KUCI: Get the Funk Out

Producer/Director Amy Williams joins host Janeane to talk about her next film, Jacir, starring Lorraine Bracco

Amy Williams is a producer/director responsible for raising financing for multi-million-dollar films, putting together award-winning packaging with creative name casting and department heads as well as securing sales and distribution for feature films. Over the past 5 years she has produced 5 feature films: The Last Treasure Hunt (2016), Mothers and Daughters (2016) with Courtney Cox and Sharon Stone, Rock, Paper, Scissors (2017), A Dark Foe (2019) and the multi-award winning Hunter’s Moon (2020) that will be coming out this September. Her next film, Jacir, starring Lorraine Bracco, will shoot in Memphis this fall. Jacir was written and will be directed by Waheed AlQawasmi, a former creative director at Fox Television.
Williams was born in Memphis but grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. At the time, the neighborhood was notorious for drugs and crime, but was still home to many young parents and their children. This included Amy’s parents (Jean and Joelle), Amy, and her 5 siblings.
Her father, Jean, had a Ph.D. in German literature, and was a college professor. But he had a wide range of gifts and interests that he was determined to pass on to his children. He was a poet, a writer, and a photographer. He had a keen eye for films and movie making. Williams mother, Joelle Morrison, also a wonderful writer and copy editor for many trades and newspapers over the years.
In 1970, when Jean was writing a critical expose on Franz Kafka, he was severely injured and unable to cognitively function as the “genius father” Amy had always known him to be. It changed the course of the family as a whole, and Amy, fueled by her heartbreak and passion, recalls this memory in her first film, The Morrison Project, which won Best Documentary and the Golden Starfish Award at The Hamptons Film Festival in 2003.
Simultaneously, Amy has been working as a producer and director. Her short film Respire garnered her the award for Best Director at California Women’s Film Festival and Best Narrative Short at California International Shorts Festival. She also directed A Night in Jail starring Michael Madsen and Max Madsen, a short based on true events dealing with mental illness and drugs. This film has screened as an official selection at the Oscar qualifying HollyShorts and LA Shorts
Williams counts Martin Scorsese, Lee Daniels, Quentin Tarantino, Katheryn Bigelow, and the Coen Brothers as some of her biggest influences.

Janeane speaks with Jeffrey James Binney, a Salt Lake City based actor, singer, comedian and “athlete” about his new film - a transformational journey...

Once is Enough, a documentary that depicts the transformational journey of LGBT husky comedian who, after losing his mother to obesity-caused heart disease, sets out to lose 100 pounds and run one of the world’s most difficult 100 mile ultramarathons – and lives to tell jokes about it. Once is Enough will launch on Amazon on May 8th and will soon-after be made available on all VOD platforms via Indie Rights.
Part documentary/part stand up comedy, Once is Enough is an award- winning hybrid film following a young overweight comedian, in the wake of his mother’s obesity- caused death, setting out on a desperate mission to avoid the same fate. The first component documents the journey of Jeffrey training for and running one of the world’s most difficult 100-mile marathons, the Leadville Trail 100. The second component is story-based comedy commentary on the journey. The final product, a seamless juxtaposition of these two components, is a heart-felt and inspiring 75-minute journey that leaves the audience cackling through tears.
Along the way, the spunky Jeffrey manages to wrangle in the talented Ian Sharman, ultramarathon runner, coach and blogger for iRunFar, who holds the record for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning and is the winner of the 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Leadville Trail 100, to be his coach. As the marathon provides a much-needed respite from the emotional torment and grief that seemed inescapable, Sharman’s encouragement helps provide Jeffrey with the confidence and determination to keep his eye on the prize.
“Having just moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film/television/comedy, all I wanted to do is run, write jokes and repeat, “says Binney. “Having shared this with a concerned friend, they suggested that I combine this into one creative project and the light bulb flipped on – Once is Enough.”
“Better than any therapy could buy, this project was just ridiculous and grand enough to help me navigate through, and emotionally process losing the most important person in my life. Hopefully, my story helps inspire someone else to seek theirs,” he continues.
Jeffrey James Binney is a Salt Lake City based actor, singer, comedian and “athlete.” He grew up on a farm in Laredo, Missouri before moving to Brooklyn, New York and later Los Angeles after receiving his B.F.A. in Musical Theater Performance from Missouri State University. Jeffrey has been seen on Late Night With David Letterman, in the first National Tour and Chicago Company of the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and at comedy clubs and festivals across the country. More about Jeffrey at www.JJB.life.com.

