From Silver Screen to Social Reality: Unveiling Truths Behind Social Issues w/ FairSay Films

Join us on a captivating trek through New York City's bustling avenues with Shaman Isis, where the heartbeat of independent film beats strong. This journey is not just about the glitz and glamor; it's a deep exploration into the trials and triumphs of Tiffany Hodges and Cristina Doikos of FairSay Films. The streets are alive with the spirit of "Displaced," a short film that dares to navigate the stormy seas of immigration and the power of storytelling to spark social change.

In an industry where the spotlight often favors the known, Hodges and Doikos carve out space for voices yet to be heard, particularly those of women. Their trajectory from actors to producers mirrors the transformative potential of film itself, challenging and reshaping the status quo. As we dissect the myths surrounding immigration, we lay bare the truths glossed over by misinformation, calling for a system that acknowledges the human stories within. The episode peels back the layers of an often misunderstood world, with insights that promise to educate and illuminate.

Our discussion isn't confined to the silver screen; it stretches into the fabric of American society, questioning the dream we've been sold and the reality we live in. The conversation traverses the landscape of the American education system, the valor of female entrepreneurs, and the invisible threads woven by women and immigrants that hold our society together. Engage with us in this critical dialog, as we spotlight the potential for renewal and the pursuit of solutions that could reshape our collective future.

Visit www.FairsayFilms.com to learn more about "Displaced."

Enjoy the podcast teaser from Citizen Journalist 

Chapters

• 0:00 Discussion on Filmmaking and Immigration
• 6:12 Empowering Women in Filmmaking and Activism
• 16:04 Immigration Issues and Disinformation
• 28:14 American Education System and Female Entrepreneurs
• 37:43 Challenges in American Society
• 44:10 Subscribe to Citizen Journalists for Solutions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

And you know how to check the time or whatever, like you're. Yeah, I mean I kind of an internal time.

Speaker 2: 1:04

I don't know if you've been at exactly 30 minutes. All right, here we go.

Speaker 3: 1:08

Oh, the other thing was do we look, are we too high? I mean, you're much lower than us my hair isn't.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Do you want to come down? High is because then you get this bright light over my head.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:23

Yeah, I.

Speaker 2: 1:24

You're blocking the lights.

Speaker 3: 1:24

Do you want to sit on a?

Speaker 2: 1:26

cushion. Cushion might help yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:30

I mean, okay, that is that enough. Or else the white one?

Speaker 2: 1:33

I don't. I only need a couple inches, okay.

Speaker 3: 1:38

So that's a whole another.

Speaker 2: 1:41

You think talking about the quietness in there. Okay, it is all right. Okay sorry, this is called. It was clean. Okay, go ahead. Sweat marks.

Speaker 1: 1:59

No.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Hi and welcome to citizen journalist. I'm your host, shaman Isis, and I'm very excited about today's show. Not only am I in a different location, but I'm hanging out with two women that I call Friends, and we've got a lot of exciting things to share with you. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about the topic of immigration and how to take it from sound bites to solutions. We're gonna be talking about independent filmmaking and Script writing and being a woman in business. So, without further ado, let me introduce my two guests for today's episode of Seoul Text Citizen journalist, tiffany Hodges and Christina D'Oicus from fair say films. Hello lady, hello. I have girlfriends on my show very often, so I'm luckness. For the audience's knowledge, we are hosting an event in New York City for your independent short film, displaced on April 4th at the anthology film archives. To Do this? Okay, I should let. I want to work that conversation with you and not have it myself. Okay, let's take this off, all right.

Speaker 1: 3:18

And and last, let's.

Speaker 3: 3:20

I can get him put my contacts in so.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Yes, I.

Speaker 3: 3:26

Mean, I see us, but I don't see details.

Speaker 2: 3:31

Right, hi and welcome to Seoul Texts podcast citizen journalist. I'm your host, shaman Isis, and I'm super excited about today's episode. Not only am I in a new location, I'm not in my normal studio with my black backdrop, I'm hanging out In New York City with two ladies that, I am very delighted to say, are not only friends, but business women that I greatly admire. We're gonna be talking about all sorts of cool topics. Welcome, fair, say, films to the set of citizen, well, the set of citizen journalists. Fuck, should we do it three times? Okay, it's okay, that's all right. All right, I'm getting more energy each time. Yeah, let's just open a little.

