HEART CARD LOVE PROJECT: CONNECTING COMMUNITIES THROUGH LOVE

Please join us as we come together to create hand-made greeting cards from the heart. Once a year in February we participate in a love and kindness builder that began in 2014. We make 100+ Heart cards to be delivered on Valentine’s Day to a senior center in our local community to remind people that they are never alone and they are always Loved. We literally pour our Hearts and Love into greeting cards which are then delivered to someone who feels alone… someone who needs a lift… a pick me up… a shot of Love.

Art from the heart creates connection and when done in community heals.

Each year we elevate our card making and process of connecting to the collective Heart. We think about loved ones and populations in need that we want to share love and kindness with and we infuse our loving intentions into the cards we create. When they receive the card it comes directly from the heart and it reminds that we are all connected. Each year has had a different theme, but is grounded in the idea of connection and community.

THE HEART IS FOR LOVE ACTIVISM

Every January - February we gather, create and work toward our Valentines Day deliveries. It's our 6th Valentine's year of creating and giving heart card love to promote foundational community health and wellness. The Heart Card Love Service project is part of Mel's Love Land's commitment to demonstrating love in action. It is one of many loving healing initiatives we encourage, participate in and offer throughout the year.

ONLINE TUESDAYS TILL VALENTINE'S DAY

We host a card making zoom sessions Tuesdays at 5:30pm starting in December through February 8th when we begin deliveries. These session connect artist studios, living rooms, kitchen tables, craft rooms and offices to create heart cards.

Spreading love is one way we feel connected to our community. It brings us nourishment and in giving love we feel loved. It is selfish as it is selfless.

It's a wonderful experience to reflect on what your loving gifts might bring forward into the world. This love in action event allows for a blank canvass for love to make connections, it is an opportunity to build art-full community care, and have fun creating handmade cards that will be shared on Valentine’s Day.

Every year a group of love activists come together to create heart art to give to seniors in our community to remind "you are loved."

Spreading Love. Mel's Love Land Heart Card Love Project. Artists come together to create cards and give love.

WE CREATE, DELIVER AND LISTEN IN

It began with a Mitvah. After the death of my father, we found a place for my Mom at a wonderful Senior living spot in Pasadena, California, the Regency Park Oak Knoll, a caring, loving place where we felt she was safe. That first year was rough and when Valentine's came up an idea of creating 100+ heart cards and sharing with the residents at her new home and meet up with our newest family members. We brought flowers from our local gardens and showed up with handmade cards and lots of love. We found the cards triggered memories of childhood and paths that lead them through their lives, to loved ones past and doors that opened, to the wonderful lives they had led and the ways we shared that love were profound. It was healing to all our hearts. It was her first Valentines without my Dad, her husband of 52 years and together with a lot of help from friends and their loving hearts, extra kindness, we all felt enriched and nourished. What we realized very quickly, my Mom wasn't the only one missing a partner, feeling a bit alone and our efforts were deeply received. Thankful for 52 Weeks of Giveback for their loving contributions.

Hannah Bella Lee delivers Heart Art Cards and spreads love to Seniors; Pictured here with my mom, Louise Lutz and her new Friends at the Regency Park Oak Knoll Pasadena.

We love our neighbors because we are our neighbors. Photos from our 2022 Mel's Love Land Action.

YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE HEART (NO MATTER WHAT)

Coming together to create art is part of the magic and miracles of collective healing, community care and mutual aid. We utilize our crafting heart cards to laugh, to share, to co-create in community and the outcome of delivering love to folks is always full of meaningful surprises. The personal connections made, the stories of loves past and ancestors remembered. The joy of sharing in a deep listening. We grow into knowing love is in need of love. We create a 100+ heart cards and deliver into our communities to spread love because it is the least we can do, and it is what we were called to do. You may be called to something else. The idea is to take the loving action you are here to do. We've found love brings more love and have heard from folks they've done similar offerings and awakened a sense of sharing the gifts they've been given. We love to think of it as an activation and a gentle deeply peaceful process of creating connection through the collective heart.

Heart Art Card Loving is Giving. Giving is Receiving

WE ARE MADE OF LOVE

Every year we are inspired by the talent, the commitment and the work folks put into creating the cards. Want to highlight a few artist friends who have made this all possible by giving of their time and coming together to make and deliver cards. An idea shared grows stronger. We believe in a critical mass of thought, we believe in the inner power of that 100th monkey, in making a commitment to showing up and to doing the necessary work to co-create foundational health and wellness. We believe in miracles. We believe sending love brings forward more love. The making, giving and delivering of the cards had an exponentially loving effect.

