Janeane Bernstein speaks with Emmy and Academy Award winner Terry Sanders about his latest work, Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey. LISTEN NOW!

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The new coming of age film from Emmy and Academy Award winner Terry Sanders, Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey. Starring Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood's breakthrough star Mikey Madison, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle's Madeline Iseman, and Bloodline's Sean H. Scully and set in California in the 1960's, this romantic story of first love combines elements of Romeo & Juliet and The Odyssey. Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey is available for the first time on DVD and VOD from Vision Films on August 4, 2020.

Vision Films presents the beautiful story of first love from Emmy and Academy Award winner Terry Sanders,

LIZA, LIZA, SKIES ARE GREY

Coming soon to DVD and VOD on August 4, 2020

HOLLYWOOD, CA - July 14, 2020 - Vision Films are proud to present the loving coming of age film, Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey. Directed by Terry Sanders (1994 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision) and starring Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood’s breakthrough star Mikey Madison, this unforgettable film captures the innocence and overwhelming emotion that is first love. Set in 1960’s California with its exquisite cinematography and wonderful performances by its cast of rising stars, Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey will be available on DVD and video on demand for the first time on August 4, 2020.


“A sweet story of teenage love” - Film Threat

“ Sanders takes the elements of teen exploitation films and fashions a simple, placid return to innocence”- Village Voice


Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/VKRjetAnF8U


Starring Mikey Madison (The Addams Family, Better Things), Madison Iseman (Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, Annabelle Comes Home), Sean H. Scully (The Last Champion, Bloodline), Valarie Rae Miller (La La Land, Dark Angel), Kristin Minter (Home Alone, This Is Us), Kwame Boateng (The Onion Movie, Not Easily Broken) and John-Paul Lavoisier (Days Of Our Lives, All My Children), Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey sees a hopeful young couple take a motorcycle trip up the California coast in the summer of 1966 that they will never forget.


Synopsis

After deciding they would be each other’s “first,” Liza (Mikey Madison) and Brett (Sean H. Scully), a young couple trying to figure out love and growing up in the summer of ‘66, take a motorcycle road trip up the California coast. With one last chance to live like there’s no tomorrow in a world filled with war, fear, and change, fate will offer them more than they ever expected to find on the warm and winding highway.

“I wanted to explore the rebellious feelings and the incredible excitement of a 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old boyfriend, growing up in Southern California in the ‘60s in the time of the A-Bomb, the Vietnam War and the Sexual Revolution, deciding to take off on their own to discover what love is all about”, says director/writer, Terry Sanders.

“Drawing on actual moments, memories, fragments, and experiences from my own early life, I wanted to shoot the film like a documentary — as if one could go back in time and actually follow two real kids. I hope young people seeing the film will identify with Liza and Brett and hope it will stir poignant memories in parents and grandparents”.


“Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey is a charming and timeless love story that invokes the feeling of being young and in love for the very first time," says Vision Films CEO/Managing Director, Lise Romanoff. "The legendary Terry Sanders has created a Romeo and Juliet meets The Odyssey and Vision is pleased to be presenting Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey on DVD and video on demand.”

Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey will be available on August 4, 2020, on DVD from all major online retailers and on digital for an SRP of $4.99 - $9.99 from platforms including iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Xbox, Amazon, and FandangoNow, as well as cable affiliates everywhere.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIZALIZAMOVIE/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX24iiC4aDrcoGqCbeUVbdg

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizalizamovie/

#lizalizamovie

Coming up August 31, 2020 at 9:30am pst on KUCI 88.9fm - Janeane chats with Leslie La Page of the LA FEMME International Film Festival

  LISTEN or  WATCH the conversation

Meet Leslie La Page 

For over a decade Leslie La Page has Produced, Directed and Line Produced/UPM for Film, TV, Music Videos, Commercials and Theatrical productions nationally and internationally in both the independent and commercial markets. She has worked for such companies as Black Entertainment Television Action Pay Per View (BET) HBO, Lifetime TV, MTV, Paramount and Nickelodeon just to name a few.

While at BET she line produced their entire slate of original programming which aired on their network and additional achieved international and domestic video releases. Her production experience also involves her in the areas of marketing, developing scripts, creating promotional copy as well as promotional feature spots and trailers.

