A BRIGHTER LENS

We sat down with directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West and producer Talleah Bridges McMahon to chat about their new film MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film takes an in-depth look at the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a non-binary Black lawyer, activist and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall. The film comes out in theaters today (September 17) and will be available on Amazon Prime after theatrical release.

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform that makes entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Over the last 8 years, Seed&Spark has developed an unprecedented pipeline of unique voices and award-winning content through its education and crowdfunding platform. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories, and Seed&Spark delivers those stories into workplaces for employee training, engagement, and intelligence through its proprietary Impact Screening Platform.

We caught up with film critics Beandrea July and Aramide Tinubu at the Sundance Film Festival to get their take on this year's festival!

We’re excited to announce our new name: A BRIGHTER LENS! In this time of reflection and learning, we wanted to have a more inclusive and expansive name. We’re still committed to spotlighting women in the film industry, but also want to feature more trans and non-binary folks as well and wanted our name to reflect that. For our first episode of Season 3, we chatted with Sue Ding, director of The Claudia Kishi Club. Sue is a documentary filmmaker and new media producer based in Los Angeles. As...

In this week's episode, we discuss women in film in the news at Sundance (since we're at the Sundance Film Festival!) Then, we interview film composer Jesi Nelson. Jesi Nelson is a Los Angeles based composer for film & media, conductor and orchestrator. She received her BFA in Music Composition and Technology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College. Upon her move to LA, she interned for Danny Elfman at Studio...

This week, we chat with Gillian Wallace Horvat, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, writer, and film programmer about her new film I BLAME SOCIETY. I BLAME SOCIETY is Gillian’s feature film debut; previous projects include KISS KISS FINGERBANG, which was awarded the Jury Prize in the Midnight Shorts category at the 2015 South by Southwest Film Festival, and a Vimeo Staff Pick. She has also produced several documentaries and is a guest columnist for Filmmaker magazine. I BLAME SOCIETY is available...

Hillary Spera is a cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY. We’ve coinicidentally watched a handful of Hillary’s films during the pandemic, so we were delighted to chat with her about a couple of her most recent ones! We specifically talked with her about her work on the Blumhouse/Sony Pictures reboot of THE CRAFT, directed by Zoe Lister Jones, as well as the Lionsgate feature RUN, directed by Aneesh Chaganty. Hillary’s credits include Zoe Lister-Jones’ BAND AID, Miguel Arteta’s DUCK BUTTER,...

For today’s episode we interviewed film publicist, Tahajah Samuels. Tahajah (pronounced: ta•hay•ja) serves as Senior Digital Publicist at BRIGADE where she manages digital publicity campaigns for films' theatrical, streaming, PVOD and/or home entertainment releases. Clients of hers include Focus Features (The High Note, Johnny English Strikes Again) Lionsgate (John Wick: Chapter 3, Uncle Drew), Netflix (6 Underground, Da 5 Bloods, Dolemite Is My Name, The Irishman, Project Power), United...

We're happy to have friend of the pod, Beandrea July, return for a discussion about the film landscape during pandemic times. Beandrea is a freelance writer and audio producer focused on culture. Her film criticism has been published in several outlets including The New York Times, Time, The Hollywood Reporter and broadcast on NPR. She is a regular contributor to TheCherryPicks.com a website that prioritizes women’s voices in film criticism. She has also been a guest on the NPR shows 1A and...

This week, we're discussing the Hollywood assistants' revolt and #PayUpHollywood and the implications this has for the rest of the industry. Then, we interview costume designer Gersha Phillips. Gersha is a costume designer who has designed for more than 30 films and numerous TV series. She currently designs for CBS’s Emmy-nominated Star Trek: Discovery, now in its second season. Her work on Season 1 earned her a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination. She has also worked on House of Cards,...

Kelly Walker is an Australian multi-hyphenate award winning filmmaker. She's had multiple short films in the festival circuit, most notably The Brownlist, directed and edited by Walker, which received the Jury Award for Best Short Film at Bentonville Film Festival. We chatted with Kelly about her debut feature, My Fiona. She was invited to participate in Australian's In Film's Writers Lab for her script and completed shooting the film in the summer 2019. My Fiona was set to world premiere at...

In our first episode we discuss and celebrate some of our favorite accomplishments and strides that women in film made in 2018. Then, we interview writer and director, Elizabeth Chomko. We saw the premiere of Elizabeth's film at the Sundance Film Festival last January and we were absolutely blown away by her film and her work. Happy listening! **Elizabeth Chomko** is a director and writer best known for What They Had (2018), starring Hilary Swank. Her screenplay for What They Had won an...

It's a Sundance tradition! We welcome back friend of the pod + film critic Beandrea July to chat with us about her Sundance Film Festival 2021 virtual experience and her favorite films. Beandrea July (@beandreadotcom) is a freelance film critic based in Los Angeles who works in print and audio. Her work has appeared in several publications including Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Time, The Hollywood Reporter, Hyperallergic, Level and NPR. She has also been a guest on the NPR shows 1A and...

We’re back from Sundance and have finally had a chance to catch our breath and regroup in Los Angeles! We were so inspired by the festival and by all of the films we saw. First, we interview our favorite film critic Beandrea July for her festival hot-takes and in-depth thoughts on her favorite films. We had the chance to watch some films with her during the festival and loved hearing her takeaways. Next, we interview production designer Tracy Dishman. Tracy designed for Black Bear, which was...

Tiffany Little Canfield, CSA is a casting director for theatre, film, and television at the prestigious bi-coastal casting office, Telsey + Company. Some notable projects include This Is Us, Mary Poppins Returns, Atypical, Smash, The Intern, Into the Woods, The Intern, Ricki and The Flash, and Masters of Sex. She received the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award for her work on Margin Call in 2012. She was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Limited...

Tanya Saracho is a playwright and television writer who serves as creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed series Vida on Starz, which earned 100% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes for its first, second and third seasons. The show, which recently aired its third and final season, featured all Latina directors in seasons two and three, including Saracho, who made her television directorial debut last year. The series had an all-Latinx writers room for seasons...

We were so sad to hear of the passing of beloved filmmaker and director, Lynn Shelton. We wanted to honor her memory by re-airing her episode in which we discussed her recent film Sword of Trust. Lynn was deeply loved in the film community (and beyond) and known for both her own films and her extensive TV directing resume. Her films include We Go Way Back, My Effortless Brilliance, Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister, Touchy Feely, Laggies, Outside In, and Sword of Trust. She had also directed...

For this week’s episode, we talked with writer, director, and U.S. Army veteran, Satinder Kaur about her short film Blood and Glory. Blood and Glory premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and won the Grand Prize in Women in Media CAMERAderie initiative. Kaur is a fellow of the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project. She recently started the Global Talent Development & Inclusion program through NBC/Universal, where she is currently writing two features as part of the program. Blood...

For this week's episode, we talked with Bridget Moloney, back at the beginning of quarantine! Bridget is an award-winning writer and director working in television, film and commercials. We talk to her about the short film, BLOCKS, that she wrote and directed. She is also the writer/director of the independent television pilot I Was A Teenage Pillow Queen that premiered at the 2018 Tribeca TV Festival. Bridget shot Blocks while a member of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women 2020. The AFI...

“That’s what I’m aiming for: a renaissance of creativity.” —Alma Har’el Bonus episode alert: this week we chatted with Alma Har’el about her initiative Free The Bid and its upcoming relaunch!