Venita Ozols-Graham - Director, Writer, Producer & First Assistant Director

Welcome to Blissful Spinster: Hi! My name is Cris Graves and welcome to Blissful Spinster, a podcast where I’ll explore my place in the world as a happy single woman in her 50s, and how that intersects with my journey as I hustle to get my first narrative feature film, ALONE GIRL off the ground as a writer/director. by Blissful Spinster

1 min listen

Mike Medavoy - Film Producer: Meet Mike Medavoy! With a career spanning six decades and over 300 feature films, you can imagine my surprise when I got a response to a Twitter DM I sent out in a moment of boldness. Oscar-winning Producer, Mike Medavoy, agreed to be on Blissful Spinster. Being the kid that grew up wanting to find out who was MAKING the films I loved, I’ll admit, I was a mix of nervous and starstruck to meet Mike, he was, after all, part of the teams that were responsible for such films as - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Apocalypse Now, Network, Platoon, Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Thin Red Line, Black Swan, and Shutter Island… Just to name a few. Mike was open and insightful during our chat and the thing I loved most, was learning how much he valued the collaborative nature of making films. Find out more about Phoenix Pictures on their website at: https://phoenixpictures.com Connect with Mike on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/mikemedavoyup C by Blissful Spinster

20 min listen

Check-in #1 on Alone Girl - Meet BD Gunnell - Independent Film Producer: Meet BD Gunnell! BD is my lead Creative Producer on Alone Girl. She’s got multiple producing credits in the independent film field and is a member of the P.G.A. You can check out her bio below. In this episode, you’ll hear how I met BD and was able to attract her interest in Alone Girl and how she ultimately signed on to be my lead producer. You’ll also hear about some of the ups and downs we’ve already been on as we try to secure the financing for Alone Girl. We also talk about the production company BD has started - Empowered Entertainment, and how the company aims to seek out female investors for the slate of films she’s planning on producing which includes Alone Girl. Connect with BD on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/bdgunnell/ by Blissful Spinster

58 min listen

Jack Perez - Independent Film Writer/Director: Meet Jack Perez! Jack is an Independent Film Writer/Director. He’s a member of both the DGA & the WGA and has over a dozen feature films under his belt including the indie genre hit Some Guy Who Kills People, La Cucaracha, which won best feature at the Austin Film Festival, and The Big Empty which won Best New Writer at the AFI Film Fest. Jack also teaches and is the head of the directing track at Academy of Art in San Francisco. Jack and I have known each other for over 20 years and it was super fun to catch up with him and share where I’m at with Alone Girl. Our conversation spanned things like not getting caught up in festival placement, how important it is to go into the principal photography phase of your film as prepared as you can as a director, and of course, that age-old question - is a blank page a scary dark hole of nothingness or an exciting open sea of adventure and possibility? Find out more about Jack on his website at: htt by Blissful Spinster

68 min listen

Carl Hansen - Director, Producer & Disability Advocate: Meet Carl Hansen! Carl is a Director, Producer, and Disability Advocate and he lives in Los Angeles. He's an award-winning filmmaker and Emmy-winning producer who has been a Co-Executive Producer and Supervising Producer on such shows as the cultural phenomenon Shark Tank and the groundbreaking Boston Med. He's also an acclaimed timed-short filmmaker with his team, Cultural Detritus. Since 2005 they have made 29 films, many of which have gone on to win several awards. As if that’s not enough, Carl is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, most especially for people with disabilities, in the Entertainment industry. Most importantly, Carl is one of my oldest friends and I’m super excited to share this laughter-filled conversation with you all. We chat about our early shared passion for film, the importance of paying it forward, and what it means to be a diversity & inclusion advocate especially when it comes to the by Blissful Spinster

68 min listen

Susan Littenberg - Editor: Meet Susan Littenberg! Susan is an accomplished editor who lives in Los Angeles. She’s been an editor on over 15 feature films including, Charlotte’s Web, Bride Wars, Easy A, 13 Going On 30, and And Everything Is Going Fine, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Susan was nominated for an ACE award for Easy A and she also edited the music doc The Ballad Of Ramblin’ Jack which won a grand jury prize at Sundance among many other awards. Early in Susan’s career, when she was still an Assistant Editor she got to work with directors, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley, Ang Lee, and Paul Auster. Most recently, Susan was a Producer on the award-winning documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, which examines the quirky world of the corporate musical. Susan currently teaches at UCLA, which is where I met her, at a screening she was moderating that the Bruin Film Society sponsored a film she worked on as the Assistant Editor – The Ice Storm. I was thrilled when I made a point to meet Susa by Blissful Spinster

62 min listen

Adria Dawn - Actor, Filmmaker & Educator: Meet Adria Dawn! Adria is a talented multi-hyphenate who shines both in front of and behind the camera. In front of the camera, Adria is most known for playing the dysfunctional outcast April Tuna on Ryan Murphy's first series, the high school cult hit, Popular. Behind the camera, Adria is an accomplished director, writer, and Producer, who is most known for her films about social change. She’s recently won two Telly Awards (Yay, Adria!), one for her multi-award-winning Black Lives Matter film, Karen, and the other for her alcohol use disorder film, Gray Area. She is also known for the educational film series Kids Matter where she just released their latest film – Identity. As if all of that weren’t enough to keep anyone busy, Adria has also begun work on a memoir that I’m sure will be both enlightening and entertaining. Last but never least important! Adria is one of my oldest & very best friends… we met last century while we were both attendi by Blissful Spinster

