Face2Face with David Peck

Miranda Bailey and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film The Pathological Optimist, truth versus fiction, culpability and the media, hero worship, the Anti-Vax movement, family life and why she’s sometimes not so hopeful.

Biography

Miranda's first cinematic directorial debut was GREENLIT, a comedic documentary looking at the inherent hypocrisies surrounding Hollywood when trying to "green" a film set which debuted at SXSW in 2010. IFC International and Virgil Films picked it up for distribution.

Since then, she directed the award winning narrative short ANOTHER HAPPY ANNIVERSARY which after a successful festival run premiered on Shorts TV and is hosted at Jill Soloway's website Wifey. TV promoting female film makers.

Miranda also shot and directed The Behind the Scenes of James Gunn's SUPER and an episode of the web TV series FIRSTS.

Miranda's second documentary feature, THE PATHOLOGICAL OPTIMIST, is an intimate portrait of the controversial and discredited Dr. Andrew Wakefield. The documentary premiered on April 20, 2017 at the Manhattan Film Festival as the opening night film and won Best Documentary Feature. It played at the 2017 Downtown LA Film Festival and Bailey won Best Director - Documentary Feature. The film opened in theaters September 2017.

Over the last 14 years, Miranda Bailey has produced over 20 films including the Oscar nominated THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, James Gunn's SUPER and the Gotham Award Award-winning THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL. Miranda has been nominated twice for the Best First Feature Spirit Award - once in 2017 for Swiss Army Man and once in 2016 for The Diary of a Teenage Girl which she won.

As the CEO of Cold Iron Pictures, Miranda recently produced 2016 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Directing Award-winner SWISS ARMY MAN starring Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano, Oscar nominated director Joseph Ceder's first English language film NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER, starring Richard Gere, Michael Sheen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi and Josh Charles, and Mike Birbiglia's DON'T THINK TWICE, starring Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Birbiglia, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard.

Bailey starred in and produced many other films in a variety of genres including the cult hit DEAD & BREAKFAST, with Jeremy Sisto, Portia de Rossi, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan; the comedy THE OH IN OHIO, with Paul Rudd, Danny DeVito, and Parker Posey; WONDERFUL WORLD, starring Matthew Broderick; AGAINST THE CURRENT, starring Joseph Fiennes and Mary Tyler Moore; SUPER, starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page; EVERY DAY, starring Liev Schreiber and Helen Hunt; the 3D horror film HELLBENDERS; the documentary SPINNING PLATES, which was released by her distribution company The Film Arcade, which she cofounded in 2012.

Synopsis

Who is the man behind the most highly controversial, intensely debated topics in modern medicine? In The Pathological Optimist, director Miranda Bailey brings us a character study of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, one of 13 co-authors of a notorious 1998 paper in the UK medical Journal The Lancet, but who became the very public face of what has come to be known as “The Anti-Vax Movement.” An expat from Britain who currently resides in Austin, Texas, Wakefield allowed Bailey and her team to follow him and his family for five years beginning in 2011 as he fought a defamation battle in the courts against the British Medical Journal and journalist Brian Deer.

The results of that case – and the self-reflection, pronouncements, and observations of Wakefield, his legal team, wife, and his children – create a complex and incisive look at one of our era’s most fear-provoking and continuously provocative figures.

The Pathological Optimist takes no sides, instead letting Wakefield and the battles he fought speak for themselves.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Miranda Bailey and The Film Arcade. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam, Sarah and Face2Face host David Peck talk about paradox, their new film Great Great Great, why love and relationships are never linear, why nothing lasts forever and what might lie below the surface.

Biography

Adam Garnett-Jones - Co-writer and Director

Adam has written and directed a series of award-winning films that toured the international film circuit from Toronto to L.A., Sydney, Berlin and Beijing. Not content to work only in film, Adam has also distinguished himself as a television writer. He wrote scripts for the series “Cashing In” and “Mohawk Girls" He also had a hand in creating the upcoming series, The North End with Big Soul Productions.

Adam released his first dramatic feature-length film, Fire Song, at the Toronto nternational Film Festival in 2015. Fire Song went on to win the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at ImagineNATIVE, the worlds largest Indigenous Media Arts Festival. FireSong also won the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature at Reel Out, the People's Choice Award for Best Film at Rainbow Reels, and both the RBC Audience Choice Award and the Jury Prize for Best Canadian Film at the Queer North Film Festival. Fire Song can be seen on Netflix USA.