Speaker 3: 4:09

Okay, I love how you're a shell, but you blasted, saying it looks as you can see better. Yeah, yeah. I know I'm actually you know you can't have your near sir. Yeah, all right, I'm sorry I know I'm actually.

Speaker 2: 4:23

You know you can't have. You were your near son. Yeah, all right, I'm sorry. No, I don't care. No, I get really no, I love it because I'm, I'm, the, I'm more of the light. Does it look okay? Yeah we go All right.

Speaker 3: 4:40

My hair. Yeah, her's look okay great.

Speaker 2: 4:45

Hi and welcome to soul tech citizen journalists podcast. I'm your host, shaman Isis, and clearly I'm not in my normal studio today. I'm hanging out in New York City with two business women and friends of mine that I am so excited to have on the show today the ladies from fairs sake films. Hello, ladies, this is Tiffany Dinkas, and I was like she's walking down.

Speaker 3: 5:17

Amazing.

Speaker 2: 5:18

You know this is helping loosen us all.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Yeah, it's fine. I was like about it. I knew this recording right.

Speaker 3: 5:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Hi and welcome to Saltex Citizen Journalist podcast. I'm your host, shaman Isis, and I'm excited about today's episode. Not only am I not in my normal very dark studio filming for this episode, I'm hanging out in New York City with two women filmmakers that I admire fair-save films. Welcome to Citizen Journalist. I'm so excited to have you guys audience. This is Christina Duikis and Tiffany Hodges. If you don't already know their names, you will, because they are two groundbreaking filmmakers here to talk about Though being a woman in the business, and about independent filmmaking and about events and immigration. So welcome you two.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 6:12

I have to ask, for the audience's sake and my own, dying of curiosity how did fair-save films come about? How did you guys get into the business together?

Speaker 3: 6:23

Fair-save films came about a very long time ago. I was seated that way, I guess Tiffany and I met in an artist's collective, that where directors, writers, producers, actors all met. We were acting at the time and we realized that there really weren't that many roles for women, good, substantial roles for women. The majority of them were for men. We started writing together and that led to our first project called Tick-Tock, which was all about the biological clock, which nobody was talking about at the time. That's right, because it's decidedly a female story, and that just wasn't happening. So we wrote that and we really realized at that time we loved producing. And then along came the story displaced and we decided to form a production company surrounding that called Fair-Save Films, which amplifies the untold story and voices of the underrepresented.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I love that.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Yeah, so I'm a political activist as well and I kind of looped this one into doing some political activism with me and we realized that we could take our passion for making a real difference in society and mix it with our art, and that's really where I think we started to see some real power in this partnership.

Speaker 2: 7:50

That's incredible. I love the fact that you're both. Not only are you in the filmmaking business as women, which is dominated by men, but you're producing work from voices that don't get amplified, that don't get heard. It's so important. So all three of us are activists, which I think is incredible and probably the reason why we came together to host an event. Cell-tick Soundbites to Solutions. The first event which is presented by Fair-Safe Films is coming up. Can you guys share a little bit about the event?

Speaker 3: 8:20

Yeah, so excited. We have an event on April 4th where we're debuting our short film and it'll be followed by Cell-Tick Soundbites to Solutions which will sort of educate about immigration and kind of cut through all of the unnecessary fodder about immigration and really get to some solutions by the mess.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Yeah, the film itself really is about the broken immigration system and it comes from my true life experience of accompanying undocumented immigrants to their court appearances, and through that work I really got a first taste of just how broken the system is and how these people are really trying to get their papers and do things correctly, but they're stuck in these loops with bureaucracy and with administration, and I really wanted to capture that. I also wanted to capture the side of the volunteers that are spending their days with strangers trying to help them through and navigate this really ridiculous problem in our government. So, capturing all of that in the film. We also discovered that, oh, there are so much disinformation out there about immigration and there's so many soundbites that make no sense and actually don't help at all. In fact, some of them even make the problem worse and people just need to know about the complexities of the problem, and so I think that's when we found you and soundbites to solutions was born.

Speaker 2: 10:02

Yes, I love this. So for the audience to really understand when we got together, we were all on this mission and we realized that all of us were dealing with this frustration with how mass media and many of our influencers dig a stake into a very particular perspective and then create a lot of fear around that and a lot of confusion around some of the most important issues that we have going on, one of them being immigration, and that the only way for us to move forward was to address what the soundbites are and how many of them are not even truthful, and move the conversation away from soundbites for solutions. And so this first event that we're having at the Anthology Film Archives celebrates Ferrisay Films incredible I've seen the film displaced. It's incredible. It shares this short film with the guests and then there's a panelist of experts to talk about solutions, and I was very honored to get a chance to get a private screening of this place.

