Making Media Now

Meet Christi Cooper, Director of ”Youth V. Gov”

On this episode of Making Media Now, host Michael Azevedo speaks with director Christi Cooper about her film "Youth V. Gov," which tells the story of twenty-one young Americans taking on the world’s most powerful government in a revolutionary lawsuit that claims that for more than six decades, US presidential administrations of both parties have continued to actively abuse their most vulnerable citizens by willingly contributing to the climate crisis. "Youth V. Gov" is now available on Netflix.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Timely Topic: Can We Cool The Planet?

On episode #33 of Making Media Now, host Michael Azevedo speaks with Ben Kalina, an award-winning documentary producer and director whose work explores the colliding forces of human nature and environmental change.

 

His first feature documentary, "Shored Up," explored sea level rise and the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy as it ran headlong into unchecked coastal development. "Shored Up" won the 2014 Sundance Institute’s Lightstay Sustainability Award and was broadcast on DirecTV.

 

Ben also produced and directed the NOVA film "Can We Cool the Planet?" which traveled around the world to discover emerging technologies and nature-based solutions to counteract climate change. 

 

In addition to his independent documentaries Ben produces a range of short films and other video projects through his company Mangrove Media. Based in Philadelphia, Mangrove partners with clients including The Nature Conservancy, PennEnvironment, and the National Wildlife Federation

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain: Where Persistence Meets Passion

Joining Michael Azevedo on this episode is award-winning filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain.

Tracy is an award-winning director, producer and writer committed to using film and video to bring diverse and often unknown stories to light in order to advance social justice, build community and empower the marginalized in engaging ways.  Her documentaries have been supported the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation, Independent Television Service, LEF Foundation, among other funding organizations.

In 1999 Tracy won a Peabody Award for her first two feature documentaries "Bright Like a Sun" and "The Dream Keepers" as part of the six-part Blackside/PBS series I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts, and another in 2019 for the American Masters television broadcast of her latest directing effort, “Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart,” the first feature film about the late artist/activist best-known for writing the play A Raisin in the Sun. The bio doc, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival also netted Tracy a 50th NAACP Image Award for Motion Picture Directing last year, the American Historical Association’s John E. O’Connor Film Award and a Creative Arts Emmy producing nomination. 

Tracy is also President and CEO of The Film Posse, the production company she co-founded with her partner and colleague Randall MacLowry. Together they have directed, produced and written the NEH-funded American Experience film "American Oz," which premiered April 19, 2021. The pair is presently developing a documentary for Nova. And Tracy also currently teaches documentary production, storytelling and history at Wesleyan University. 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

"Clean Creatives" Issues a Challenge

Joining Michael Azevedo on episode 31 of Making Media Now is Duncan Meisel, campaign director of an organization called "Clean Creatives".

"Clean Creatives" is actively engaging with creatives working within the public relations, advertising and marketing fields to convince them to stop working with clients whose bottom line depends on the continued burning of vast quantities of fossil fuels.

Earlier this year “Clean Creatives” issued a report that revealed the connections between the world’s largest PR and ad agencies and the fossil fuel industry, as well as a video, a website, and a call to their fellow creatives to take the pledge to accept no fossil fuel money.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

Innovation Leads the Way to a More Hopeful Climate Future in 'To Which We Belong'

It's episode #30 of Making Media Now. Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Pam Tanner Boll. Pam is a filmmaker, artist, writer and activist. She is the Founder and CEO of Mystic Artists Film Productions and the Co-Executive Producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, "Born into Brothels." 

Pam followed that achievement up by producing and directing a documentary called "Who Does She Think She Is," which profiled 5 women balancing motherhood and their artist calling. Pam’s latest film is documentary called "To Which We Belong," which focuses on farmers and ranchers who are improving the health of their land with regenerative practices and helping to reverse climate change.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

Who Owns The News You're Seeing? A Conversation with Heidi Legg

It's episode #29 of Making Media Now, the Filmmakers Collaborative podcast and host Michael Azevedo is speaking with journalist Heidi Legg. (Twitter @heidilegg)

Heidi is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Quantitative Social Science at Harvard working on the Future of Media Project. She has written extensively about the media landscape in publications such as The Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail, CNN, The Atlantic and more.

