that use adults to tell these stories, but we want children and the kids to tell their stories as personally and intimately as they can. 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:18.960 Because you know, they don't get a chance to speak. 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:25.680 And these films give them the chance to speak directly, and that's really an important part of our filmmaking. 00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:30.240 So we want to talk about a short film that you have at the festival. 00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:30.880 Yes. 00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:35.359 So it is another expose, your second expose that you've done. 00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:37.359 Tell us about the business of trouble. 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:39.279 This was intended to be an expose. 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:42.880 The business of trouble was very interesting about this film. 00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:45.920 It's it's it's a it's very short, it's 34 minutes. 00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:49.759 Um and this film was brought to us by one of our board members. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:34:02.079 Um, and he he'd made a big donation for another cause, and he said to me, kind of off the cuff, he said, if you were ever to make a film about the troubled teen industry, I would give you half a million dollars. 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:06.480 And I said, Wow, because actually we have been looking at that. 00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:14.880 We'd been doing research about stories primarily about programs in Utah and California, but we were very interested in the topic. 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:26.400 And he did come aboard, he did give us most of the funding, we we raised the rest, and and we made this story that uh features four women, actually. 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:35.039 Yeah, it's extraordinary, and it really we did a deep dive researching all the things after we saw that. 00:34:35.199 --> 00:34:59.760 Um, there's an amazing organization that is mentioned in this called unsilenced.org, which really does a fabulous job explaining a lot of um how private equity has become a huge part in owning these different places, which are therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness therapy programs, faith-based academies, and conversion therapy camps. 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:06.480 Yeah,

the key point of this film is the role played by private equity in these in these programs. 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:08.960 And I and I was thinking about this earlier today. 00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:27.119 I would it occurs to me that I I would look at private equity as very similar to a virus entering a uh a living cell, in that it it depletes that cell of its nutrients, it copies its RNA and and the the cell is effectively destroyed. 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:33.280 And that's what happens to so many programs that private equity invests in. 00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:40.719 They go in with uh remaining involved with an organization maybe five to seven years and they suck the life out of it. 00:35:40.960 --> 00:35:43.280 And so that's what happens in these programs. 00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:51.920 And in fact, the board member who gave us this money was motivated to do this because his own son had been in one of these programs. 00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:53.519 Over the months that he was there. 00:35:53.679 --> 00:36:02.239 Andrew said he kept hearing his son say, Well, I don't have this therapist anymore, and that program has ended, and and we used to do this, but we don't anymore. 00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:14.000 And Andrew, who was a very savvy real estate guy in New York and very, you know, very knowledgeable about finance, he said to himself, he said, This sounds like private equity, and he investigated it. 00:36:14.159 --> 00:36:16.400 And yes, indeed, that's what was happening. 00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:19.199 And so that was our purpose for making this film. 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:25.840 There is no federal legislation that governs the activities of these centers. 00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:31.840 And Paris Hilton, as I'm sure many of you know, herself was remanded to one of these centers. 00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:34.159 She's become a fervent activist. 00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:38.000 She was speaking with members of Congress during the Biden administration. 00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:43.119 And our outreach goal for this film is, and it won't happen during this administration. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:46.159 I think we all know this, so we're just gonna have to bide our time. 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:52.880 But but when sanity is restored, the goal is to to really push for federal legislation. 00:36:53.519 --> 00:37:05.519 Meanwhile, we're working on the state level, which is which is important because we can start in the states like Florida and Utah and places where these places are and get some regulation and also there's they get federal funding. 00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:06.800 So it's a double whammy. 00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:08.800 They get federal funding and they're unregulated. 00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:10.639 Talking to some taxpayer dollars. 00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:11.360 That's right. 00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:16.079 And it's really uh a tragedy, and these these kids need help, and we hope the film helps them. 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:23.679 Yeah, I and I think it was really