Sarah Kolasky - Producer/lead actor/co-writer

Sarah is an actor and producer from Toronto, Canada. She plays Lauren in the feature film Great Great Great, which she produced and co-wrote with her long-time collaborator, Adam Garnet Jones. She also produced and acted in the short film, LIAR, which premiered at the prestigious 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX. Other producing credits include the short films A Small Thing (TIFF ’08) and Cloudbreaker (TIFF ’06). Sarah is also the Chair of the Breakthroughs Film Festival, the only festival in Canada dedicated to showcasing short films by emerging female directors. She received a BFA in Film Studies from Ryerson University, and is one half of the sketch comedy duo Ex-Adults.

Synopsis

Great Great Great is a dark comedy about the uncertainty in long-term relationships. In the span of Lauren and Tom’s five-year relationship, they’ve never had a fight. Their sex life is fine. They get along fine. Everything points to marriage, until Lauren suddenly sees a lifetime of “just fine” yawning ahead of her, and it immediately makes her hungry for a better, fuller future. She just has to decide what “better” really means.

One moment Lauren resolves to double down on her commitment to Tom, and the next moment she is ready to blow the whole thing up. So, Lauren does what any reasonable person would do - she does not choose. She does both. In a doomed attempt to have everything she wants without giving anything up, Lauren simultaneously starts an affair with her boss, rents a bachelor apartment, and asks Tom to marry her. When they start to plan the wedding, and her no-strings affair gets complicated, Lauren struggles to save what is most important to her before she loses it all.

Great Great Great is a deeply relatable portrait of a woman who makes us squirm with discomfort while asking us to love some of the most unlovable parts of ourselves.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Adam Garnett Jones and GirlBoy Productions. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve and James and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new history television series Hunting Nazi treasures, Hitler’s obsession with art, complicity, the nature of evil, trading art for lives and the greatest heist in history.

Synopsis

The new investigative series Hunting Nazi Treasure takes viewers on an epic search across four continents to locate valuable objects and artwork missing since the Second World War and return them to their rightful owners.

The series chronicles the systematic looting by the Nazis, and provides new insights into the motivations of top Nazi leaders like Hitler and Goering, and explores how artwork and cultural artifacts are targets during times of war.

With hundreds of thousands of stolen treasures still missing to this day, including a painting by Italian master Raphael estimated to be worth upwards of $100 million, a $2 billion hoard of stolen Italian gold, and the legendary Amber Room from the Catherine Palace in Russia, the search into these historically significant “cold cases” is comprised by a team of present-day investigators. The team is led by Robert Edsel, author of the New York Times #1 bestselling book-turned-movie The Monuments Men, and Founder and Chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, investigative journalist Conor Woodman, Second World War historian James Holland, along with top experts on the Nazi era. The hunt takes the team across 14 countries; searching for items hidden in caves, castles, museums, and even under water while gaining access to Nazi dossiers, archives, and declassified intelligence reports.

As the series unfolds, the viewer is introduced to Hitler’s grand plan to become “the curator of the German people” atop one of the world’s most spectacular art collections, and the desperate last-act by the Nazis to hide an unimaginable trove of gold, most likely in the Bavarian Alps.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Saloon Media. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Millar and Face2Face host David Peck talk about radical transparency, trust in journalism, community engagement and why millennials are the key to the future of media.

Biography

Erin Millar is Discourse Media’s editor-in-chief and CEO. She has received multiple awards for journalism innovation, including being named 2015 Bob Carty Fellow by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Storyteller-in-Residence at Ashoka Canada, and an AmEx Emerging Innovator.

She has hosted talks and workshops across Canada and internationally, including at the Canadian Association of Journalists national conference and Italy’s International Journalism Festival.

She has reported from over a dozen countries for Canadian and international publications. She taught journalism at Quest University Canada and Langara College. She is a trustee of the Uncharted Journalism Fund and serves on the board of the National Magazine Awards Foundation.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Erin Millar and Discourse media. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rolfe Kent and Face2Face host David Peck talk about Alexander Payne’s new film Downsizing, creating chemistry though music, experimentation, writing by walking and relentless enthusiasm.

Biography

Unexpected texture, sounds and a signature musical personality are the hallmarks of British film composer Rolfe Kent, who has scored more than 50 films, including Academy Award nominated Up in the Air (for which he won a Golden Satellite award), Sideways (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award in 2007), Labor Day, Bad Words (Jason Bateman’s directorial debut), Dom Hemingway, About Schmidt, Election, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde II, Wedding Crashers, The Matador, Reign Over Me, The Hunting Party, and Thank You for Smoking. Kent also composed the Emmy-nominated main title theme for the Showtime hit, Dexter.  In 2012, he received the Richard Kirk award for career achievement.

