Women Empowerment 2022
Kevin Krall 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:37
Good morning Las Vegas Zondra Polare with it's where I am. Today, we're going to play our women empowerment 2022 conference. This is part one with filmmaker. Oh, get you Musa and television producer Louisa Isler. If you miss any part of this, you can always catch it on my website, www dot Its where I am.com It's where I am. I'm Zoltan Polo. And I'll be hosting today's women empowerment 2022. We have some very special guests here today. We have Olga to Musa she is a film director, writer. And she will be presenting her short film the tailwind clip. We also have the Lisa Eiler. Lisa either is a producer. She wears many hats. And I thank her for being here she'll share with us some of the things she's doing in film and television. And so we're gonna start with Okochi. So this women empowerment conference is super important because we are, you know, working through this pandemic, right. And we're realizing that we were having serious issues with mental health. We're at a point we're at a point where we're understanding that we need more help than we thought we ever thought we did. Right? So you did your film back in 2017? You did one called friction. Is that correct? The year? Yes. So you did a film called friction was a which was a sci fi film and it won some awards. This one in particular, let's say oh, one clip I wanted to showcase today because Okay, she has won has won awards for it as well. But it deals with something that's very close and personal to me, which is an as well. So can you give us a synopsis of your film? Oh, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 2:55
definitely. It's a short film that featured the black house with man in LA. And basically, he's going through mental health issues while he's trying to that any kind of a senseless society. So we kind of see his story, how he got there, and just kind of there's a twist at the end that you'll see momentarily. And it really is just a reflection of what's going on. I always really believe that as an artist, and as a filmmaker, Nina Simone said that it's a artists duty to reflect the times. So most of my work, what I call conscious storytelling does just that. So living in based in LA living in LA for the past five years, it was definitely a marginalized voice that I wanted to uplift, just to kind of bring awareness to the issue, as well as trying to find some change in potential solutions to assist sustainable communities for people who are enhanced.
Unknown Speaker 3:55
Thank you. So we will start with presentation of entail and thank you, again to you. What inspired you to do this film? And how did you manage? writing, directing, editing? You did all of this. This was your passion project? Why not? Great question. I think that
Unknown Speaker 4:19
we can ask that question for a lot of things that we see right? And I think highlighting such a important light on that never gets ignored. It's just a reflection of us in general, as humans, I'm sure that we've all felt that at some point, not having a voice or not being seen. So in a way this community is like that heightened example of that because it's like abandonment, there has been issues with just like being pushed out of the light of being human, homeless and less than human. So in a way it's a matter of being able to take care of yourself by Seeing yourself in others. So with conscious storytelling, it's all about really evoking empathy. So what I want to do as filmmakers make you kind of realize it could be used, because we are all the same,
Unknown Speaker 5:13
right? And most Americans are one paycheck away from being on the street.
Unknown Speaker 5:18
Right, right. But basically this project, I mean, it started with, like I said, I'd like to reflect the times in my work. And I lived in Hollywood, it's like West Hollywood, Hollywood borderline. And I would really, I'm always kind of getting to my community. So I lived within that community, basically, and I would care for and just donate food and hear your stories. So I started to just listen and have conversations, because I think that's the most important thing is really just listening to each other. And I think that's what we have kind of forgotten to do is just listen, you know, and just pay attention. So I started doing just that, just listening and paying attention. And the project was kind of birthed out of a couple of different ideas that really just came together. But I think one very important thing is that it there was so many times that it was not supposed to be made. There are so many moments where production almost stopped that it didn't start, people dropped, I just dropped. So there was a lot of restrictions with this one. This was the hardest one yet. This is my second film. But I also have a documentary in both production. And this can cause a lot of just problems. But I had to finish it. I felt like I was called to tell the story. I felt like as what I had to, there was no option. And if you don't
Unknown Speaker 6:40
know again, she has been on the show. It's where I am doing fine. today. It's where I am calm, is where I am. Now, I'd like to get with Miss Louisa Isler, who has previously been on the last two shows in mind. She is a transformation expert. And she's also a professor. She wears many hats. And she's also in television. And so I wanted this first segment to start with what women are doing in film and television to make a difference. With mental health. We always see the negative, you know, portrayed in movies and feel that there's women out there that are doing positive things, and making conversation more normal around mental health. So Louisa, thank you for being here. You're welcome.