Speaker 2: 11:09

I want to hear about making the film as two women in the industry Before I get there. What's your shitter? Did Louis Guzman give you guys a massive? I mean, who doesn't love him as an actor? Who's a huge actor? Did he get the best actor or a good woman about your film.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Oh my gosh, so nice. He actually came to our set. He visited our set, which was really surreal and exciting and helpful, yeah, incredibly helpful, because I don't think anybody has more experience in this business than Louis Guzman. Literally spent his entire life in this business and probably the most famous Latino actor, or I don't know. Famous is probably not the right word, or just.

Speaker 2: 11:53

Prolific, prolific.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Prolific is the right word.

Speaker 2: 11:55

I think everyone recognizes him. When they see him, they're like, oh my God, he's incredible.

Speaker 1: 11:59

Yeah, he has been in everything for decades, so he's just amazing. And then he was so kind. He told me that my script brought him to tears and that's why he came to the set and told me this incredible story about reading it and learning things about immigrants that he didn't know before me and didn't know himself and that's really, I think, what kind of shocked him about the story.

Speaker 1: 12:26

And that is really the whole point of the film is to just give the audience a little bit of information about what these people really go through and how sometimes people can not have a country. They can be so displaced they literally don't have a home. There's a lot of disinformation about people just trying to make a better life for themselves, which absolutely. People are trying to make a better life for themselves, and also that's a good thing to try to make a better life for yourself. But there are also people that literally don't have a homeland and don't have a country, and that's a really serious, more serious problem, I think.

Speaker 3: 13:04

And it's a wonderful opportunity to educate, right? Fersei Films really wants to educate with their projects, and that's what we're hoping to do here with Displaced yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:15

I think one of the things that I thought was so touching about the film and I have to say congratulations, because not only did your first script get you a ton of attention for TikTok and touch on a hugely important issue such as women's biological clocks, but the second one gets a compliment from one of the biggest actors in the world, character actors particularly, which I think most people have more respect for Right, and you get this huge compliment from him.

Speaker 2: 13:41

It also touches on an incredibly important issue and it highlights what doesn't get talked about Because, you see, I think most people know the truth about most situations is gray, it is not black and white and it is not the opposite ends of the spectrum that we get shown in most mass media and it creates these sort of fence posts for most people that they hang onto and we can't move forward when that happens. And your film does such a beautiful job of just pointing someone in the right direction to see the complexity. Was that something that you intentionally set out to do?

Speaker 1: 14:18

Yeah, because that's what I experienced when I was accompanying undocumented immigrants to their court appearances, and I actually saw people's lives being destroyed over paperwork, over paperwork written in another language that they didn't, wasn't explained to them or they didn't necessarily even understand.

Speaker 1: 14:51

And also people that have to check in with ICE because ICE doesn't know what to do with them or because there's no place to put them or we're sort of in this broken system that's overrun and so they're just checking in with ICE as much as they can and going every single time and having to get a babysitter, and having to take time off of work and pay money to come into the city to go to their ICE check-ins, and then sometimes ICE just decides in that moment we're going to take you and they just take them off and there's no opportunity to call a lawyer or to talk to their family or to even let their children know what's happened.

Speaker 1: 15:35

There were so many instances like that that I just was like people need to just know that this broken system is really hurting human beings and yes, there's a lot of complexity to the issue, but here in America I feel like we could do a better job at just fixing our own side of the street, so to speak, before we just point fingers at other countries and say, oh well, it's their problem.

Speaker 2: 16:04

I think one of the things that doesn't get spoken about that I think is so important is look, I'm in the middle of the road. I see both perspectives. Yes, I think it's ideal when we have people who work their way through the legal system, do things legally. There are some situations in which people don't really have an option except something desperate, and I think in that situation we should have a way to manage and deal with that in America. That makes sense. And you guys, I'm telling you right now, while a lot of people will criticize an immigrant for not knowing English well enough to know the paperwork, or getting booted, or having your life ruined by something legal happening, that happens every single day in America to Americans who can speak English, have lawyers and all of those things, because our system is so broken and so dysfunctional, and I think the immigration issue just highlights that.