47 min listen

Carolina Groppa - Producer & Podcaster: Meet Carolina Groppa! Carolina is a Producer and Podcaster. She’s worked as a freelance producer for over a decade across all platforms and in both narrative and documentary mediums. Carolina earned her first, of what I’m sure will be more to come, Emmy nomination in Producing for the documentary Autism in Love. Most recently, a narrative film she produced this past year – Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, had its premiere at Sundance. Along with all her work in film & TV, Carolina also self-produces (I’d expect nothing less of a producer!) a wonderful and informative podcast called - Angle On Producers (AOP). On AOP she has in-depth conversations with many of today’s most progressive and innovative film & TV producers. AOP is how I discovered Carolina, and in our chat, we get into how she started AOP out of curiosity and with an aim to highlight the unvarnished truth of what it takes to work in film & TV as a producer and about all the different t by Blissful Spinster

38 min listen

Caroline Liem - Producer & Casting Director - Check-in #2 on Alone Girl: Meet Caroline Liem! Caroline is a Producer & Casting Director. She lives in Los Angeles and has worked as a Casting Director for over 20 years, Caroline has cast studio features, independent films, television series, and pilots for Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney Studios, Sony, Warner Bros. ABC, CBS, and NBC. She has also worked with many prominent producers and directors including Lauren Schuler Donner, David Goyer, Jon Turteltaub, and Jen McGowan to name a few. And during her time working for the casting department at Disney Studios, she oversaw the casting for such projects as Gone in Sixty Seconds, Pearl Harbor, and Gangs of New York. Caroline is also a sought-after audition coach and acting teacher who’s been a guest professor at several prestigious programs including - The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch, and Syracuse to name a few - and is currently faculty at Pace University and UT Austin. Recently Ca by Blissful Spinster

33 min listen

Gina Fattore - Author & TV Writer: Meet Gina Fattore! Gina is a published author & seasoned TV Writer. Her first novel is the very funny Spinster Diaries, which you can find wherever you get your books. She also has a TEDx Talk about spinsterhood called Become What You Believe. Her TV credits include being the creator & showrunner of Dare Me, being a Consulting Producer on the STARZ limited series Gaslit, and a writer on Better Things, Californication, and Gilmore Girls. Like me, Gina is a life-long spinster, and I really enjoyed our chat. Of course, we spoke of writing for TV, but more interestingly, IMHO, we chatted about how the TV of the 70s which came out of the wake of both the Women’s Equality Movement & the Civil Rights Movement helped to shape both of us into the feminists that we are today and the artists that we have become. And as two spinsters would, we also touched on how women can seek out freedom & autonomy and be happy. Find out more about Gina on her website at: http by Blissful Spinster

60 min listen

Leigh Medeiros - Author & Creativity Coach: Meet Leigh Medeiros! Leigh is a published author and screenwriter who’s been supporting creative people in various capacities for 30 years. Her book The 1-minute Writer is a fun handbook designed to help you flex your writing muscles and create your best work. And amazingly she’s recently co-produced a climate-related Pitchfest for TV and film with Young Entertainment Activists in L.A. and founded the Linden Place Writers Residency in Bristol, Rhode Island. In our chat, we talk about creativity and the importance of being a cheerleader for our fellow creatives. We also cover the fascinating topic of combining environmental & climate change messaging in the art we create, including the scripts we write as a form of activism for our planet. Leigh’s curiosity and positivity make me smile and I’m sure you’ll be smiling too! Find out more about Leigh on her website: https://www.leighmedeiros.com Connect with Leigh on Instagram: https://www.insta by Blissful Spinster

50 min listen

Venita Ozols-Graham - Director, Writer, Producer & First Assistant Director by Blissful Spinster

53 min listen

David Bolen - Cinematographer: Meet, David Bolen! David lives in Los Angeles and is a highly sought-after Cinematographer with numerous, narrative feature films, Television projects, and documentaries under his belt. David’s work includes 2020’s Sundance documentary darling “Some Kind of Heaven”, his feature film “Soni” which premiered at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival, and "Beast", which was in competition at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival and won the Independent Episodic Grand Jury Prize. David’s work hasn’t just made the rounds on the festival circuit, it’s also reached the Oscars, his stunning cinematography on the New York Times OP DOC “A Concerto is a Conversation" was part of the reason this fantastic short was nominated for Best Short Documentary at 92nd Academy Awards. Most recently, his feature film “Gone in the Night” (formally “The Cow”) and starring Winona Ryder, premiered at the 2022 SXSW film festival and amazingly, secured distribution with Vertical Entertain by Blissful Spinster