Unknown Speaker 7:36
So your name is Louisa I are definitely east coast. I'm one of eight kids, my parents were temporary drop outs and when I went out into the world, and my parents forbade me through college and ready to start working, and maybe not even signing forms for my partial scholarship to Stanford. So that being said, I set out to find my own way in the world. And eventually, along that journey, I was a victim of any life circumstances I was I was raised, I was beaten by the father of my son in a shelter for a while and it was bankrupt. And I was homeless for a while. And eventually as I kind of worked it all out and built myself up from the ashes. And at first I thought I wanted to be a doctor and I was putting myself through school and nobody was paying for it. And then after the domestic violence incident, I ended up in about a dozen shelter restaurants in my little son and it changed my life forever. Because at that time, I learned that lesson because women didn't have a quarter you may call it that same shot with younger women who were the partners are very sophisticated elite members of society and in that realm and admire admiration for white or black male women who needed women. And so whenever before I got into power when I hired somebody new che and I had shelter on top of my professor from undergrad and I said I need to be a social worker because the law had taken my life as a social worker. And I wanted to figure out how to help other women in that capacity. So out into grad school got a great job as a graduate assistant because of the help of my professor at the office or sexual health awareness and education. And the child I sort of feel my own life and healing others and learning the right processes and having expert mentors teaching you what it's like to respond as a as a helper to a victim of becoming a victims advocate and through sharing the pain of other women, and how to talk your talk and walk along and been that learn how to really conceptualize how to be a different kind of therapist to sometimes people want a therapist that's gonna listen to your problems and that you can have your shoulder for as many sessions those are willing to pay the money but are very action oriented. And if someone wants to come and talk about their problems for the next five years, I'm happy to connect them to any of my colleagues who will just allow that I'm very much that you don't get satisfaction in your life. So you create some actionable steps to get there because you can stay in the quicksand or you can learn to swim. And so that being said, I'm also like all in you know, like once you've learned how to swim, you know that you can go in deep water and you know when it's time to get out and you know when you need a lifejacket. So I've sort of come to live my life that way, living on the edge a little bit bigger. When it's time to, you know, go to shore and get anchored. And so along the way, just always seize every opportunity. And the person you see sitting in front of you today wasn't always this person often together for most of my adult life. I was 300 pounds. There about five years ago, I said, you know, that's it, it's kind of put me first and so I set out on this embarkation of SEL transformation saying that I needed to put my money where my mouth was, and how can I sit in that chair and be a therapist to others when I hadn't put myself first and I hadn't taken my own advice. And so I coded it. A lot of my celebrity clients, you know, we're calling and saying, Hey, Louise, I'm really anxious, you know, you know, can you help me? Can we do some live live Instagram feeds, and Sunday, the picture there that's on the screen when I was on that Steve Harvey Show, that was in 2017. And there are many times and the last episode that I was on, I looked at myself, and I honestly see Harvey, two days later, I was on my software, gastric sleeve. I had done the free work, but I was afraid to do that. I did. And I had taken the courses from here. It's like, so I'm going to do it this time. I'll get into this on anyway, did you move forward? And yeah, my life started to change remarkable ways. I think the next picture shows there, that was me for most of my life, you know, and then the next picture shows me getting to be half my size. And you know, that that span of time, there's only about 15 months and so being able to share that with women. And and one of the things that I like to do is the next slide is I tell people, you've got to pick your pace car. And although when I was you know, 300 pounds looking like gentlemen record, it seemed like such a possibility but lo and behold, like over the years, so do that surely if you take little tiny actionable steps, even change your life and all that, so without any exercise, when I think I did during that weight loss time, this time was blocked. I just learned what I eat differently in life. Now. I feel like I have this special calling. Because when COVID started isn't like people who had lots of followers, like, you know, share live