Speaker 3: 16:59

I don't think that I mean. It's such a polarizing issue, right, people have very strong opinions about it, but I don't think the media does a very good job of focusing on what's broken and what can be fixed, that's it. You know that is not political at all. There's nothing about the system that is political. It's a system that was put in place many years ago and it needs to be updated.

Speaker 2: 17:26

And as it says most everything in our government, right, I'm getting an update right.

Speaker 3: 17:30

I'm getting older. I need an update, so it's understandable that the system that was created so long ago, before we had so much immigration into the states, would need to be updated, and we hope that this film and this discussion surrounding immigration highlights that and shows solutions, what can be done. That's not polarizing, that's right.

Speaker 2: 17:56

And I think something that you just brought to mind is that if Americans were actually being properly taken care of within their own country, we would have less A Americans who were resentful and quick to grab on to the worst case scenario situations that are happening with immigration because it's like a competition. I think that's how they treat it. Yeah, and also, most politicians wouldn't be using the immigration situation to distract people who are really unhappy with the shitty job that they're doing at running our government. I mean, I'm just saying I think that they're using it as a football to keep people distracted from the fact that they're not fixing the system For Americans, much less the immigration system for immigrants, which is broken. It's a broken system and they're becoming victims of it, as are the American people who don't understand how broken it is it is one of many broken systems really.

Speaker 2: 18:47

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:48

But one thing that I just wanted to point out what you were saying earlier about there are certain things that are outdated or certain things that a lot of people don't know about this broken system. One of the main takeaways from my work with immigrants was that you have to actually be on American soil to apply for asylum.

Speaker 1: 19:07

So a lot of these people that are crossing the border quote unquote illegally are turning themselves in immediately. They're going right to border patrol and they're like I'm here to seek asylum, I'm on American soil, I'm here to seek asylum. This is what's happened to me, this is what's going on in my country and then they get stuck for years and years and years before they even get a court date, before they even understand what the asylum laws are. For example, you have to apply from one year, from that point that you turn yourself in, and a lot of them don't know that information and they get stuck and they get put off and they don't even realize that. Oh no, they got to get that paperwork in somehow within that year, otherwise they don't qualify at all. So there's just a lot of like.

Speaker 1: 19:48

If we could figure out a way where people could possibly apply before they come, that might be helpful. That's an example of something that we could look at. But I think a lot of people think that they're just here to be criminals. And they're here and they've already criminalized themselves because they've come over illegally. But the truth is there's no easy way to get here. There's no easy system to get onto the soil into the asylum process.

Speaker 2: 20:13

Now I think that's a really good point. Actually, I think a lot of people don't realize that they have to get their feet onto American soil to be able to get asylum. So if somebody's desperate and they're running to a country that they think can help them and we have plenty of space just saying our resources aren't allocated properly, but we got plenty of space and we do have plenty of resources, they're just not allocated properly but they can't get here, they can't get help and I think a lot of people. That doesn't get highlighted in the medium. Frankly, the truth, the complexity of the situation doesn't get highlighted in the media because it doesn't sell clicks or views.

Speaker 3: 20:49

It doesn't necessarily have to be easy for them to do, right? Nobody is saying, oh, I want easy, I want easy, easy, easy. But it should be clear so people understand what it is they would need to do in order to seek asylum or in order to come to the States, if it's laid out, and then people can make a determination as to whether or not they can do it and make the choice for themselves. But unfortunately, we don't even want to do that. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:16

And I had this. I have to share this because it's one of those moments where we talk about sharing the truth on the show all the time and every episode. I'm talking about how we have to get to the truth. Through the truth we'll be able to heal and we'll be able to move forward and we'll be able to create better systems.

Speaker 2: 21:28

I was at dinner with these two ladies, or we were doing something for the event that we have coming up or displaced their short film, which is rather fabulous. They're going to plug that really quick and I said something when we were we were having a debate actually right here and I said something like well, you know, they're giving immigrants $2,200 a month, which is more than people get for Social Security. Thank you, tucker Carlson. I just have to mention who said that, because that's where I got that from and I went and looked it up and it's not true and it's one of those things. Since I said that, I have repeatedly seen prestigious journalists the state of journalism as a whole other episode say that same thing and it's not actually the case.

Speaker 2: 22:13

So those are the kinds of soundbites that you keep getting spread around is truth that aren't actually true at all. Go look it up.

