EP. 43: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION with RAIN VALDEZ, actress, filmmaker and creator of RAZOR TONGUE

Pink Among Men

Back from our isolated mini summer vacay and so excited for you to get to know this week's guest!

This week we are joined by, RAIN VALDEZ, an actress, an award winning filmmaker and an out and proud transgender woman. Rain is also the founder of ActNOW, the first and only acting class in Los Angeles prioritizing a safe space for LGBTQIA actors and teaches beyond the binary.

Rain got her start playing ‘Coco’ in season 2 of TV Land’s Lopez and doubling in Amazon's Transparent as Miss Van Nuys on screen and a producer behind the scenes. Valdez’s rom-com short Ryans, which she stars in, screened in over 15 film festivals worldwide after premiering at Outfest, winning the Jury Award for Best North American Short at the NCGLFF. Rain’s short film Hexed was nominated for Best Director, Best Comedy and Best Actress at the Madrid International Film Festival. Rain has been named one of Outfest LA's Next Generation of Filmmakers and is Inside Out Pitch Please! Contest 2019 winner. She recently starred in a Paul Feig directed, half-hour comedy pilot for Freeform TV, guest stars in Amazon’s Sneaky Pete and can be seen in the CBS All Access new show Why Women Kill. Rain also appears in the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary, Disclosure, where she shares her story and joins us to talk about her latest series, which she wrote and stars in, Razor Tongue.

A 7-part web series Razor Tongue, had its international premiere in Toronto at InsideOut Film Festival, its US premiere in San Francisco at Frameline Film Festival of June 2019, as well as, premiering in LA at the Outfest Film Festival. All 7 episodes of Razor Tongue are now available for streaming and can be found here: https://www.noweverartists.com/razortongue.

The team behind Razor Tongue is currently promoting a For Your Consideration Emmy nomination campaign and we chat with Rain about doing that on an indie scale, her break into the industry, call out culture and more.

Also featured in this episode, this week's WCW - Women Crushing It is filmmaker, entrepreneur and Good Media founder, BRITTANY C. GOODEN!

Brittany C. Gooden is a multidisciplinary producer who has worked with premier clients in TV, media and advertising including Discovery, Spike, Bustle, Vox and Under Armor. Brittany also takes great pleasure in mentorship and cultivating safe spaces for young girls and women in creative fields.

We are honored to feature Brittany this week and her most recent endeavor, the documentary feature film STRANGE BIRD which is a personal story; one about justice; about family and about the truth. The film is currently raising funds to tell the story of Izell "Izzy" Parrott, Brittany's uncle, who was found hanging in from a thirty-foot tree in the woods of her hometown, Glen Falls, NY, after missing for fourteen months. The film will investigate the truth behind Izzy's death aimed at finding justice for Izzy and will do so by examining the complexities of his life.

At a time where we as a country are faced with addressing the racial injustices that exists prevalently amongst us, and advocating to hear stories for Black men, women and transpeople, we believe that this film is a super important discourse and for that we are matching the next $500 in donations towards the campaign for STRANGE BIRD. We hope you will join us.