our Sustainable Studio where we create music, movies and books while also providing a tiny monarch butterfly sanctuary as well as a tiny natural reef for ocean life.
We actively employ the aloha spirit in the creation of our signature form of “aquaculture” Living in wellness & harmony with nature and reflecting that in the work is of utmost importance to the creation of our projects
We send each one out like a ripple on the ocean or one of our monarch butterflies after they emerge from their chrysalis
Full Transcript
Interview with Cali Lili, Director/Writer and co-star of
Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated
Hi Cali,
It’s such a pleasure to speak with you today. I’ve just finished watching Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated, and I have to say, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen in recent times.
Hello Subhabrata and Karma and the Swedish International Film Festival Team !
Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm, thoughtful comments and excellent questions !
On behalf of my co-star & partner, movie icon, Wings Hauser and the entire cast, production & post production teams we are honored and grateful for this opportunity to speak with you and share the first of many future projects with fellow movie & music lovers!
Your film is refreshingly bold and nuanced in so many ways, both in its visual style and its thematic exploration. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into this project and I’m excited to dive into some of the concepts you’ve explored.
Thank you so much !
Let’s dive in !
Speaking of thought, while “thought” does play its part, FEELING is my compass. LOVE is my core, it’s at the heart of our studio and the works we release.
“Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated”
and all our projects are variations of Love Stories. Our structures perhaps don’t duplicate the status quo structure and tenor of most love stories many of us are accustomed to?
Wings and I grew in love as we became more involved in the process of our collaborations as artists and that love continues to sustain us and our work today.
As the movie suggests, there are as many love stories as there are humans because every relationship forms its own vocabulary. Every life form, species, ecosphere, the planet herself becomes stronger through biodiversity. Even simple economics shows us that a portfolio is stronger through diversification. “Even When Divided, Love Multiplies” is a lyric from one of the songs.
I love that you put together the words “bold” and also “nuanced” when referring to my film! Thank you! YES ! I was striving for both! With our debut project, I was hoping to create an “experience.” A “destination.” A “tiny-world-within-the-world” like a “snow globe.“ A place we hope movie & music lovers choose to revisit and notice something new every time.
The movie and stand-alone album / soundtrack are available now on demand at Apple TV, YouTube & Google Play Movies, just search the titles & names. An upcoming book about this debut project and our “sustainable studio,” housed in our “surf shack loft,” will be published in a few months and we hope readers will look out for that and all future music, film & book projects.
I’m thinking it might be fun to include some introductory comments here about my “process,” of making the film “by hand” guided by artisanal principles, to create a “signature blend” in a manner similar to culinary blends. Our studio is hand-built & operates sustainably. That sensibility is infused into the “special sauce“ of hand-making the movie, album and now, the upcoming book. I call it “handmade to make a difference” TM ️ and always infused with SOUL and LOVE.
Every one of our projects is home-spun, like handmade cookies, instead of store-bought. Here is a brief excerpt and preview of the upcoming book about the movie “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated,” the album, as well as the process and studio :
“Our sustainable studio organically blossomed from our desire to infuse projects with an authentic ‘mom & pop-up family farm’ essence, a ‘signature blend’ grown from the soil or ‘terroir’ (term used in the making a fine wine) of ‘Classic Hollywood’ nourished, then harvested in our own ‘microclimate’ extending beyond ‘the farm,’ in a manner that resembles ‘farm to table’ or in the case of ‘aquaculture,’ ‘aquaponics,’ ‘Sea to table.’
We view it as the most natural way to ‘grow art’ with roots and traditions, but also offshoots of innovation and then we should be able to ‘bring it to market.’ The “market” may not be quite as ‘organic’ as the art. That’s definitely a problem for many artists (and farmers) throughout the centuries. Certainly still a problem today. But I’m looking forward to a time when more independent artists can simply bring our ‘fruits to market’ just like the farmers market.
Or a painter selling a canvas without all of the gate-keeping complications that serve to shut many artists out. That was the original inspiration for simplifying this process. If a painter can put paint onto a canvas and sell the canvas why can’t an artist do the same with a film? “
“Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” is our debut project and we consider it our “first harvest.” Unfortunately Covid and other things delayed the start of the next project, as it delayed the lives of so many people on this beautiful blue planet. We hold hands with everyone affected by forces beyond our control. For us, this ‘ first harvest ‘ paved the way for upcoming projects. The fact that our studio name includes this description :
“Pictures, Words, Music in Motion ™”
hints toward the fact that each project was intended to be realized in all three mediums: movie, album and book.
The book is set to be published in the next few months, completing that phase of the first while we are already preparing the next project.
The entire world is experiencing so many hardships. We are all in this together and our projects intend to share love & encourage kindness & community across boundaries. In fact, one of the themes in “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated“ involves communicating beyond boundaries.
Written and shot before Covid two of the main protagonists speak to each other via Zoom throughout the entire movie. But their communication, their connection across that boundary is electric. We are not even certain they’re on the same dimension or planet. Yet their connection is palpable, visceral, eternal. Ultimately for us, it would become somewhat autobiographical.
As a matter of methodology, I was also keen to attend to experiential / feeling factors when it comes to physical production employing methods of organic sustainability. This includes maintaining an organic culture amongst the team. I wanted to create the atmosphere that resembles the intersection of a band and an athletic team. That’s how I think of our teams and as Wings and I are both athletes as well as musicians, this worked really well for us and the team.
Another example, I enlisted local diverse farmers to donate fruits and flowers to the set dressing and crew lunches. So our set dressing is sustainable and to some extent, “edible.” It was important for me to include local farmers. Other culinary aspects involve the fact that we include a scene where Eve employs a huge cleaver to hack open a fresh coconut.
Anyone who has hacked open a Thai coconut understands it’s a little risky. But the reward is divine. I’m pretty sure that was done in one take and that was a bit scary with the size of that clever but the result was delicious. Doctor Goddard cuts lemons throughout the movie and drinks straight up lemon juice. There is an essence of hunger and thirst for “Mother Earth, ” and “SisterOcean™”.
Another example involves the “sustainable wardrobe” with repurposed fabric & clothing. Additionally, the paintings featured in the film were painted by myself and Wings every New Years Day for the past few years. And then there were fun things like some of us doing two jobs. Wings, who co-stars in & co-produced the movie, has a special fondness & facility for serving food! He loves feeding people. So he insisted on managing craft services on the set! For fun! The crew loved what he served! During one lunch, he brought everybody a whole rotisserie chicken, lol the crew was stoked!
In our personal life, although I had spent most of my time living on arugula, I had to learn how to cook because I loved providing nutritional meals for Wings but he was a tough customer because he loves great food and he used to be a chef in a diner. So while he doesn’t cook healthy food, lol he cooks delicious food. I could not serve him healthy food that wasn’t also delicious so I had to learn.
The upcoming book will include recipes I developed that were healthy but became super delicious too! Part of our food theme stems from my concept that media (like meals) can be “nourishing.” For me personally, I think the first “grown-up“ thing I ever did was take responsibility for my own nutrition as soon as I learned what was going on with organic farming and small family farms. The second thing was to take responsibility for any other person that I feed. It was like a bolt of understanding that our food is our future. We are indeed what we eat, what we consume. And it became one of the most palpable and heartfelt ways that I could take care of my beautiful partner. I truly grew to adore cooking for Wings. I still cook for him.
Same with media consumption. The intellectual / creative / informational understandings or misunderstandings are “food for thought.” That’s also what we become when we consume media. Multiple aspects of what we’re doing stem from this methodology and it begins with what I call a “sustainable idea.” For me, that’s an idea infused with both thought & love, both heart and soul. Movies and music take time to seed, water, bloom and harvest and cook. Like fruits, vegetables, and aquaculture / aquaponics which I find especially endearing & inspiring.
As a person who practices & embraces sustainability, wellness, nutrition, and as a dancer / former yoga instructor, I choose to take responsibility for the “sustainability“ of the core idea. If it’s not an idea I can sustain with passion for long periods of time literally from “Farm to Studio” ™️ and beyond then I know it’s not something I can responsibly bring to my brilliant partner & talented crew & the audience in good conscience. I’m applying not just a passion test, but also testing for sustainability through consciousness. I’m very grateful to have experienced an inner compass since I was a kid.
As I mentioned, this debut project is meant to pave the way for our future projects and I’m SO grateful my partner was able to experience the acknowledgments, screenings, and awards the film garnered in 2024 and 2025 ! Several years after the initial release! I had always wished that the film & album could be timeless. The way Wings expressed it to me :
“I told you ! Your Project Got ‘Legs’!
Just Like You!”
Wings Hauser
(referring to the classic phrase for a project that becomes a ‘sleeper’ hit )
1. Let’s start with the biblical references in your film. The title itself, Eve N’ God, immediately evokes ideas of creation, temptation, and divine power. Is there an intentional inversion of traditional biblical themes here, or are you playing with those ideas in a more subtle way?
I like that you highlight “creation, temptation & divine power” with regard to the first part of thetitle : “Eve N’ God.” The second part of the title: “this female is not yet rated” (which happens to be the title of the album / soundtrack ) is intended to lend a hint of irony to the fact that as you rightly pointed out, I am inviting us to “play.”
One of Eve’s lines of dialogue highlights the concept that our most important “work” involves opportunities to “play” :
“Doc ! I want to PLAY !
Put me back in the game !”
(dialogue from “Eve N’ God this female is not yet rated “)
This encapsulates the motivation for Eve, representing the “Every-Woman” enlisting other women as well as men, to ask questions about choice, voice, freedom. To “PLAY” is to participate, to choose, to be afforded opportunities to make a difference. If we are barred from “PLAY,” we have no choice, no voice, no opportunity.
“Creation, temptation & divine power” can all be employed as tools for opportunities to enhance people’s lives, cultures and societies but they can also become tools to hinder progress. So the story is a “meditation” asking questions and instead of forcing answers, as is often done with cultures that worship, dominance and supremacy, this meditation invites more questions and offers opportunities for cooperation as a means of defeating competition.
When you think about it, the “cooperation frame of mind” when applied to solving societal and cultural problems really does out-compete – the “competition frame of mind” because cooperation invites bonding, while competition invites separation. If “survival of the fittest” is slavishly applied to solving cultural and societal problems, and if that survival of the fittest model depends upon whomever has a larger bank account, no matter how that bank account was fattened, whether it was by true merit or by cheating, it seems that it might be wise in the 21st-century to consider new models, paradigms.
I think it’s also important to mention here, that “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” suggests that the “original Eve,” often conflated with “original sin,” and the myth of “Lilith” examined in the context of the myth of “Adam and Eve” is inextricably intertwined with my idea that “Lilith,” represented by our character named “Lila” (meaning “night”) is a black woman. That she is inextricably intertwined with the concept of “mitochondrial eve,“ the concept that we are all sisters and brothers from one mother in Africa. In our movie, the light-skinned “white” appearing character named “Eve” who is not in fact “white” considers herself the twin of “mitochondrial eve. ” The film is also pondering the fact that both of Adam’s wives both Lilith and Eve refused to be subservient and my script asks the question, perhaps Lilith and Eve found comfort in each other?
I think that’s worth chewing on.
2.
The first scene is extremely significant. It can symbolise resistance, difference, perseverance and what not. What inspired you to begin the film with such an intense moment of confrontation?
I love hearing about your experience with the film. The intense scene you are describing, which takes place early on, is like all the scenes in the film, a matter of poetry and music. It’s an essential piece, a building block, a molecule that appears in a sequence forming a rhythm that ultimately gives life to the whole organism, the poem, the “world” of the movie. Editing is so much fun and SO CRUCIAL as it’s the “time signature” of the movie, just like a metronome clocks a piece of music. People may be unaccustomed to unconventional forms of editing because we have all been trained to accept certain ‘conventional storytelling rhythms’ depending on the culture we were raised in or the dominant culture we can choose to either blindly accept or question.
It is a scientific fact that if you are exposed to a certain rhythm, your body / heart will sympathize / synchronize with that rhythm. Editing is about rhythm just like music. I posit that movie lovers have been somewhat indoctrinated into accepting certain editing rhythms dominating much of cinema. I have always felt we would benefit from remaining open to new rhythms including the rhythm of our own hearts.
For me, the first “scene” in the movie is actually a black screen with the sound of a mourning dove. It’s the empty page or stage and a cry from earth, from the heart. I don’t vibe with the “move fast break things” mentality so prevalent in too many cultures. My wish is to create projects through our studio that:
Music and poetry guide my rhythm, my vision, which I bring to my partner, and we apply principles that we both believe in. It’s kind of like our “secret sauce,” the traditions of our “tiny family farm-to-table.“ In fact we are like a tiny family farm, working from a tiny feMt0™studi0 Eco-LoFt™. Our hand built surf shack in Venice Beach represents a little bit of “aloha” combining elements at the intersection of beloved Hawaii and beloved Big Sur, California, with a hint of Greenwich Village New York thrown in.
So the sequence of the scenes and the edit design is definitely a form of visual music. As a director, I am all over the design of the edit because it’s so vital to the final cut. I feel it’s essential to take responsibility for the edit design and it’s also on my mind & in my heart during the rhythm I’m hearing while writing the screenplay and directing the scenes. So when I shoot, I’ve already got an editing rhythm in mind but of course it will shift and adjust according to all the happy mistakes & coincidences we can improvise upon. That’s also magic. I am open to letting the material find its own rhythm as long as it’s true to the integrity of the piece. It’s an ongoing dance on a moving wave, like surfing.
Sometimes Wings and I have slight differences when it comes to certain scenes but as with all of our disagreements, we always find the best solution due to the process of a debate and remaining open to discovery. We always arrive at an improved result by taking that time. At first, he felt the very first scene with the clock ticking was too quiet, too slow and he suggested that I cut earlier but as time went on, he eventually loved how it led us into the overall meditative pacing that is periodically disrupted by that intense scene you’re referring to.