In 1997 Ms. La Page ran and operated TIGER’S EYE SOUND, a dialogue editorial company, with her partner Bruce Murphy. There she worked with numerous awarding winning dialogue editors and edited over 20 independent feature films in the company’s first year. Ms. La Page and TIGER’S EYE SOUND dialogue-edited such critically acclaimed films as: 1998 Academy Awards Nominee, Best Foreign Film – “Four Days in September”; 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for “Smoke Signals”; and the film “Dead Man’s Curve,” which was a Sundance Film Festival Invitee.

In 2003, Leslie and her Partner Saul Stein, Co-Executive Producer of “The Holy Land”, formed BooYah! Films and have released through Cavu Pictures the critically acclaimed film “The Holy Land”, which opened domestically at the Angelica Theatre in New York City before rolling out to 45 cities across the nation. She still has her production company Infinity Films which is involved in feature film, music video, and commercial productions.

Ms. La Page also consults independent filmmakers for feature films, script analysis, budgets, independent marketing, and film festivals and taught at the New York Film Academy and has taught as an adjunct professor nationally at universities. She was a Slamdance Film Festival Programmer for over five years and was the creator and Executive Producer for the Slamdance Filmmaker’s Bootcamp.

Ms. LaPage was the Director of Programming for the New Orleans Media Experience Film Festival (NOME 2003) occurring in Louisiana which platformed over 100 films. 50% of the films platformed at NOME went on to have theatrical distribution: Show Boy, Nursie, Hungry Hearts, Dog Walker and Flavors just to name a few.

Ms. LaPage launched in 2005 the LA FEMME International Film Festival which still operated today as one of the most prestigious women’s film festivals in Los Angeles. The focus of the film festival is to empower women in entertainment and to platform women artists with commercially viable productions. Ms. LaPage has been a forerunner in the empowerment of independent artists. Ms LaPage explored new technologies as the V.P. of Production for Fun Little Movies channel on the Sprint mobile network. She directed and produced the channel’s first animated series, “Spacey Movie, The Series”.

Ms. LaPage launched a “Christian Faith Based Network” for a philanthropic Christian organization. She held the title of Supervising Producer for all Original Programming in Production and Post Production for their scripted and non-scripted content.

Ms. La Page holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts. She currently teaches as an Adjunct teacher at Columbia College Hollywood. Ms. LaPage is currently in development with Television shows for the major networks and writing a novel series.

Coming up August 31, 2020 at 9:00am pst on KUCI 88.9fm - Eve Rodsky shares details on her latest book, Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)

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A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

"A hands-on, real talk guide for navigating the hot-button issues that so many families struggle with."--Reese Witherspoon

Tired, stressed, and in need of more help from your partner? Imagine running your household (and life!) in a new way...
It started with the Sh*t I Do List. Tired of being the "shefault" parent responsible for all aspects of her busy household, Eve Rodsky counted up all the unpaid, invisible work she was doing for her family -- and then sent that list to her husband, asking for things to change. His response was... underwhelming. Rodsky realized that simply identifying the issue of unequal labor on the home front wasn't enough: She needed a solution to this universal problem. Her sanity, identity, career, and marriage depended on it.

The result is Fair Play: a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up chores and responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than five hundred men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner.

"Winning" this game means rebalancing your home life, reigniting your relationship with your significant other, and reclaiming your Unicorn Space -- as in, the time to develop the skills and passions that keep you interested and interesting. Stop drowning in to-dos and lose some of that invisible workload that's pulling you down. Are you ready to try Fair Play? Let's deal you in.

WATCH  how Eve Rodsky's Card Game Helps You Achieve "Fair Play" with Your Partner

THE 2020 AMERICAN BLACK FILM FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING NOW

WHAT:

It’s time to tune-in NOW to the 2020 ABFF’s Online Festival featuring the best of independent Black cinema, studio premieres, conversationsand panels, along with virtual networking events.