With infinite love and gratitude. May love and connection continue to grow.

LET THERE BE LOVE

Each year is different. We remain open to where the love is needed and have expanded to different community locations. A sober living space in our neighborhood, another senior home in Hollywood, a domestic violence support center, a tiny home village to support transitions, but what remains is our commitment to fierce, radical, authentic loving .

All Mel's Love Land efforts offer space for decolonizing, unlearning and opening the heart. Folks need space to unwind what has been wound up, to come to a different point of view and to allow for ways to let love to lead the way.

We love being able to support the post office through our purchases of stamps and every step we make to the post box is filled with joy, smiling at a neighbor, bending down to pet a dog or two and hugging the sun. So much love in action.

WHO ARE THE MEL ANGELS?

The world is full of loving folks who want to give off their time and talents to spread love. We invite folks to participate in a process.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ARTISTS THAT DONATE THEIR TALENTS

What can you say about the individuals who continue to share the gifts and their hearts over and over but I LOVE YOU. I love your heart. I love your passion and I love your work. Some of the first cars this year included the loving sentiment "It's Never too late to say 'I Love You.' This emerged from a beautuful soulful artist spending time in Mexico, Mary Elizabeth Holmes and brought their traditions and artistry to the table. We read from the traditions of El Dia del Amor y la Amistad the day of friendship and love as we worked through our art crafting sessions.

With so much loss, death, suffering and the constant throng of struggle there is beauty, there is grace and there is love. Never forget you are loved. Always consider the opportunity to say I love you and give yourself the gift of love in open hearted joy.

BEE LOVING LINDA

This work from Linda Gabriel comes with joyful bursts of graphic power and love from the heart. Stamps of the garden, the life force of the bees and the eyes of the heart.

Throughout the sessions we share intentions for our loving cards, talk about what we wish for those who receive the cards and the ways we can expand possibilities for our worlds with our loving. Some of the cards are created for folks who send us a request for a card, for a loved one, for someone they care about and know need support and others have no intended recipient, just a free flow from the heart, others inspired by the moment, the cut of a heart, a person pops in with a heart as a prompt to share, yet others a complete expression of the moment of presence with the supplies prompted by love.

G'S MONSTER LOVE

All the monster love cards come from big Hearted Artist: Gena Kay whose redressingtheglobe offers travel inspiration and sparkling charm from around the globe.

KINDNESS AND EMPATHY RAINBOW RAVEN AND HER DAUGHTER LULU

When the going gets rough the OG founders of our kindness and art heart cards deliver, documentarian Tamra Raven and her daughter, Louise 'LuLu' Steinberg know how to giveback, collectively operating 52 Weeks of Giveback, where kindness contributes to a world reborn. These beautiful artists represent a strong lineage of women committed to uplifting our worlds.

DELIVERING LOVE

There are two parts to delivering of the art heart cards, mailing and hand delivery, each has its own magic. We love the USPS. It is a rich part of our great United States, from the zip code system to the interconnected relationships between communities through our beloved mail carriers and the worlds they connect. One of the fun parts is getting the loving cards in the magical post box on the corner. You can request a card for yourself or a loved one on our site, click here.

Should you be inspired to send cards of gratitude and love and heart in your communities throughout the year you will need crafting and art supplies, card stock, different materials and 'stuff' to create hearts. Set aside time and allow for your gratitude to lead the way with any idea that moves your artistic soul. Once you have completed a few cards you'll experience the grace of sending, giving and receiving love, bringing alive the idea of being a bit more loving today than you were yesterday.

In honor of all of our loved ones and my Mom and Dad, never forget you are never alone, you are safe and you are always loved. Always consider the opportunity to say 'I love you' with a card made by you with love in open hearted joy.

This February Loving Service project is part of Mel's Love Land's commitment to love in action. It is one of many art healing initiatives we encourage and participate in. It is one of the featured elements of Mel's Love Land, an original Documentary Series that asks the question WHAT IF All Our Thoughts Were Loving?

We hope you experience more love, more joy and all the ways we are interconnected in the space of the heart.

---

Melanie Lutz – Mel's Love Land

All Systems Love

Writer/Producer/Love Activist

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All Our Thoughts

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Geena Davis is a GD BAD ASS! A Love Letter to The Things We Have to Go Through To Get Where We Are

It’s hard to say how tall she is but when she enters a room she radiates presence like a grand tower, determined and kind, ever ready with a smile. At a commanding 6'0” it’s looking up time to receive a smile imbued by a confidence at having seen it all and an elegance born of the limelight of timeless beauty and grace. On the occassion of her receiving the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award I offer you statement and an offering, a love letter to a future that is unwritten and free of the past.