interesting that we discovered that New Jersey is actually a state that does regulate it does. 00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:29.199 And it has it does not have for-profit boarding, therapeutic boarding. 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:32.800 It tries to do it has a twenty-four uh seven outreach. 00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:42.159 If you have are struggling and you need help right away, you can call a number, uh, then they will send a team to your house to help. 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:50.079 And they try really to enforce and put Medcake dollars to helping with at-home help as well as community. 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:53.679 A model that is being looked at for these other states. 00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:54.719 So go Jersey. 00:37:55.039 --> 00:38:07.119 So talking about young teens, we are going to be moving into our special guests coming up who are part of the resilience award winners this year. 00:38:07.360 --> 00:38:08.880 And love making films. 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:15.199 We made almost now 23 films, but we can't make enough to talk about this topic in kids. 00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:22.880 So we thought we would start the Resilience Awards to support other filmmakers who are making films about resilience to help improve the lives of kids. 00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:30.880 We're now in seven different festivals where we give prizes for screenwriting, for filmmaking, for shorts, for docs, different categories. 00:38:31.039 --> 00:38:35.599 And one of these categories now is for emerging filmmakers in the Montclair Festival. 00:38:35.679 --> 00:38:38.480 And we really love these films and support them. 00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:49.280 We help their outreach, we give them a grant of some money, uh, we give them outreach support, festival support, uh, because these are the films, as we say, we wish we made and that other people made. 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:51.519 So the resilience awards, we're really proud. 00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:59.360 These filmmakers here in in New Jersey are uh an amazing young talent, and the film they made is is powerful. 00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:00.239 It is. 00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:16.639 Before we bring up them, I also want to say that the award that was given out is in coordination with Montclair Film Festival with Sue Hollingberg as the educational director that alerted us of this film and told us that you know we should take a look at it. 00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:19.119 And so we did, and so they're here tonight. 00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:24.400 We're gonna probably do some musical chairs here in a minute, but before we're gonna show you the film. 00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:35.760 So their film is called, In Case You Forgot, it's a four-minute film created by Henry Slater and Jackson Provin, winners of the Shine Global 2025 Filmmaker Resilience Award. 00:39:35.920 --> 00:39:43.840 The film explores themes of memory, identity, self-reflection through the lens of a young person writing a letter to their future selves. 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:47.840 A quiet and powerful meditation, a resilience and emotional growth. 00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:51.519 So welcome to the next generation. 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:53.039 Hello, guys. 00:39:53.360 --> 00:39:55.280 So are all of you seniors right now? 00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:57.199 We are you're all seniors. 00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:01.840 So you actually experience this event that you did a film on. 00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:06.800 Yeah, we're like in the process right now of applying to college and going going through all of that, yeah. 00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:14.079 So tell us, are you all in film classes or is this a hobby, or how do you how did you guys get into making films? 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:17.519 I think we wish we had film classes at our school, but we don't. 00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:21.840 No, it's just like since we were little, we've all like us four have been making movies together. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:25.280 Really since we were like in elementary school, and we've always just loved it. 00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:30.400 Can you each tell us what part you played and what your roles were in it? 00:40:31.119 --> 00:40:32.159 For this one, yeah. 00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:38.400 Um I was a screenwriter and was the main main actor, and I edited it with Julian. 00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:42.880 We all we all had a lot of different parts though, like because it was really just the four of us. 00:40:43.039 --> 00:40:45.679 I think each one of us was integral in our own way. 00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:47.599 Um my name's Henry. 00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:51.599 I was the director and I pitched Jackson the original idea. 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:55.519 Um I'm Sean, and I just wanted to help wherever I could. 00:40:55.599 --> 00:40:59.920 So if they needed me to do something like make fake tears, then fake tears. 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:01.280 How did he make fake tears? 00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:03.199 We're just flicking. 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:06.559 And uh I'm Julian. 00:41:06.639 --> 00:41:11.280 I also edited with Jackson, and then uh I'm sure you guys heard it, Music by Julian. 00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:12.719 That was uh music by Julian. 00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:13.440 Yes, yes. 00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:21.199 I didn't wait till the very end, the first time I watched it, and then I was like, oh wait, at the very end, he says music by Julian, because I was like, who did the music? 00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:25.519 Because the second time I caught the music, and I loved the little simplicity of it. 00:41:26.159 --> 00:41:29.119 It was uh all done on a Walmart kids toy. 00:41:29.280 --> 00:41:29.679 I don't know. 00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:31.440 I don't know if I've actually ever said that. 00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:34.079 No, this was uh the or am I allowed to plug it? 00:41:34.159 --> 00:41:35.119 Or I'm not sponsored. 00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:36.880 I think it's oh please, okay. 00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:40.159 It's the um V Tech like kitty DJ star machine. 00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:42.079 It's like 50

bucks at Walmart. 00:41:42.159 --> 00:41:45.039 That thing has gotten me so far in life, you would not believe that. 00:41:45.119 --> 00:41:46.559 I'm so serious. 00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:48.079 That is awesome. 00:41:48.400 --> 00:41:50.320 He's definitely had$50 of fun. 00:41:50.639 --> 00:41:55.199 Julian was just like recording weird samples, and we were like, we should just leave that in the movie. 00:41:55.360 --> 00:42:02.480 So now every time we have to watch it in front of an audience, it's like we all just like awkward laugh because we're like, oh my god, I can't believe we did that. 00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:04.639 Every night. 00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:05.360 No, no, no. 00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:06.559 Yeah, come on. 00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:09.519 So, Henry, you said you pitched the idea. 00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:11.199 What brought up the idea? 00:42:11.280 --> 00:42:12.079 How did that come to you? 00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:16.800 Um, we had a uh there was another, what was the competition called? 00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:19.119 It was just like the New Jersey high school film competition. 00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:27.679 So we had to make a three-minute movie or something, and uh the I think the the prompt was like out of place. 00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:28.800 Yeah, that was it. 00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:29.920 It was just out of place. 00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:40.800 Uh I was thinking back uh at like the end of our junior year, I was like thinking about applying to college and just the the stress that comes with that and stuff. 00:42:41.039 --> 00:42:57.760 Uh we like I was just like, so what if we made a movie about, you know, a kid who applies to college, does not get into his dream school, and uh we we used to spin it near the end and r make make it clear that everything's gonna be okay despite that. 00:42:57.920 --> 00:42:59.840 And uh Jackson ran with it. 00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:00.559 Yeah. 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:07.440 We wrote a script, we had to make the original competition that we made it for, we only had a couple days to do it. 00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:11.280 Like they released the prompt, and then we had like four days to submit it. 00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:20.639 So I wrote it in like one night because we came up or he came up with that the concept, and then I was just like, I had like no time to edit it, so it was basically just whatever whatever I came up with. 00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:22.239 Could I butt in for a second? 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:24.320 Yeah, we had talked about this. 00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:32.719 We we held a writer's meeting, which was us just having our school lunch in like the the one green room we have. 00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:36.719 Um it's not it's not a green room, it's a room that is green. 00:43:36.960 --> 00:43:37.920 No, it's green. 00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:40.239 Literally bright green. 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:43.760 But um, yeah, not to interrupt. 00:43:43.840 --> 00:43:48.000 But like it was so crazy how rushed all of this