streams and because you have this anxious period or sharing our pain with others, if I didn't want people to contact me at first part of CODA I created a nine episode weekly mini series called Words of wisdom with camera says executive producers providing that Haley's time outside of saying champion and expert and we interviewed I interviewed at five different people. Each week for nine weeks, I interviewed total 54 guests from Dr. He just told her to Basha no Fraser character cards. Candice rice raised lots of people if you want to talk about mental health, and I haven't really focused on African American communities, because I was seeing my son is biracial and how to be an adult, he was software when I talk about time in inner city colleges, and I was seeing how my students were suffering, I wanted to be able to give messages that everyone can take something from. And that led me to that in the second half of COVID, Dr. Ishrat, marriage boot camp counties on the banned panel, and judge Lincare divorcecourt. And another therapist, Elissa his and his inhaler, we created another 90 series on facebook, watch a lifelong lessons that we're hoping to take that to TV pretty soon, but it simulates HIV severity study started episode one, it's actually a model and we'll talk we're talking on zoom in a virtual panel. And he tells us about that on espn.com. And if you watch this ninth episode, it's really like you find it in sessions of therapy. And so it's designed to be talk therapy made for TV. Because if you tune in as people, you know, a family say what they think is gonna get likes, or they say things that if people are gonna, you know, react to the way and I think that at the end of the day, you've got to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations. And you have to be able to reach people where they are, you know, a lot of people won't even feel unscripted interviews, and a lot of people use how he's doing it said, I think when you come from a place that's authentic, you know, and when I, when I now see there was another word for their students I've had over the years. You know, you're so proud of the job, and we're so proud of themselves and their things that they've overcome. It's just a miraculous testimony, you know, probably of all the jobs that I've had, teaching GED classes to underprivileged and underserved communities, you decided to pause and share yourself.
Unknown Speaker 14:02
So bear with us a wonderful thing I know, today, we were getting out of here to do getting our makeup done, right? We're putting on a suit of armor, like you said earlier. We wanted to look good, but then what's going on inside? Right? That's a part of self care that we're not focusing on. So again, this what I do is about normalizing the conversation and understanding that it's okay to get there. You know, sometimes we have anxiety out there never said that three years ago, never. I didn't really understand what it was. But when I understood what anxiety is, and I was feeling it, it was like okay, something's going on and take care. Right. So I just wanted to say that thank you again. So does anyone in the audience have any questions or the panel And if you have a question about sex trafficking, or human trafficking, you can present those questions as well. And Louisa will be able to answer those. How
Unknown Speaker 15:12
do you combat
Unknown Speaker 15:14
impostor syndrome? Every room I walk into everything I sign up for every time I get an email telling me thank you for my work.
Unknown Speaker 15:23
I read it. And I know,
Unknown Speaker 15:24
they don't know that nonsense a year, they'll know that I didn't get that superpower once I'm a donor, that's our field. How do you combat it was substituting?
Unknown Speaker 15:36
That's a great question. Yeah, because I don't even know what it means.
Unknown Speaker 15:42
When, when you feel as if you don't even belong in environment or settings is based off of just you know, in this case, like I said, we're getting a filmmaker, you sometimes feel as if, you know, you're not supposed to be there. It's a weird, like psychological effect that that is just imposed on society based off of where who was allowed, and whatever, you know. And as women, we encounter that all the time. So many people, different people who are oppressed or marginalized, will feel this, that they don't belong. And there's always that that doubt is really doubt that really takes control. And one thing that I have definitely worked out there, absolutely, no doubt, anxiety have battled with both of those low moments, you know, I definitely have to work through that, and finding it within. And it seems so like simple to say. But I really have had to just know my own inner power, you know, and just find that competence, because that's it, you are your only support, you know, that's at the end of the day, it has to be coming from you, because it is not coming from you. They're not going to believe it. You know what I mean? You're gonna be walking, you know, that's, that's how I feel.
