KUCI: Get the Funk Out!

Margaret M. Spirito and Lisa Ann Walter speak with Janeane Bernstein about their film,

Jersey” Short Film to Compete at 16th Annual
LA Femme International Film Festival
Short to serve as proof of concept for potential series
LOS ANGELES – October 7h , 2020 -- The comedic short “Jersey”, written by Margaret M. Spirito and directed by and starring Lisa Ann Walter will screen at the 16th Annual LA Femme International Film Festival on Saturday, October 17th, 6PM on the CYA.Live platform. A Q&A with Spirito, Walter and co-star, Valerie Tosi, will follow.
The film centers around best friends Maria (Valerie Tosi) and Lorelei (Mayan Lopez) who escaped the drama of their New Jersey families by moving to sunny Los Angeles. The drama finds them, however, when Maria's crass mother, Tess (Walter), and spoiled older brother, Nick (Vinny Fasline), celebrate Easter with Maria and Lorelei on the west coast. Maria finds it hard to bite her tongue at Tess's ignorance, while Lorelei attempts to play buffer between mother and daughter. After a dinner full of baby boomer judgement and millennial clapbacks, things take an exciting turn when Tess accidentally mistakes the girls' chocolate edibles for Easter dessert, turning what Maria was hoping to be a chill California holiday into a Jersey shit storm. Once the storm settles, Maria and Tess find themselves able to confront the obvious tension that exists between them, proving the age old theory almost all women can relate to: there’s family you love, family you hate…..and then there’s your mother.
Writer/producer Spirito is a singer, actress, writer and producer originally from New Jersey. Her big, belty voice brought her all over the world, performing in shows such as the National Tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and international productions pf “Shout”, “And the World Goes Round” and “Smokey Joe’s Café”. In Los Angeles, she spent years performing with the critically acclaimed FOR THE RECORD series in several of their productions, in addition to producing/writing/performing her own shows, “The Sounds of Dirty Jersey” and “Amy Winehouse, One Year Later”. In addition to her work on stage, Margaret is an accomplished writer, her love being half-hour television comedy.
Actress/director Walter is an accomplished stand up comedian and actress, most recognized for her work in the “The Parent Trap”, “Bruce Almighty”, and “Shall We Dance.” She also created the network shows “Life’s Work and Dance Your Ass Off”. In addition to her work as an actress and Executive Producer, Walter is a successful author and a favorite among radio listeners for her hit radio show “The Fabulous Lisa Ann Walter Show” that was on air from 2011-2014.
The LA Femme International Film Festival is now in its 16th year as one of Los Angeles’ premiere film festivals dedicated to celebrating and promoting female artists both in front of and behind the camera. In addition to bestowing awards in multiple categories, from short subjects to documentaries to commercials, LA Femme is proud to present this year’s Lupe Ontiveros Image Award to a performer who embodies the spirit, audacity and dedication to art that its namesake represented. This year’s Ontiveros honoree will be actress/producer Shari Belafonte.

Ally Kornfeld and Desiree Staples talk about their film, “The Influencers”

Ally Kornfeld and Desiree Staples, “The Influencers” is custom made for the weaned-on-social-media generation of online viewers today. On a quest to become a high-powered Hollywood agent, Mia, an ambitious and naive young woman, ends up at a tiny talent agency managing crazy YouTube stars both human and feline. Thus far, the short-form pilot has won multiple awards including “Best Ensemble Cast” (Santa Monica Webfest), “Best Pilot,” (Seoul Webfest) and the “HRIFF People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film: Comedy” (Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival).

“The New Abolitionists” Documentary to Compete for Top Prize at the 16th Annual LA Femme International Film Festival - Actress/Producer Christina Zori...

LOS ANGELES – October 8, 2020 -- “The New Abolitionists,” a documentary by actress/producer Christina Zorich, tracks her journey as she follows committed abolitionists throughout Southeast Asia as they attempt to affect change and put an end to human sex trafficking. The film will screen on Sunday, October 18th, at 2PM at the (virtual) LA Femme International Film Festival, with a Q and A to follow.
In the course of the film, Zorich tracks the trajectories of the Christian ministries and NGO’s (non-government organizations) who save children and teens entrapped and enslaved in the sex trade throughout Cambodia and Thailand. They educated her on the causes and conditions that led to the blossoming of this criminal industry, the government’s complicity, and the structure they used to solve the problem: Rescue, Rehabilitation, Prosecution and Prevention. Heartbreaking stories ensue of young people of both sexes, many betrayed by close family members who sell them off to traffickers for financial gain.

Author Oliver Jeffers talks about his new children’s book, WHAT WE’LL BUILD

WHAT WE’LL BUILD is the exquisite new title from Oliver Jeffers, world-renowned picture-book maker of many beloved children’s books including Here We Are and Lost and Found, and illustrator of the #1 bestsellers The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home. Written and illustrated by Oliver for his young daughter, WHAT WE’LL BUILD is an enchanting story of a father and a daughter who set about laying the foundations for their life together, building memories to cherish, a home to keep them safe and love to keep them warm. WHAT WE’LL BUILD is set to be another publishing masterpiece that not only showcases Oliver’s inimitable style and spectacular illustrations but also his hopes and ambitions for his own family that will, no doubt, resonate with parents everywhere.