A 'GD' badass doesn’t join you in your feelings a god damn bad ass says 'I don’t know let’s look at the numbers,’ evaluates and holds space for other things than feelings assumptions and defensiveness, things based on reporting, informed with the wider viewpoint free of bias.

Photo: Good Deed Entertainment | This Changes Everything

It all happened in an evening of time and no time at all when the wonderful LA PRESS CLUB presented an end of summer screening of This Changes Everything with a conversation to support the release of the documentary or as I like to call it, an evening of irony and empowerment, elegance and grit, disbelief, determination and persistence, longevity and loyalty to purpose. Geena Davis was joined by directors Catherine Hardwicke, Kimberly Peirce and the film’s director Tom Donahue gathered post screening with an added pain pulse when it was noted several members of the USA Gymnastics Team drove in from Orange County and were seated just behind me, adding another layer to the night as these women not only stood together in survivorship representing a sport that starts when girls are so young as to only know how to follow the rules and in doing so 368 young athletes were sexually assaulted "by gym owners, coaches, and staff working for gymnastics programs across the country." Whatever intent of the film, whatever representation, it is all UP for consideration how we allow system abuse to continue either through apathy or disbelief or following rules designed to protect abuses we now know transformative justice as balanced inter-action is life or death for our society. (AND. Excuse me while I burst into something my friend with Turrets likes to express " STOP IT YOU FUCKITY FUCKING A-HOLE. FUCKING STOP IT. FOR FUCKING OUR KIDS SAKE, REALLY. STOP IT.")

The curated gathering seemed perched to showcase the persistent work required beyond speaking up, beyond organizating and laid out what has been done to daye, the effects of action and inactions and revealed how little has changed, and yet how much ground work has been laid out to facilitate a next level full on renaissance of femme structural transformation, as to at once allow for the disgust and the dance of possibility to be unleashed and with each action taking place across the planet more hope seeds are planted for those who will follow into the intersectionality of the media business. This was a night of two top female directors discussing the challenges they faced in their careers, an actress who decided to do something about what she saw, and a man grappling to get his arms around all of it and share a work he put time, energy and influence into bringing to life. Women are showing up, we are listening, we are addressing issues and making plans and deciding where we can take action within the system and equally taking stock on how we can disrupt, and begin again with new vistas and as more and more of us join together to say 'Not today, not tomorrow and not ever again, MFers.' We bend the arc toward justice and new economies and new pathways for storytelling.

Geena Davis endeared herself to me many years ago in her sparkling turn in Tootsie directed by Sydney Pollack. It was one of the first movies I remember looking forward to seeing, written by Larry Gelbart whose tv show M.A.S.H was part babysitter, part inspiration growing up. Her quirky and endearing turn in The Accidental Tourist brought her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and cemented her ability to deliver leading to a much beloved box office action star bending success in the action film Long Kiss Goodnight.

As with every actor and director and producer there are in between phases, times when you are living life outside of 'the work' environment. It is in these in between phases Geena Davis allowed for possibility to flourish, using her experiences and her insight and access as she made a way for a shift, creating a dialogue of impact and a way ahead based on stats, laying in a framework of tools for others to follow.

And this, my dear friends, is why I say without hesitation or further delay, with the utmost respect for a career of action and activivsm, of love and light, of talent and persistence and for all of it. Geena Davis is a GD Bad Ass.

Hear me good sisters and brothers and folks that care about inclusion and the whole GD picture, that demands equal pay, and wants their picture on the wall in the clubhouse and who want to not only break the glass ceiling, but to rebuild it with regenerative solar panels with power enough to run all that jazz and many bags of chips, awake and awarene of the fullness of freedom from the fragile bullshit known as our MF feelings.

Hear me good Sisters. Our feelings ain’t shit. They are merely feelings, and you know what? A GD badass doesn’t join you in your feelings. A GD bad ass says 'I don’t know, let’s look at the numbers.’ A GD Badass practices an open heart, free of the past, reviewing what is, a true picture of the state of affairs, using the numbers, to evaluate and hold space for other things, markers, ideals, other than our feelings, assumptions and defensiveness, to be in our knowing of the question, has it changed everything or not. A GD Badass leaves things better than when they found it.

For parity, the numbers do not lie, they reveal.

In a recent article on her organization -- "With the Geena Davis institute’s cutting-edge data collection technology that measures how female screen and speaking time is disproportionate to men in film and television, Davis has been quietly revolutionizing the way the entertainment industry approaches gender parity."

Each gender misstep is revealed in the numbers but the numbers are not enough, they are the launching off point to challenge our thoughts, to push for new efforts to reach out beyond what is.