Unknown Speaker 16:55
impostor syndrome, how does he doesn't believe is rooted in internal battle between your self esteem and your self confidence, which reminds a lot of things. So some of the ways to combat that in the real world, is that, you know, everything that you do there becomes social proof, social proof, and tangible assets by tangible assets. And he's having a killer resume, by you know, really amplifying the things we've done and not being ashamed to have these out there. Having a decent looking Instagram page helps with impostor syndrome, having a website, the guy number account via Bonanza, she just came here, she says that I had this great idea for a film about homeless man, you know, having a great idea is one thing. But we've taken the steps to actually make it real, every step you take to concretize something that you've got in your head gives birth to a smaller version of who you are. And so in every hassle along the way, I think sometimes we become impregnated with our own ideas. I tell people, if you've got an idea, birth it in nine months, or let it go, because otherwise those things hold you back the rest of your life and you got an idea, you have this little girl that's caring, and he might be needed to get rid of that. Or unit birthing.
Unknown Speaker 17:58
Hey, so we'll take one last question for these ladies, one each. And then I want to bring on our second panel of experts. Okay. So one more or one more for Louisa, is Ma'am,
Unknown Speaker 18:17
I'm not sure exactly how to ask this. Are there any resources for parents who suspect another thing is meeting and eating for trafficking their child? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 18:29
well, the first thing you want to protect yourself as a witness is something like that, because sometimes their official cycles are great for people that you know, ultimately have this intention is curious. So one, you can start to document some of the things that you might be saying. And then you can contact your local authorities to kind of produce an anonymous tip, a lot of it's going to depend on the age of the children how they respond. Because if your children are under age 17, or some characteristic that's over age 14, it's different sets of characteristics. And then it's also what role that person plays in that person's life on identified as a primary caretaker, what are their spheres of influence on the child, and also the Human Trafficking Hotline at work, there are certain steps that show you what agencies are responsible for each one, because depending on the age of that person is going to be criteria and or child abuse. And that is going to involve a quicker response sometimes. But the most important thing is remove your subjectivity to I think this is happening start just documenting down the things that you say, so that when you get that opportunity to present that to the correct authorities, and it's not you being swept up in your motions on the horrific nature of it all but it's you're able to say is your fast figured out and tell me what's happening because when you present past authorities, they have to respond with evidence right or not stating their claim. So acts over feelings all the time.
Unknown Speaker 19:44
And that's why I invited our attorney general for here today did not make it. I wanted him to answer some of these questions because he is on our website. Right where we will go human trafficking crisis As I get help, his name comes up. Okay, so it wasn't able to make it. I know you want it to be here. But this is something that I'm unable to answer for you. And this is something that should Donna, I'm sure she did tell us when she looks it up. And she lives in Houston, as she works on the federal level, so I'm sure she has some information. But when I talked with her about it, it was like, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:24
what are we doing in Las Vegas? Find out what is happening here in Vegas, because although we're not at the top, we're up there. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 20:35
So if there's one last question for Okochi, I'll take it down. Well,
Unknown Speaker 20:42
I just want to thank both of you for being here. I learned so much for both of you. I think what I got what I heard, overall, is that there was a moment that each of you are able to have the spark and move to difficult to this decision. And you create this wonderful film, and you make tremendous changes in your life. And I was inspired by that. Maybe one question I would have is I really enjoyed the layers in your film and your storytelling. I'd like to find out how long did it take you to develop that script? Was there? Did you get a lot of difficulty in trying to create those different layers? Or did it just have an imposed? I mean, I just really enjoyed the level of storytelling that you had to share. Yeah, it was it it really, you know, really touches my heart I feel
Unknown Speaker 21:48
I just have to say real quick. She just the microphone, because this is my sister.