Most recently, Heidi published 3 exhaustive and insightful indexes tracking the ownership and funding sources of hundreds of news sources. It’s Heidi’s contention that knowing who owns or funds a news organization can better inform news consumers about possible bias or slant. Heidi joined me from her home in Cambridge, MA.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

Michael Rossi Does It All

On episode #28 of Making Media Now, host Michael Azevedo speaks with award-winning filmmaker Michael Rossi. 

Michael Rossi has spent the last twenty years producing, directing, shooting, and editing national programs for public television. In 2012, he received an Emmy Award for his work as Coordinating Producer of the children's engineering series Design Squad. 

He also received a 2020 Webby Award for his work as producer, director, and editor of Stories from the Stage, a live, storytelling series in its fourth season on PBS. 

His production credits for American Experience include: Building the Alaska Highway; The Gold Rush ; We Shall Remain, a five-part television series and multimedia project on Native American history; The Rise and Fall of Penn Station; The Bombing of Wall Street; and The Race Underground. 

Most recently, Michael produced, wrote, and directed Mr. Tornado, a one-hour American Experience film about famed severe weather expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, which had a national PBS broadcast in May 2020. 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

A Climate Emergency: Understanding Feedback Loops

On this episode, host Michael Azevedo chats with Susan Grey and Bonnie Waltch the co-directors of a new documentary called Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. And also joining in on the conversation is Melanie Wallace, a former series producer for the PBS science mainstay, NOVA. 

 

Around the world, scientists are working to better understand a critical piece in the climate puzzle: feedback loops—irreversible chain reactions that are being set in motion by Earth’s rising temperatures. The film Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops highlights the efforts of the world’s top climate scientists as they address the urgent question: Are we approaching a point of no return, leading to an uninhabitable Earth, or do we have the vision, the will, and the ability to work together to slow, halt, and reverse course?

 

Beginning on May 19, the four primary feedback loops covered in the film will serve as the backbone of a series of virtual screenings and panel discussions hosted by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A discussion of forests as a feedback loop will be up first, with additional screenings and conversations taking place over the next 3 months.

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/events/feedback-loops-forests

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

Uniting the World Through Dance: Meet Mickela Mallozzi

On this episode host Michael Azevedo is joined by Mickela Mallozzi, the four-time Emmy® Award-winning Host and Executive Producer of Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi, a travel series highlighting the diversity of dance which airs on PBS stations nationwide and on Amazon Prime globally. (https://www.travelbarefeet.com)

 

A professional dancer and trained musician, Mickela decided to start a journey around the world, taking her camera with her to follow dance in the lives of everyday people wherever she went.  From re-discovering her family’s heritage in Southern Italy to dancing tango on the main stage in Buenos Aires, the series covers Mickela’s adventures as she experiences the world, one dance at a time.  She has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, Dance Magazine, Forbes, AFAR Media, and more, and she has performed on various television shows including Sesame Street and The Doctor Oz Show.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by FC, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey. To learn more, visit filmmakerscollab.org

 

About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Director Layne Stratton Delivers a Tale of Grit and Redemption with "Billy"

Layne Stratton has been photographing and filming extreme sports athletes since he was in his teens…which really wasn't that long ago! Through a combination of talent and timing, he found himself in the position of producing a 6-part documentary series that premiered on Outside TV in February 2021. In the film, called "Billy," Layne follows Champion Big Wave Surfer, Billy Kemper, on his recovery from a life-threatening injury sustained on a surf trip in Morocco. The film features stunning cinematography and an intimate examination of the forces that shaped and continue to drive a world-class athlete when he's faced with the biggest challenge of his life.

https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/462465/billy-kemper-series-big-wave-surf-injury-recovery

https://vimeo.com/user3674184

Making Media Now is sponsored by FC, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey. To learn more, visit filmmakerscollab.org

 

About the host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

and www.mrazvo.com