was. 00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:57.760 Yeah, Henry gave us the idea one like we we learned about the prompt, and Henry pitched the idea, and then in like one lunch lunch period, we figured out the plan for everything. 00:43:58.000 --> 00:43:58.880 Yeah, go back, yeah. 00:43:59.119 --> 00:43:59.920 No, that's awesome. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.639 Because you said you've been making films together for a while. 00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:06.800 Can you give us a a a little peek of what were some of your earlier projects? 00:44:07.199 --> 00:44:08.559 We started on the comedy. 00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:10.159 I I'm kind of not surprised. 00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:19.440 When you look back at this film, since you say it was rushed, uh, do you see changes you wish you would have made to it? 00:44:19.679 --> 00:44:20.239 I think. 00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:22.559 Well, first of all, we shot it all in one night. 00:44:22.800 --> 00:44:24.639 And edited we from what? 00:44:24.719 --> 00:44:28.480 Like three to We shot from four p.m. 00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:35.199 to one in the morning, and then we went back to my house and we set up everything and edited. 00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:41.840 Me and Julian edited the whole movie and did the score and everything from one in the morning to seven a.m. 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:45.760 And then I left to go to like virtually, yeah. 00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:47.199 Like we were rushed. 00:44:47.599 --> 00:44:51.599 It was literally I hit like submit and then walked out the door. 00:44:51.840 --> 00:44:54.480 So um, so that version was pretty rushed. 00:44:54.639 --> 00:45:00.480 But then we after we spent another week like tweaking it, which is the one that you just saw. 00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:04.239 Um so we had we had some time to sort of shape it a little better. 00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:11.920 Do you want to pursue film going forward, or are you open-minded to whatever happens in college and study different things? 00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:14.320 We love making movies, we love making movies. 00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:19.360 For me, I've known that I've I've wanted I've wanted to do this since I was like seven. 00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:28.480 And uh no, Henry already said this, but like we grew up making these videos on YouTube, like like because it was just it was the only thing that like we loved. 00:45:28.639 --> 00:45:36.320 We would take our cameras or our phones and walk into the our like school creek every day, and we would like no plan, no nothing. 00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:38.880 We just did it because it was what we loved. 00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:42.000 And um I mean that that's a lot of how this movie came out. 00:45:42.079 --> 00:45:50.400 It was just we got the first opportunity to do something on the scale that we wanted to, so yeah, like film is at least for me, is everything. 00:45:50.480 --> 00:45:51.599 This is what I'm I'm gonna do. 00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:53.360 Yeah, much much like Julian. 00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:56.559 I've wanted to do film for such a crazy long time. 00:45:56.719 --> 00:46:02.559 Throughout high school, I've just gotten more and more obsessed with movies and just how they how they work. 00:46:02.719 --> 00:46:03.199 That's cool. 00:46:03.599 --> 00:46:06.320 For me, my my main passion is is music. 00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:10.559 Um, but doing these movies is like one of the greatest things ever. 00:46:10.719 --> 00:46:17.920 Um, and I definitely want to continue, whether that's film scoring or just being a part of the industry in some way. 00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:19.920 Um I'm I'm really passionate about it. 00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:21.920 So I would love to have it be some part of my career. 00:46:22.079 --> 00:46:22.239 Yeah. 00:46:22.559 --> 00:46:24.639 I think you guys are off to a really good start. 00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:25.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:46:25.920 --> 00:46:26.480 Thank you. 00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:37.519 So if anybody has any questions either for Albi or Susan or these amazing kids, we're gonna invite Albi and Susan back up to the stage and we're gonna step off. 00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:40.159 I thought I planted some people to ask some questions. 