It’s a necessary disruption from the hypnotic ticking clock. It’s a wake up call. An alarm.The very intense early scene you asked about exists in that time code, because that’s where it belongs in the “music” and “poetry” of the movie with each scene following inevitably after the previous scene blossoming like a flower. In the same way my next exhale follows my next inhale and then my next inhale follows my next exhale (an influence from yoga & vocal training) but nonetheless it is so organic to every sport, art form and practice – of course it’s like the art of life herself.
That particular scene just like every other scene in the movie is meant to be there because it could not be anywhere else for this movie to exist. We’ve experienced people who have never made a movie, but who are chained vehemently to a status quo understanding of what editing must be, express to me with shocking confidence, almost angrily, that they think I should edit the movie differently. That’s because they are chained to their notion of what is acceptable and therefore commercial. The “tell” is how angry they seem to be and sometimes it’s covert anger. But they’re trying to appear as though they’re trying to “help me” while they’re telling me that they feel I should’ve edited the film differently. As though I broke some rule that maybe they wish they could break free from too?
in these cases, we find that instead of accepting my invitation to come along for the ride – and SO MANY movie & music lovers gladly accepted the invitation and had a great time – a few others chose to seem somewhat angry that I had the courage to take a new trail. Sometimes people express it as though they want to “help me,” because I am a newcomer. But we wish that more people would come along for the discoveries, support our innovative projects instead of remaining chained to their old notions. It’s almost like there’s a quota on just a few selected filmmakers who are allowed to “break the rules” and that’s usually a matter of power and influence and probably money. I’m suggesting that audiences reward the tiny filmmakers like me who really are taking chances.
It’s true that the intense scene represents those excellent words you used: “resistance, difference, perseverance.“ It is a strong early statement born from the darkness and freedom of a blank screen and the mournful cry from a mourning dove. That intense scene “wakes us up” into the dreamscape we are about to enter. Paradoxically the scene is asking us to “wake up” while also inviting us to “wake into a dream.”
My team, and I are asking the audience to please care about the independent artist to take chances. Requesting that we all “pay attention“ to us tiny filmmakers because “attention” is arguably the most powerful “commodity” certainly in the media, but also in the world today. As my beautiful partner Wings Hauser would say, he appreciates it when people “give a damn.”
Whenever I hear the expression “pay attention” I always think of the great play by Arthur Miller “Death of aSalesman” in which “Willy Loman” (The Everyman) repeats his plea to humanity :
“attention must be paid !”
It’s kind of like that.
3. There’s a clear influence of Dogme 95 in your work. The rawness and immediacy of the cinematography, the handheld shots, and the natural lighting all echo the movement’s ideals. How did Dogme 95 influence your approach to Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated ?
Fascinating question!
Actually, I first learned of Dogme 95 after I had already formulated my concept of “sustainable filmmaking” based on my dance & yoga background as well as my love for ocean / sea life conservancy.
In school, I was very interested in the contemporary effects of the history of the works of experimental directors & actors, along with that of international artists in those fields. I think it’s really helpful to look back at the origins of certain traditions in order to find one’s place in the current repertoire. I always look back at the classics and that’s probably because ever since I was a kid I have been referred to as “mature for my age “ or “a young person with an old soul.“
I studied the effects of the Polish experimental director Jerzy Grotowski ( “Towards A Poor Theatre “ ) and the French Dramatist Antonin Artaud (“The Theater And its Double “) along with the work of Brecht AND a few other artists in theater, visual & music arts that were even more influential to me. I discuss those in detail in my upcoming book. In fact, my book, among other textures, will present the movie as a work of dramatic literature, complete with stage directions. The script would make an amazing stage play and I’ve devised a very detailed staging concept. It’s ironic to me that my early plays which I wrote as a teenager were often called “cinematic,” and because I was a theater snob, lol I took that as an insult. Sometimes we are idiots but can find great humor in our idiocy if we grow up a little bit.
My initial studies were in dance & theatre in New York and this greatly influences my cinema. As a kid, I won my first play writing contest, after being urged by my awesome professor, an immigrant from the Himalayas, to enter the contest. I was extremely hesitant to do this, but she was so sweetly encouraging that I did enter it. It was my first play. When she told me that I had won the contest, I can still remember the light in her eyes as she practically shouted out my victory. It was absolutely true that she won! I would never have entered that contest had it not been for her. The reason she thought it would be a good idea results from the fact that I find writing prose daunting but dialogue and poetry are very natural for me. As a teacher, a professor, she went the extra mile to think about how she could guide me. She was completely correct, and I am in touch with her to this day. I am so very grateful for all my teachers who saved me from an abusive childhood.
So, to get back to Dogme 95 , it seemed like a natural ally for the ideas that I was formulating in order to understand where my work was going. My wish to express concepts of “sustainability” based on my love for the oceans, sealife , aquaculture , farmers markets, small family farms, ocean conservancy, organic cuisine, farm to table, ecological and nutritional concerns in making film & music was a result of my wish to make “food for thought films.” I felt that culture and cultural spaces were becoming so “gentrified” that artists were being pushed out of our own “native waters” in the same way whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions & sealife are bullied out of their own waters or small family farms are bullied by “big agriculture” and in the same way, so many cultures are bullied by “big money” in general.
Even as a teenager I was concerned about what I called “the gentrification of culture.” I felt it was the reason my family did not support what I knew was my purpose in life. The “gentrification of culture” made it appear as though “only rich people” could become artists and unfortunately, the reality seems to almost prove that true. Although many people can make films with advances in technology, distribution and audience awareness through marketing is mostly the domain of the wealthy. As my brilliant partner shared with me, at some point in the history of Hollywood, people could “buy their way” into the entertainment industry, whether it was through nepotism or actual money and connections. It was no longer a matter of merit, talent & hard work / dedication so much as “connections / influence / money” and the illusion of talent & seeming performative “hard work.”
Wings also expressed very rightly that he witnessed the transition of the audience’s interest from quality art to “box office.” He said that as soon as he first heard popular entertainment shows reporting mostly about “box office” profits instead of nuance in films, he felt that was harmful not only to actors but all film makers who deeply love the “making of film.” That reminds me of a great quote from Sir Michael Caine. I’m paraphrasing from him : “plays are performed while movies are made.” That quote has really inspired me. It’s very worrying to think that the audience is being manipulated into thinking about “box office” success and “visibility” whether it be on social media or traditional broadcasting/cultural events, instead of artistic merit because it conflates so-called “success” in industries that have become “gentrified” “closed loops” with actual talent / merit / cultural significance which is a very different dimension of success. That gentrification created the illusion that the privileged few works of art that were distributed / visible were inherently more culturally significant when actually they have only became culturally significant as a self fulfilling prophecy due to their privilege in distribution or opportunistic visibility.
I worried this might deeply harm authentic independent artists and I also worried it was diminishing culture. My pushback against this notion was not just a matter of survival for us as artists, I was worried about cultural ecosystems becoming toxic, in the same way other ecosystems are damaged by neglect. I’m still worried about that. We have to admit that the independent artist like many forms of wildlife, sealife and civilization itself are an “endangered species.“ Part of my graduate studies involved anthropology so I think of these things on an anthropological level as well as a practical creative hands-on artist level.
My aesthetic has also been informed by economics and I have gladly incorporated concepts from experimental theater into my style. Experimental theorists, like Grotowski, Artaud and Brecht among a few very significant others I mention in my upcoming book in various disciplines like painting and music have always inspired me. They were very influenced by economics and societal theory.
Less Can Be More and More Can Be Less
We hope audiences will support our sustainable studio as these methodologies are intended to maintain love, respect and survival for artists on this planet in exactly the same way we wish for us all to protect wildlife, sea life, and human rights on this beautiful interstellar, swimming pool planet. My works are my “babies” and many cultures provide incentives and benefits for women to have babies. Well, I feel so strongly that artists contribute to the culture just as much when we “give birth” to our “babies“ and I think cultures should “support the arts” by sustaining the living artist.
We are all interconnected. If we lose our innocence through indifference towards saving the planet, wildlife, sea life, women’s rights, human rights, the oceans, the forests, the cities AND LIVING ARTISTS – then we have lost confidence in ourselves.
As the great thinker Elie Wiesel said :
“the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference “
It’s so important that we care, that we do what my partner Wings Hauser would describe as “giving a damn.” If we lose our ability to care about others and our planet, we would be abdicating ourselves, giving up on ourselves.
4. The music in the film feels very disruptive—almost unsettling at times. It doesn’t always follow traditional structures, and there’s an underlying chaos to it. Could you talk about how music was used to reflect the disruption of societal norms and to underscore the themes of subversion?
Thank you for noticing and expressing this so eloquently !
As a standalone purposely eclectic album (the album can be found on all music streaming services: Cali Lili “This Female is Not Yet Rated“ ) it has a life of its own along with belonging to the world of the film, as soundtrack. The Album and the Soundtrack are family but they are also individuals.
It’s so interesting that in many cultures around the world, we learn to regard questions that trace lines outside the boxes created by society as “subversion.” Of course the artist space, if it is a free space, provides the freedom to ask questions and think outside norms so our collective consciousness norms find it “sexy” to think of that “rock ‘n’ roll, smash the guitar, question society, style of “subversion.”
For me, it’s about playing, PLAY!
Asking questions and playing with the possibilities. Sometimes when we ask questions we feel are “dangerous” to our sense of status quo, we regard – just asking – the questions – to be “subversive.” If you’ll recall, our “Eve” humorously, refers to herself and anyone asking these questions as “dangerous,” she says:
“OK I want to be dangerous,”
She is playfully accepting a “play pretend” “mission” in-service to a higher goal.
Dr. Goddard responds :
“So you’re not going militant on me?”
Which leads Eve to giggle out loud and say:
“ just a Tango – up Pico Boulevard ”
Like most of us, she just wants to play.
It’s true that the songs AND the choreography in the film – are challenging norms, as are many of the lines of dialogue. The music and choreography support the story moving forward, asking questions, asking questions ASKING QUESTIONS – with a drum beat moving us forward, playing with answers, playing with a Multiverse of possibilities. There are several references to mirrors in the film. Visual rhythm including a few repeating frames and choreographed jump cuts in the unconventional edit design which are syncopating echoes that do follow their own internal map. A structure particular to an internal organic logic that dances unapologetically to its own time signature.
My script was “composed” with songs incorporated into the text & intended for the edit. The edit design is “composed” like one big poem unfurling, blossoming like a flower, one big “symphony” building from a sequence of “movements.” Including dance & actor movement, or non-movement. If you’ll notice, both primary characters are somewhat “penned in, contained” speaking to each other on ZOOM.
The songs rely HEAVILY on syncopated lyrics and percussive build. The lyrics are crucial to these songs and the album is somewhat of a “concept album” exploring new avenues about every theme in the movie carried by the purposely eclectic range of musical styles / genres. It’s not often that one album includes all these genres : rap , Americana, rock ‘n’ roll, folk rock, country punk, Reggaeton, world groove, and 12 bar blues.
So in this one album all the common themes are purposeful “explored” asking the question:
“How can I address each theme as” a rap song, but also as a folk song, a country song, an all out rock and roll song, a jazz or blues song, a punk song or a song that’s influenced by world groove? ” The album is intended to feel like a trip around Americana and world grooves and then back home to America, specifically Los Angeles with songs like “Sindarella GirlZ,” which is heavily influenced by Reggaeton.
The music in the movie wants to break out of the confines of the screen and run wild. In fact it’s one of many “cracks in the cement” where green sprouts break out of their confines described in of the songs “World is My Living Room, ” which includes this line :
The movie wants to jump off the screen, dance in the aisles of the movie theater, out of the doors and onto the street, dancing all the way to the beach splashing into the ocean.
5.
The theme of subversion through movement is quite prominent in your film, especially with the characters’ physical gestures and interactions. How do you see movement as a form of subversion, and what was your approach to choreographing or directing these movements?
Awesome that I began to answer this question in the previous answer. That’s how good your questions are!
So, I would add to everything I said in the previous answer, it was pretty eerie that this film was shot before Covid and yet two main characters speak to each other over ZOOM throughout the entire film. As I mentioned earlier, one of the themes is “communication across boundaries.”
So part of what you’re describing has to do with lack of movement. Or movement constrained, restrained. Wings and I were so excited to work together on so many levels, I mean, we just really love to work together on anything! We would often leave birthday messages for family members in the form of rap songs that we came up with on the spot after talking about it for a few seconds before we made the birthday call. He’s directed me several times and we’ve worked together in various ways. But one interesting factor is that he’s quite a physical actor. And I just knew that this character which remains in one location for the entire film would allow for a very high concentration of his acting chops.
So the characters are both somewhat constrained through much of the film. It’s the rhythm again. It allows us to relax and pay attention not just to what they are saying, feeling, doing and NOT doing on screen but also what we are feeling as an audience. And then – after restrained movement, the characters are set free. And so are we.
My choreography style stems from influences in classic choreography, Bob Fosse (I studied not just the movies but also in class with Ann Reinking), Twyla Tharp, and the OG : Isadora Duncan! Jazz choreography emphasizes “isolations” which for me is very meaningful. The characters are reaching to each other beyond physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual boundaries.
For me, choreography like surfing, like life, is all about “flow.” So while the jazz choreography & character movement emphasized sharpness, anger, pain and challenges, “the elbows and knees of isolation” the other movements represented “flow” including water elements, pointing us toward healing, acceptance, understanding, communication, love and freedom.
6. The film also tackles the nature vs. nurture debate, particularly in the context of how societal expectations shape our identities. How do you see this theme playing out in the film, and why is it such an important issue to explore?