Born in England into a non-musical family, Kent intuitively felt at age 12 that he wanted to be a film composer, although his early musical training was brief and not so formal.  Citing Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia and Morricone’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,  as inspirations, Kent took the advice of an early music teacher to avoid rigid  course work that would dampen his enthusiasm.  He followed an entirely different path and, taking counterpoint to what is often cited as culture mired in cynicism, profited from his early course work in theology to relate it to music.  After enrolling in psychology sutdies at Unviersity of Leeds in Yorkshire, Kent’s musical career was casually begun at a dance club when the director of a play offered him a chance to “do” the music.  His jump start was his composition for a stage musical Gross at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a springboard for Authors, composers and performers.

In the confines of his musically busy studio, one can immediately see why his musical personality is as distinct and his own.  Constantly on the go, adventurous and curious, Kent has developed a style that is not only distinct, but indicative of his aversion to the-anticipated-score in tone, texture and rhythm.  The walls are lined with many familiar and many more unfamiliar instruments, gingerly handled and gleefully demonstrated for their sonic qualities.  Among his collection are the Indonesian percussion instrument the angklung, the shawm (first used in military maneuvers as a psychological weapon), the melodica, used for the light, soothing effect in Kent’s jazz-infused score for his Golden Globe-nominated Sideways, and an instrument he discovered and cannot name that sounds like the world’s beaches at their most romantic high tide... combined.

Kent has the distinction of attracting and sustaining relationships with directors as popular and diverse as Alexander Payne, Mark Waters, Jason Reitman, Burr Steers, and Richard Shepard.

Synopsis

“Alexander [Payne, writer/director] asked for the score to be beautiful classical music,” Kent described.  The composer wanted to avoid movie-score clichés and took a different route.  “I figured a Kubrickian approach was best, where the music sounds like it existed outside of the film, and was discovered to match the scene perfectly.”  

Known for using unexpected textures, sounds and his own signature musical personality this opened the floodgates for Rolfe.  “As ever, Alexander was open to hearing unexpected sounds, so when I threw him the curve of an opera aria sung in Norwegian, or some bagpipes.  He loved it.” In addition to writing the original score for the film, he also co-wrote the original song “A Little Change In The Weather,” performed by The Swingles.

Trailer

More Info Here about Rolfe and his work.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: TVO and The Cutting Factory. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Barry Stevens and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Undercover Jihadi, gang violence, terrorism, the Toronto 18, oppression, marginalization of others, similarity through difference and reconciliation.  

Biography

Toronto-based director and screenwriter Barry Stevens, who has also worked as an actor, has extensive experience in writing TV drama, and has successfully transported his storytelling skills to his documentaries. He won the Writers Guild of Canada Award and the Audience Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival for Offspring, an entertaining account of the search for his biological father. 

The Bomber’s Dream, a critical examination of aerial bombing, was also inspired by an unusual family fact: during WWII some of his British relatives were bombed by German members of his extended family.

He co-wrote the International Emmy Award-winning documentary Gerrie & Louise, about the South African Truth Commission and was Executive Producer and directed all 24 episodes of the documentary series War Story. 

Synopsis

From Emmy-nominated and CSA-Award Winning production company Matter of Fact Media, Undercover Jihadi premieres on TVO. Following Mubin Shaikh, a former extremist militant turned undercover counter-terrorism operative as he speaks with former extremists, counter-terrorism experts and families of victims, Undercover Jihadi presents a thorough and international examination of the threat of extremism, the possibility of de-radicalization and actively challenges misconceptions of both Islam and Muslims.

 “This is an important and timely documentary, that offers some insight into the process of radicalization of terrorists, through the eyes of Mubin Shaikh,” said Vanessa Dylyn, producer of Undercover Jihadi. “We hope that viewers of the film will be inspired to become involved in their local communities to address the problem of youth radicalization, and to foster understanding between people of differing ethnicities and religious faiths.”

As a government intelligence informant, Shaikh risked his life to stop the Toronto 18, a sophisticated homegrown terrorism plot with links to the US and the UK. His court testimony sent eleven men to prison. Shaikh is now a sought-after consultant to international intelligence organizations involved in combating terrorism and jihadism.

“TVO documentaries bring audiences nuanced and in-depth stories. They explore social, economic and political issues through a uniquely personal lens,” said Natasha Negrea, TVO Executive Producer, Documentaries. “Undercover Jihadi presents Mubin Shaikh’s extraordinary personal experience and offers an important perspective to the conversation around violent extremism.”Award-winning Director Barry Stevens has made numerous films about war and conflict. With Undercover Jihadi, he follows Shaikh as he explores how different countries —including the United States, France, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom— are dealing with extremists (including both neo-Nazis and violent jihadis) and how they try to divert and de-radicalize them.

