By Chris Hadley
5
44 ratings
The podcast currently has 113 episodes available.
Peer pressure. Bullying. Family troubles. The need to overachieve. Depressed and overwhelmed by these problems, many teenagers try to solve them not through therapy and medication but through illicit narcotics, alcohol, criminal recklessness, self-harm and, sadly, suicide. However, numerous organizations, parents, teen survivors of suicide attempts and mental health experts are combating the suicide crisis.
So too are amazing filmmakers like our guest on this week’s Viewfinder Podcast, Ashley Rae Harper. Her award-winning short film RED, which she wrote, produced and directed, portrays the ordeal of an embattled adolescent - Billie, played by Chloe Hulgan - who’s hospitalized after her distraught mother and father find that she’s tried to end her life. While in treatment, Billie learns not just about the value of living but also about the value of seeking help for her problems - no matter how impossible they may be to solve.
RED is available to stream on Harper’s YouTube channel, and you can find the link to it in the notes for this week’s show. Before you watch it, though, please remember that it may be too triggering for certain audiences, and if you or someone you love is at risk of suicide, please call or text the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline immediately at 9-8-8. That’s 9-8-8. They can help save your life and the lives of those you care about.
I’m honored to welcome Ashley Rae Harper to the Viewfinder Podcast to discuss this important project and how it will help both teens and their families.
Follow Ashley Rae Harper on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ashleyraeproductionsllc/
Follow Ashley Rae Productions on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ashleyraeproductionsllc/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyraeproductionsllc/
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Music by Audionautix.com
Currently seeking funds for its production on IndieGoGo, the chilling horror film SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT is in the viewfinder on this week's show. Our guests: director/co-writer/co-producer Todd Braley, co-star/co-producer and indie horror film legend Debra Lamb, and co-writer/co-producer Itai Guberman.
For more information on how you can contribute to the film's IndieGoGo campaign, visit:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shadows-of-the-night-unhinged-paranormal-horror
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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
Today I'm honored to welcome actor and filmmaker Anike Tourse - the writer, director and co-star of AMERICA'S FAMILY, a new movie that probes America's harsh immigration policy and its impact on the country's undocumented immigrant community through the struggles and resilience of the Diaz family: a family whose lives are suddenly altered when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities arrest mother Marisol (played by Tourse) and deport one of her three sons, Koke (played by Ricardo Cisneros).
Fearing deportation himself, Marisol’s husband and the family’s patriarch, Jorge (played by Mauricio Mendoza), turns to a local synagogue for shelter.
As Marisol, Jorge and Koke contemplate their futures, the Diazes’ second oldest son, lawyer Emiliano (played by Emmanuel Lopez Alonso) confronts both a cruel legal system and overwhelming bureaucracy as he fights to bring his mother, father and oldest brother home.
Once Koke is sent back to Mexico, the stage is soon set for his emotional reunion with his grandmother/Marisol’s mother (played by Dionicia Alvarado Hernandez).
Meanwhile the Diazes’ youngest sibling, Valentina (played by Jailine Arias) reaches out to the social media world for support and guidance as she and her family encounter the greatest crisis they've had to endure: one that proves both their emotional strength and their love for each other.
America’s Family is now available to stream on various digital and on-demand platforms, and is also available on DVD. For more information on the film, including ways you can share it with your community and use it to campaign for immigrants' rights, visit its official web site at:
https://www.americasfamilymovie.com
The film was produced in partnership with immigrant rights organization CHIRLA (the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights). For more info on how you can support CHIRLA's mission of advocating for the rights of immigrants, visit:
https://www.chirla.org/
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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
This week, I’m honored to welcome Sarah Beim, the creator of the new LGBTQ dystopian thriller cataclysm.begins.
Directed by Katherine Filiseta, the series is set in a world where a faceless but oppressive religious government called The Conclave mandates personal conformity and all but outlaws disagreement with its rule, the series - which is currently raising funds for its proof-of-concept pilot episode on Seed&Spark - co-stars Aria Martinez and Amiere A. Bell as queer teenage siblings Catalina and Xavien Maevery.