UCI’s Chris Schwarz, Associate Professor of Finance Faculty Director, CIWM University of California, Irvine The Paul Merage School of Business, featur...

Professor Schwarz has been at the Paul Merage School of Business since July 2008. Prior to arriving at UCI, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During his doctoral studies, he was also a Visiting Doctoral Fellow at Yale University’s International Center of Finance in 2007 and the Advisory Editor at the Review of Financial Studies. He received his B.S. from Babson College in Wellesley, MA. Prior to receiving his doctorate, Professor Schwarz worked in the IT industry writing custom applications for medium sized businesses.
Christopher Schwarz’s research interests include the management, disclosure, and operational risk of the investment fund industry and the impact of manager incentives and structure on investment fund performance. His research has been published in such leading academic journals as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and included in testimony before the U.S. Congress House Financial Services Committee.

Brennan Barnard College Admission Program Advisor - Making Caring Common - Harvard Graduate School of Education

Brennan Barnard, M.Ed. is the College Admissions Program Advisor with the Making Caring Common project at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
He is also the Director of College Counseling and Outreach at The Derryfield School, an independent day school in Manchester, New Hampshire and at US Performance Academy, an on-line independent high school for elite athletes. Brennan is a co-author of the new book, "The Truth About College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together".

Janeane speaks with Sandra Tsing Loh, a performer, professor and author of seven books, including The Madwoman in the Volvo, which was named one of 20...

ABOUT SANDRA
SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of six books, including THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. The Madwoman in the Volvo has inspired Sandra's new stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, running at The Broad Stage in July, 2015, as well as a multi-character play, which will premiere at South Coast Repertory Theatre in January, 2016.
SANDRA TSING LOH is the author of the THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES (2014, W.W. Norton), which was selected as one of the New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books. It is based on her Best American Essay 2012 on menopause, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her previous book, MOTHER ON FIRE, was inspired by her hit solo show about Los Angeles public education. During that time, she was named one of the 50 most influential comedians by Variety.
Her other solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp" (both off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre), "Sugar Plum Fairy" (Geffen Playhouse, Seattle Rep), and "I Worry" (Kennedy Center, Actor's Theatre of Louisville). Her short story, "My Father's Chinese Wives," won a Pushcart Prize in 1996, and is also featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Literature. Loh's previous books include A Year in Van Nuys, Aliens in America, Depth Takes a Holiday, and a novel, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now, which was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best fiction books of 1998.
She has been a regular commentator on NPR's "Morning Edition," and on PRI's "This American Life" and "Marketplace"; currently, her weekly segment "The Loh Life"" is heard on KPCC. Loh's education includes a BS in physics from the California Institute of Technology, an institution which granted her a Distinguished Alumna Award, its highest honor, and for whom she was the first alumna to give a now-famous commencement speech.
Loh's combining of her communication and science skills continue with her syndicated daily minute "The Loh Down on Science," which is heard weekly by 4 million people. Excerpts from her solo piano CD Pianovision has been heard on several NPR shows, and she also scored the music for the 1998 Oscar-winning documentary Breathing Lessons. A Pushcart Prize winner, MacDowell Fellow and three-time National Magazine Award nominee, she is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly and adjunct professor of visual art and science communication at the University of California, Irvine.
Sandra's stand-up show, The B**** Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Conversation, ran at The Broad Stage in July, 2015. Her multi-character play based on The Madwoman in the Volvo premiered at South Coast Repertory Theatre (SCR) in January, 2016, and enjoyed subsequent runs at The Pasadena Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Loh workshopped a new piece, "Blue State," at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August, 2017. A new three-actor version of "Sugar Plum Fairy" will be produced by SCR in December, 2017. Loh is an adjunct associate professor of Drama at UC Irvine, where she also teaches Science Communication.