“I wanted to explore the problem that confronts us in the ‘West.’ The first reaction is often to enhance surveillance of Muslims, and even to ban Muslims from entering Western countries. But before someone has committed a crime, or when they are in prison, it is possible to engage with people who have extremist ideas and change their direction,” said Stevens.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: TVO and Matter of Fact Media. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ashley, David and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their brilliant new film Do Donkeys Act, mutual appreciation, living poems, the sentience of animals, the environment and our relationship to it and why we all might need a break from humans every now and then.

Biography

Filmmaking duo David Redmon and Ashley Sabin together produce, direct, photograph and edit critically acclaimed cinematic documentaries that have screened internationally in festivals and on television worldwide at Sundance, Toronto, Cinema du Reel, Rotterdam, Visions du Reel, RIDM, MoMA, and Viennale Film Festivals and on PBS, POV, BBC, CBC, DR, ARTE, and NHK.

Their body of work includes four recent “animal ethnography” films based in the world of donkeys and funded by the Leverhulme Trust: Sanctuary (2017), Do Donkeys Act? (2017), Choreography (2014), and Herd (2015); two dream/memory cinema poems Sentient 1 & 2 (2015/2016); a 6 minute snowbound ballet mécanique, Neige (2016); a suite of U.S. post-industrialization themed films set inside three interconnected factories on the coast of Prospect Harbor, Maine: Downeast 

(2012), Night Labor (2013), and Kingdom of Animal (2012); a feature documentary about the labyrinthine world of teenage modeling in which a New York based scout recruits Siberian teenagers to the Tokyo model market Girl Model (2011); a film linking China and New Orleans through globalized manufacturing of cheap throwaway goods for American leisure pursuit, Mardi Gras: Made in China (2005) and two “carnivalesque” character driven films set in Louisiana Kamp Katrina (2007) and Invisible Girlfriend (2009). Lastly, set on the U.S. Mexico border, a longitudinal love story about family relationships and the meaning of “home” Intimidad (2008), which has been described as “a documentary fairytale of truly humbling proportions.” 

A former Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University with a PhD in sociology from the University at Albany, State University of New York, David Redmon is now a lecturer in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent, UK. 

A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, Ashley Sabin earned a M.F.A. at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec and graduated with high honors in Art History, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

Synopsis

“Burned, beaten, abandoned, donkeys look back at us humans with indifference, and bray.” David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s DO DONKEYS ACT– filmed over 5 years––subtly subverts the notion of the “dumb beast” as it captures donkeys communicating emotionally with each other in the midst of healing from human cruelty and neglect. A poetic text threads through scenes “acted” by donkeys, a rhythmic script commentary voiced by Willem Dafoe.

DO DONKEYS ACT’S ethno-poetic-animal-fiction takes its playfully self-reflexive cues from Jean Rouch and Chris Marker. Encouraging us to respect a major language barrier we might not otherwise consider––the mystery and intrigue of donkey utterances––DO DONKEYS ACT invites us to "step into their shade, listen closely" as we attune to a series of dramatic performances in which we eavesdrop on donkeys speaking amongst themselves.

Reclaiming the donkey from the indignity of a centuries old master slave relationship in which the dominant image of the donkey has been negative (stubborn, buffoon, jackass, laborer, trickster and fool), DO DONKEYS ACT elevates a denigrated and degraded beast to the role of lead actor and performance artist. To paraphrase Marina Abramovic, the donkey is present.

Trailer

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Mila and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Let There Be Light, fusion energy, yeast excrement, plasma physics, Don Quixote and why science is about getting things wrong.

Biography

Mila Aung-Thwin is co-founder of EyeSteelFilm. After completing his studies at McGill University in 1998, he began working with maverick filmmaker Daniel Cross on the feature documentary S.P.I.T: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, learning the ins and outs of documentary filmmaking on the streets of Montreal with a squeegee punk named Roach. In order to take advantage of Canadian tax incentives, they founded a production company and called it “EyeSteelFilm” because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

After flirting with other titles such as “cinematographer” (Too Colourful for theLeague), “co-director” (Chairman George), “director” (Bone, Music for a Blue Train) and “Office Drywall Consultant” (various walls), he has decided to just go with “Producer”and stop worrying about it.

