Behind Hollywood’s Stereotype Hype

Powerhouse producers & directors came on What Women Want Talk Radio to show us what more inclusive filmmaking can and should be. Listen to this compelling interview with the teams behind two successful films, Murder in the Woods and Seeking Valentina.

whatwomenwantradioblog

Scintillating conversation from Hollywood’s latest directors, filmmakers and actors about how they are breaking ground for ALL cultures and backgrounds to star in non-typical roles and become more mainstream.

Director Armin Nasseri from the movie “Seeking Valentina” and the creative team behind “Murder In The Woods,” Yelena DeLeon and Luis Iga, come together to define how the meaning of “casting against type” and promoting cultural significance in leading roles for films is revolutionizing the film industry.

http://latalkradio.com/content/women-112217%20#audio_play

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Sneak Peak of The Spirit Room

I’ve been talking about this short for months and it’s finally here. The Spirit Room, by Adam J. Ung, is now out of post and coming to film festivals near you.

Here’s your first look:

I’ll keep you posted about screening dates and times. Congratulations, Adam & the whole Spirit Room team.

Catching Up with Ace Michaels

My friend Ace Michaels has been slaying with his online talk show on Facebook. During my recent trip to Las Vegas, I got the chance to sit down and catch up with Ace.

ace 6

Check it out!

Hollywood Dreams Announces Nominees

hollywood dreamz — Photo courtesy of Hollywood Dreams Film Festival

I am very honored that Seeking Valentina, a short film which I produced with Armin Nasseri, has garnered two nominations at this year’s Hollywood Dreams International Film Festival, including BEST SHORT & BEST VISUAL EFFECTS. Our film screens later this week, in Las Vegas. Want to catch it in Vegas? See here.

Hollywood Dreams calls itself,

“A blend of new classic world film, hospitality, industry connections and of course a hearty brand of distributors, buyers, audience and special guests will round out what is sure to become a major stop in the vein of top U.S. and international film events.”

For a full list of nominees for this year’s Hollywood Dreams International Film Festival, click here. Congratulations to our cast and crew, whose talents and efforts continue to receive world-wide acclaim and many thanks to Del Weston and Theresa Weston, the founders of Hollywood Dreams Film Festival.

Hollywood’s Problem Starts in High School

The success of Wonder Woman and the live action Beauty and the Beast has generated a great deal of discussion about women in cinema and woman-centric narrative. A Variety article pointed out, though, that despite record box office, women, “made up only 7 percent of all directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases in 2016. That represented a decline of two percentage points from the year before.” Without getting too heady or too political, I need to point out that women’s narratological problems start off long before a screenplay gets optioned by the studios and directors are hired. It starts in high school, with the ways we are taught narrative structure.

Moviemaking is a Messy Business

If you’ve been watching my Instagram lately, you will have noticed someone has a gripe against a guy named Vinnie. 😉

instagram litch

I was back on the set of James Balsalmo’s The Litch this week and I was again impressed by James’s wizardry, this time with masks, snot fabricated from cottage cheese and blood from chocolate syrup and food coloring. It was a messy, fun, albeit, occasionally odorous time. It’s amazing what creativity we have when we use it and James is a truly creative fellow.

Behind the Scenes of The Litch

This week, I got to have a fun part in The Litch, directed by James Balsalmo of Acid Bath Productions. It was a high-spirited, improvisational shoot. Coming out later this year, the film also stars Tom Sizemore, the legendary Lloyd Kaufman and fellow scream queen Genoveva Rossi. James is creative, collaborative and fun and I told our manager Matt Chassin that he was like the “Christopher Guest of horror”. This is sure to be a fun horror comedy.

Armin Nasseri of Seeking Valentina fame was also on-hand helping with our scene. It was great to have his positive energy there. I can’t wait to see it debut on the big screen later this year!

Kristin West

#kristinspiration

Tag: film