Indie Thriller NIGHT RAIN Premieres at 16th LA Femme International Film Festival - Janeane speaks with Jeanne Marie Spicuzza

“Night Rain,” the indie thriller from Jeanne Marie Spicuzza, Seasons & a Muse and the award-winning producers of “The Scarapist,” will make its festival debut at the 16th Annual LA Femme International Film Festival on Thursday, October 15th.
The story surrounds a group of independent filmmakers unwittingly hired by their stalker to make a low budget period movie about Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia, who begin to see their lives dangerously intertwine with the events leading up to Short’s tragic murder. Spicuzza, who penned the screenplay, co-directs with her editor, Synthian Sharp (“How I Became an Elephant”). “Night Rain” marks the second feature from Spicuzza.

Coming up on KUCI 88.9fm - James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly editor at large and author of FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON: Game of Thrones and the Offici...

It’s easy to forget that Thrones was supposed to be impossible to make. Long before Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow became household names, George R.R. Martin was a frustrated TV writer who created his bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire novels to explore epic storytelling beyond the constraints of Hollywood. In 2008, HBO took an enormous gamble to produce his “unfilmable” saga and for the next 11 years, the Game of Thrones team faced one backstage obstacle after another while turning their series into an unprecedented global blockbuster, an Emmy Awards record-breaker (132 nominations and 47 wins in total) and a pop-culture obsession. Across its 8 seasons that aired in 207 countries and territories, GoT received perhaps more cumulative media coverage than any show ever made. Yet no one knows the inside story of GoT as well as Entertainment Weekly Editor-at-Large James Hibberd, a journalist who visited the top-secret show’s sets each season since 2012. In his debut book, FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series, Hibberd chronicles the making of GoT from the producers' very first meeting with Martin to the staging of the controversial series finale and all the epic battles in between.
James Hibberd gives fans an inside look at every aspect of the ground-breaking series and the people who created it

Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias speaks with host Janeane Bernstein about his new book, One Billion Americans

What would actually make America great? More people, argues Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias. ONE BILLION AMERICANS is a bold, provocative, and data-driven case for massive population growth, presented with Yglesias’ signature humor and analytic rigor.
Matthew Yglesias’s articles for which receive an average of 2 million page views per month, have been cited by everyone from Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama to Jeff Bezos, and have influenced congressional action on topics like the relocation of federal agencies outside the Beltway. He hosts Vox podcast "The Weeds," which was hailed as the "best roundtable podcast" of 2018 by Quartz and draws on average 130,000 downloads per episode.
If the most challenging crisis in living memory has shown us anything, it’s that the US has lost the will and the means to lead the global community and marketplace. We can’t compete with the huge population clusters of the global marketplace by keeping our population static or letting it diminish, or with our crumbling transit and unaffordable housing. The winner in the future world is going to have more—more ideas, more ambition, more utilization of resources, more people.

Award-winning author Amy Hest shares details about her new book, The Summer We Found the Baby, with host Janeane Bernstein on KUCI 88.9fm

Amy is a Christopher Award/Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner with over 40 children’s titles under her belt; she is also the beloved writer of Kiss Good Night, The Reader, and more. She recently interviewed on WTJS-FM’s “Blue Suede Forever” and KFMG-FM’s “Culture Buzz.”

Black Boys - A Film By Sonia Lowman

A film for this historic moment, in a nation still struggling to rectify its racist legacy, BLACK BOYS illuminates and celebrates the full humanity of Black men and boys in America. It is a love story exploring the body, mind, voice, and heart through intimate, intergenerational conversations and stories.
At the intersection of education, criminal justice and sports, BLACK BOYS reveals the emotional landscape of racism—of how it feels to walk through the world seen as something to be feared. Filmmaker Sonia Lowman (Teach Us All) follows Greg Scruggs, a two-time Super Bowl champion and young father who recently returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to impress upon young Black athletes the importance of education first, as well as Sharif El Mekki, a principal at a nearly all Black charter school in West Philadelphia, and a group of young activists fighting for criminal justice reform in Chicago.
Also lending their stories and insights are important activists in their respective fields: Super Bowl Champion Malcolm Jenkins, who also serves as executive producer on the project; rapper Vic Mensa, NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, NFL Hall of Fame inductee Cris Carter, Super Bowl champion Chris Long, award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill Key, acclaimed activist and academic Dr. Harry Edwards, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. John King.
Deeply moving and profoundly beautiful, BLACK BOYS serves as a rare glimpse into the emotional landscape of Black men and boys, illuminating their full humanity, vulnerability and resilience.

Composer, songwriter and music business consultant Cheryl B. Engelhardt joins Janeane to talk about her latest album, LUMINARY

Cheryl B. Engelhardt is a composer, songwriter and music business consultant. Her newest record “Luminary” - piano/ambient music and for mindfulness, focus, and growth- hit #1 on iTunes and Amazon New Age charts and is featured on the popular mediation apps Insight Timer and Simple Habit. The New Yorker received degrees in Biology and in Music from Cornell University, studied orchestration at Juilliard, then began her tenure as a composer for films, ads, theater, and social justice choirs, as well as a touring pop recording artist. Cheryl is also committed to helping other independent musicians transform their careers and provides programs and coaching on her site In The Key Of Success. She is a sought- after speaker and has presented at South By Southwest, ASCAP Expo, and multiple colleges and universities around the country.