Below, please find a list of films and panel highlights that are FREE to screen and watch through ABFF Play. For a complete list of programming, go to https://www.abff.com/

PANELS:

Tuesday, August 25th Hot at Amazon
A candid conversation with content creators who have current and upcoming projects at Amazon. Each will highlight their Prime Video titles as well as their respective experiences across the entertainment industry and the importance of diverse and inclusive representation. Panelists include Little Marvin (THEM) Creator, Writer and Executive Producer; Lena Waithe (THEM) Executive Producer, Tracy Oliver (Untitled Tracy Oliver Project) Creator, Writer and Executive Producer, Barry Jenkins (The Underground Railroad) Writer, Director, Executive Producer; Tayarisha Poe (Selah and the Spades) Writer, Director; Eugene Ashe (Sylvie’s Love) Writer, Director. Panel will be moderated by Latasha Gillespie, Head of Amazon Studios Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Friday, August 28th, In Control: Black Female Perspectives on Directing and Storytelling Daughters of Eve presents a conversation with three dynamic Black female directors on feature and documentary filmmaking offering a window into their creative journeys and processes. Panelists include Gina Prince- Bythewood, Director, The Old Guard; Christine Swanson, Director, The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel; Jacqueline Olive, Director, Always in Season. Moderator is Terri Prettyman Bowles and Michele Prettyman Ph.D., Media Consultants, Daughters of Eve

Friday, August 28th. STARZ presents Power Book II: Ghost Join the cast and creators to discuss the newest chapter in the POWER universe. Panelists include Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Michael Rainey Jr., Naturi Naughton, Mary J. Blige, Monet Stewart Tejada, Cliff “Method Man” Smith with Moderator Yohana Desta the Editor of Vanity Fair.

Sunday, August 30th. Best of the American Black Film Festival Awards Hosted by Boris Kodjoe & Nicole Ari Parker The culminating event of the festival where the competitive film award winners are announced.

Presenters include Lee Daniels, Director (The United States vs. Billie Holliday, La La Anthony, Actor (The Chi), Spike Lee, Director (Da 5 Bloods), Boris Kodjoe & Nicole Ari Parker, and Logan Browning, Actor (Dear White People).

FILMS:

Films are available to stream throughout the festival. Some of the highlights include Award-winning director Jamal Hill who has two official selections, The Available Wife and True to the Game 2: Gena’s Story, starring Vivica A. Fox. Chris Chalk, currently starring in HBO’s Perry Mason, directs, produces and stars in his Narrative Features entry Farewell; while Nick Cannon's selection She Ball stars Brian “Birdman” Williams, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Brown, Marla Gibbs and Big Boy. Death of a Telemarketer, which is produced by Megan Good and stars Oscar Nominees Jacky Earle Haley and Haley Joel Osment. Dutch, starring Macy Gray, Lance Gross, as well as The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain, starring Anika Noni Rose among others.

WHEN:

The Festival runs until August 30, 2020


WHERE:

https://www.abff.com/


PRESS:

MPRM Communications, abff@mprm.com, 323-933-3399

MORE:

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is an annual event dedicated to
recognizing black talent and showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. Dedicated to the belief that diverse artists deserve the same opportunities as their mainstream counterparts, ABFF founder Jeff Friday conceived the festival in 1997 as a vehicle to strengthen the black entertainment community by fostering resource sharing, educationand artistic collaboration.

# # #

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is an annual event dedicated to recognizing black talent and showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. Dedicated to the belief that diverse artists deserve the same opportunities as their mainstream counterparts, ABFF founder Jeff Friday conceived the festival in 1997 as a vehicle to strengthen the black entertainment community by fostering resource sharing, education and artistic collaboration.

After 24 years, the festival has become a cornerstone of diversity in Hollywood, providing a platform for emerging black artists – many of who have become today’s most successful actors, producers, writers, directors and stand-up comedians, including Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), Will Packer (Girls Trip), Issa Rae (Insecure), Kevin Hart (Night School), Omari Hardwick (Power) and Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II). The ABFF is the preeminent pipeline for black artists in front of and behind the camera, and has significantly expanded the range of talent working in the entertainment Industry.

As “the nation’s largest community of black film and television enthusiasts” the ABFF attracts a broad audience of celebrity talent, emerging artists, upscale consumers and industry stakeholders. Approximately 7,000 to 10,000 people travel to Miami Beach each year for the five-day event. The festival opens with the premiere of an upcoming Hollywood release followed by a full schedule of intriguing independent film screenings, master classes, panels, celebrity talks, live entertainment, and a variety of networking and hospitality events.

Actor/Director James Babbin (Michael/Executive Producer) of TRAIN STOP spoke with host Janeane Bernstein from our KUCI 88.9fm studios

LISTEN to today's conversation with
featured guest James Babbin!

TRAIN STOP a short film

Synopsis: Two busy professionals confront their undeniable attraction — and their demons — during a chance encounter at a train station. Somewhere in the crowd...there’s someone for you!