00:46:40.480 --> 00:46:40.639 Yes. 00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:43.280 I'm gonna walk up to my sister. 00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:44.800 What's your question? 00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:46.880 After that, we'd go to my brother. 00:46:47.199 --> 00:46:47.360 Okay. 00:46:47.519 --> 00:46:49.679 Every family member, stand up. 00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:50.880 Thank you so much. 00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:52.239 This was so fascinating. 00:46:52.400 --> 00:47:01.920 Um, my question is in terms of when you do find something that's incredibly shocking and you're it's a vulnerable situation. 00:47:02.159 --> 00:47:12.079 I mean, how do you find the strength to keep going and and not be afraid that you're in this strange place and something could happen to you, really, your safety? 00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:13.599 Well, it's a great question. 00:47:13.760 --> 00:47:16.400 I I think it's the passion for the mission. 00:47:16.639 --> 00:47:20.559 You know, we're there to tell these stories to improve children's lives. 00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:22.079 So nobody speaks for them. 00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:25.920 They're the most vulnerable population in the world, and nobody speaks for them. 00:47:26.079 --> 00:47:32.480 And Shine is really the only organization that's solely dedicated to telling only these stories about children. 00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:33.840 So that's what keeps us going. 00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:36.880 That mission in the midst of it is telling those stories. 00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:42.559 I will say that thinking again about the wrong light, by the end of that filming, we were scared. 00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:44.320 We were really scared for our crew. 00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:50.880 Sarah, I'd like to first point out Sarah is my dearest oldest friend from New York City, and she's a documentary filmmaker. 00:47:51.199 -->

00:47:51.360 Okay. 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:52.960 Thank you, Jeanette. 00:47:53.039 --> 00:47:54.400 And I'm so proud of you. 00:47:54.880 --> 00:47:56.000 This was amazing. 00:47:57.119 --> 00:47:57.840 I love you. 00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:00.159 I I have a question for all of you. 00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:02.400 What's your all-time favorite film? 00:48:02.960 --> 00:48:03.760 Oh goodness. 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:08.800 I could start just because it hangs up and back of me in my office and inspires me. 00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:16.159 It's Lawrence of Arabia, which just blew me away to what filmmaking could be, transported me to a world I'd never seen. 00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:26.320 Music, sound, acting, story just was an epic feeling, and that's what really drove me into filmmaking and storytelling, really. 00:48:26.559 --> 00:48:26.960 I can go. 00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:33.440 I feel like for me it changes a lot, but I think right now I'd go with Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee. 00:48:33.599 --> 00:48:38.239 That movie, it's just the first time I saw it, I completely broke down. 00:48:38.400 --> 00:48:52.400 It's just so unbelievably powerful and continues to be so prescient and relevant in the world today, and I just think it's a a beautiful reflection on the human condition and society, and it's a gorgeous piece of art. 00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:54.320 I I got a lot. 00:48:54.480 --> 00:49:00.800 Um I think overall my favorite movie ever is Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. 00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:01.840 I just love that movie. 00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:02.800 It's just so much fun. 00:49:02.960 --> 00:49:05.679 I also really like House, the Nobuhiko by Yashi. 00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:06.800 That movie's so weird. 00:49:06.880 --> 00:49:07.360 I love it. 00:49:07.440 --> 00:49:08.000 It's so good. 00:49:08.239 --> 00:49:10.320 Okay, we know what kind of films you're gonna be making. 00:49:10.559 --> 00:49:12.719 Uh Charles Peston, so good. 00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:20.400 Uh, just something about the aliens be on the movie has, and soundtrack is so creepy and weird. 00:49:20.559 --> 00:49:24.800 Just love all the makeup and the performances are so good, and the ending line. 00:49:26.880 --> 00:49:28.000 Yeah, very good. 00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:29.039 Excellent. 00:49:29.199 --> 00:49:29.920 Good catch. 00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:36.000 There will never be a better movie than where the wild things are. 00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:38.400 And I will die on that hill. 00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:39.119 Very comp. 00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:41.679 Yeah, rest in peace, bro. 00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:42.639 We love Jersey. 