Making Media Now

Understanding the Vietnam War through Vietnam War Movies

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Brian Raftery, the writer and host of a fascinating narrative podcast on the Ringer podcast network called ‘Do We Get to Win This Time?’ an 8 episode podcast series that examines how Vietnam movies have shaped the way we think about the Vietnam War.

 

‘The Deer Hunter.’ ‘Apocalypse Now.’ ‘First Blood.’ ‘Platoon.’ They’re among the hit films dealing with the Vietnam War—a conflict that divided moviegoers and inspired filmmakers. For decades, Hollywood released countless films about the war and its fallout—from action flicks to combat tales to sweeping dramas. 

 

Through exclusive new interviews, ‘Do We Get to Win This Time?’ chronicles the making of Hollywood’s most ambitious and controversial Vietnam movies. Along the way, we also learn how these films reflected and shaped moviegoers’ feelings toward the war—and toward each other.

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Director Chaysen Beacham Hits the Road with ”Polara”

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode of Making Media Now is feature-film director & producer Chaysen Beacham to talk about his film  "Polara."

"Polara" tells the story of TJ, who on this 18th birthday, receives a key from a father he’d last seen as he was hauled off to prison 8 years previously.  

With the key is the address for a proposed meeting - 3000 miles away and in two weeks. 

The key unlocks a timeworn 1968 Polaaara convertible, with a coffin welded to its floor. 

With each decision that follows, TJ plunges deeper into the mysterious and beautiful landscapes we all navigate – on our own, with our tribe, through the shifting turns of the road ahead.

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Director Christine Yoo Takes Us Inside San Quentin Prison with ”26.2 to Life”

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is writer, producer and director Christine Yoo. Christine joins Michael to talk about her documentary "26.2 to Life," which brings viewers to San Quentin State Prison to watch prisoners train for a marathon that’s run inside the prison walls.

The film has been enthusiastically received at numerous film festivals across the country, winning the Audience Award at the Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival and the Seattle Int'l Film Festival.

It will be featured at the Woods Hole Film Festival, held in Falmouth, MA, from July 29 to August 13. Additionally, the film will be opening in theaters in LA NY SF and Seattle on 9/22, followed by a 48-hour nationwide virtual premiere at Sept 29-Oct 1. Ticket information here.

In addition to directing "26.2 to Life," Christine is the Co-Executive Producer of "The Winning Spirit," from Executive Producer Michael Strahan and The Story Lab, a 6-part docu-series that follows the Ka-Who-Ku High School football team on the North Shore of Oahu through their 2021 championship season. She has produced non-fiction series on National Geographic, The History Channel, and Oxygen. 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Film Critic Odie Henderson on The Summer of Strikes and ”BarbenHeimer”

On this episode host Michael Azevedo welcomes back Boston Globe film critic Odie Henderson to talk about labor unrest among Hollywood writers and actors.

 

Both the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA (the actors union) are officially on strike. The writers began walking the picket line in early May and the 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members voted to go on strike on July 13. Both guilds are very concerned about how they’re being compensated for streaming content and about how the use of Artificial Intelligence in movie making will impact their livelihoods.

 

Odie also shares with us his fave movies so far of 2023 and we chat about two big releases that open this week: Barbie and Oppenheimer. Or, as Odie refers to them BarbieHeimer!

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Meet Anne Zeiser of Azure Media

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode by Anne Zeiser. Anne is a critically acclaimed social impact producer and media strategist.

Her background as a broadcast journalist, marketing executive, and social advocate uniquely positions her as the architect of successful media-driven productions and social impact campaigns. She has stewarded iconic documentary, drama, lifestyle and children’s series and specials for PBS. She’s also produced news for CBS, managed consumer brands for national marketing firms, and has served in government and on political campaigns.

Integrating all of these perspectives, Anne founded Azure Media, which develops high profile projects for broadcast and digital platforms that fuel social impact in communities, schools, and capitols.

 

Most recently, Anne served as EP for "Muraling Austin," a 3-part documentary series that explores the art and artists behind the vibrant public murals found in Austin TX. 

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Journalist Tom Roston Examines Mental Health Issues Among Documentary Filmmakers

Joining Michael Azevedo on this episode is writer and journalist Tom Roston, whose latest article for IndieWire examines the unspoken traumas of the filmmaking community. In the article, Tom provides a comprehensive look at how documentary filmmakers are speaking out about the toll the filmmaking process—especially when covering particularly traumatic subjects-can take on their mental.

 

Tom Roston has been writing about film, culture, and ideas for more than 2 decades. In addition to IndieWire, his byline has appeared in The Nation, Vanity Fair, Salon, Fast Company, and the NYT.

 

Tom is also the author of several non-fiction books including his most recent, 2021’s The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut & The Many Lives of Slaughterhouse Five.