Nature is definitely a character in this film. When we cut to nature, it is always a reference to the essence of Eve, or Lilith. The “sacred feminine.” Eve is defending nature in her arguments with Dr. Goddard. It’s ironic because she’s advocating for freedom in the creation of this masterpiece called “Mother Earth,” and what I refer to as “Sister Ocean.” While “Doc” is afraid of that freedom because he’s defending that creation. We can see things from both perspectives.
Eve is an advocate! In the same way that proverbial “man” sought to conquer “nature,” he sought to conquer the sacred feminine. Before ancient female priests and goddesses were “kicked out” of the clergy, religion and out of many governmental / cultural leadership positions (sound familiar? Yeah,it’s happened before) there was a feminine, earthy, watery, often matriarchal aspect to many cultures which found itself dampened, muted and relegated to the “barefoot in the kitchen” duties.
The vestiges of such “excommunication of the feminine” & the natural watery world, expressed itself as patriarchy, which we all know is still active in many cultures. The voice of patriarchy might think it is “rallying” but unfortunately, all one needs to do is look around us on this beautiful blue planet, and recognize that patriarchal attempts at domination are harming everyone by denying its own feminine nature at the expense of its own survival.
Personally, we experienced this when we noticed the way culture retreats from married women. To be sure, my marriage with my amazing, beautiful partner and husband Wings Hauser, it’s not a conventional marriage. We are creative equals. Equals in every way, but we often encounter societal pressures and bizarre misunderstandings, simply due to the fact that we always express our relationship in terms reflecting our equal partnership. But then again, as a result of this expression, we would literally have people come up to us in the grocery store or at fancy parties, telling us how much they were inspired by our partnership.
As this was my first marriage, I was amazed to find myself in certain 21st century societal circumstances treated like “wives” may have been treated in the 1950’s – or the 1600s – or cavemen times! It was a bizarre “awakening” and you might’ve noticed that Eve “wakes up” quite a few times in the movie which is as much a dissertation about marriage as it is about every other theme. The discussion of what it means to be married as a 21st Century Girl is a deep core theme.
My beautiful partner / husband, Wings, is a real “feminist!” Always advocating for women. I mean, he raised a daughter on his own with no trust fund – having lost his own father at a very young age. He worked for everything he accomplished and still managed to raise a daughter as a single father! He’s much older than me but my reaction to the antiquated societal expectations of my identity, awoke his own inherent feminist nature. I had always said that I would never get married. Until I met my perfect partner, my soulmate, the love of my life, the only husband that could ever make sense. We bring out the best in each other. What more could anyone ask for? We are very lucky and always puzzled at the antiquated societal weirdness towards women and partnerships.
Ultimately, I figured out that cultures based on supremacy/domination benefit from division amongst people, whether it be race, culture, class or gender. The movie is based on a form of Socratic argumentative attempt to discover answers through finding more questions. The tension between a female “goddess entity” who wants to remain free while still enjoying partnership and a male “god entity” who basically wants the same thing – that’s what’s interesting. Edward Albee’s play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” rocks a similar vibe in that regard.
A good marriage, a good partnership whether it be marriage or bandmates, athletic team or crew, whether it be male and female or female and female, or male and male – whether it be binary or trans or whatever, it’s about the partnership – the partnership is SO soul-affirming. It is also an affirmation of a society that can work to solve problems not just for the community but for the individuals.
Once again we return to the idea of “Cooperation Beats Competition ™.” Working together with well matched partners is a humane sustainable model for human happiness, planet happiness. It’s good for humans and it’s good for wildlife and sea life and plant life. I’ve always thought it was amazing that the country of Bhutan has a ”happiness index.” I think that’s really interesting for the 21st century world to consider. After all, we are literally spinning on a ball in the middle of the Multiverse splashing like a big old swimming pool. Let’s at least solve some of our mutual problems together, find some happiness together and stop fighting each other together.
Partnerships can solve problems instead of creating new ones. When people are divided, new problems are created. When people partner together, we solve problems, if our hearts are partnered with our minds and if our motivation is to make the world a better place for everybody, not just for a few of us. For all of us! It’s so simple.
Unfortunately, too many societal expectations have shut out the very important female energy in problem-solving. Once again it’s like the failed attempt to dominate nature. Those who attempt to eradicate the feminine, and dominate nature, do so at their own peril. The problem is, they also put the rest of the planet in peril.
As Eve’s dialogue is structured like a filibuster (like Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic masterpiece “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”) she’s making an argument before Dr. Goddard, otherwise known as the white straight male authority deity she refers to as :
“the most Supreme Court “
Her argument is a plea for the world to embrace the feminine “wild” because this sets us all free:
“It’s the wilderness in yourself!”
Eve says.
Without that freedom for the wild, for the feminine, we imprison the planet.
7.
The title, This Female is Not Yet Rated, feels like both a commentary on how women are often categorized or judged in society and a challenge to those labels. How does this title encapsulate the themes of the film?
Yes! and as I mentioned, that’s the title of the standalone album.The “female” in question is “not yet rated” because she is often “discounted” ( valued less ) as Eve informs Dr. Goddard.
Eve also says, “that female” still exists. She may be met with patriarchal “indifference” in the same way the great Elie Weisel defined it but she exists. She may “not be rated,” she may experience attempts at erasure or appropriation, but the look in her eyes and the arguments she makes, her actions – might save us all! As long as most of us do not remain silent.
The movie asks :
“ Are we dreaming of Eve
or
Is Eve dreaming of us ?”
Either way, if we don’t wake up and respect her, if we don’t save the oceans, save the climate of our precious blue planet, we won’t be able to save ourselves.
8. Lastly, in today’s world, where subverting traditional styles has become almost a style in itself, do you think there’s still room for truly revolutionary cinema that challenges established norms?
I feel that somehow the arts & media commercial marketplace has surrendered to corporate attempts to interfere with, even steal the magic of our inherent human response to each other’s authenticity. I mean, the proof is in the AI. What’s the AI doing? It’s attempting to “capture” our humanity. Yikes. But it’s not the actual technical advances because those can be used for great good. Those technological advances can be used to help humans. Should be in the hands of humans with guard rails everywhere. So this attempt to “capture” humanity far predates the advances in AI.
Once again it is the worship of domination, the use of unfair competition, instead of the embrace of cooperation, which could include all forms of technological advance. The entertainment industry was already moving towards a “simulation““ of what the artist really does. It was already edging out the independent artist with integrity who cannot be controlled by a corporation. The one presenters who are corporate artists many of them are billionaires might mean well, but they are part of a system that suppresses the less wealthy, less powerful independent artists, and therefore diminishes the potential freshness of any given cultural marketplace.
That’s why I feel strongly that if we don’t embrace the authentic independent artist, the living breathing artist who may not be privileged enough to be featured by the upper gentrified levels of the media industry, who might live next-door to us or in another country and if we don’t set some boundaries with AI, tech giants, big money corporate art and also set some boundaries when it comes to privacy and individual human rights, then we really risk our ability to connect with each other.
There should be nobody standing in the middle of that sacred space between the artist and the fellow art lover. The artist is also an art lover. These are love stories! As I mentioned earlier : every project we make from our sustainable studio is a love story. Not that status quo thing we are taught to recognize is a love story. There are so many ways to express love stories.
There’s just an “authentic” human response to “authenticity” and for the artist – artist lover relationship – it’s a lifeline. The more big money corporate entities continue to do what I have been referring to as “gentrification of culture,” the weaker the authentic relationship between artist & art lover.
No middleman or middle woman belongs in the middle of that relationship, but so often, artists with smaller budgets just don’t reach the audience, rendering “the arts” a playground for the wealthy, the powerful, leading cultural ideas, tastes and aspirations to mold (dominate) the minds of individuals who form the “body” of every culture. On so many levels of culture and society, I think we should be careful to sustain our humanity. Not just ideologically, but somatically. Through our bodies.
One of our sustainability mottos is:
“Support The Arts,
Sustain The Artist ™”
If we can embrace the living artists around us. The artist right now, especially those who are respectful of those who came before us, then we can honor traditions while paving new pathways.
We can show respect, but also expand our boundaries toward each other, not away from each other. It really does “take a village” and as we are all spinning on this blue, beautiful planet in the middle of so many solar systems my movie and album are asking :
“When will we finally get the clue that WE ARE – the village. WE ARE – the family.”
The “Eve” in my movie refers to her twin, “Lilith” as “mitochondrial eve” – “the one mother” of us all who originated in Africa. Whether people want to find controversy with that theory or that discovery under the microscope, doesn’t really matter. In the 21st-century, it should be quite apparent to us all that we are all on the same airplane – what I call an “interplanetary swimming pool” and we need each other to make good decisions and to solve problems wisely. Even if it’s only for our own self interest. It would be great if we could all cultivate a sense of responsibility and motherly sisterly brotherly fatherly love toward each other, but even if we inexplicably feel the need to eschew utopias, if only for our self interest, let’s get it together and save this planet. Please.
On behalf of myself, my partner, Wings Hauser, and our little family at the Cali Lili Indies : We always knew the project was ahead of her time.
Tragically, devastatingly, in 2025 I find myself breathing for us both now. Seeing through my partner’s eyes, literally walking through the world with our twin souls in my heart and carrying us into the future, as he made me promise I would do. I gladly accepted the responsibility and the privilege. But I won’t be talking about him in the past. I will keep him in the present tense, which is where I feel him every day. He’s right here with me helping me.
He has many endearing nicknames for me, like “Cali Curls,” but one nickname he took seriously. He called me “his future” and it is my privilege as well as my responsibility to fulfill that role of carrying on our work at the studio, honoring our partnership goals, our ongoing forever love story, and his legacy.
We hope your readers will support us and our projects in every way possible now and in the future.
I always strived for and managed to not only express our love to the audience, but also to make my partner proud. That’s what I’ll continue to do.
9. To wrap up, do you have any underrated film recommendations for our audience—something that pushes boundaries in a similar way to “ Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ ?
I am in love with so many films and my beautiful partner Wings and I watch so many films together more than once. We love revisiting films.
So many quality projects are underrated! Because the rating system is hijacked by big money on many levels so movie lovers, music lovers, art lovers, we have to discover each other for ourselves.
I can hear Wings tell me right now:
“YOUR film has been
“under the radar”
And is literally “not yet rated” ! “
It’s quite awesome. That film festival is like yours have suddenly discovered my film in 2024 and 2025! We are thrilled about this! Thank you !
So as Wings always said to anyone inquiring :
“go buy a ticket and support our movie … go download our songs and SHARE “
“WE are underrated! “
it’s in the title! lol
On behalf of Wings & the team – we encourage people to see it more than once and hear the full album!
Mentioning other underappreciated films is so challenging because it’s like being in a candy store. There are so many, truly unique films which many people are not exposed to. ever since the ancients.
So I think the most important thing is – for US – the lovers of art – to be adventurous in our tastes! Like lovers, we must seek out our own love of the arts ! Those of us who love the arts understand that this is a lifestyle in and of itself !
Once again, I will employ a metaphor from “Farm to Table.” If we explore new ingredients that are fresh and then explore new cuisines that might be unusual or new, we expand our thinking and our capacity for appreciation. That’s how we meet each other! If we get to travel or try new cuisines, it’s so very similar to trying a new kind of film or music.
So I would suggest a similar approach to discovering what’s out there! It’s also like going to an art gallery. Or a museum. You could follow the pathway that has been designed and learn something, but you could also do what I do in an art gallery – I just go towards the pieces that call out to me and then place myself in the vibe. Communing with the artist. like a surfer : “be the wave.”
In this current climate, I don’t really know who appreciates what. Maybe that’s a good thing? The Internet makes it easy to rediscover classics and I really love to learn from the classics.
I love everything by Bob Fosse and I feel “Lenny” directed by Bob Fosse starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine & an excellent cast might be under-appreciated?
I adore the movie “Network” written by the great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Piper Laurie.
Any movie that Cicely Tyson has ever been in!
Sidney Poitier in “Lilies of the Field” and “A Patch of Blue.” And the one he directed, “A Warm December.”
Wings introduced me to a film called : “They Might Be Giants” early on in our relationship and it was an ongoing favorite for us. Directed by Anthony Harvey starring George C Scott , Joanne Woodward, Jack Gilford, Lester Rawlins.
“Defiance” directed by Ed Zwick is a fave of ours.
All of Hal Ashby’s films, especially “Harold & Maude,” “Coming Home,” “Bound For Glory,” and “Being There. ”
“Heaven Can Wait” starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. So romantic.
“McCabe & Mrs. Miller” also with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, with holy music by the Great Leonard Cohen. My partner Wings, once met Mr. Cohen in a hardware store in West Los Angeles and cherished that moment.
I love all of George Clooney’s films. Especially “Good Night and Good Luck” as well as “Up In The Air” and “Michael Clayton” with Tilda Swinton.
Every film by the great director, Frank Capra.
I love films made in the 1930s when they were very strong female roles.
Every film that the actress Jean Arthur was ever in.
Every film that John Crawford was ever in.
Every film with Elizabeth Taylor.
Every film with Katharine Hepburn.
Every film with Ingrid Bergman!
And I also have to mention every film with Spencer Tracey, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis –
Rosalind Russell, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper!
I think there is a romance to the films that I feel are underappreciated. I think we’ve been so busy as a culture trying to “act cool” – we started to become a little bit “cold. ”
It became fashionable to withhold emotion from the screen it seems? Like suddenly, if you “grunted” your lines as an actor, with people imitating the great Marlon Brando or James Dean, then maybe they thought they were being “cool”?
But no, Brando, Jimmy Dean did not grunt without passion. There is a volcano of emotion sitting dangerously underneath each subtle moment and you can’t fake that. Similarly, there is a gentle vulnerable flower underneath each explosion. I think what’s underrated, is a feeling for humanity in cinema and music. Almost as though we are being guided toward robot culture.