Janeane speaks to Alka Joshi about her debut novel, THE HENNA ARTIST

A touching tribute to the life her mother didn’t have the opportunity to lead, Alka Joshi’s debut novel, THE HENNA ARTIST (MIRA Books; March 3, 2020; $26.99) is set in post-Raj 1950s Jaipur, about a young woman struggling to shape her own destiny in a world pivoting between the traditional and the modern. With her novel, Alka reimagines what life might have been like if her mother hadn’t been in an arranged marriage at 18 and instead been able to pursue the same independence and education that she always advocated for Alka.
After fleeing an arranged marriage as a fifteen-year-old to an abusive older man, Lakshmi Shastri steals away alone from her rural village to Jaipur. Against all odds, she carves out a living for herself as a henna artist, friend, and confidante to wealthy, upper caste women. She shares her knowledge and keeps their secrets in a delicate balancing act amid the changing 1950s social mores brought about by Indian Independence. But on the day her ex-husband arrives in town, all that Lakshmi has built threatens to unravel. He seeks money and brings with him a girl, a sister Lakshmi never knew she had and suddenly the caution that Lakshmi has carefully cultivated is threatened, along with her livelihood. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.
Alka Joshi is a graduate of Stanford University and received her M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts. She has worked as an advertising copywriter, a marketing consultant, and an illustrator. Alka was born in India, in the state of Rajasthan. Her family came to the United States when she was nine, and she now lives on California's Monterey Peninsula with her husband and two misbehaving pups. The Henna Artist is her first novel.

Grant Hier is the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, California

Grant Hier is the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, California. He was the 2014 recipient of Prize Americana for his book Untended Garden , which was published by The Poetry Press in 2015, and nominated for both an American Book Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
G R A N T H I E R
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH + CREATIVE WRITING
LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN
INAUGURAL POET LAUREATE OF ANAHEIM EMERITUS
www.granthier.com

Jessica Drew de Paz, Psy.D., is the Director of Mindfulness Services at UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute

Jessica Drew de Paz, Psy.D., is the Director of Mindfulness Services at UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, and she teaches mindfulness to preschoolers through high-school students.
Jessica completed her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara, her master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychology at California School of Professional Psychology, an APA internship at UC Santa Cruz Counseling & Psychological Services, and a post-doctoral fellowship at University of San Francisco Counseling Center. With over 20 years of experience at the University of California, she has served as a clinical psychologist, led diversity efforts, overseen health and safety training, and conducted research on mindfulness in the workplace.

Janeane speaks with Aaron McHugh, a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without...

Aaron McHugh is a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without Quitting Your Job. He is mastering the art of living a sustainable work-life balance that constantly interweaves rhythms of play and adventure. That includes road trips in their 1974 VW Bus, aka The Joy Bus, catapulting them into many father-daughter adventures together.
Aaron works as an Affiliate Advisor to Aberkyn, a division of McKinsey & Co as a facilitator of transformation and executive coach. Aaron loves ideas. He loves to dream up new adventures. He is a Starbucks French press coffee snob and is at his best if he gets out for his daily run. He works for a global change leadership consulting company alongside Work Life Play.

Filmmaker and chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the UCI Claire Trever School of Arts, Ivan Williams, joins Janeane on KUCI 88.9fm to talk about N...

ABOUT IVAN WILLIAMS
Ivan Williams is a partner and Scenario’s executive vice president of finance. After a successful career as a senior business leader at major energy companies (ARCO and BP), he has been active starting up a media technology company, and executive producing feature films, Broadway musicals, musical recordings, theatrical plays, and Web tv shows. A member of Film Independent and the Sundance Institute,
Ivan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State University, and is a Dean’s M.B.A. Scholar at the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, and a veteran Naval Reserve intelligence officer. An active contributor to his alma maters, Ivan serves as a member of the board of directors for Oregon State University’s Alumni Association, and is active with the University of California Irvine as chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, serving as a member of the Graduate Division’s Dean’s Leadership Council, as an entertainment industry advisory board member for the Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, and a founding board member of the L.A./Orange County Anteaters in the Arts organization.