Train Stop" will screen at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival on Sunday, August 30th at 10PM, at the Westfield Fashion Square located at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. Films will be simultaneous played on separate screens on the west and east end of the rooftop parking area; sound will be delivered through car radios. Tickets are available for purchase at www.filmfreeway.com at a price of $20 per person. For more information on the venue and other screenings, visit www.methodfest.com

Press Representative: Deborah Gilels LA Media Consultants ddgilels@prodigy.net

THE CAST
James Babbin (Michael/Executive Producer) has appeared onstage in Los Angeles, New York and regionally at the Fountain Theatre, Deaf West, Fierce Backbone, Santa Monica Rep, Will Geer Theatricum, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hangar Theatre, Riverside Shakespeare, Trinity Repertory Company, Rubicon Theatre, Surflight Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Barrow Group, Hypothetical Theatre and Alliance Repertory Company. His television and film work includes Feud, Mimi & Mo, , Hawk P.I., Water On Mars, The Bathroom Attendant, Carl’s Day Off, J. Edgar, As The World Turns, One Life To Live, Sex And The City, Angels In America, The Main Distraction, Pleasure and As Luck Would Have It. On the radio, James has worked as a disc jockey in a variety of formats and narrated audiobooks. As a producer/writer, he is the founder of Barnegat Light Production and has two series, Hacker and Paradise Rising. Off-the-set, JB spends lots of time with his dog, volunteers with Chrysalis, a nonprofit helping people find jobs and solves tech problems. He is also a grillmaster, which makes him popular, or at least gives him something to do, at parties.


Sage Porter (Tracy) A native of Boulder Colorado, Sage Porter moved with her family to Los Angeles in 2012 to pursue her acting career and has worked in films such as Hangover III and My Amish World. My Amish World has received multiple awards in film festivals across the world. Sage can also be seen on the Nickelodeon television show Bella and the Bulldogs. She is currently working on a motion capture project to help first responders with PTSD. Sage currently studies at BGB Studios and has trained at The Groundlings, with Chris Game and more. When not acting she dedicates her time to her family and volunteering for homeless, as well as the Casa Hogar orphanage in Mexico. If you have a birthday coming up, ask her to bake you a cake . . . She loves baking cakes to look like cows, zoos, horseshoe crabs . . .anything (and they taste very good too).

Coming up 8/24/20 at 9:30am pst! Life lessons from Sanford Greenberg, author of the new memoir HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness into an Extraordinary Vision for Life

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Life lessons from Sanford Greenberg, author of the new memoir HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness into an Extraordinary Vision for Life (Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster; June 30, 2020). With an Introduction by Art Garfunkel, a Foreword by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Final Word by Margaret Atwood, and advance praise from Vice President Al Gore, it’s recently been featured in People magazine, AARP’s 4 New Books Offer Hope & Inspiration, NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi, and later this week Sandy he will appear on TODAY SHOW. Since this summer marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it’s an especially good time to talk about thriving despite challenging circumstances. Here’s his story in a nutshell:

What happens when a poor kid from Buffalo gets a scholarship to Columbia but then tragically goes blind during his junior year? Luckily for him, he has a roommate named Art Garfunkel—who reads his textbooks aloud, accompanies him to his classes, and guides him literally every step of the way. That kid—Sandy Greenberg—not only graduates Phi Beta Kappa as class president but goes on to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard, an M.B.A. from Columbia, a Marshall Scholarship to Oxford, and a White House Fellowship, before forging a remarkable career as an entrepreneur, investor, innovator and philanthropist. One of his inventions—the compressed speech machine—not only changed the lives of millions of blind people but helped shape the world as we hear it today—in recordings, podcasts and audiobooks. Now Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute, later this year, Sandy will award $3 million—through his End Blindness 20/20 campaign—to the person or group who makes the greatest stride toward ending blindness for the next generation.

ABOUT SANFORD D. GREENBERG

Sanford D. Greenberg is Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute, the largest clinical and research enterprise in ophthalmology in the United States. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a Trustee Emeritus of The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine, which incorporates the School of Medicine and the Hospital.

President Clinton appointed Dr. Greenberg to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and advises both the President and Congress on policy matters related to science and engineering. He served as Chairman of the Rural Health Care Corporation, created by Congress to bring the benefits of telemedicine to America’s rural areas. Dr. Greenberg was a founding director of the American Agenda, an organization established by Presidents Carter and Ford to identify for President George H. W. Bush the six most urgent problems confronting the nation and to recommend bipartisan solutions. He also served as a director of the National Committee on United States–China Relations.