None of the obstacles presented, or the numbers calculated diminish the work of those who have broken through, that we miss in the break through paradigm is the daily care and work and practice of developing a mindset that allows the breakthrough to be a bridge that is the transformative creative evolution where it becomes easier for stories to be told by those who are other than the systems itself as lenses expand into other points of view.

Each and every time one person breaks through it is a keystone for others to follow, what has happened in the idea of 'this changes everything' one keystone, polished and offered as an example has not included the necessary linking arms to build bridges for others to cross over and this is the inherent system collapse discussed in 'This Changes Everything." and the work behind the movement Geena Davis is being awarded for. What about a female lenser in charge of hiring decisions free from an approved list with a willingness to hold a vision and not stop sharing it supported by real equality reflective of the whole. It is said in circles that while women represent half of the world's population, they have given birth to the whole population. It is beyond time to recognize the stories and gestalt of women are not just to be celebrated but to be honored and expanded upon. We're on the same page, and the care and work ahead requires our determination and our voices.

Mr. Donahue is a legend in this particular genre of thought shifting, historical documentary to me from the second he chose to honor Marion Doughtery, one of the most ground breaking human rights advocates and clay shaper that is the contemporary movie business giving life to the modern day casting of words on a page through an actor’s embodiment finding the throughline of talent that represents the soul of the stories in his documentary Casting By, I considered it a first crack in the bricks of respect and contribution of bringing talent to the director to shape the materials through insightful embodiment known as the casting process. Marion Dougherty was just ahead of my time but I did have the pleasure of working with one of her casting proteges Barbara Miller whose advice to me 'we are casting the world with our choices and our actions, it is as important to trust your heart in connecting essential choices as it is about freeing yourself of what you know to be true so the soul can shine through.' Mr. Donahue's talents on that project, laid the groundwork for what is presented in This Changes Everything. I've had the pleasure of seeing Geena Davis show up and speak at different events and you always learn something new because she is ever evolving, it is a part of her makeup and the uses of her particular enchantment, that appears to be an active heart seeking to challenge her beliefs and her world as a way of life.

Lord, give me the strength, and give me courage and let me stay the course of the purpose of my inspiration in writing in this piece. It is to lift up and honor Geena Davis and her ideas born of years of random studio questions, pitching this and the other, finding her roles and from her personal experiences and contemplation of her place in the world and how she could best serve. It seems like it was a lightbulb moment born of repitition when she would be probed and prodded by one exec or another, questioned about this or that for her weigh in as someone who has succeeded.... ’I don't know. Let's look at the numbers.' This thought combined with some joy of numbers in boxes to sooth that become what we know as statistics has proven a powerful tool and an everyday practical approach to a new day where we are allowed the grace of, shifting a feeling about something into usable numbers to cut through feelings, pressures, assumptions and judgments, all the while allowing for possibility to flow because you are not guessing, you know.

The shining beacon of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media work is the pureness of intention, the clean grace of just the facts that when one person or another says, ‘isn’t it great that so and so broke through and changed everything.’ We all get to say --- “I don’t know, let’s take a look at the stats.’

"My cause has not been educating the public but because I have access to everybody in Hollywood I wanted the data to go directly to the creators privately, to offer a way for a shift, because the way it’s operated for so many decades is so ingrained it requires that extra step." She said.

This Changes Everything is a mantra to everyone who has ever left home with nothing but a dream hoping to find the Promised Land of a storied career.

My old boss, John Landgraf, is featured in the doc discussing the article and the switch it flipped as it revealed to his and others surprise as being 'one of the worst places for hiring women directors'. Some would call this a tipping point, he took decisive action sending out a note to his creative show-runners, business partners. I worked at FX Networks when "the article" with the numbers on gender parity came out regarding women hires v. male hires in the entertainment business reverberated throughout every department up to the top.

Having worked under the stewardship of John Landgraf during the time of the 'meeting' and as 'the article' discussed in the doc was brought to the bosses attention, and the halls of FX, through many voices that resonated with its truth. 'I don't know. Let's look at the numbers.' Well, the numbers were not good. His inclusion in This Changes Everything is a credit to the deep respect for the leadership he showed, in recognizing, after being shown the numbers, he needed to take action. Being a man who respects others work process he chose to send a letter to the show runners throughout his FX kingdom offering them insight and his encouragement to bring parity to the hiring of directors on programs at the networks. One of the bright spots for me was when Ryan Murphy quickly siezed the day and the direction and used the opening to not only empower female directors in the form of hires and mentorship but to include trans, nonbinary folks, different voices and up-level his game, bringing us another breakthrough reckoning whose time was more than ready with POSE and its many 'firsts.'