Speaker 1: 22:20

Yeah, and also I just want to point out that those kinds of soundbites trickle down to those who are coming over to the border. So they hear things like Biden's open border, they're giving $2,200 to every immigrant that comes in, and then we have this mass influx coming in droves and we're all like, oh, no, no, no, no, what's happening? We've got to stop it. Yeah, but it is this disinformation, it is these soundbites that are, I mean, not completely part of the problem. They are coming over here because of climate change and because they're running from violence and all kinds of other things, but the huge uptick can also be credited to a lot of the disinformation and the soundbites that are coming out there.

Speaker 3: 22:58

So it's really dangerous Actually disinformation is also not to say that all the soundbites are not rooted in some kernel of truth, Because I think that's why people feel they can get away with these very you know explosive soundbites Right, Because they say, well, it kind of is true, but taken out of context it explodes and it's just not useful.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Yes, and you know, and just on the other opposite end of that, just while we're talking about soundbites and truth and not truth, and when we, when we, when we layer deception into an already complicated situation where people are using the soundbites to create extremes, it has both. It has positives and negative effects on everybody. We have situations like recently. President Biden did get called out because he flew in. I think it was I'm not going to quote a number it was a lot of people secretly on airplanes and hid the fact from the public.

Speaker 2: 23:59

And when our politicians, including our president, do things like that, it creates a sense of distrust and all it does is empower the opposite end of the spectrum. So the people who are very anti immigrant are like see, there's proof right there that they're going to rule in everything. Take all of our jobs and and, and. So you know, I would say just from this conversation you know, be careful. Social media is full of lies and soundbites that aren't true. And not only will you sound like a fool, like I did, by telling people that immigrants are getting $2,200 a month, but it, like you said, it makes the problem worse because people are hearing that and they're going oh my gosh. In the US they're flying people in and they're giving them $2,200 a month run.

Speaker 3: 24:41

And my question, too, is why don't we want to solve these problems? Why don't we want to have a better place to live? What is holding us back, you know, from really like doing the work we need?

Speaker 1: 24:53

to. Yeah, I mean, the truth is is that people make a lot of money off of people being afraid, and politicians get elected off of fear. Yes, and media loves a good clickbait.

Speaker 2: 25:06

And a lot of companies are functioning off of the backs of immigrants and they don't want anyone to know.

Speaker 1: 25:13

Yep, and they don't want them to be on the books because they don't want to have to pay their taxes

Speaker 1: 25:17

and they don't want to have to pay into the social security system for them and so on. So that's all true, and a good rule of thumb is that it's never all or nothing. Yeah, like, like the open borders, closed borders, like it's not a door that you can shut and lock, and it, you know, it's a very, very complicated issue. And so whenever you hear things like all of them are this or this is all a lie, or this is like any all or nothing language is usually a red flag for me. That's usually what I'm like.

Speaker 3: 25:51

Yeah, yeah, it's never that, it's never that.

Speaker 1: 25:54

They're never all criminals and they're also not all asylum seekers yeah, and they're not all other either. A lot of them are family members of American citizens. A lot of them are people with huge connections here in America. A lot of them come over here and do a really specialized job and lose their visa, or you know, there's just there's so much complexity to. The composer of our film actually is was an immigrant and he worked on the score for Narcos and had to go back through immigration court because his visa was running out and immigration court actually said oh, you're just a composer, that's not a good enough job in the film industry. That's like not. That's like it's not prestigious, prestigious enough.

Speaker 2: 26:42

He's an incredible musician with these unbelievable skills and system never valued music for so many reasons we're not going to go into today, but let's just think about like Narcos was such a huge, huge, huge, huge thing.

Speaker 1: 26:58

No, it's Narcos, and everybody loved Narcos and it was like it's such a huge part of, like our American culture, these stories, and then you know, this is it's that whole unseen labor doesn't get counted as equal, and it's just as important.

Speaker 3: 27:11

Well, and also, you know, it's interesting that they wouldn't value someone in the arts, right.

Speaker 3: 27:17

Because I think that art is really what changes the world, it's not politics. Yeah, art comes first and you know this, this momentum behind artists and expressing themselves and, you know, speaking out about things through their art, is really what educates and what, what begins to change public opinions. Oh sorry, yeah, sorry about that, and it's ridiculous to me that we think, oh well, it's only politicians that, you know, come up with all these brilliant ideas, when in fact it's really artists. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:55

Art is really the tool in which we communicate the most pressing emotions, feelings, information. It starts through art and then it trickles down to everything else. So when art gets dismissed, we're dismissing the main tool in which we speak to the human condition.