That’s one thing we are not afraid to illustrate at our studio : humanity. I just hope we can all cherish and support films made with heart, where humanity triumphs over the so-called “ box office .” Where kindness and cooperation beat competition. Where the artist can thrive.
This is not just some sort of platform. This is very personal to me and to us as partners and as a family carrying on a tradition. Especially now during a time of deep grief. Movies play such a huge role in my personal love story with my beautiful partner, Wings. We had a very platonic friendship as buddies way before we became creative partners and then – we grew in love as we deepened our creative partnership.
There is such a huge difference in age between us but we truly met as a result of our sheer love of acting, filmmaking and music making. I was sort of a “runaway with a scholarship” and he sort of “rescued me” and then I sort of“rescued” him.
We rescued each other. That’s a vibe that’s carried into our work and continues today.
Thank you so much for your time today, Cali. Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated” is truly an extraordinary film, and I’m sure it will continue to spark conversations for a long time. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Thank YOU so much ! I love that you mentioned “sparking conversations” – especially at this time in history/herstory when dialogue has been replaced by vitriol!
I always wished for this film to spark dialogue, and there have actually been audience members who wrote to us telling us that they have formed watch parties where people discuss the film after the viewing. In fact. we sometimes describe the film as :
“ a conversation, long overdue “
As far as the future, wow, thank you so much for that. I am eager to share upcoming projects with everybody.
I feel that I need to add a personal note here. My beautiful partner and husband, Wings Hauser, and I battled a terrible disease which had attacked him. The disease is known as COPD. As we always had a multigenerational age difference between us, we knew that someday I would be carrying the work forward. We always knew this would be excruciating, and it has been much more painful than I could ever have imagined. But I have to say I did always know that it would be excruciating.
In spite of the fact that I am currently feeling quite broken, devastated about the love of my life, my soulmate, I’m so grateful for the love that never ends. Few people are blessed with this level of partnership and the depth of our love makes this moment ever so much more painful. I am getting all kinds of spiritual signs from him every day and those are shocking because I’ve never really been into ghost stories. But I know now that he is still with me.
He made me promise that I would continue to be motivated in my art and he was worried that I had to set aside some of my acting career time while we were battling the disease. I made sure he understood that there was no place I would rather be than here with him at our studio. I am so grateful I did not waste one moment of precious time with him.
As I mentioned, for us, the work in and of itself – is ALL about LOVE. The upcoming projects are our babies. He called me “his future.” I am breathing for us both now, seeing the world through his eyes as well as mine and carrying our twin souls in my heart and into the future.
We prepped future feature films, as well as several books, including his memoirs and at least five or more albums worth of music/soundtracks.
There is also an upcoming documentary about my partner :
“ Wings Hauser ; Working Class Actor “
produced by La La Land Films, which features clips from “Eve N’ God This Female Is Not Yet Rated,” as well as discussions of our unique partnership and love story.
A new music single will also be released with the documentary. The producers of that documentary asked me to record one of my songs for their title track. As with all the songs, Wings & I co-wrote the music. We recorded it at the “legendary rock n’ roll hotel” : Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood, which houses the equally legendary Nightbird Studio, where Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Rihanna, and so many others have recorded.
That recording session was pure magic. Complete with a rare thunderstorm in West Hollywood that night. Epic.
I hope your readers, Film and Music lovers, will not only choose to see & hear “Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ more than once, listen to the full album soundtrack, read the lyrics and follow our studio : @CaliLiliIndies™ on all social media for updates on future releases and current content, but that they might also take the initiative to actively support our work. As I mentioned one of our mottos is:
“support the arts sustain the artist” ™
Humanity faces so many challenges. Artist rights,, like women’s rights , wildlife and sea life, our nature, our wildness, and our innocence are very much at risk. Like “canaries in the coal mine of culture,” we artists really need the support of our fellow art lovers, our community, our villages. It really is one big global love story.
As far as our personal love story, we were always amazed that people could see our love story so clearly – whether it was at the supermarket or at a fancy party. It’s a never-ending love. We spoke together on stage in front of several audiences, including a sold out crowd at the Egyptian Theatre in West Hollywood,Los Angeles and a simulcast streamed into an audience at a theater in Atlanta, sponsored by Videodrome Atlanta.
In preparation for these appearances, I made a few notes, to prepare for speaking before a large crowd. Wings introduced me to the audience when he asked me to speak to them about our partnership and future projects as he was so keen to bring his fans forward with us on our future adventures.
My notes turned into an essay, which is now a chapter in an upcoming book about the movie, album and our sustainable studio ™ in Venice Beach, Los Angeles California.
Here is the essay, a preview of the upcoming book :
our Sustainable Studio where we create music, movies and books while also providing a tiny monarch butterfly sanctuary as well as a tiny natural reef for ocean life.
We actively employ the aloha spirit in the creation of our signature form of “aquaculture” Living in wellness & harmony with nature and reflecting that in the work is of utmost importance to the creation of our projects
We send each one out like a ripple on the ocean or one of our monarch butterflies after they emerge from their chrysalis
Full Transcript
Interview with Cali Lili, Director/Writer and co-star of
Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated
Hi Cali,
It’s such a pleasure to speak with you today. I’ve just finished watching Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated, and I have to say, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen in recent times.
Hello Subhabrata and Karma and the Swedish International Film Festival Team !
Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm, thoughtful comments and excellent questions !
On behalf of my co-star & partner, movie icon, Wings Hauser and the entire cast, production & post production teams we are honored and grateful for this opportunity to speak with you and share the first of many future projects with fellow movie & music lovers!
Your film is refreshingly bold and nuanced in so many ways, both in its visual style and its thematic exploration. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into this project and I’m excited to dive into some of the concepts you’ve explored.
Thank you so much !
Let’s dive in !
Speaking of thought, while “thought” does play its part, FEELING is my compass. LOVE is my core, it’s at the heart of our studio and the works we release.
“Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated”
and all our projects are variations of Love Stories. Our structures perhaps don’t duplicate the status quo structure and tenor of most love stories many of us are accustomed to?
Wings and I grew in love as we became more involved in the process of our collaborations as artists and that love continues to sustain us and our work today.
As the movie suggests, there are as many love stories as there are humans because every relationship forms its own vocabulary. Every life form, species, ecosphere, the planet herself becomes stronger through biodiversity. Even simple economics shows us that a portfolio is stronger through diversification. “Even When Divided, Love Multiplies” is a lyric from one of the songs.
I love that you put together the words “bold” and also “nuanced” when referring to my film! Thank you! YES ! I was striving for both! With our debut project, I was hoping to create an “experience.” A “destination.” A “tiny-world-within-the-world” like a “snow globe.“ A place we hope movie & music lovers choose to revisit and notice something new every time.
The movie and stand-alone album / soundtrack are available now on demand at Apple TV, YouTube & Google Play Movies, just search the titles & names. An upcoming book about this debut project and our “sustainable studio,” housed in our “surf shack loft,” will be published in a few months and we hope readers will look out for that and all future music, film & book projects.
I’m thinking it might be fun to include some introductory comments here about my “process,” of making the film “by hand” guided by artisanal principles, to create a “signature blend” in a manner similar to culinary blends. Our studio is hand-built & operates sustainably. That sensibility is infused into the “special sauce“ of hand-making the movie, album and now, the upcoming book. I call it “handmade to make a difference” TM ️ and always infused with SOUL and LOVE.
Every one of our projects is home-spun, like handmade cookies, instead of store-bought. Here is a brief excerpt and preview of the upcoming book about the movie “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated,” the album, as well as the process and studio :
“Our sustainable studio organically blossomed from our desire to infuse projects with an authentic ‘mom & pop-up family farm’ essence, a ‘signature blend’ grown from the soil or ‘terroir’ (term used in the making a fine wine) of ‘Classic Hollywood’ nourished, then harvested in our own ‘microclimate’ extending beyond ‘the farm,’ in a manner that resembles ‘farm to table’ or in the case of ‘aquaculture,’ ‘aquaponics,’ ‘Sea to table.’
We view it as the most natural way to ‘grow art’ with roots and traditions, but also offshoots of innovation and then we should be able to ‘bring it to market.’ The “market” may not be quite as ‘organic’ as the art. That’s definitely a problem for many artists (and farmers) throughout the centuries. Certainly still a problem today. But I’m looking forward to a time when more independent artists can simply bring our ‘fruits to market’ just like the farmers market.
Or a painter selling a canvas without all of the gate-keeping complications that serve to shut many artists out. That was the original inspiration for simplifying this process. If a painter can put paint onto a canvas and sell the canvas why can’t an artist do the same with a film? “
“Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” is our debut project and we consider it our “first harvest.” Unfortunately Covid and other things delayed the start of the next project, as it delayed the lives of so many people on this beautiful blue planet. We hold hands with everyone affected by forces beyond our control. For us, this ‘ first harvest ‘ paved the way for upcoming projects. The fact that our studio name includes this description :
“Pictures, Words, Music in Motion ™”
hints toward the fact that each project was intended to be realized in all three mediums: movie, album and book.
The book is set to be published in the next few months, completing that phase of the first while we are already preparing the next project.
The entire world is experiencing so many hardships. We are all in this together and our projects intend to share love & encourage kindness & community across boundaries. In fact, one of the themes in “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated“ involves communicating beyond boundaries.
Written and shot before Covid two of the main protagonists speak to each other via Zoom throughout the entire movie. But their communication, their connection across that boundary is electric. We are not even certain they’re on the same dimension or planet. Yet their connection is palpable, visceral, eternal. Ultimately for us, it would become somewhat autobiographical.
As a matter of methodology, I was also keen to attend to experiential / feeling factors when it comes to physical production employing methods of organic sustainability. This includes maintaining an organic culture amongst the team. I wanted to create the atmosphere that resembles the intersection of a band and an athletic team. That’s how I think of our teams and as Wings and I are both athletes as well as musicians, this worked really well for us and the team.
Another example, I enlisted local diverse farmers to donate fruits and flowers to the set dressing and crew lunches. So our set dressing is sustainable and to some extent, “edible.” It was important for me to include local farmers. Other culinary aspects involve the fact that we include a scene where Eve employs a huge cleaver to hack open a fresh coconut.
Anyone who has hacked open a Thai coconut understands it’s a little risky. But the reward is divine. I’m pretty sure that was done in one take and that was a bit scary with the size of that clever but the result was delicious. Doctor Goddard cuts lemons throughout the movie and drinks straight up lemon juice. There is an essence of hunger and thirst for “Mother Earth, ” and “SisterOcean™”.
Another example involves the “sustainable wardrobe” with repurposed fabric & clothing. Additionally, the paintings featured in the film were painted by myself and Wings every New Years Day for the past few years. And then there were fun things like some of us doing two jobs. Wings, who co-stars in & co-produced the movie, has a special fondness & facility for serving food! He loves feeding people. So he insisted on managing craft services on the set! For fun! The crew loved what he served! During one lunch, he brought everybody a whole rotisserie chicken, lol the crew was stoked!
In our personal life, although I had spent most of my time living on arugula, I had to learn how to cook because I loved providing nutritional meals for Wings but he was a tough customer because he loves great food and he used to be a chef in a diner. So while he doesn’t cook healthy food, lol he cooks delicious food. I could not serve him healthy food that wasn’t also delicious so I had to learn.
The upcoming book will include recipes I developed that were healthy but became super delicious too! Part of our food theme stems from my concept that media (like meals) can be “nourishing.” For me personally, I think the first “grown-up“ thing I ever did was take responsibility for my own nutrition as soon as I learned what was going on with organic farming and small family farms. The second thing was to take responsibility for any other person that I feed. It was like a bolt of understanding that our food is our future. We are indeed what we eat, what we consume. And it became one of the most palpable and heartfelt ways that I could take care of my beautiful partner. I truly grew to adore cooking for Wings. I still cook for him.
Same with media consumption. The intellectual / creative / informational understandings or misunderstandings are “food for thought.” That’s also what we become when we consume media. Multiple aspects of what we’re doing stem from this methodology and it begins with what I call a “sustainable idea.” For me, that’s an idea infused with both thought & love, both heart and soul. Movies and music take time to seed, water, bloom and harvest and cook. Like fruits, vegetables, and aquaculture / aquaponics which I find especially endearing & inspiring.
As a person who practices & embraces sustainability, wellness, nutrition, and as a dancer / former yoga instructor, I choose to take responsibility for the “sustainability“ of the core idea. If it’s not an idea I can sustain with passion for long periods of time literally from “Farm to Studio” ™️ and beyond then I know it’s not something I can responsibly bring to my brilliant partner & talented crew & the audience in good conscience. I’m applying not just a passion test, but also testing for sustainability through consciousness. I’m very grateful to have experienced an inner compass since I was a kid.
As I mentioned, this debut project is meant to pave the way for our future projects and I’m SO grateful my partner was able to experience the acknowledgments, screenings, and awards the film garnered in 2024 and 2025 ! Several years after the initial release! I had always wished that the film & album could be timeless. The way Wings expressed it to me :
“I told you ! Your Project Got ‘Legs’!
Just Like You!”
Wings Hauser
(referring to the classic phrase for a project that becomes a ‘sleeper’ hit )
1. Let’s start with the biblical references in your film. The title itself, Eve N’ God, immediately evokes ideas of creation, temptation, and divine power. Is there an intentional inversion of traditional biblical themes here, or are you playing with those ideas in a more subtle way?
I like that you highlight “creation, temptation & divine power” with regard to the first part of thetitle : “Eve N’ God.” The second part of the title: “this female is not yet rated” (which happens to be the title of the album / soundtrack ) is intended to lend a hint of irony to the fact that as you rightly pointed out, I am inviting us to “play.”
One of Eve’s lines of dialogue highlights the concept that our most important “work” involves opportunities to “play” :
“Doc ! I want to PLAY !
Put me back in the game !”