It's amazing what you don't see until you see it. John Landgraf is a quant believer, a man who uses statistics and reports as part of his problem solving and creative decision making repertoire to guide a deeply creative and powerful operation that supports the ideals of fearlessness. He stands side by side with two powerful, important, highly unique women, Stephanie Gibbons President, Creative, Strategy and Digital, Multi-Platform Marketing and one of an industry described most powerful legendary artistic creative leaders in the entertainment renowned for her curating of talents and expression of what is essential to delivering messaging for the brand, show, artist, executive and Julie Piepenkotter Executive Vice President, Research and wisdom through numbers guru of intelligence, thoughtfulness and the thorough knowing of a great general who has seen it all, who when she speaks, telling you, you are in the weeds, you rethink your entire thought flow.

Landgraf by all accounts is an ally to woman, and all, other than the numbers, indicators showcased a strong respect for and inclusion of women. It was a blow when he saw in black and white in the trade paper that he had failed on hiring women to direct and lead creative production, which reflected through all roles and departments. I had a unique seat to bare witness to a thoughtful industry leader, who was not only kind, considerate and always celebrating successes, a respectful boss, a caring person and husband, deep reader, lover of the 'quants' with a deep respect for colleagues, fierce defender and support of talent, expressing their voices, and a fierce and fearless competitor, who would wear his successes and failures on his sleeve as he discussed a decision that went badly in a chance elevator meeting and with deep reverence co-shared leadership of the brand with one of the most powerful creative women in Hollywood heading the marketing team.

The power of an article of quantitative information to open eyes and hearts and connects in a way that could not be dismissed away

What a few numbers here or there can do to cut through the noise.

From the documentary "92 percent of the top-grossing films of 2018 were directed by men." Geena Davis went on to say "it’s an embarrassment. We should be deeply ashamed that women are half the population and half the students in film school and yet only 4 percent of movies are directed by women. It’s appalling." It's not a surprse sexism runs super deep as to not even be recognized and has stubbornly remained unchanged for decades.

As the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media states 'what happens off screen is as important as what happens on screen.' Every decision, every shift in pov, every action towards inclusion off screen reflects back to the projection, the world's stories are being told, different lens, different vistas, different experiences, different perceptions and it is the way of evolution.

Geena Davis is a GD MO F**ing BAD ASS who has given so completely of her experience, offering influence and support for the work when nothing changes when you thought everything would. All she's poured into her work, the thoughtfulness, the talks, the screenings, the gaze, the power, the green-lighting of female empowerment by asking the question and the listening required to build a bridge has been done for decades by an actress facing the test of time and power and reconciling the action she was called to make and doing it. Putting the forces at her disposal to play so others could experience breakthroughs and insights and in this act of doing what she was called to do another sledgehammer hit the walls of the power structures of the Hollywood system and dents, formed cracks, folks found each other and instead of tearing each other down began saying. 'I don't know. Let's look at the numbers.' Whenever a wisp of practicality is necessary, there will be the indominatble spirit of Ms. Davis with a smile, grace and all the power of her wizzisdom is on call in the ethers. It is here that Ms. Davis lives on, in the zeitgeist delivering on a promise to shift the POV as necessary work of the 21st Century.

How does one begin to understand the long process of femme representation in film and share it in the thought flow on the make and meaning of Geena Davis and her breakthrough work built off of her own experiences and the intuition from which if flows. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media opened its inquiry in 2004 and its impact stands as a testament to its namesake.

The discussion brought to mind my female influences that continue without fail to inspire me to keep on going. They were my heroine's because they were who I saw growing up and while I can't list all the breakthrough femmes who graced the highest stratospheres of stories I loved a few who leap to mind- Lucille Ball, Barbara Streisand, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Katherine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Pearl Bailey, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross. Icons all. Women who pioneered, who appealed to the masses drawing massive audiences and benefiting in financial freedom and power. Who seemed to Do it with kindness, do it with grace and to always show up and keep on going.

As an executive producer of This Changes Everything one might think that Geena Davis had a hand in attracting the woman who came on board to give their insights and share their wisdom and a weigh in on selecting the director, some things around executive producing are never as clear cut as things come together as they need to to give life to a particular project.

Champions for gender equality come in all shapes and sizes, all gender identities and all sectors. Mr. Donahue discussed his process with the film and how he was always repping his blindspots and his short falls as the man in the room. 'Now you understand what it is to be a woman.' brought a few laughs from the crowd but the presistent thought throughout was 'Couldn't this topic have found a female director?

But, let's not dwell, if you have the opportunity to cast, hire, etc. a woman on a woman's issue. Hire a f-ing woman.