Speaker 3: 28:12

Right.

Speaker 2: 28:13

And you know they historically. If you go back to the American and this is going to not off topic, it's actually quite on topic because we're talking about how bad the systems are If you go back to how the American education system was actually fundamentally created, it was created to produce worker bees. It literally says in the original concept for how the school system would be built, because it was built to produce workers for the Industrial Revolution. It was literally it says in the paperwork we do not want artists, writers, poets, painters, we want worker bees. We want people who do not think Rockefeller right.

Speaker 1: 28:48

Yes, rockefeller.

Speaker 2: 28:50

So so the whole American system was founded on, and one of the reasons why the arts and physical, like physical fitness, are members of kids and cutting the art music the first thing that goes.

Speaker 2: 29:02

The first thing that went was arts and sports and I was like the two things in school that most people who were like neurodivergent or creative loved the most and were their tools for enjoying life or getting cut. It was a huge mistake in the American systems. So hopefully, when we redo the school system, on top of everything else I mean education is such a huge, huge problem in the country.

Speaker 3: 29:27

It's really, it's really disgusting and also consume the way we consume things through entertainment. Right, yeah, so not for the better, but news shows have become entertainment, yeah, so we're consuming it like we consume art, yeah, which therein lies a big problem, because we're sometimes we consume things that aren't necessarily truthful, yet we're perceiving them as truthful.

Speaker 2: 29:50

Yes, and I'm glad to see most people get to a place now, which is one of the reasons why I did an episode. Guys, go back and watch the episode before this. Right before this, when I interviewed Pulitzer nominated journalist Rose Horwitz about the state of the media, and we talk a lot about this topic. So definitely go check that episode of Citizen Journalist out. It's one of our most popular episodes and so to bring it back to you, to you know the topic at hand.

Speaker 2: 30:15

I know, as a female entrepreneur, I know you guys know what I'm talking about. I was working on a fundraising deck for got the cast media and I looked up fundraising for women in less than 3%. I want people to really hear this because you wonder what I hear men say this a lot of times with women were really good at business, they'd be more bane. Yeah, and not all men are like that. I want to be very clear about that. I know you really support women's issues, but less than 3% of venture capital less than 3% of venture capital and some of those charts measured it at 1.8 1.9% of venture capital is given to women's companies. So we still deal with the world that is very heavily weighted towards supporting men's businesses, men's positions of power, women in the film industry, in the entertainment industry, which are very much still done by mostly men. How are you guys dealing with that disparity? You know the sort of disparity of being in a male dominated industry still.

Speaker 1: 31:18

That's a great question. I will say that I do think things are changing a little bit and we have been getting some attention by being a female owned company, which is great. I think in some ways it like helps us kind of stand out and certainly as we go through the festival circuit you want to talk a little bit. Christina has been really on top of our festival submissions and I think we found that a lot of them are looking for diversity.

Speaker 3: 31:40

They're looking for diversity and, you know, as a female driven business, we're just that. And it's interesting too, because I think the stories that we're drawn to tell are very complex and have, you know, have an interesting like road and it gets away from. Not that we wouldn't, you know, do something that has a little bit more levity to it, but those stories, I think, are very easy for us to tell because we have a different perspective on the world, right, just like as a result of being women.

Speaker 1: 32:22

Yeah, we understand marginalized communities. Yeah, we know what it is to be left out. We feel it all the time with everything.

Speaker 3: 32:31

But also I think we don't focus on like my answer to your question about you know, how do we deal with the you know so few women are being recognized is. I don't think we focus on that Because that would just hold us back. We prefer to focus on what we know, what we can do, what we feel confident about, and that has taken us a long way in just looking at, like, the things we have in the pipeline to you know, we have a wealth of stories. They just sort of keep coming.

Speaker 1: 32:55

So I know we like we. We have to stop sometimes and be like we cannot come up with another idea. Actually, just pick an idea and work on it.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Oh, I know Ideas are off the chart, yeah when we go to dinner it's like an idea fest because all three of us are creators. You know it's interesting. I love get Greta Gore-Wig and I thought she did an incredible job with the. She really did an incredible job with the Barbie movie. I did personally and I even wrote an article about this. I feel like I felt like people wanted her to win simply because she was a woman. I'm not saying she didn't deserve it. I don't know that topic well enough. I will say that I don't think it helps when we let corporations reposition their brand in history through the arts. I think that that there's a deception there that actually makes the new. It complicates the situation. It's already complicated enough even further. But I'm glad to hear that you're in applying for the film festivals. You guys are seeing diversity as a big push. I think that's incredible. Yeah, what is it that you would? What would you like to ideally see happen with your short film displaced?