Most recently, Aung-Thwin produced the feature documentaries Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, Rip: A Remix Manifesto (IDFA audience Choice Award Winner), Up the Yangtze (Genie award winner) and Last Train Home (IDFA Feature Documentary Winner). In addition, he serves as the President of the Rencontres International du Documentaire (RIDM), Montreal’s international documentary festival.

Synopsis

“A futuristic energy source that could indefinitely supply the world’s power requirements provides the backdrop for this absorbing documentary.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Clean, safe and unlimited power has been an obsession for scientists and inventors for centuries, and an underlying preoccupation for our society as a whole. Since the 1940s, when we first understood how the sun creates energy, nuclear fusion has been energy’s holy grail.

For decades, fusion has been delayed and thwarted by failure, miscalculation, fraud and politics. It has been maddeningly always just out of reach, which seems to make people obsess over it all the more. “Fusion is the energy of the future… and always will be,” goes one old joke. But today, fusion is being pursued with a renewed zeal, mostly because we’ve never needed it like we do now, and there are 37 countries currently collaborating to build the biggest experiment ever, in order to prove that fusion is viable. Will this finally succeed? Or will the project collapse under its own massive complexity? The film chronicles the work of the passionate scientists who are struggling to make it work. “It’s rare to find people who work on projects that are designed to last decades, and these scientists would be happy if it worked in a century from now,” says co-director Aung-Thwin. “So on a personal level, this is a deep sacrifice – but they are doing it for the chance that it helps all of humanity.“

Trailer

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Amanda Lang and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new book The Beauty of Discomfort, meaning, addiction-based science, head to toe joy, change that we choose and why curiosity drives progress.

Her new show Exponential will be on Sirius XM (channel 167) and her new podcast on the Antica Network. Look for it and listen in.

Biography

Award-winning business journalist and best-selling author Amanda Lang has been covering business in North America for 25 years. Lang is the host of Exponential with Amanda Lang, airing on Sirius XM and as a podcast. She has also been an anchor for Bloomberg Television Canada, on Bloomberg North with Amanda Lang. Lang was CBC’s senior business correspondent, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National, and host of The Exchange with Amanda Lang, a daily business program airing on CBC News Network. For five years before that Lang hosted The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, with Kevin O’Leary. Prior to that the pair co-hosted SqueezePlay, on BNN, for 6 years.

Lang is also a best-selling author. “The Power of Why,” (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. “The Beauty of Discomfort” (HarperCollins, April 2017) examines how difficult change can be, and set out strategies for how to achieve it. Lang studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for the Globe and Mail, and subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she became the paper’s New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched BNN and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor. She returned to Canada in 2002.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Amanda Lang. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Mills and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Don’t Talk To Irene, gender disparity, bullying, random ideas, freedom and non-conformity and why Geena Davis portraying God is important.

Biography

Pat Mills’s first feature film, the dark comedy GUIDANCE, which he wrote, directed and starred in, had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Picked up by Strand Releasing in the US and Search Engine Films in Canada, Guidance was theatrically released in Summer 2015. Hailed as a “GRADE A” comedy by the Los Angeles Times and a New York Times Crit ics’s Pick, it currently holds a 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Guidance is now available on DVD, Netflix, Vimeo, Amazon, TMN, HBO and itunes. His performance as David was nominated for an Actra Award for Outstanding Male Performance.

An alumnus of TIFF’s Talent lab and TIFF Studio, Pat was named winner of TIFF’s Pitch This! for his second feature DON’T TALK TO IRENE. The screenplay won BEST COMEDY SCREENPLAY at the Austin Screenplay Competition. The film stars Michelle McLeod, Bruce Gray, Scott Thompson and Geena Davis.

More at www.pat-mills.com

Synopsis

Irene is 16, fat, friendless and tired of being a loser, but she’s determined that this year is going to be different — Irene is going to become a cheerleader. But when she’s the victim of a cruel prank, Irene is suspended on her first day back at school Irene - along with bullies Robbie and Sarah - and must endure two weeks of community service at the local retirement home.

Irene befriends Charles, a depressed retired boxer who figuratively punches away her low self esteem. In his own grumpy way he convinces her to follow her dreams and instead of becoming a cheerleader, she becomes the next best thing — a choreographer. She signs the seniors up to audition for her favourite reality show “Total Talent Showdown”.

Keeping the plan a secret from her mother, Irene finds confidence for the first time in her bond with the seniors, teaching them how to dance for television broadcast. What she doesn’t know is that a very jealous Robbie and Sarah are secretly plotting their revenge—and they will stop at nothing to kill Irene’s dreams of reality show stardom.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Pat Mills and Alyson Richards Productions. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.