(dialogue from “Eve N’ God this female is not yet rated “)
This encapsulates the motivation for Eve, representing the “Every-Woman” enlisting other women as well as men, to ask questions about choice, voice, freedom. To “PLAY” is to participate, to choose, to be afforded opportunities to make a difference. If we are barred from “PLAY,” we have no choice, no voice, no opportunity.
“Creation, temptation & divine power” can all be employed as tools for opportunities to enhance people’s lives, cultures and societies but they can also become tools to hinder progress. So the story is a “meditation” asking questions and instead of forcing answers, as is often done with cultures that worship, dominance and supremacy, this meditation invites more questions and offers opportunities for cooperation as a means of defeating competition.
When you think about it, the “cooperation frame of mind” when applied to solving societal and cultural problems really does out-compete – the “competition frame of mind” because cooperation invites bonding, while competition invites separation. If “survival of the fittest” is slavishly applied to solving cultural and societal problems, and if that survival of the fittest model depends upon whomever has a larger bank account, no matter how that bank account was fattened, whether it was by true merit or by cheating, it seems that it might be wise in the 21st-century to consider new models, paradigms.
I think it’s also important to mention here, that “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” suggests that the “original Eve,” often conflated with “original sin,” and the myth of “Lilith” examined in the context of the myth of “Adam and Eve” is inextricably intertwined with my idea that “Lilith,” represented by our character named “Lila” (meaning “night”) is a black woman. That she is inextricably intertwined with the concept of “mitochondrial eve,“ the concept that we are all sisters and brothers from one mother in Africa. In our movie, the light-skinned “white” appearing character named “Eve” who is not in fact “white” considers herself the twin of “mitochondrial eve. ” The film is also pondering the fact that both of Adam’s wives both Lilith and Eve refused to be subservient and my script asks the question, perhaps Lilith and Eve found comfort in each other?
I think that’s worth chewing on.
2.
The first scene is extremely significant. It can symbolise resistance, difference, perseverance and what not. What inspired you to begin the film with such an intense moment of confrontation?
I love hearing about your experience with the film. The intense scene you are describing, which takes place early on, is like all the scenes in the film, a matter of poetry and music. It’s an essential piece, a building block, a molecule that appears in a sequence forming a rhythm that ultimately gives life to the whole organism, the poem, the “world” of the movie. Editing is so much fun and SO CRUCIAL as it’s the “time signature” of the movie, just like a metronome clocks a piece of music. People may be unaccustomed to unconventional forms of editing because we have all been trained to accept certain ‘conventional storytelling rhythms’ depending on the culture we were raised in or the dominant culture we can choose to either blindly accept or question.
It is a scientific fact that if you are exposed to a certain rhythm, your body / heart will sympathize / synchronize with that rhythm. Editing is about rhythm just like music. I posit that movie lovers have been somewhat indoctrinated into accepting certain editing rhythms dominating much of cinema. I have always felt we would benefit from remaining open to new rhythms including the rhythm of our own hearts.
For me, the first “scene” in the movie is actually a black screen with the sound of a mourning dove. It’s the empty page or stage and a cry from earth, from the heart. I don’t vibe with the “move fast break things” mentality so prevalent in too many cultures. My wish is to create projects through our studio that:
Music and poetry guide my rhythm, my vision, which I bring to my partner, and we apply principles that we both believe in. It’s kind of like our “secret sauce,” the traditions of our “tiny family farm-to-table.“ In fact we are like a tiny family farm, working from a tiny feMt0™studi0 Eco-LoFt™. Our hand built surf shack in Venice Beach represents a little bit of “aloha” combining elements at the intersection of beloved Hawaii and beloved Big Sur, California, with a hint of Greenwich Village New York thrown in.
So the sequence of the scenes and the edit design is definitely a form of visual music. As a director, I am all over the design of the edit because it’s so vital to the final cut. I feel it’s essential to take responsibility for the edit design and it’s also on my mind & in my heart during the rhythm I’m hearing while writing the screenplay and directing the scenes. So when I shoot, I’ve already got an editing rhythm in mind but of course it will shift and adjust according to all the happy mistakes & coincidences we can improvise upon. That’s also magic. I am open to letting the material find its own rhythm as long as it’s true to the integrity of the piece. It’s an ongoing dance on a moving wave, like surfing.
Sometimes Wings and I have slight differences when it comes to certain scenes but as with all of our disagreements, we always find the best solution due to the process of a debate and remaining open to discovery. We always arrive at an improved result by taking that time. At first, he felt the very first scene with the clock ticking was too quiet, too slow and he suggested that I cut earlier but as time went on, he eventually loved how it led us into the overall meditative pacing that is periodically disrupted by that intense scene you’re referring to.
It’s a necessary disruption from the hypnotic ticking clock. It’s a wake up call. An alarm.The very intense early scene you asked about exists in that time code, because that’s where it belongs in the “music” and “poetry” of the movie with each scene following inevitably after the previous scene blossoming like a flower. In the same way my next exhale follows my next inhale and then my next inhale follows my next exhale (an influence from yoga & vocal training) but nonetheless it is so organic to every sport, art form and practice – of course it’s like the art of life herself.
That particular scene just like every other scene in the movie is meant to be there because it could not be anywhere else for this movie to exist. We’ve experienced people who have never made a movie, but who are chained vehemently to a status quo understanding of what editing must be, express to me with shocking confidence, almost angrily, that they think I should edit the movie differently. That’s because they are chained to their notion of what is acceptable and therefore commercial. The “tell” is how angry they seem to be and sometimes it’s covert anger. But they’re trying to appear as though they’re trying to “help me” while they’re telling me that they feel I should’ve edited the film differently. As though I broke some rule that maybe they wish they could break free from too?
in these cases, we find that instead of accepting my invitation to come along for the ride – and SO MANY movie & music lovers gladly accepted the invitation and had a great time – a few others chose to seem somewhat angry that I had the courage to take a new trail. Sometimes people express it as though they want to “help me,” because I am a newcomer. But we wish that more people would come along for the discoveries, support our innovative projects instead of remaining chained to their old notions. It’s almost like there’s a quota on just a few selected filmmakers who are allowed to “break the rules” and that’s usually a matter of power and influence and probably money. I’m suggesting that audiences reward the tiny filmmakers like me who really are taking chances.
It’s true that the intense scene represents those excellent words you used: “resistance, difference, perseverance.“ It is a strong early statement born from the darkness and freedom of a blank screen and the mournful cry from a mourning dove. That intense scene “wakes us up” into the dreamscape we are about to enter. Paradoxically the scene is asking us to “wake up” while also inviting us to “wake into a dream.”
My team, and I are asking the audience to please care about the independent artist to take chances. Requesting that we all “pay attention“ to us tiny filmmakers because “attention” is arguably the most powerful “commodity” certainly in the media, but also in the world today. As my beautiful partner Wings Hauser would say, he appreciates it when people “give a damn.”
Whenever I hear the expression “pay attention” I always think of the great play by Arthur Miller “Death of aSalesman” in which “Willy Loman” (The Everyman) repeats his plea to humanity :
“attention must be paid !”
It’s kind of like that.
3. There’s a clear influence of Dogme 95 in your work. The rawness and immediacy of the cinematography, the handheld shots, and the natural lighting all echo the movement’s ideals. How did Dogme 95 influence your approach to Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated ?
Fascinating question!
Actually, I first learned of Dogme 95 after I had already formulated my concept of “sustainable filmmaking” based on my dance & yoga background as well as my love for ocean / sea life conservancy.
In school, I was very interested in the contemporary effects of the history of the works of experimental directors & actors, along with that of international artists in those fields. I think it’s really helpful to look back at the origins of certain traditions in order to find one’s place in the current repertoire. I always look back at the classics and that’s probably because ever since I was a kid I have been referred to as “mature for my age “ or “a young person with an old soul.“
I studied the effects of the Polish experimental director Jerzy Grotowski ( “Towards A Poor Theatre “ ) and the French Dramatist Antonin Artaud (“The Theater And its Double “) along with the work of Brecht AND a few other artists in theater, visual & music arts that were even more influential to me. I discuss those in detail in my upcoming book. In fact, my book, among other textures, will present the movie as a work of dramatic literature, complete with stage directions. The script would make an amazing stage play and I’ve devised a very detailed staging concept. It’s ironic to me that my early plays which I wrote as a teenager were often called “cinematic,” and because I was a theater snob, lol I took that as an insult. Sometimes we are idiots but can find great humor in our idiocy if we grow up a little bit.
My initial studies were in dance & theatre in New York and this greatly influences my cinema. As a kid, I won my first play writing contest, after being urged by my awesome professor, an immigrant from the Himalayas, to enter the contest. I was extremely hesitant to do this, but she was so sweetly encouraging that I did enter it. It was my first play. When she told me that I had won the contest, I can still remember the light in her eyes as she practically shouted out my victory. It was absolutely true that she won! I would never have entered that contest had it not been for her. The reason she thought it would be a good idea results from the fact that I find writing prose daunting but dialogue and poetry are very natural for me. As a teacher, a professor, she went the extra mile to think about how she could guide me. She was completely correct, and I am in touch with her to this day. I am so very grateful for all my teachers who saved me from an abusive childhood.
So, to get back to Dogme 95 , it seemed like a natural ally for the ideas that I was formulating in order to understand where my work was going. My wish to express concepts of “sustainability” based on my love for the oceans, sealife , aquaculture , farmers markets, small family farms, ocean conservancy, organic cuisine, farm to table, ecological and nutritional concerns in making film & music was a result of my wish to make “food for thought films.” I felt that culture and cultural spaces were becoming so “gentrified” that artists were being pushed out of our own “native waters” in the same way whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions & sealife are bullied out of their own waters or small family farms are bullied by “big agriculture” and in the same way, so many cultures are bullied by “big money” in general.
Even as a teenager I was concerned about what I called “the gentrification of culture.” I felt it was the reason my family did not support what I knew was my purpose in life. The “gentrification of culture” made it appear as though “only rich people” could become artists and unfortunately, the reality seems to almost prove that true. Although many people can make films with advances in technology, distribution and audience awareness through marketing is mostly the domain of the wealthy. As my brilliant partner shared with me, at some point in the history of Hollywood, people could “buy their way” into the entertainment industry, whether it was through nepotism or actual money and connections. It was no longer a matter of merit, talent & hard work / dedication so much as “connections / influence / money” and the illusion of talent & seeming performative “hard work.”
Wings also expressed very rightly that he witnessed the transition of the audience’s interest from quality art to “box office.” He said that as soon as he first heard popular entertainment shows reporting mostly about “box office” profits instead of nuance in films, he felt that was harmful not only to actors but all film makers who deeply love the “making of film.” That reminds me of a great quote from Sir Michael Caine. I’m paraphrasing from him : “plays are performed while movies are made.” That quote has really inspired me. It’s very worrying to think that the audience is being manipulated into thinking about “box office” success and “visibility” whether it be on social media or traditional broadcasting/cultural events, instead of artistic merit because it conflates so-called “success” in industries that have become “gentrified” “closed loops” with actual talent / merit / cultural significance which is a very different dimension of success. That gentrification created the illusion that the privileged few works of art that were distributed / visible were inherently more culturally significant when actually they have only became culturally significant as a self fulfilling prophecy due to their privilege in distribution or opportunistic visibility.
I worried this might deeply harm authentic independent artists and I also worried it was diminishing culture. My pushback against this notion was not just a matter of survival for us as artists, I was worried about cultural ecosystems becoming toxic, in the same way other ecosystems are damaged by neglect. I’m still worried about that. We have to admit that the independent artist like many forms of wildlife, sealife and civilization itself are an “endangered species.“ Part of my graduate studies involved anthropology so I think of these things on an anthropological level as well as a practical creative hands-on artist level.
My aesthetic has also been informed by economics and I have gladly incorporated concepts from experimental theater into my style. Experimental theorists, like Grotowski, Artaud and Brecht among a few very significant others I mention in my upcoming book in various disciplines like painting and music have always inspired me. They were very influenced by economics and societal theory.
Less Can Be More and More Can Be Less
We hope audiences will support our sustainable studio as these methodologies are intended to maintain love, respect and survival for artists on this planet in exactly the same way we wish for us all to protect wildlife, sea life, and human rights on this beautiful interstellar, swimming pool planet. My works are my “babies” and many cultures provide incentives and benefits for women to have babies. Well, I feel so strongly that artists contribute to the culture just as much when we “give birth” to our “babies“ and I think cultures should “support the arts” by sustaining the living artist.
We are all interconnected. If we lose our innocence through indifference towards saving the planet, wildlife, sea life, women’s rights, human rights, the oceans, the forests, the cities AND LIVING ARTISTS – then we have lost confidence in ourselves.
As the great thinker Elie Wiesel said :
“the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference “
It’s so important that we care, that we do what my partner Wings Hauser would describe as “giving a damn.” If we lose our ability to care about others and our planet, we would be abdicating ourselves, giving up on ourselves.
4. The music in the film feels very disruptive—almost unsettling at times. It doesn’t always follow traditional structures, and there’s an underlying chaos to it. Could you talk about how music was used to reflect the disruption of societal norms and to underscore the themes of subversion?
Thank you for noticing and expressing this so eloquently !
As a standalone purposely eclectic album (the album can be found on all music streaming services: Cali Lili “This Female is Not Yet Rated“ ) it has a life of its own along with belonging to the world of the film, as soundtrack. The Album and the Soundtrack are family but they are also individuals.
It’s so interesting that in many cultures around the world, we learn to regard questions that trace lines outside the boxes created by society as “subversion.” Of course the artist space, if it is a free space, provides the freedom to ask questions and think outside norms so our collective consciousness norms find it “sexy” to think of that “rock ‘n’ roll, smash the guitar, question society, style of “subversion.”
For me, it’s about playing, PLAY!