Speaker 1: 34:10

Well, we've got a couple of different ideas. First of all, there is the festival circuit and we are doing that, but we don't want to just do that, which is usually the path for short films. Like short films just go into the festival circuit and people go and watch them and that's pretty much it. But festivals are really for filmmakers and we made this film to educate people. So we're actually going to universities. We've reached out to several universities in Texas and other places, but right now we're focused on Texas because this issue is in Texas. Yeah, and we are really we're building a package where we can go into these universities, screen the film, have these discussions with the students, possibly do a workshop about social impact work and using your art and your creativity that you're learning in school to really make a difference in the world. So we want to inspire young people because they are the future.

Speaker 3: 35:09

And also it's an election year and most of them don't vote. And it drives me crazy, frankly. This is such an important issue it's bigger than any award right. So to really get it out to people so that they can learn something would be ideal and would be extremely rewarding for us.

Speaker 1: 35:25

And after it runs its full circuit on both the university front or community front and the festival front, then eventually it will be online and we'll be able to get it to everybody. But there's a lot of rules about premieres and things. You want to put something online and everybody can get to it really easily. It gets harder and harder to actually target certain audiences. So that's where we are right now.

Speaker 2: 35:52

we're targeting I love that. So for the audience to know, one of the we came together to do an event series called Soundbites to Solutions because we all passionately care about a lot of social issues and we chose Immigration as the first one because there's so much hype around their short film displaced, and we thought, well, take advantage of all the talk While we're getting you're getting huge compliments from people like Louis Guzman and that event. I'm really excited about that event. It's the first one in the series Soul Text, soundbites to Solutions, which is presented by Ferrisay Films and its screens displaced, and it also has a panel discussion with a group of experts to talk about immigration, and that includes you guys as well.

Speaker 2: 36:43

The whole point of that event series, which will be going on throughout 2024 in New York City and around the country, because we've got big plans, is to create conversation about what is true, what is false and how do we actually get to a place of actually solving situations. Because what I see most people doing, what I see most media doing which is one of the reasons I found the film Soul Refreshing is focusing on the fear-driven narratives within the conversation that keep it from being solvable, because there's a lot of vested groups that don't want the solutions released, because they get elected based on the complexity and the fear tactics. They get people watching their shows because of it. They get to fund their businesses off the backs of immigrants, they get to make huge profits off of the immigrant labor and there's a lot of people who have vested interest in not getting to a solution. But you know what? We're determined to bring in this conversation to the forefront, along with other social issues.

Speaker 3: 37:49

And they're not, it's true. I mean, hey, we don't want to ignore the fact that we are a capitalistic society. Right, america is based on capitalism, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money or to amass wealth. However, there is enough to go around, and this concept that it has to only be held by I'll select few is really a limiting belief, and so that's part of it, too, that there is enough of us to solve the problem and to steal, amass wealth and have a good life and also give someone else a good life.

Speaker 1: 38:28

Yeah, and also like human rights are important. The economy is very important Also, human rights are really important and there's definitely a way to have a successful, booming, abundant economy and still have people keeping their own rights. And I feel like that's when it comes to human rights and people get all polarized about an issue people are making a very few amount of. People are making a whole lot of money in that instance.

Speaker 1: 39:01

But, if we can all just find a way to have our different opinions and have our different perspectives but still appreciate and respect each other as Americans. If we can get to that place, then we can all support each other. We can all have a piece of the pie. There's enough pie for everybody. I mean, it's America. We have the best economy in the world and we still do, and we're holding on to by a thread, by a thread. So we really need to all work together to keep it going.

Speaker 2: 39:29

I don't mean to sound like a doomsayer, but I believe that we have to come up with a new American dream, because the American dream that we had before which is what was the main driver of people wanting to be engaged in the workforce in the way that they used to care Without an American dream, with the one that we had before collapsing, we have not gifted the younger generations with the path in, the tools that drive them. They give them hope that make them wanna work towards a solution that make them wanna be vested in, and on top of that, you add, in AI, and the world is really changing dramatically. But I think that highlights that this is such a huge moment in which we can collectively say it's not working, what we've been doing is not working. It's time for us to all stop bickering it's like a tug of war, no, that nobody ever wins and say, okay, let's meet in the middle and say what are the solutions to the situation? That's right.