Taking a stab at the distillation of what the champions for gender equality want you to know for your consideration:

1) Defy stereotypes allows for intersectional representation.

2) Talk the talk is part of it, but to teach is to demonstrate. Your actions bring results.

3) Disruption of existing cults in our cultural systems that represent as toxic abuses of power, including pervasive versions of masculinity, systemic, HR, Creative Technology, Business List Practices are necessary as a commitment to transfrom. 4) Don't stand for intolerance on any level in any way. The ability to transform what was is to release it all into the present moment and allow for a new possibility to unfold.

With that --Donahue is a legend in my mind when he chose to honor Marion Dougherty one of the most ground breaking actor advocates and shaper of all that is the clay of the movie business by giving life to words on a page through her talent of recognizing an actor’s essential embodiment that represents the soul. I considered it a first crack in the bricks of respect and contribution of a large female ability to bring talent to the director, to shape the materials through insightful embodiment as the casting process. While Marion was just ahead of my time but I did have the pleasure of working with one of her proteges Barbara Miller. Her insight on building and developing instincts of insight with 'we are casting the world with our choices and our actions. It is as important to trust your heart in connecting the concept of choice, it is about freeing yourself into what you know to be true.'

Sitting in the audience taking a mental portrait of each of the panelists, reflecting for a moment, what if I had the numbers when I started my career? How would it have impacted on my media career and would it have shifted the ways I was unknowingly complicit in the problem and would knowing cause me to actively work every day, as I do now, to create opportunities for thosewho would follow my footsteps. I grew up believing in the trope of the undiscovered super hero powers of the under-appreciated, the Cinderella story, from my home state of Pennsylvannia ROCKY living up to his potential. The potential that lay within us expressed outwardly changing the world. The idea that with care and work and a chance, everything was possible.

What one person has accomplished is a fraction of what is possible for each of us. The fallacy and the falsehood is that when this happens for one of us, it changes everything for all of us. But, nope. It is the process, the practice and the principle of application, of allowing bridges to be built based on the care and work transforming the power levers that choose to oppress through omission or direct exclusion. The potential that lay within us expressed outwardly changing the world.

Photo: Seejane.org Nina Tassler and Geena Davis

One of the often repeated examples when a fictional forensic scientist character, portrayed by Marg Helgenberger, was introduced to the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Ms. Davis made during the discussion, reflects across the media landscape, when media showcases and makes visible invisible visuals, things do change. If she can see it, she can be it(tm) sometimes referred to as the 'CSI effect' spiking the numbers of women entering the fields of forsensic science. While these breakthoughts may seem disconnected, when the idea that one of the more influential people developing dramas at CBS during this time was Geena Davis' college roommate at Boston University, Nina Tassler, you begin to see the extensive, obsequious, weaving and fabric of the power and purpose of synchronistic media evolutions. Those who work towards a better, more inclusive, more balanced landscape.

Mr. Donahue is a legend in my mind from the second he chose to honor one of the most ground breaking human rights advocates and shaper of all that is the clay of the movie business giving life to words on a page through an actor’s embodiment that represents the soul of the stories connection in his documentary Casting By, I considered it a first crack in the bricks of respect and contribution of a large female ability to bring talent to the director, to shape the materials through insightful embodiment as the casting process. Marion was just ahead of my time but I did have the pleasure of working with Barbara Miller on building and developing 'we are casting the world with our choices and our actions. 'It is as important to trust your heart in connecting essential choices it is about freeing yourself of what you know to be true. His light on this area laid the groundwork for what is presented in This Changes Everything.

The Casting Society of America (CSA) and its long tradition of supporting a male dominated industry folks are without comment but perhaps an insight or two. When it was time for the DGA to support the CSA, the President declined to be an ally for the CSA. This dereliction had a deeper impact than anyone could monitor, but rest assured each back turned on allowing inclusion creates a unquenched hunger that finds ways to be heard.

It is a lot to run and operate a network, it requires all kinds of movements of the heart and there are things called trafficking to get media into the system to air. Yes. Weaving more folks into the eye opening systemic issues. 

We are who we are. Projecting machines, embodying the world and reflecting it outward across all our industries. Media is an export of ideas and ideals, of value and our values; we are together in the holding, advancement and acceleration

'All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks," from Ruth Bader Ginsberg's first oral arguments before the Supreme Court for Frontiero v Richardson is on full display here. It is all on clear resonant display in this work. But whose foot or boot or casual super expensive sneaker rides the next of an entire sex as in the case of the media business and its financial excesses and king and queen making turns, the work of shifting to actual systemic change requires the necessary every day commitment to removing it.

It reminds me of an afternoon at the Tribeca film Festival hearing Barbara Streisand discuss her first directorial effort, YENTL which as a young girl wanting to make a way in the world of men, a young girl whose father thought it was important for her to be educated on principle that society forbade, it was a way for a shift, a man for a day to learn, to be allowed into the temple of understanding and yes, having to crush the boobs, to change her appearance that men would be distracted by or want to motor board for their own pleasure, to dress differentially, to stay in their lane, to avoid turning anyone on lest they not e able to control their lust, it was a very personal directorial turn, masterfully expressing the ways a tree grows in Brooklyn, aka a flower from the cement cracks, we are here to be a light, to shine and that is the message she delivered so beautifully.

When her film opened, upon reading the reviews Barbra Streisand spoke of the 'vicious attacks from women', reflecting on Barbs choices in her directing effort, forget that she was one of the first powerful musical, actress super talented woman to direct a major feature film based on material she developed and crafted for her multi-hyphenate turn, and all that meant, forget how gorgeous the effort is forget all of it, women turned on her and she receded into the directing efforts and a towering world came to a close. Barbara Streisand’s directorial greatness missed a beat in a world that would have benefited from her grace and skill and power behind the camera the world would have so many women working today had it been written that celebrating women with possibilities would be the outcome of greatness.

It reflected in the words of Kimberly Peirce after having to wait 14 years for another studio gig as a follow up to her out of graduate school feature debut BOYS DON'T CRY which showcased female sexuality and the expression of pleasure on screen, the receiving and giving, a testament to the worlds not explored by the male gaze from behind the lens. It was hard not to contemplate what could have been created in those years if given the full brush of a studio support, would we have arrived at this point of time where the blockbuster, theme park ride feature dominates, would there be a more diverse offering, exploring vistas left behind as each year passed. The world we occupied didn't give the talented artist another film, or a chance to direct after delivering an Oscar for her lead actress and a genre bending expression of the fear and power of being different, an other than and expressing her full skills as a director. While gratitude flows through all of the folks on stage it is with an eye toward what could have been, the films that could have been made in a different system that we are lessened by.

Looking at Kimberly Peirce in the light of the history we have seen play out, a determined portrait emerged. She got to work in television, which has become the filmmakers home, the place for moving stories told in large scales, played with and supported by technology, her talents and those of her sister made a place for the golden age of television, the renaissance perhaps born from this segregation, but that is the past and any student of history, looks at the ways we rise as we recognize the path. A determined beginning to hope that never dies, she studied the greats in her post doctorate program, delivered a breakthrough out of the gate and had to hone her skills in another form, in light of the me-too moment, and with the defiled Gymnasts who systematically had to put up with decades of sexual assault by a team doctor sitting behind me, it was a moment of light, Kimberly Peirce struck the pose, with the swagger, carving her place in the greats of film making like John Ford, George Stephens, Billy Wilder etc. etc. and there is not a part of her then and now that doesn’t consider herself worthy, opportunities she made herself or she had been given, her gifts and her towering impact, a space stretcher boundary pusher and storyteller that delivers the emotional goods balancing all that is required in an intersectional world to deliver results and hold space for the reckoning of greatness that is a world born from each woman's words.

There is a lensing of the world, filters and expressions that is a point of view inflected by experiences. The work ahead of us, is in the container of our realities.

'Just happy to be here' still working is echoed throughout the entertainment business echoed from the two women directors on stage, who one would hope will see more opportunities to stretch into the directorial gifts they are here to share. It is a blessing to be able to create stories and the work of opening the sprit of creation to build worlds for the story presented to express and embody the truth is a pure gift and a craft and an art form in total collaboration with the universe that is rarefied heaven on earth when all systems are flowing and everyone is in synch sharing their gifts, playing their part.

Greta Gerwig not at the event but someone there in presence of mind came in talking about in college 'getting curious about the stories that are taking place when men aren’t there,' it is a reminder we are in a new era with understooding why teenage girls with t-shirts reading 'Greta is NOW' felt a sense of purpose in this world of ALL POV's/perspectives.

We choose what stories we tell. We choose our subjects and the POV we want to share. We choose who is with us in our greatest battles and we choose the stories we want to bring to light in all that exists in the world.

Let’s allow our choices to mean something loving.

Let’s be in good cheer as we celebrate each other and our diverse stories.

As Jerry Lewis used to teach his students in UCLA's The Total Filmmaker 'celebrate everyone for in their successes and their failures, each opportunity is a gift.' When one of us rises let it mean we all rise, give work to good fellows, give light to the dreams and the encouragement of the fool for it is in her we are brought to the ground of our being, it is in her we become all of what connects us and reminds us and embodies us and lives to begin again to tell another story. And another and another.

A better world for women and girls is a better world for all, and leaders from across the world are recognizing that. From highlighting the need for more women in leadership, to promoting women’s economic empowerment, equal pay, equal rights, it lies in every heart to claim that deep state of sisterhood and embrace each other in the love that is our birthright. Now is the time for many Heads of State and Government called for urgent action for gender equality.

Now is the time to surrender with fierce knowledge that we are the better for inclusion, in all of us are one of us and as we re-order our imagery and our possibilities for story telling where all pov’s are valuable, because the are, because the statistics bring us and bare out the truth. Every voice counts and we will thrive as we encourage and expand and grow our stories to include all of it.

We all have struggles to be seen, to be heard, to express our soul's purpose in the world and each woman who speaks her truth, who expresses her power honors those who have come before and those who will come after. It is with gratitude to the LA Press Club's organizers and leadership to continue to present work, conversations that inspire, enlighten and continue the long tradition of a vibrant community energizing our Los Angeles based writers, directors, performers and the journalists who have served the City of Angles from its inception over 100 years ago.

Given our numbers, American women could and can be a moral force for good, care takers of the earth and rebirthing a new world order where we understand collective connection and a wholeness gestalt embodying it all, supporting each other, lifting each other up and discovering the pathway for beautiful, epic, stories to be told from the strength of our beings. We have tremendous power that we’re not yet using. #1 one should be the health and safety of children here and elsewhere. We should be fierce on their behalf, from safety to health to education to freedom. No matter what keep coming back to this, one act may breakthrough the malaise of systemic apathy, the antidote to this changes everything awareness and everyday.

With each statistic released from the Geena Davis Instiute for Gender in Media as each year passes in this 21st century may we become wiser, more open, more understanding and more willing to practice good policy on workplace, creative imagining of a world inclusive and free and powerful enough to amplify powerful, grounded, empowered images that celebrate all that is wonderful about each of us and our lives and the worlds we inhabit.

On Oct 27th Geena Davis, 63, an Oscar winner for her supporting role in the 1988 romantic drama "The Accidental Tourist” and nominated for 1991's “Thelma and Louise” who has over 52 acting credits in a career approaching four decades, will receive the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Suffice it to say, It is well deserved.

##

Melanie Lutz – Mels Love Land

All Systems Love

Writer/Producer/Love Activist

melanie@melanielutz.com

WHAT IF 

all your thoughts 

were loving thoughts . . . 

consider the possibility

Twitter:

@MelsLoveLand

Instagram:

@MelsLoveLand 

Website:

https://www.melsloveland.com

Linked In:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanielutz/

A brief bio that came from this piece.

I'm a numbers in boxes fan, a quant fan, a nerd, a reader, curious to the bone, I've been in the entertainment business in every capacity after an inauspicious start in the costume department on a showtime movie starring Edward Asner that lead to a job as an agents assistant when an agent visiting his client on set came up to me and said, 'This doesn't look like it is for you, why don't you come in and learn the real business.' I now, many years later, reside comfortably now as a writer, director and love activist, someone who enjoys knowing how things work, what it takes to elevate and move to the next level, how to capture and create those breakthrough movements of the heart that shift, transform and bring forward balance and wellness, and joy and laughter and hope for all as the stories we get to tell. A creative whose interested in a world of balance and harmony and sharing the best within each of us as a place to fly on angels wings and evolve the 21st century to leave our business better than we found it.

Full Discussion with Panel:

This Changes Everything

PRODUCTION: A Creative Chaos presentation, in association with New Plot Films, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, David Yurman. (Int'l sales: ICM Partners, Los Angeles.) Producers: Ilan Arboleda, Kerianne Flynn, Tom Donahue. Executive producers: Geena Davis, Regina K. Scully, Ku-ling Yurman, Madeline Di Nonno, Steve Edwards, Jennie Peters, Simone Pero, Patty Casby

CREW: Director: Tom Donahue. Story producer: Dana Benningfield. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Stefano Ferrari. Editor: Jasmin Way. Music: Leigh Roberts, Allison Piccioni.

WITH: Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Reese WitherspoonNatalie Portman, Taraji P. Henson, Cate Blanchett, Jill Soloway, Shonda Rhimes, Yara Shahidi, Chloë Moretz, Amandla Stenberg, Tracee Ellis Ross, Matt McGorry, Alan Alda, Marg Helgenberger, Sandra Oh, Anita Hill, Jessica Chastain, Rose McGowan, Judd Apatow, Rosario Dawson.