Documentary filmmaker Julie Lunde Lillesaeter describes herself as someone who tells “stories that have some sort of meaningful impact”. When I asked her about trauma, she gave a nuanced, smart response. “After working on so many different projects, maybe in particular ‘An Army of Women’, where I worked with people who had trauma that was very deep and very dramatically impacted their life, I’ve always felt careful about using the word ‘trauma’ to describe anything in my own life.”
Consider accessing Julie’s documentary film ‘An Army of Women’ here: https://watch.eventive.org/togetherfilmsus/play/67f3e95cab4969913a48207b?m=1
It’s a wrap for Season 3. After 27 episodes, Aaron checks in with Avery to see if he’s still into sharing his sage wisdom. And they touch on the great “Is sport an art” Debate, make funny faces and make a big decision about the future of the cast.
Scott Carter’s career spans 5 decades and includes acting, stand-up comedy, writing for top tier television productions, writing plays, performing Ted Talks, podcasting and as I highlighted to him, being a deep thinker. Frankly I can’t believe he agreed to do our little podcast. Consider Scott’s contemplation and comments comparing his experience in interviewing guests with our previous guest, Mercedes Medici, a professional Italian tour guide: “Being a guide is a very interesting thing to do. You’re a concierge to someone else’s experience and [for] a lol of them, you will determine whether or not they enjoyed their experience by your performance.” Seems like a life lesson, actually.
Here’s Jason’s explanation for why therapy is art: “I’m glad you talked about it as the art of therapy, bc I really think that’s an important piece. There’s an element of expertise – you have to have this knowledge in psychology but really I think what makes therapy work is the art of it. Like being able to connect with people and just have genuine curiousity for who they are…But really to me the real magic happens in the middle where the emotional experience of the artist and the person perceiving and experiencing the art kind of connect. To me the art of therapy is creating that space…It’s to create a space in which they can heal themselves.”
Lisa Elliott’s super power is helping you take take the power back from films you love, but that don’t love you back. “By teaching…the art of…appreciating film…people [learn] how film has shaped them and how culture has shaped them, and then that gives the power back to them. It helps them heal from the traumas of loving something that doesn’t represent you or doesn’t show what you feel your lived experience is as a woman or as a lesbain or someone who’s gay or somebody who lives on the border or somebody who is Hispanic. Like all of these things that could be part of your identity that film doesn’t represent [well] and you can take that back.
Professional tour guide Mercedes Medici calls herself “a giver of words...I’m always impressed about the power or words – the tremendous, magical creative, healing power of words.” Sit back, picture the Coliseum in Rome in the distance, and listen to Mercedes Medici’s silky voice, beautiful accent and poetic phrasing explain how she uses the art of guiding to heal herself and others.
“First off…I am not comfortable at all being interviewed. Working in radio, I definitely feel more comfortable and confident as the interviewer than the interviewee. Revealing myself and putting myself out there in the world is very scary to me.” Kudos to Teddy for going “there” with me in talking about trauma and change and growth. And also hamming it up. As usual.
Nevena Christi’s career path goes from from the Met Gala to Hollywood and beyond. But basically she’s “the same kid from when I was little. I just want to make stuff and draw and get messy and basically anything – furniture, art, boots, anything – that’s me...at home we restore vintage travel trailers – we love everything old. On weekends I’m restoring the [Rocketbuster] building which was built in 1900. Before the movie people came downtown to film, I spent 8 weekends varnishing the floors. That is my play time.”
A lifelong actor and theater person, Julie Wright decided to become a teacher, a decision she thought was novel. Others saw this as an obvious progression for her. “When I mentioned it to other friends and family members, you know at the time, like ‘I think I’m going to be a teacher’, every single person without fail, they were like, ‘Well yeah – duh.’”
After a career of helping others, Sherri lives the dream retirement in Costa Rica. “I live on top of a mountain. I have a very chill lifestyle. I get up when I want to get up and I go to bed when I want to go to bed. No alarms, other than my dogs and monkeys when I’m in the jungle.” Listen in to hear more about her Pura Vide life.
At different stages, Christina Sanchez has lived creative and professional lives. Hear how her experience with dance in many ways perfectly prepared her for public life. But replacing her love for dance with her current role as the El Paso County Attorney gives her pause: “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my journey has – how I got to where I’m at…I know a lot of it is luck and a lot of it has been just the good people that I think have had faith in my abilities...So I don’t know necessarily if that’s like that trauma, but maybe there is something there I haven’t thought through.” Intrigued? Take a listen!
Living in Juarez by way of Chicago, DeDe entertains for a living at Drag Story Hour, at your next Joteria party or anywhere. “If I had to put it into a character that you might recognize, [it’s] kind of like ChiChi from Tu Wong Fu.” If you know you know. “Drag is powerful,…because it can take someone out of reality into something beautiful.”
In this weeks episode, Joshua Peugh describes his experience in using dance to heal from trauma and at the same time explains dance as a metaphor for life. “Because your body is your instrument and because for me as a choreographer I am sharing my internal landscape with a group of people, it’s a very vulnerable life and sometimers that comes with thorns and pain and sometimes its beautiful and lovely and smooth and easy and peaceful and other times its challenging and rough and that’s where the exciting parts of it are.”
Would you agree with Daniela and me that practicing yoga and practicing law are similar? “I’m an attorney by day and then a yoga teacher by night slash weekends. So I have these two very seemingly opposite parts of me but [it] really creates this wonderful, wonderful balance...Yoga and the law have this commonality where whether we’re in a courtroom or we’re in a yoga classroom as a teacher, we are holding space. We are holding space for others.”
Stephanie lists one of her crowning achievements as the Executive Director of the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence as being raising funds and planning the replacement of their shelter. “One of the most fun things I did was…drive the first bull dozer into the building.” Imagine the image – a literal bull dozer driven by this bull dozer of a lady.
Veteran, breast cancer survivor, dancer, mom, paralegal, lover of the arts, the community, and all-around person that wants to experience life at its fullest. “The way that I talk about myself is the various stages that I’ve lived throughout my life. I always tell people I’m at Liz 4.0…I’m a culmination of all those versions of myself.”
“For one thing, I personally have an issue withhyper-intellectualizing my feelings.” Same Gus, same.
“You know I just kind of describe myself as like a spark plug, youknow where I’m just igniting energy.” That’s just the kind of person you wantas a friend for exploring a new place and for learning about the healing powerof journaling. J’Hana explains in her irreverent and firecracker way howjournaling has helped her overcome and address profound traumas in her life.
Avery once told me that sports are not art. Leave it to Curtis Clay to challenge Avery on this – Curtis said he wanted to “have a conversation with Avery” about this. A former college football player with a brief period with Dallas Cowboys, Curtis has used his love and knowledge of sports to be a mentor for men and boys, encouraging them not to get stuck in the “man box” of masculinity
See a public art project in El Paso? Chances are Ben Fyffe hashelped foster its development. Fresh off the triumph of the years-long in theplanning opening of the Mexican American Center in downtown El Paso, Bendiscusses his work on behalf of the city in fostering art projects. He’s theart connoisseur and munipal patron of the arts we all want to be when we growup.