00:49:42.800 --> 00:49:44.159 Yes, love Jersey. 00:49:44.639 --> 00:49:45.280 Susan. 00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:47.440 You know, maybe West Side Story. 00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:48.159 I don't know. 00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:50.400 These are all good movies, huh? 00:49:50.559 --> 00:49:51.679 Do you have any obsessions? 00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:54.239 Um, all right, this one's for Alvi and Susan. 00:49:54.400 --> 00:50:02.719 Which of your films do you think had the biggest impact, either in terms of like awareness of an issue or in terms of driving like policy at the federal level? 00:50:03.039 --> 00:50:04.639 I think probably The Harvest. 00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:10.719 And that was not one of our most successful films, not one of the our very best films either, I don't think. 00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:14.159 But but we did take that film to Congress. 00:50:14.320 --> 00:50:30.320 Uh, we did we brought it there in support of um changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act, uh, because child farm workers were not protected in the way that children working in any other area uh were. 00:50:30.639 --> 00:50:36.639 And that's still the film that is most requested for use in the classroom across the country. 00:50:36.719 --> 00:50:44.239 And it was the film that when we created the curriculum, teachers from all over the country helped us to write that curriculum. 00:50:44.639 --> 00:50:56.079 I would say one of the ones that had a really direct impact is one of our little known films called One Way Up was made in England, London about a BMX track that stands in the middle of a gang territory. 00:50:56.239 --> 00:50:58.079 We shot it in 3D, I don't know why. 00:50:58.320 --> 00:51:00.480 But it's wonderful BMX footage. 00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:07.840 These kids are inspired by a DJ who took over this club and gave them access where they didn't have it. 00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:09.280 They turned out a world champion. 00:51:09.519 --> 00:51:17.840 And as a result of the film, the community built them a new track and brought these gangs together to race together. 00:51:17.920 --> 00:51:21.199 So from an immediate impact, that that film is really stands out. 00:51:28.800 --> 00:51:29.360 BMX. 00:51:29.599 --> 00:51:31.840 The BMX event, and I think he came in third. 00:51:33.039 --> 00:51:36.000 Hi, I have a question uh for the emerging filmmakers. 00:51:36.159 --> 00:51:37.440 Congratulations, by the way. 00:51:37.760 --> 00:51:38.000 Thank you. 00:51:38.320 --> 00:51:45.679 My question is do you guys go to the movies or do you watch movies on your phone or electronic devices? 00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:52.079 Full disclosure, she is a board member of the Montclair Film Festival and wants people to come to the theater. 00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:52.719 Okay. 00:51:52.960 --> 00:51:57.039 Before anything else, I'll have you know I am a member of Montclair Film. 00:51:59.519 --> 00:52:02.639 I much prefer going to the movies for anything. 00:52:02.800 --> 00:52:06.960 Um, it doesn't matter what theater it is, of course, Montclair Film is the best. 00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:08.159 Yeah, absolutely. 00:52:08.480 --> 00:52:08.880 Of course. 00:52:09.039 --> 00:52:14.000 But um, I always prefer going to the movies, but some movies, you know, they just don't get screened. 00:52:14.079 --> 00:52:19.679 And like there's plenty of movies that I need to watch, like on the internet archive, because there's just no other way to watch them. 00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:25.519 Maybe you could suggest them for the Bellevue now that's opened and you'll get a classic series going. 00:52:25.920 --> 00:52:26.639 That's a good idea. 00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:28.480 Yeah, no, I completely agree. 00:52:28.639 --> 00:52:38.800 It's I think the theater is the best experience if you can, but like you're saying, there's so many movies that just if you're watching older movies or just more obscure things, there's no other way to watch them but at home. 00:52:39.280 --> 00:52:45.119 The way I think about it is like if I'm not on an airplane, I'm not watching a movie on my phone. 00:52:45.360 --> 00:52:47.920 I like to I like to live by that, I think. 00:52:48.159 --> 00:52:49.920 The big screen, the big screen, come on. 00:52:50.159 --> 00:52:51.840 All right, you guys, thank you so much. 00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:53.280 We're waiting. 00:52:54.079 --> 00:53:06.400 Really appreciate everyone coming to thank you to Monclaw Film Festival for having us, and thank you to Susan and Alvi and all the emerging filmmakers, and thank you so much. 00:53:06.559 --> 00:53:08.239 And can we get a picture of everyone? 00:53:09.679 --> 00:53:10.239 Yeah, let's see. 00:53:10.480 --> 00:53:11.760 Let's do what we got this. 00:53:14.800 --> 00:53:18.960 This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian. 00:53:19.119 --> 00:53:22.400 You can find us on Spotify, iTunes, and Buzz Sprout. 00:53:22.719 --> 00:53:23.920 Thanks for listening. 00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:25.760 See you next week.