Asking questions and playing with the possibilities. Sometimes when we ask questions we feel are “dangerous” to our sense of status quo, we regard – just asking – the questions – to be “subversive.” If you’ll recall, our “Eve” humorously, refers to herself and anyone asking these questions as “dangerous,” she says:
“OK I want to be dangerous,”
She is playfully accepting a “play pretend” “mission” in-service to a higher goal.
Dr. Goddard responds :
“So you’re not going militant on me?”
Which leads Eve to giggle out loud and say:
“ just a Tango – up Pico Boulevard ”
Like most of us, she just wants to play.
It’s true that the songs AND the choreography in the film – are challenging norms, as are many of the lines of dialogue. The music and choreography support the story moving forward, asking questions, asking questions ASKING QUESTIONS – with a drum beat moving us forward, playing with answers, playing with a Multiverse of possibilities. There are several references to mirrors in the film. Visual rhythm including a few repeating frames and choreographed jump cuts in the unconventional edit design which are syncopating echoes that do follow their own internal map. A structure particular to an internal organic logic that dances unapologetically to its own time signature.
My script was “composed” with songs incorporated into the text & intended for the edit. The edit design is “composed” like one big poem unfurling, blossoming like a flower, one big “symphony” building from a sequence of “movements.” Including dance & actor movement, or non-movement. If you’ll notice, both primary characters are somewhat “penned in, contained” speaking to each other on ZOOM.
The songs rely HEAVILY on syncopated lyrics and percussive build. The lyrics are crucial to these songs and the album is somewhat of a “concept album” exploring new avenues about every theme in the movie carried by the purposely eclectic range of musical styles / genres. It’s not often that one album includes all these genres : rap , Americana, rock ‘n’ roll, folk rock, country punk, Reggaeton, world groove, and 12 bar blues.
So in this one album all the common themes are purposeful “explored” asking the question:
“How can I address each theme as” a rap song, but also as a folk song, a country song, an all out rock and roll song, a jazz or blues song, a punk song or a song that’s influenced by world groove? ” The album is intended to feel like a trip around Americana and world grooves and then back home to America, specifically Los Angeles with songs like “Sindarella GirlZ,” which is heavily influenced by Reggaeton.
The music in the movie wants to break out of the confines of the screen and run wild. In fact it’s one of many “cracks in the cement” where green sprouts break out of their confines described in of the songs “World is My Living Room, ” which includes this line :
The movie wants to jump off the screen, dance in the aisles of the movie theater, out of the doors and onto the street, dancing all the way to the beach splashing into the ocean.
5.
The theme of subversion through movement is quite prominent in your film, especially with the characters’ physical gestures and interactions. How do you see movement as a form of subversion, and what was your approach to choreographing or directing these movements?
Awesome that I began to answer this question in the previous answer. That’s how good your questions are!
So, I would add to everything I said in the previous answer, it was pretty eerie that this film was shot before Covid and yet two main characters speak to each other over ZOOM throughout the entire film. As I mentioned earlier, one of the themes is “communication across boundaries.”
So part of what you’re describing has to do with lack of movement. Or movement constrained, restrained. Wings and I were so excited to work together on so many levels, I mean, we just really love to work together on anything! We would often leave birthday messages for family members in the form of rap songs that we came up with on the spot after talking about it for a few seconds before we made the birthday call. He’s directed me several times and we’ve worked together in various ways. But one interesting factor is that he’s quite a physical actor. And I just knew that this character which remains in one location for the entire film would allow for a very high concentration of his acting chops.
So the characters are both somewhat constrained through much of the film. It’s the rhythm again. It allows us to relax and pay attention not just to what they are saying, feeling, doing and NOT doing on screen but also what we are feeling as an audience. And then – after restrained movement, the characters are set free. And so are we.
My choreography style stems from influences in classic choreography, Bob Fosse (I studied not just the movies but also in class with Ann Reinking), Twyla Tharp, and the OG : Isadora Duncan! Jazz choreography emphasizes “isolations” which for me is very meaningful. The characters are reaching to each other beyond physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual boundaries.
For me, choreography like surfing, like life, is all about “flow.” So while the jazz choreography & character movement emphasized sharpness, anger, pain and challenges, “the elbows and knees of isolation” the other movements represented “flow” including water elements, pointing us toward healing, acceptance, understanding, communication, love and freedom.
6. The film also tackles the nature vs. nurture debate, particularly in the context of how societal expectations shape our identities. How do you see this theme playing out in the film, and why is it such an important issue to explore?
Nature is definitely a character in this film. When we cut to nature, it is always a reference to the essence of Eve, or Lilith. The “sacred feminine.” Eve is defending nature in her arguments with Dr. Goddard. It’s ironic because she’s advocating for freedom in the creation of this masterpiece called “Mother Earth,” and what I refer to as “Sister Ocean.” While “Doc” is afraid of that freedom because he’s defending that creation. We can see things from both perspectives.
Eve is an advocate! In the same way that proverbial “man” sought to conquer “nature,” he sought to conquer the sacred feminine. Before ancient female priests and goddesses were “kicked out” of the clergy, religion and out of many governmental / cultural leadership positions (sound familiar? Yeah,it’s happened before) there was a feminine, earthy, watery, often matriarchal aspect to many cultures which found itself dampened, muted and relegated to the “barefoot in the kitchen” duties.
The vestiges of such “excommunication of the feminine” & the natural watery world, expressed itself as patriarchy, which we all know is still active in many cultures. The voice of patriarchy might think it is “rallying” but unfortunately, all one needs to do is look around us on this beautiful blue planet, and recognize that patriarchal attempts at domination are harming everyone by denying its own feminine nature at the expense of its own survival.
Personally, we experienced this when we noticed the way culture retreats from married women. To be sure, my marriage with my amazing, beautiful partner and husband Wings Hauser, it’s not a conventional marriage. We are creative equals. Equals in every way, but we often encounter societal pressures and bizarre misunderstandings, simply due to the fact that we always express our relationship in terms reflecting our equal partnership. But then again, as a result of this expression, we would literally have people come up to us in the grocery store or at fancy parties, telling us how much they were inspired by our partnership.
As this was my first marriage, I was amazed to find myself in certain 21st century societal circumstances treated like “wives” may have been treated in the 1950’s – or the 1600s – or cavemen times! It was a bizarre “awakening” and you might’ve noticed that Eve “wakes up” quite a few times in the movie which is as much a dissertation about marriage as it is about every other theme. The discussion of what it means to be married as a 21st Century Girl is a deep core theme.
My beautiful partner / husband, Wings, is a real “feminist!” Always advocating for women. I mean, he raised a daughter on his own with no trust fund – having lost his own father at a very young age. He worked for everything he accomplished and still managed to raise a daughter as a single father! He’s much older than me but my reaction to the antiquated societal expectations of my identity, awoke his own inherent feminist nature. I had always said that I would never get married. Until I met my perfect partner, my soulmate, the love of my life, the only husband that could ever make sense. We bring out the best in each other. What more could anyone ask for? We are very lucky and always puzzled at the antiquated societal weirdness towards women and partnerships.
Ultimately, I figured out that cultures based on supremacy/domination benefit from division amongst people, whether it be race, culture, class or gender. The movie is based on a form of Socratic argumentative attempt to discover answers through finding more questions. The tension between a female “goddess entity” who wants to remain free while still enjoying partnership and a male “god entity” who basically wants the same thing – that’s what’s interesting. Edward Albee’s play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” rocks a similar vibe in that regard.
A good marriage, a good partnership whether it be marriage or bandmates, athletic team or crew, whether it be male and female or female and female, or male and male – whether it be binary or trans or whatever, it’s about the partnership – the partnership is SO soul-affirming. It is also an affirmation of a society that can work to solve problems not just for the community but for the individuals.
Once again we return to the idea of “Cooperation Beats Competition ™.” Working together with well matched partners is a humane sustainable model for human happiness, planet happiness. It’s good for humans and it’s good for wildlife and sea life and plant life. I’ve always thought it was amazing that the country of Bhutan has a ”happiness index.” I think that’s really interesting for the 21st century world to consider. After all, we are literally spinning on a ball in the middle of the Multiverse splashing like a big old swimming pool. Let’s at least solve some of our mutual problems together, find some happiness together and stop fighting each other together.
Partnerships can solve problems instead of creating new ones. When people are divided, new problems are created. When people partner together, we solve problems, if our hearts are partnered with our minds and if our motivation is to make the world a better place for everybody, not just for a few of us. For all of us! It’s so simple.
Unfortunately, too many societal expectations have shut out the very important female energy in problem-solving. Once again it’s like the failed attempt to dominate nature. Those who attempt to eradicate the feminine, and dominate nature, do so at their own peril. The problem is, they also put the rest of the planet in peril.
As Eve’s dialogue is structured like a filibuster (like Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic masterpiece “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”) she’s making an argument before Dr. Goddard, otherwise known as the white straight male authority deity she refers to as :
“the most Supreme Court “
Her argument is a plea for the world to embrace the feminine “wild” because this sets us all free:
“It’s the wilderness in yourself!”
Eve says.
Without that freedom for the wild, for the feminine, we imprison the planet.
7.
The title, This Female is Not Yet Rated, feels like both a commentary on how women are often categorized or judged in society and a challenge to those labels. How does this title encapsulate the themes of the film?
Yes! and as I mentioned, that’s the title of the standalone album.The “female” in question is “not yet rated” because she is often “discounted” ( valued less ) as Eve informs Dr. Goddard.
Eve also says, “that female” still exists. She may be met with patriarchal “indifference” in the same way the great Elie Weisel defined it but she exists. She may “not be rated,” she may experience attempts at erasure or appropriation, but the look in her eyes and the arguments she makes, her actions – might save us all! As long as most of us do not remain silent.
The movie asks :
“ Are we dreaming of Eve
or
Is Eve dreaming of us ?”
Either way, if we don’t wake up and respect her, if we don’t save the oceans, save the climate of our precious blue planet, we won’t be able to save ourselves.
8. Lastly, in today’s world, where subverting traditional styles has become almost a style in itself, do you think there’s still room for truly revolutionary cinema that challenges established norms?
I feel that somehow the arts & media commercial marketplace has surrendered to corporate attempts to interfere with, even steal the magic of our inherent human response to each other’s authenticity. I mean, the proof is in the AI. What’s the AI doing? It’s attempting to “capture” our humanity. Yikes. But it’s not the actual technical advances because those can be used for great good. Those technological advances can be used to help humans. Should be in the hands of humans with guard rails everywhere. So this attempt to “capture” humanity far predates the advances in AI.
Once again it is the worship of domination, the use of unfair competition, instead of the embrace of cooperation, which could include all forms of technological advance. The entertainment industry was already moving towards a “simulation““ of what the artist really does. It was already edging out the independent artist with integrity who cannot be controlled by a corporation. The one presenters who are corporate artists many of them are billionaires might mean well, but they are part of a system that suppresses the less wealthy, less powerful independent artists, and therefore diminishes the potential freshness of any given cultural marketplace.
That’s why I feel strongly that if we don’t embrace the authentic independent artist, the living breathing artist who may not be privileged enough to be featured by the upper gentrified levels of the media industry, who might live next-door to us or in another country and if we don’t set some boundaries with AI, tech giants, big money corporate art and also set some boundaries when it comes to privacy and individual human rights, then we really risk our ability to connect with each other.
There should be nobody standing in the middle of that sacred space between the artist and the fellow art lover. The artist is also an art lover. These are love stories! As I mentioned earlier : every project we make from our sustainable studio is a love story. Not that status quo thing we are taught to recognize is a love story. There are so many ways to express love stories.
There’s just an “authentic” human response to “authenticity” and for the artist – artist lover relationship – it’s a lifeline. The more big money corporate entities continue to do what I have been referring to as “gentrification of culture,” the weaker the authentic relationship between artist & art lover.
No middleman or middle woman belongs in the middle of that relationship, but so often, artists with smaller budgets just don’t reach the audience, rendering “the arts” a playground for the wealthy, the powerful, leading cultural ideas, tastes and aspirations to mold (dominate) the minds of individuals who form the “body” of every culture. On so many levels of culture and society, I think we should be careful to sustain our humanity. Not just ideologically, but somatically. Through our bodies.
One of our sustainability mottos is:
“Support The Arts,
Sustain The Artist ™”
If we can embrace the living artists around us. The artist right now, especially those who are respectful of those who came before us, then we can honor traditions while paving new pathways.
We can show respect, but also expand our boundaries toward each other, not away from each other. It really does “take a village” and as we are all spinning on this blue, beautiful planet in the middle of so many solar systems my movie and album are asking :
“When will we finally get the clue that WE ARE – the village. WE ARE – the family.”
The “Eve” in my movie refers to her twin, “Lilith” as “mitochondrial eve” – “the one mother” of us all who originated in Africa. Whether people want to find controversy with that theory or that discovery under the microscope, doesn’t really matter. In the 21st-century, it should be quite apparent to us all that we are all on the same airplane – what I call an “interplanetary swimming pool” and we need each other to make good decisions and to solve problems wisely. Even if it’s only for our own self interest. It would be great if we could all cultivate a sense of responsibility and motherly sisterly brotherly fatherly love toward each other, but even if we inexplicably feel the need to eschew utopias, if only for our self interest, let’s get it together and save this planet. Please.
On behalf of myself, my partner, Wings Hauser, and our little family at the Cali Lili Indies : We always knew the project was ahead of her time.
Tragically, devastatingly, in 2025 I find myself breathing for us both now. Seeing through my partner’s eyes, literally walking through the world with our twin souls in my heart and carrying us into the future, as he made me promise I would do. I gladly accepted the responsibility and the privilege. But I won’t be talking about him in the past. I will keep him in the present tense, which is where I feel him every day. He’s right here with me helping me.
He has many endearing nicknames for me, like “Cali Curls,” but one nickname he took seriously. He called me “his future” and it is my privilege as well as my responsibility to fulfill that role of carrying on our work at the studio, honoring our partnership goals, our ongoing forever love story, and his legacy.