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

Sherry Granader Brings The Art of Ghostwriting to Life

On this episode we explore the world of ghostwriting!

 

If you were to scan the top 50 or so best-sellers on the non-fiction list, you’d likely find that memoirs & autobiographies make up a fair portion of that list. And here’s one of publishings inside secrets—many, if not most, of those books were actually written by someone whose name appears no where on the cover.

 

Welcome to the life of a ghostwriter!

 

Joining Michael Azevedo on this episode of Making Media Now is Sherry Granader, a successful and sought-after ghostwriter with more than twenty years experience in ghostwriting and publishing. Sherry has ghostwritten and edited over 150 books including 5 that made Amazons best seller list.

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

 

Patrick Lydon was ”Born That Way” and Eamon Little is Telling His Story

Michael Azevedo's guests on this episode—Eamon Little, Joan Pratt, and Christopher Lydon—are part of the team behind a documentary-in-progress call "Born That Way," for which Filmmakers Collaborative is the fiscal sponsor. 

"Born That Way" documents the final year in the life of Patrick Lydon, in which he looks back on a fascinating life, lays the ground for posthumous, ‘green-shoot’ projects and prepares for death. Director Eamon Little promises that the film will be an unflinching journey to the end of an exemplary life, probing ‘otherness’ in our society and asking searching questions about the future we want to create.

Joining Eamon to talk about the life and work of Patrick Lydon are, Joan Pratt, his friend from his days at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and Patrick’s brother, Christopher Lydon, who covered politics for The New York Times from its Washington bureau in the 1970s, hosted The Ten O’Clock News on WGBH TV in Boston through the 1980s, and co-founded and hosted The Connection on WBUR in the ’90s, and is currently the host of Open Source, the world’s longest running podcast, having been established in 2003. 

For more information about the "Born That Way" film project, please check out its page in the projects section of the Filmmakers Collaborative website at www.filmmakerscoll.org.

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Writer & Filmmaker Michele Meek on Teen Movies in the Age of Consent

On this episode of Making Media Now, host Michael Azevedo is joined by writer, filmmaker and professor Michele Meek. 

Michele recently published the book, Consent Culture and Teen Films , and she has published several other books including Independent Female Filmmakers (2019) and The Mastermind Failure Club(2020). She presented a TEDx talk “Why we’re confused about consent—rewriting our stories of seduction” and has written for Ms. Magazine, Script Magazine, Entrepreneur, The Good Men Project, Salon.com, among others.

Michele has also directed numerous award-winning short films, including Imagine Kolle 37 (2017) and Red Sneakers (2008), and she worked as associate producer on the documentary feature Salvage (2019), which premiered at SXSW Film Festival. She has several creative projects in the works—including a short film Bay Creek Tennis Camp, a feature screenplay Cruisin‘ and a documentary The Impermanence of Everything.

She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Communication Studies department at Bridgewater State University, where she teaches filmmaking, screenwriting, film studies, digital media, gender studies, and life design.

Paula Apsell Leads NOVA to the Pinnacle of Science Television

This episode is the second of two conversations where host Michael Azevedo speaks with the visionaries behind the venerable science documentary series NOVA.

 

Michael's first conversation was with NOVA series creator Michael Ambrosino and on this episode Michael speaks with Paula Apsell, who served as NOVA executive producer for 33 years, retiring in 2019 when she was named Senior Executive Producer Emerita.

 

Paula Apsell began her broadcasting career right out of college at Boston's WGBH public television station when she was hired to type and distribute the stations daily program logs. Within a year she was hired at WGBH radio where she developed the award-winning children's series "The Spiders Web.”

 

In 1975, Apsell switched over to WGBH-TV as a production assistant for NOVA's second season. One of Apsell's first productions was NOVA "Death of a Disease" which was the first long-form documentary on the eradication of smallpox. In the late 1970s Apsell was producing documentaries on artificial intelligence and genetic engineering; topics that rarely existed in the mainstream prior to the 21st century.

 

Apsell was asked to take over the top post at NOVA in 1985 where she remained for the three-and-a-half decades. 

 

Among her most notable NOVA films are "The Miracle of Life" sequel "Life's Greatest Miracle," "The Fabric of the Cosmos" with Brian Greene, and "Making North America" with Dr. Kirk Johnson. Other of Apsell's acclaimed productions are the large-screen IMAX films "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure" and "Special Effects" which was nominated for an Academy Award®.

 

In addition to overseeing the NOVA franchise, Apsell taught science communication at the University of California Santa Barbara.

 

In October 2018, Paula Apsell received the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences. She was the first science journalist to receive this award.

 

Following her departure from NOVA, Apsell became CEO of Leading Edge Productions and started producing The Resistance Project, a documentary about Jewish resistance to the Holocaust.

 

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, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

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

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead