Filmmaker Gambles College Savings to Make First Feature, Wins Tribeca Award
The independently-produced feature film 'Blame' took home the best actress prize at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. But the story of how the movie actually got to the festival in the first place is just as interesting as its subject matter. We're joined now by actress Nadia Alexander, and Quinn Shephard, who wrote, directed, produced, and acted in the film.
Shephard has been working on "Blame," a modern retelling of "The Crucible," since she was 15. She began to make the film at age 20, only to have her main investor pulled out at the last minute.
Shephard liquidated her college fund to pay for the production. When she was left without any money for post-production, she called in favors, worked out deals, and lived in basements while editing it herself.
Actress Nadia Alexander won the Best Actress Award at Tribeca. Both women agree that the #MeToo era has opened more doors for women in the industry.
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A virtual gathering in the online space, Decentraland, of Elvis Presley impersonators is looking to grab the Guinness World Record for most Elvis impersonators in one place after the record-keeping org recently approved the use of avatars as stand-ins for people.
A powerful winter storm hit the Northeast over the weekend leaving 100,000 New Yorkers in the dark as well as snowfall up to 30.9 inches in parts of Massachusetts. The nor'easter hit with blizzard conditions of wind speed and poor visibility.
After classic rocker Neil Young demanded removal of his music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation coming from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the platform made the decision to take down Young's songs and continue supporting Rogan with whom they have an exclusive contract. The move touched off a firestorm of controversy, leading to responses from both the streaming service and the podcasting host. Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR, joined Cheddar to break down the latest on the fracas. "I think when [Spotify] initially said, we're not going to be commenting on that, that was a silly move because guess what? They did end up commenting about it, and nine times out of 10, when an organization says they're not going to be issuing a comment, they ultimately do," Nierman noted.
The 1999 cult classic "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China — and this time, the authorities win. Cheddar News speaks with Joan Solsman, senior media reporter at CNET who breaks down how China is using films for political messaging.
NFT art platform TRLab recently raised $4.2 million in funding. TRLab launched just last year but says its platform focused on NFT curation and distribution is growing quickly. The company hopes to bridge traditional and digital art worlds and help artists explore NFTs as an emerging medium. TRLab co-founder and chairwoman Xin Li-Cohen and co-founder and CEO Audrey Ou joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