We hope your readers will support us and our projects in every way possible now and in the future.
I always strived for and managed to not only express our love to the audience, but also to make my partner proud. That’s what I’ll continue to do.
9. To wrap up, do you have any underrated film recommendations for our audience—something that pushes boundaries in a similar way to “ Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ ?
I am in love with so many films and my beautiful partner Wings and I watch so many films together more than once. We love revisiting films.
So many quality projects are underrated! Because the rating system is hijacked by big money on many levels so movie lovers, music lovers, art lovers, we have to discover each other for ourselves.
I can hear Wings tell me right now:
“YOUR film has been
“under the radar”
And is literally “not yet rated” ! “
It’s quite awesome. That film festival is like yours have suddenly discovered my film in 2024 and 2025! We are thrilled about this! Thank you !
So as Wings always said to anyone inquiring :
“go buy a ticket and support our movie … go download our songs and SHARE “
“WE are underrated! “
it’s in the title! lol
On behalf of Wings & the team – we encourage people to see it more than once and hear the full album!
Mentioning other underappreciated films is so challenging because it’s like being in a candy store. There are so many, truly unique films which many people are not exposed to. ever since the ancients.
So I think the most important thing is – for US – the lovers of art – to be adventurous in our tastes! Like lovers, we must seek out our own love of the arts ! Those of us who love the arts understand that this is a lifestyle in and of itself !
Once again, I will employ a metaphor from “Farm to Table.” If we explore new ingredients that are fresh and then explore new cuisines that might be unusual or new, we expand our thinking and our capacity for appreciation. That’s how we meet each other! If we get to travel or try new cuisines, it’s so very similar to trying a new kind of film or music.
So I would suggest a similar approach to discovering what’s out there! It’s also like going to an art gallery. Or a museum. You could follow the pathway that has been designed and learn something, but you could also do what I do in an art gallery – I just go towards the pieces that call out to me and then place myself in the vibe. Communing with the artist. like a surfer : “be the wave.”
In this current climate, I don’t really know who appreciates what. Maybe that’s a good thing? The Internet makes it easy to rediscover classics and I really love to learn from the classics.
I love everything by Bob Fosse and I feel “Lenny” directed by Bob Fosse starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine & an excellent cast might be under-appreciated?
I adore the movie “Network” written by the great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Piper Laurie.
Any movie that Cicely Tyson has ever been in!
Sidney Poitier in “Lilies of the Field” and “A Patch of Blue.” And the one he directed, “A Warm December.”
Wings introduced me to a film called : “They Might Be Giants” early on in our relationship and it was an ongoing favorite for us. Directed by Anthony Harvey starring George C Scott , Joanne Woodward, Jack Gilford, Lester Rawlins.
“Defiance” directed by Ed Zwick is a fave of ours.
All of Hal Ashby’s films, especially “Harold & Maude,” “Coming Home,” “Bound For Glory,” and “Being There. ”
“Heaven Can Wait” starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. So romantic.
“McCabe & Mrs. Miller” also with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, with holy music by the Great Leonard Cohen. My partner Wings, once met Mr. Cohen in a hardware store in West Los Angeles and cherished that moment.
I love all of George Clooney’s films. Especially “Good Night and Good Luck” as well as “Up In The Air” and “Michael Clayton” with Tilda Swinton.
Every film by the great director, Frank Capra.
I love films made in the 1930s when they were very strong female roles.
Every film that the actress Jean Arthur was ever in.
Every film that John Crawford was ever in.
Every film with Elizabeth Taylor.
Every film with Katharine Hepburn.
Every film with Ingrid Bergman!
And I also have to mention every film with Spencer Tracey, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis –
Rosalind Russell, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper!
I think there is a romance to the films that I feel are underappreciated. I think we’ve been so busy as a culture trying to “act cool” – we started to become a little bit “cold. ”
It became fashionable to withhold emotion from the screen it seems? Like suddenly, if you “grunted” your lines as an actor, with people imitating the great Marlon Brando or James Dean, then maybe they thought they were being “cool”?
But no, Brando, Jimmy Dean did not grunt without passion. There is a volcano of emotion sitting dangerously underneath each subtle moment and you can’t fake that. Similarly, there is a gentle vulnerable flower underneath each explosion. I think what’s underrated, is a feeling for humanity in cinema and music. Almost as though we are being guided toward robot culture.
That’s one thing we are not afraid to illustrate at our studio : humanity. I just hope we can all cherish and support films made with heart, where humanity triumphs over the so-called “ box office .” Where kindness and cooperation beat competition. Where the artist can thrive.
This is not just some sort of platform. This is very personal to me and to us as partners and as a family carrying on a tradition. Especially now during a time of deep grief. Movies play such a huge role in my personal love story with my beautiful partner, Wings. We had a very platonic friendship as buddies way before we became creative partners and then – we grew in love as we deepened our creative partnership.
There is such a huge difference in age between us but we truly met as a result of our sheer love of acting, filmmaking and music making. I was sort of a “runaway with a scholarship” and he sort of “rescued me” and then I sort of“rescued” him.
We rescued each other. That’s a vibe that’s carried into our work and continues today.
Thank you so much for your time today, Cali. Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated” is truly an extraordinary film, and I’m sure it will continue to spark conversations for a long time. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Thank YOU so much ! I love that you mentioned “sparking conversations” – especially at this time in history/herstory when dialogue has been replaced by vitriol!
I always wished for this film to spark dialogue, and there have actually been audience members who wrote to us telling us that they have formed watch parties where people discuss the film after the viewing. In fact. we sometimes describe the film as :
“ a conversation, long overdue “
As far as the future, wow, thank you so much for that. I am eager to share upcoming projects with everybody.
I feel that I need to add a personal note here. My beautiful partner and husband, Wings Hauser, and I battled a terrible disease which had attacked him. The disease is known as COPD. As we always had a multigenerational age difference between us, we knew that someday I would be carrying the work forward. We always knew this would be excruciating, and it has been much more painful than I could ever have imagined. But I have to say I did always know that it would be excruciating.
In spite of the fact that I am currently feeling quite broken, devastated about the love of my life, my soulmate, I’m so grateful for the love that never ends. Few people are blessed with this level of partnership and the depth of our love makes this moment ever so much more painful. I am getting all kinds of spiritual signs from him every day and those are shocking because I’ve never really been into ghost stories. But I know now that he is still with me.
He made me promise that I would continue to be motivated in my art and he was worried that I had to set aside some of my acting career time while we were battling the disease. I made sure he understood that there was no place I would rather be than here with him at our studio. I am so grateful I did not waste one moment of precious time with him.
As I mentioned, for us, the work in and of itself – is ALL about LOVE. The upcoming projects are our babies. He called me “his future.” I am breathing for us both now, seeing the world through his eyes as well as mine and carrying our twin souls in my heart and into the future.
We prepped future feature films, as well as several books, including his memoirs and at least five or more albums worth of music/soundtracks.
There is also an upcoming documentary about my partner :
“ Wings Hauser ; Working Class Actor “
produced by La La Land Films, which features clips from “Eve N’ God This Female Is Not Yet Rated,” as well as discussions of our unique partnership and love story.
A new music single will also be released with the documentary. The producers of that documentary asked me to record one of my songs for their title track. As with all the songs, Wings & I co-wrote the music. We recorded it at the “legendary rock n’ roll hotel” : Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood, which houses the equally legendary Nightbird Studio, where Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Rihanna, and so many others have recorded.
That recording session was pure magic. Complete with a rare thunderstorm in West Hollywood that night. Epic.
I hope your readers, Film and Music lovers, will not only choose to see & hear “Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ more than once, listen to the full album soundtrack, read the lyrics and follow our studio : @CaliLiliIndies™ on all social media for updates on future releases and current content, but that they might also take the initiative to actively support our work. As I mentioned one of our mottos is:
“support the arts sustain the artist” ™
Humanity faces so many challenges. Artist rights,, like women’s rights , wildlife and sea life, our nature, our wildness, and our innocence are very much at risk. Like “canaries in the coal mine of culture,” we artists really need the support of our fellow art lovers, our community, our villages. It really is one big global love story.
As far as our personal love story, we were always amazed that people could see our love story so clearly – whether it was at the supermarket or at a fancy party. It’s a never-ending love. We spoke together on stage in front of several audiences, including a sold out crowd at the Egyptian Theatre in West Hollywood,Los Angeles and a simulcast streamed into an audience at a theater in Atlanta, sponsored by Videodrome Atlanta.
In preparation for these appearances, I made a few notes, to prepare for speaking before a large crowd. Wings introduced me to the audience when he asked me to speak to them about our partnership and future projects as he was so keen to bring his fans forward with us on our future adventures.
My notes turned into an essay, which is now a chapter in an upcoming book about the movie, album and our sustainable studio ™ in Venice Beach, Los Angeles California.
Here is the essay, a preview of the upcoming book :
our Sustainable Studio where we create music, movies and books while also providing a tiny monarch butterfly sanctuary as well as a tiny natural reef for ocean life.
We actively employ the aloha spirit in the creation of our signature form of “aquaculture” Living in wellness & harmony with nature and reflecting that in the work is of utmost importance to the creation of our projects
We send each one out like a ripple on the ocean or one of our monarch butterflies after they emerge from their chrysalis
our Sustainable Studio where we create music, movies and books while also providing a tiny monarch butterfly sanctuary as well as a tiny natural reef for ocean life.
We actively employ the aloha spirit in the creation of our signature form of “aquaculture” Living in wellness & harmony with nature and reflecting that in the work is of utmost importance to the creation of our projects
We send each one out like a ripple on the ocean or one of our monarch butterflies after they emerge from their chrysalis
Full Transcript
Interview with Cali Lili, Director/Writer and co-star of
Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated
Hi Cali,
It’s such a pleasure to speak with you today. I’ve just finished watching Eve N’ God: This Female is Not Yet Rated, and I have to say, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen in recent times.
Hello Subhabrata and Karma and the Swedish International Film Festival Team !
Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm, thoughtful comments and excellent questions !
On behalf of my co-star & partner, movie icon, Wings Hauser and the entire cast, production & post production teams we are honored and grateful for this opportunity to speak with you and share the first of many future projects with fellow movie & music lovers!
Your film is refreshingly bold and nuanced in so many ways, both in its visual style and its thematic exploration. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into this project and I’m excited to dive into some of the concepts you’ve explored.
Thank you so much !
Let’s dive in !
Speaking of thought, while “thought” does play its part, FEELING is my compass. LOVE is my core, it’s at the heart of our studio and the works we release.
“Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated”
and all our projects are variations of Love Stories. Our structures perhaps don’t duplicate the status quo structure and tenor of most love stories many of us are accustomed to?
Wings and I grew in love as we became more involved in the process of our collaborations as artists and that love continues to sustain us and our work today.
As the movie suggests, there are as many love stories as there are humans because every relationship forms its own vocabulary. Every life form, species, ecosphere, the planet herself becomes stronger through biodiversity. Even simple economics shows us that a portfolio is stronger through diversification. “Even When Divided, Love Multiplies” is a lyric from one of the songs.
I love that you put together the words “bold” and also “nuanced” when referring to my film! Thank you! YES ! I was striving for both! With our debut project, I was hoping to create an “experience.” A “destination.” A “tiny-world-within-the-world” like a “snow globe.“ A place we hope movie & music lovers choose to revisit and notice something new every time.
The movie and stand-alone album / soundtrack are available now on demand at Apple TV, YouTube & Google Play Movies, just search the titles & names. An upcoming book about this debut project and our “sustainable studio,” housed in our “surf shack loft,” will be published in a few months and we hope readers will look out for that and all future music, film & book projects.
I’m thinking it might be fun to include some introductory comments here about my “process,” of making the film “by hand” guided by artisanal principles, to create a “signature blend” in a manner similar to culinary blends. Our studio is hand-built & operates sustainably. That sensibility is infused into the “special sauce“ of hand-making the movie, album and now, the upcoming book. I call it “handmade to make a difference” TM ️ and always infused with SOUL and LOVE.
Every one of our projects is home-spun, like handmade cookies, instead of store-bought. Here is a brief excerpt and preview of the upcoming book about the movie “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated,” the album, as well as the process and studio :
“Our sustainable studio organically blossomed from our desire to infuse projects with an authentic ‘mom & pop-up family farm’ essence, a ‘signature blend’ grown from the soil or ‘terroir’ (term used in the making a fine wine) of ‘Classic Hollywood’ nourished, then harvested in our own ‘microclimate’ extending beyond ‘the farm,’ in a manner that resembles ‘farm to table’ or in the case of ‘aquaculture,’ ‘aquaponics,’ ‘Sea to table.’
We view it as the most natural way to ‘grow art’ with roots and traditions, but also offshoots of innovation and then we should be able to ‘bring it to market.’ The “market” may not be quite as ‘organic’ as the art. That’s definitely a problem for many artists (and farmers) throughout the centuries. Certainly still a problem today. But I’m looking forward to a time when more independent artists can simply bring our ‘fruits to market’ just like the farmers market.
Or a painter selling a canvas without all of the gate-keeping complications that serve to shut many artists out. That was the original inspiration for simplifying this process. If a painter can put paint onto a canvas and sell the canvas why can’t an artist do the same with a film? “
“Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” is our debut project and we consider it our “first harvest.” Unfortunately Covid and other things delayed the start of the next project, as it delayed the lives of so many people on this beautiful blue planet. We hold hands with everyone affected by forces beyond our control. For us, this ‘ first harvest ‘ paved the way for upcoming projects. The fact that our studio name includes this description :
“Pictures, Words, Music in Motion ™”
hints toward the fact that each project was intended to be realized in all three mediums: movie, album and book.
The book is set to be published in the next few months, completing that phase of the first while we are already preparing the next project.