After the death of their wealthy politician father, Catalina and Xavien are now tended to by his longtime colleague Helena Knightengale (played by Ami Sheth), a de facto parental figure to the siblings, and given her ties to the Conclave, a possible threat to their lives after a recording of a supposedly private quarrel between Catalina and Xavien regarding their civil rights is suddenly exposed.
Affected by both their sexuality and social class, Catalina, Xavien, Catalina’s friend Lennon (played by Bug Johnson), Xavien’s boyfriend Noah Archwell (played by Sam Vukic) confront the daily repression of their freedoms and their loves while attempting to survive an anti-government uprising that could liberate them if it succeeds - or make their suffering worse if it fails.
Find out more about cataclysm.begins here:
https://www.cataclysmbegins.com/
Contribute to cataclysm.begins' Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign:
https://seedandspark.com/fund/cataclysm-begins
Watch cataclysm.begins on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCANilHntmEShI_-lRo1OzIA/featured
Follow cataclysm.begins on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/cataclysm.beginswebseries
Follow cataclysm.begins on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/cataclysm.begins/
Follow catacylsm.begins on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@cataclysm.begins
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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
Directed by Matthew Mishory, the emotional and picturesque documentary film Fioretta is both about a father and son’s incredible search for their family’s ancestry and about how that quest links both the generationally different men - and their heritage - in extraordinary ways.
Mishory's cameras accompany avid genealogist and acclaimed lawyer Randol Schoenberg, who in 2004 represented Austrian refugee Maria Altmann as she sued her homeland's government for ownership of 5 beloved Gustav Klimt paintings that the Nazis robbed from her family before World War II. That case was dramatized in the 2015 film Woman in Gold, with Ryan Reynolds playing Schoenberg and Helen Mirren in the role of Altmann.
Following Randy is his 18-year-old son Joey, a studying chef who prior to journeying with his father has little knowledge of or interest in investigating his family's 500 years-long history.
Their biggest objective: to learn about and discover the final resting place of their oldest relative, Fioretta - the wife of Rabbi Elijah Menachem Halfon, who in the 16th century was one of several rabbis consulted about the divorce between Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Both descendants of famed classical composer Arnold Schoenberg, Randy and Joey discover some of the most revealing facts about their family's past plus incredible physical evidence of their ancestors’ existence in several centuries-old artifacts during the present-day Schoenbergs’ visits to museums, cemeteries and other landmarks throughout Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy.
Assisted by a knowledgeable and caring collection of local historians and family members, Randy and Joey learn not just about who they are and how their family's heritage has defined them but they also gain something equally valuable: a greater connection to themselves and their roots.
I'm honored to welcome Matthew and Randy to discuss Fioretta now on this week's Viewfinder Podcast.
Find out more about Fioretta here:
https://www.rubberringfilms.com/fioretta
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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
Joining me on this week’s show are three of the brilliant minds behind the acclaimed fantasy web series REN: THE GIRL WITH THE MARK - co-creators Kate Madison and Christopher Dane, and showrunner Neil Oseman.
The internationally popular series’ first season, which debuted in 2016 and has racked up as many fans as it has awards, is now approaching its second season with more adventures, more action, and a new actor (Oriana Charles) in the title role of an ordinary villager whose sudden scarring by an ancient spirit transforms her into both a powerful warrior and an enemy to her community.
In season 1, Sophie Skelton (who’s now starring in another hit fantasy series, OUTLANDER), played Ren, while Dane co-starred as Ren’s mentor Karn. Season 2 of REN will premiere sometime next year, and scripts for its third season are already being prepped.
Now on the Viewfinder Podcast, I’m honored to welcome Kate, Chris and Neil to discuss how the second season of this extraordinary project - produced and shot on a low budget like its first season but possessing amazingly high quality - was re-birthed after several years of dormancy.
Watch REN on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/mythicaentertainment
The show is also available on its official web site:
https://www.renthegirlwiththemark.com/
Follow REN on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rentheseries
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/rentheseries
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renthegirlwiththemark/
Sign up for exclusive REN content on the show's Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/renthegirlwiththemark
Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X: @ViewfinderPod
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
The podcast currently has 113 episodes available.