Unknown Speaker 21:57
Yeah, I think that um, so like I said, my environment always affects my screenwriting. There was a few story by credits as well. So I've worked with other people as well, in the beginning stages that that that I wrote, I'm the sole writer of it. So when I sit down and write, I honestly don't know what happens. I think I'm a vessel that straight up like that line of potato like the world is my I don't know where it comes from. It's kind of odd like that. It's just coming. It's just coming. You know, universe God, what you want to call it like our vessel, because sometimes I'm reading from my own
Unknown Speaker 22:32
mind, okay, so you don't want to like overthink it. So like every writing just yet, right? Whatever is coming into mind, and then going back and looking
Unknown Speaker 22:40
at Eddie Yeah, yeah, basically. And then the dialog, it just comes, I remember a lot of conversations, I've met a lot of people, and have a photographic memory as well. So sometimes I'm really just like, it's just, it's coming in that way. Because I remember, I remember what people say I remember how people are loved building characters, because I've met so many people in my life I love to travel to. So I think really just naturally all comes. And I always love to show multiple perspectives of the same see, you know, the same thing like that movie Crash or Babel, but those, those are heavy influences, just because I love showing all these perspectives. So you can see all these different points. So you can empathize with why someone will do this or why someone is like that does because it's like, you don't get to do that, because you're living your life. So when you're watching it, I want you to live someone else's life just to see through their eyes and to walk their path. Because that's how you can empathize. So I always try to do that I'm always just like, let me go back character, that character and have them be similar in that way. So you can make that connection of both these two opposite characters still being the same is huge for me, because then you can see that it's just a human in us, you know, I'm you and you and me. So that's, that's really what I try to do when I'm writing. But everything else is just coming through. And like I said, there's a couple of a story by credits, but sitting down and writing it as the sole writer, that was huge for me, and just getting just producing the script as well was just, it just had to be you know, it was one of those might look and just look at this, like this needs to be done. So, yeah, so it's kind of a natural process. But in the beginning stages, a lot of different influences. And then just writing down and just sitting in writing took me about a month. It was weird because I I turned to my art when I'm going through something so I was going through some traumatic like anxiety from my a corporate job. So I was like, I remember writing I was I have not stopped for 11 hours. And it was kind of scary because I was just like you guys have done that. Like what was it but it was my therapy. And when you know, it's how I was mad at someone like you don't even know what I'm going through. I don't know what to mine on stage. So it was it was kind of channeling that too.
Unknown Speaker 24:48
Yeah, that's for two.
Unknown Speaker 24:50
Yeah. And I just have to plug what she just said that's like, I get her like all the applause for that because what she did was producing the script of someone else's life and she talks about how everything she wrote down she was have definitely got another layer of editing. You all have that potential with your own life. And the world is your state and you're the actor and when you start journaling, and write out the things that you've seen or witnessed in your own life, you don't like it, read it again and write a new script for yourself. So the next time you're presented with the same situation, you can change one partition for life
Unknown Speaker 25:19
and well you can let everyone know what your social media handles are again, so that they can find you.
Unknown Speaker 25:31
Yep, get at me. Je C H at me and then we'll get to sit at home everything else is familiar. I have a production that we call the M five production so everything should be found on the kitchen listed on
Unknown Speaker 25:45
Lisa, just yet at least
Unknown Speaker 25:47
either on Instagram or Lisa I would at home probably things like coming soon started someone
Unknown Speaker 25:53
as a parent make the Wednesday passes power Well, one of the world's problems.
Unknown Speaker 26:00
And you guys know he's on his way.
Unknown Speaker 26:04
Ladies in here
Unknown Speaker 26:27
you know, this conference was amazing. There was so much support for this conference. We had donations from all over the United States. And I just want to thank you for your contribution and helping to make this conference the best. We also had one traveler who came all the way from Maine, just to attend. Wow, if that's not empowerment, I don't know what is. Thank you ladies. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you everyone who was a part of making women empowerment 22. Such a success.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