Speaker 1: 40:25

Nobody wins and the truth is is if you took all of the undocumented immigrants and you rounded them up and you pulled them out of this country, our economy would call a little bit like the unpaid female labor. Yes, I'm in America. Thank you for bringing it up. That is absolutely true, shaman. Also, women hold up the global economy with invisible labor as they caretake for their younger generation and the previous generation. We are always the emotional support for everyone, which is why we're so tired right no.

Speaker 2: 40:56

I think, that's a great topic for another episode of citizen journalists, because there's one country I think it was Iceland where the women brought the entire country to a halt.

Speaker 1: 41:06

Yeah, over 2% of equality. They were like 98% equal and they were like no, that's not enough, we want 100%. So we're just gonna stop working until you give us 100% equality. If we do in America, I mean it wouldn't take long. I give, I give America one day without the women. Oh yeah, before they would think differently.

Speaker 1: 41:25

They would be like no and kind of the same thing with the immigrants too, like what if all the immigrants just stopped Building our buildings and taking care of our elderly and being the nanny and being the cook. And you know every restaurant. You go to Every restaurant just about. Even if it's a Chinese restaurant, it's usually a Latin American. You know immigrant cooking the food. You pull all those people out. Who's gonna pick the oranges from the trees? Who's? You know there's a lot of jobs that they do that Americans don't want.

Speaker 2: 41:54

Oh yeah, Especially the young. I'm not trying to poke make fun of the younger generations, but they're not really big on what they consider beneath them.

Speaker 1: 42:02

Yeah, they don't jobs to that. They have YouTube channels and they figured out other ways to make money.

Speaker 3: 42:09

Producers, and good for them. This is just it. There's enough to go right yet again.

Speaker 2: 42:15

I think one of the things that was so fascinating to me about the closures Was that what we proved was that we can take care of everybody when we want to as a country. It's amazing we can also tell everyone what to do and take the rights away.

Speaker 2: 42:31

But that's a whole other topic for another episode, but also I noticed there were no homeless people during the pandemic. Amazing know where I went whether any homeless people, so for a couple years we could actually take care of our homeless people. I thought that's amazing. And then, right after once the closures were done and things went back to business, the homeless people are back and now there's more of them than ever. So fascinating topics.

Speaker 1: 42:55

Mental health crisis has gotten so much worse. Yeah, and that's. You know, that's a whole another episode.

Speaker 3: 43:01

But I mean these are many topics that fair, safe, balance will be exploring, yeah that right there.

Speaker 2: 43:07

All right, I love that. You guys so for audience wanted to learn more about the work that you guys do. Where would they go they visit, oh?

Speaker 1: 43:22

Well, I have a website called tiffani Hodges calm where you can go for everything. I also write a sub stack for a women's group called among other things. So if you go to sub stack and you do a Google or a search for among other things everything, there is stuff that I write about. Many of them we've talked about. Many of the topics that I write about we've talked about in this.

Speaker 3: 43:44

I said as well and you can find me at Christina doicus calm. Additionally, please visit our website Displaced short film calm and you can learn all about fair say there and about our film displaced.

Speaker 1: 43:57

Also, if you go to fair say films calm, you'll find this place for a film.

Speaker 2: 44:01

Yeah, lots of different. I'm like I'm pretty sure they can go to fair, say films to.

Speaker 1: 44:06

Google any of these words. Yeah, you'll find us All right.

Speaker 2: 44:10

Oh well, you guys, if you're not already subscribed to citizen journalists, what's wrong with you? Ah, you should subscribe, because here we talk about solutions over Over sound bites, to stick with our theme, and we cover all different types of topics. If you want to learn more about the show, go visit gothic house media and you will see a page for Citizen journalists there. You can also visit soul tech dot world to learn all about soul tech and about myself, shaman ices. Thanks you guys for coming and hanging out. Go check out my social media as well. You guys have been coming and making some really incredible comments about the show, so I really appreciate that. So go find us on social media and on our websites, and we'll see you here pretty soon for another episode of citizen journalists. Have a beautiful and blessed week. Bye, hi.

Speaker 3: 45:06

That's really good, I had to tell you.