67 min listen

Joel Stoffer - Actor: Meet Joel Stoffer! Joel is an Actor. He lives in Los Angeles and is that rarity in the business a local, having grown up in the valley. Joel has been a professional actor for nearly 30 years and he’s portrayed everything from criminals, demons, and vampires to doctors, lawyers, and government agents. Most notably, you may have seen him in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as Enoch the Chronicom. And most recently, he was Eddie Munson’s uncle – Wayne Munson on season 4 of Stranger Things. But before things got strange for Joel, and even before he traveled to space and time, he and I worked together on a couple of my short films -- he was a misunderstood photographer in #nofilter which screened at the 2016 Cannes Short Film Corner and he was a clown gigolo in the award-winning clown western – Bozonova. I’m so excited to bring you my conversation with Joel, we chat about the actor/director relationship, the importance of trust when making a film, and about his time by Blissful Spinster

77 min listen

David Casey - Showrunner, Director, and TV Executive: Meet David Casey! David is a Showrunner, Director, and TV executive. He lives in Detroit and is an award-winning filmmaker who specializes in directing, writing, showrunning, show development, and leading logistics for large-scale teams in challenging environments around the world from preproduction through post. by Blissful Spinster

58 min listen

Amy & Nancy Harrington - Women's Empowerment Activists & Podcasters: Meet Amy & Nancy Harrington! Amy & Nancy are Women’s Empowerment Activists and Podcasters, Amy and Nancy live in Los Angeles and they’re sisters on a mission. Amy had a long and successful career in film & television, where she worked her way up the post-production ladder at Warner Brothers, to eventually become the first woman in the history of the film industry to hold the position of Vice President of Post Production and Visual Effects at a major studio. And Nancy is a serial entrepreneur who built a successful graphic design business and theater company in the heart of Boston before she moved to L.A. While Amy was at Warner Brothers she oversaw work on over 250 films, including the early Harry Potter movies and the Matrix franchise. When Nancy first got to L.A. she took on her first, and only office job at an agency where she worked on Academy Award campaigns for Miramax and Paramount Classics. In response to the by Blissful Spinster

74 min listen

James Ellis Deakins - Digital Workflow Specialist, Filmmaker & Podcaster: Meet James Ellis Deakins! James is a Digital Workflow Specialist, Filmmaker & Podcaster. James lives in Los Angeles and is both a creative and business partner of cinematographer Roger Deakins. James came up the ranks as a script supervisor for such films as Thunderheart, The Shawshank Redemption & Mercury Rising. She has transitioned into a Digital Workflow Specialist, working in a role James really enjoys as she gets to work with her best friend and creative partner, her husband Roger on such films as Sicario, No Country For Old Men, 1917, Blade Runner 2049, and their latest collaboration with director Sam Mendes – Empire of Light. During the pandemic, James created the TEAM DEAKINS Podcast which is a series of conversations between James and Roger and a guest, covering all aspects of movie making. This podcast is such a great resource for both beginning and seasoned filmmakers and everyone in between and I’m by Blissful Spinster

78 min listen

RANDALL PARK - Director, Writer, Producer & Actor: Meet Randall Park, the multi-talented artist who has captivated audiences with his comedic acting, writing, producing, and directing skills. Hailing from Los Angeles, Randall is not only known for his comedic prowess but has also ventured into the realms of producing and directing. by Blissful Spinster

43 min listen

Nina Menkes - Independent Filmmaker & Director: Meet, Nina Menkes! Nina lives in Los Angeles and is considered a cinematic feminist pioneer and one of America’s foremost independent filmmakers. Nina premiered her second documentary and fourth feature, BRAINWASHED: SEX-CAMERA-POWER at Sundance this year, and it’s how I discovered her and this amazing and impactful documentary which explores the sexual-politics of cinematic shot design. by Blissful Spinster

23 min listen

Sara Eckel - Author: Meet Sara Eckel! Sara is an Author and she lives in Kingston, New York. She’s been a full-time freelance writer since 1997, Sara’s essays, arts criticism, and reported pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The BBC, and The Boston Globe to name a few. For five years, Sara was a nationally syndicated opinion columnist, with a weekly column that appeared in more than two hundred newspapers nationwide. Sara has had her short fiction published in Speakeasy and Sanskrit. Sara is also a published author, which is how she wound up on my radar. One of my former guests – Gina Fattore mentioned Sara’s book, It’s Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single. I found it on audible and gave it a listen and so much of what she writes about resonated with me. I’m so excited to bring you my conversation with Sara, we chatted about the importance of not getting caught up in trying to fit into the box society has made for women, about seeking o by Blissful Spinster

48 min listen

Oren Soffer - Cinematographer - Part 1: Meet Oren Soffer! Oren lives in Los Angeles and is an up and coming cinematographer with a bold cinematic eye. Oren’s work includes two feature films; “Fixation” that premiered at TIFF and “Allswell” that premiered at TriBeCa in 2022 as well as Co-Dping the film “The Creator” with cinematographer Greig Fraser. by Blissful Spinster

64 min listen

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Venita Ozols-Graham - Director, Writer, Producer & First Assistant Director

Venita Ozols-Graham - Director, Writer, Producer & First Assistant Director

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