He is co-editor of the book The Presidential Advisory System, which discusses the methods used by American Presidents to obtain policy advice for the management of the federal government.

Dr. Greenberg received his B.A. as Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1962. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his M.B.A. from Columbia University. He was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and attended Harvard Law School. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Sue; they have three children and four grandchildren. 

Learn more at sanfordgreenberg.com or https://www.hellodarkness-book.com/.

Monday 8/24/20 at 9:00am pst - American composer/conductor/violinist/violist/pianist and educator Maria Newman joins Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm

Maria Newman, Composer/Violinist/Violist

United States Congress Commendation and Recognition

Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow

Mary Pickford Library Composition Fellow

Composer-in-Residence, Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra

Composer-in-Residence, Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble

Music Director/Conductor, Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra

LISTEN or WATCH

“Hugely musical, bewitching, witty, profound and playful, with an instantly recognizable and unusually appealing musical personality, Maria Newman is one of the most charming and distinctive composers of her generation.” Jim Svejda, NPR’s “The Record Shelf Guide to the Classical Repertoire”/KUSC Radio. 

American composer/conductor/violinist/violist/pianist and educator Maria Newman has been commended and recognized by the U.S. Congress for her work in the field of music composition, performance, and recording, as well as earning accolades as an Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow, a Mary Pickford Library & Foundation Composition Fellow, and a Variety American Music Legend. 

“This is real genius.” Fanfare Magazine. As composer and performer, Newman’s original concert works, as well as scores for film and historic silent films, are presented around the globe in the world’s major municipalities, including such domestic venues as Carnegie Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the U.S. Capitol Building on Capitol Hill and the National Archives in Washington D.C., William Randolph Hearst Castle Private Theater, the President’s Own Marine Band Barracks, Nokia’s NOVO Theatre, NYC’s Symphony Space, the Clarice at UMD, the Music Scoring Stages of 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros., to name but a few. Newman continues to be featured regularly on radio and television worldwide in live recorded concert performances/spotlight interviews on broadcasts such as CBS Sunday Morning, and National Public Radio's From the Top with Christopher O'Riley. A George Wellington Miles Scholar of Yale University, Newman is a passionate advocate for the strength of storytelling and the power of human understanding within our universal language of music, and she has been privileged to partner with many commissioning organizations and world-class performers in composing and presenting her works to the concert-going public and beyond. 

She has taken these ideas along with her to conservatory and university artist-faculty residencies at such institutions as Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, University of Maryland School of Music in Washington D.C., among many others. Her many compositions continue to enjoy a meaningful musical life. 

Educated at Yale University (MM) and the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music (BM; Pi Kappa Lambda; magna cum laude), Newman is currently Composer-in-Residence, soloist, and concertmaster with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, and Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble, (with whom she has earned multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts), and is Music Director and Conductor of the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra. Often in the international spotlight, Maria Newman was the acclaimed soloist in Miklos Rozsa’s Viola Concerto with the Nuremburg Symphony (Germany) on the GRAMMY Award-winning Symphonic Hollywood CD, (Varese Sarabande label), and served as solo violinist and physical animation inspiration for the character of “The Grasshopper” in the 1996 Walt Disney release of Tim Burton’s, James and the Giant Peach. 

Along with musical partner/husband, conductor and producer Scott Hosfeld, Newman has presented an award-winning live classical concert series at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture (MAHMA, Malibu) for the past fifteen seasons. During this unprecedented era in which we find ourselves staying close to home, the two have already broadcast 5 streaming events featuring the resident musicians actually living at the venue. A virtual summer festival is planned for August 20th – 30th, 2020. Please visit: www.malibufriendsofmusic.org for more information. 

Often referred to as the “Musical Newman Family Dynasty,” Maria Newman is the daughter of 9-time Academy Award-winning composer, Alfred Newman; the sister of Academy Award-nominated film composers and conductors Thomas Newman and David Newman; and the cousin of Academy Awardwinning singer-songwriter and film composer Randy Newman. Maria Newman’s music/recording studio is based in Malibu, California, in a beautiful California craftsman venue designed by renowned architect, Eric Lloyd Wright, of the Frank Lloyd Wright family of architects.