The entire world is experiencing so many hardships. We are all in this together and our projects intend to share love & encourage kindness & community across boundaries. In fact, one of the themes in “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated“ involves communicating beyond boundaries.
Written and shot before Covid two of the main protagonists speak to each other via Zoom throughout the entire movie. But their communication, their connection across that boundary is electric. We are not even certain they’re on the same dimension or planet. Yet their connection is palpable, visceral, eternal. Ultimately for us, it would become somewhat autobiographical.
As a matter of methodology, I was also keen to attend to experiential / feeling factors when it comes to physical production employing methods of organic sustainability. This includes maintaining an organic culture amongst the team. I wanted to create the atmosphere that resembles the intersection of a band and an athletic team. That’s how I think of our teams and as Wings and I are both athletes as well as musicians, this worked really well for us and the team.
Another example, I enlisted local diverse farmers to donate fruits and flowers to the set dressing and crew lunches. So our set dressing is sustainable and to some extent, “edible.” It was important for me to include local farmers. Other culinary aspects involve the fact that we include a scene where Eve employs a huge cleaver to hack open a fresh coconut.
Anyone who has hacked open a Thai coconut understands it’s a little risky. But the reward is divine. I’m pretty sure that was done in one take and that was a bit scary with the size of that clever but the result was delicious. Doctor Goddard cuts lemons throughout the movie and drinks straight up lemon juice. There is an essence of hunger and thirst for “Mother Earth, ” and “SisterOcean™”.
Another example involves the “sustainable wardrobe” with repurposed fabric & clothing. Additionally, the paintings featured in the film were painted by myself and Wings every New Years Day for the past few years. And then there were fun things like some of us doing two jobs. Wings, who co-stars in & co-produced the movie, has a special fondness & facility for serving food! He loves feeding people. So he insisted on managing craft services on the set! For fun! The crew loved what he served! During one lunch, he brought everybody a whole rotisserie chicken, lol the crew was stoked!
In our personal life, although I had spent most of my time living on arugula, I had to learn how to cook because I loved providing nutritional meals for Wings but he was a tough customer because he loves great food and he used to be a chef in a diner. So while he doesn’t cook healthy food, lol he cooks delicious food. I could not serve him healthy food that wasn’t also delicious so I had to learn.
The upcoming book will include recipes I developed that were healthy but became super delicious too! Part of our food theme stems from my concept that media (like meals) can be “nourishing.” For me personally, I think the first “grown-up“ thing I ever did was take responsibility for my own nutrition as soon as I learned what was going on with organic farming and small family farms. The second thing was to take responsibility for any other person that I feed. It was like a bolt of understanding that our food is our future. We are indeed what we eat, what we consume. And it became one of the most palpable and heartfelt ways that I could take care of my beautiful partner. I truly grew to adore cooking for Wings. I still cook for him.
Same with media consumption. The intellectual / creative / informational understandings or misunderstandings are “food for thought.” That’s also what we become when we consume media. Multiple aspects of what we’re doing stem from this methodology and it begins with what I call a “sustainable idea.” For me, that’s an idea infused with both thought & love, both heart and soul. Movies and music take time to seed, water, bloom and harvest and cook. Like fruits, vegetables, and aquaculture / aquaponics which I find especially endearing & inspiring.
As a person who practices & embraces sustainability, wellness, nutrition, and as a dancer / former yoga instructor, I choose to take responsibility for the “sustainability“ of the core idea. If it’s not an idea I can sustain with passion for long periods of time literally from “Farm to Studio” ™️ and beyond then I know it’s not something I can responsibly bring to my brilliant partner & talented crew & the audience in good conscience. I’m applying not just a passion test, but also testing for sustainability through consciousness. I’m very grateful to have experienced an inner compass since I was a kid.
As I mentioned, this debut project is meant to pave the way for our future projects and I’m SO grateful my partner was able to experience the acknowledgments, screenings, and awards the film garnered in 2024 and 2025 ! Several years after the initial release! I had always wished that the film & album could be timeless. The way Wings expressed it to me :
“I told you ! Your Project Got ‘Legs’!
Just Like You!”
Wings Hauser
(referring to the classic phrase for a project that becomes a ‘sleeper’ hit )
1. Let’s start with the biblical references in your film. The title itself, Eve N’ God, immediately evokes ideas of creation, temptation, and divine power. Is there an intentional inversion of traditional biblical themes here, or are you playing with those ideas in a more subtle way?
I like that you highlight “creation, temptation & divine power” with regard to the first part of thetitle : “Eve N’ God.” The second part of the title: “this female is not yet rated” (which happens to be the title of the album / soundtrack ) is intended to lend a hint of irony to the fact that as you rightly pointed out, I am inviting us to “play.”
One of Eve’s lines of dialogue highlights the concept that our most important “work” involves opportunities to “play” :
“Doc ! I want to PLAY !
Put me back in the game !”
(dialogue from “Eve N’ God this female is not yet rated “)
This encapsulates the motivation for Eve, representing the “Every-Woman” enlisting other women as well as men, to ask questions about choice, voice, freedom. To “PLAY” is to participate, to choose, to be afforded opportunities to make a difference. If we are barred from “PLAY,” we have no choice, no voice, no opportunity.
“Creation, temptation & divine power” can all be employed as tools for opportunities to enhance people’s lives, cultures and societies but they can also become tools to hinder progress. So the story is a “meditation” asking questions and instead of forcing answers, as is often done with cultures that worship, dominance and supremacy, this meditation invites more questions and offers opportunities for cooperation as a means of defeating competition.
When you think about it, the “cooperation frame of mind” when applied to solving societal and cultural problems really does out-compete – the “competition frame of mind” because cooperation invites bonding, while competition invites separation. If “survival of the fittest” is slavishly applied to solving cultural and societal problems, and if that survival of the fittest model depends upon whomever has a larger bank account, no matter how that bank account was fattened, whether it was by true merit or by cheating, it seems that it might be wise in the 21st-century to consider new models, paradigms.
I think it’s also important to mention here, that “Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated” suggests that the “original Eve,” often conflated with “original sin,” and the myth of “Lilith” examined in the context of the myth of “Adam and Eve” is inextricably intertwined with my idea that “Lilith,” represented by our character named “Lila” (meaning “night”) is a black woman. That she is inextricably intertwined with the concept of “mitochondrial eve,“ the concept that we are all sisters and brothers from one mother in Africa. In our movie, the light-skinned “white” appearing character named “Eve” who is not in fact “white” considers herself the twin of “mitochondrial eve. ” The film is also pondering the fact that both of Adam’s wives both Lilith and Eve refused to be subservient and my script asks the question, perhaps Lilith and Eve found comfort in each other?
I think that’s worth chewing on.
2.
The first scene is extremely significant. It can symbolise resistance, difference, perseverance and what not. What inspired you to begin the film with such an intense moment of confrontation?
I love hearing about your experience with the film. The intense scene you are describing, which takes place early on, is like all the scenes in the film, a matter of poetry and music. It’s an essential piece, a building block, a molecule that appears in a sequence forming a rhythm that ultimately gives life to the whole organism, the poem, the “world” of the movie. Editing is so much fun and SO CRUCIAL as it’s the “time signature” of the movie, just like a metronome clocks a piece of music. People may be unaccustomed to unconventional forms of editing because we have all been trained to accept certain ‘conventional storytelling rhythms’ depending on the culture we were raised in or the dominant culture we can choose to either blindly accept or question.
It is a scientific fact that if you are exposed to a certain rhythm, your body / heart will sympathize / synchronize with that rhythm. Editing is about rhythm just like music. I posit that movie lovers have been somewhat indoctrinated into accepting certain editing rhythms dominating much of cinema. I have always felt we would benefit from remaining open to new rhythms including the rhythm of our own hearts.
For me, the first “scene” in the movie is actually a black screen with the sound of a mourning dove. It’s the empty page or stage and a cry from earth, from the heart. I don’t vibe with the “move fast break things” mentality so prevalent in too many cultures. My wish is to create projects through our studio that:
Music and poetry guide my rhythm, my vision, which I bring to my partner, and we apply principles that we both believe in. It’s kind of like our “secret sauce,” the traditions of our “tiny family farm-to-table.“ In fact we are like a tiny family farm, working from a tiny feMt0™studi0 Eco-LoFt™. Our hand built surf shack in Venice Beach represents a little bit of “aloha” combining elements at the intersection of beloved Hawaii and beloved Big Sur, California, with a hint of Greenwich Village New York thrown in.
So the sequence of the scenes and the edit design is definitely a form of visual music. As a director, I am all over the design of the edit because it’s so vital to the final cut. I feel it’s essential to take responsibility for the edit design and it’s also on my mind & in my heart during the rhythm I’m hearing while writing the screenplay and directing the scenes. So when I shoot, I’ve already got an editing rhythm in mind but of course it will shift and adjust according to all the happy mistakes & coincidences we can improvise upon. That’s also magic. I am open to letting the material find its own rhythm as long as it’s true to the integrity of the piece. It’s an ongoing dance on a moving wave, like surfing.
Sometimes Wings and I have slight differences when it comes to certain scenes but as with all of our disagreements, we always find the best solution due to the process of a debate and remaining open to discovery. We always arrive at an improved result by taking that time. At first, he felt the very first scene with the clock ticking was too quiet, too slow and he suggested that I cut earlier but as time went on, he eventually loved how it led us into the overall meditative pacing that is periodically disrupted by that intense scene you’re referring to.
It’s a necessary disruption from the hypnotic ticking clock. It’s a wake up call. An alarm.The very intense early scene you asked about exists in that time code, because that’s where it belongs in the “music” and “poetry” of the movie with each scene following inevitably after the previous scene blossoming like a flower. In the same way my next exhale follows my next inhale and then my next inhale follows my next exhale (an influence from yoga & vocal training) but nonetheless it is so organic to every sport, art form and practice – of course it’s like the art of life herself.
That particular scene just like every other scene in the movie is meant to be there because it could not be anywhere else for this movie to exist. We’ve experienced people who have never made a movie, but who are chained vehemently to a status quo understanding of what editing must be, express to me with shocking confidence, almost angrily, that they think I should edit the movie differently. That’s because they are chained to their notion of what is acceptable and therefore commercial. The “tell” is how angry they seem to be and sometimes it’s covert anger. But they’re trying to appear as though they’re trying to “help me” while they’re telling me that they feel I should’ve edited the film differently. As though I broke some rule that maybe they wish they could break free from too?
in these cases, we find that instead of accepting my invitation to come along for the ride – and SO MANY movie & music lovers gladly accepted the invitation and had a great time – a few others chose to seem somewhat angry that I had the courage to take a new trail. Sometimes people express it as though they want to “help me,” because I am a newcomer. But we wish that more people would come along for the discoveries, support our innovative projects instead of remaining chained to their old notions. It’s almost like there’s a quota on just a few selected filmmakers who are allowed to “break the rules” and that’s usually a matter of power and influence and probably money. I’m suggesting that audiences reward the tiny filmmakers like me who really are taking chances.
It’s true that the intense scene represents those excellent words you used: “resistance, difference, perseverance.“ It is a strong early statement born from the darkness and freedom of a blank screen and the mournful cry from a mourning dove. That intense scene “wakes us up” into the dreamscape we are about to enter. Paradoxically the scene is asking us to “wake up” while also inviting us to “wake into a dream.”
My team, and I are asking the audience to please care about the independent artist to take chances. Requesting that we all “pay attention“ to us tiny filmmakers because “attention” is arguably the most powerful “commodity” certainly in the media, but also in the world today. As my beautiful partner Wings Hauser would say, he appreciates it when people “give a damn.”
Whenever I hear the expression “pay attention” I always think of the great play by Arthur Miller “Death of aSalesman” in which “Willy Loman” (The Everyman) repeats his plea to humanity :
“attention must be paid !”
It’s kind of like that.
3. There’s a clear influence of Dogme 95 in your work. The rawness and immediacy of the cinematography, the handheld shots, and the natural lighting all echo the movement’s ideals. How did Dogme 95 influence your approach to Eve N’ God This Female is Not Yet Rated ?
Fascinating question!
Actually, I first learned of Dogme 95 after I had already formulated my concept of “sustainable filmmaking” based on my dance & yoga background as well as my love for ocean / sea life conservancy.
In school, I was very interested in the contemporary effects of the history of the works of experimental directors & actors, along with that of international artists in those fields. I think it’s really helpful to look back at the origins of certain traditions in order to find one’s place in the current repertoire. I always look back at the classics and that’s probably because ever since I was a kid I have been referred to as “mature for my age “ or “a young person with an old soul.“
I studied the effects of the Polish experimental director Jerzy Grotowski ( “Towards A Poor Theatre “ ) and the French Dramatist Antonin Artaud (“The Theater And its Double “) along with the work of Brecht AND a few other artists in theater, visual & music arts that were even more influential to me. I discuss those in detail in my upcoming book. In fact, my book, among other textures, will present the movie as a work of dramatic literature, complete with stage directions. The script would make an amazing stage play and I’ve devised a very detailed staging concept. It’s ironic to me that my early plays which I wrote as a teenager were often called “cinematic,” and because I was a theater snob, lol I took that as an insult. Sometimes we are idiots but can find great humor in our idiocy if we grow up a little bit.
My initial studies were in dance & theatre in New York and this greatly influences my cinema. As a kid, I won my first play writing contest, after being urged by my awesome professor, an immigrant from the Himalayas, to enter the contest. I was extremely hesitant to do this, but she was so sweetly encouraging that I did enter it. It was my first play. When she told me that I had won the contest, I can still remember the light in her eyes as she practically shouted out my victory. It was absolutely true that she won! I would never have entered that contest had it not been for her. The reason she thought it would be a good idea results from the fact that I find writing prose daunting but dialogue and poetry are very natural for me. As a teacher, a professor, she went the extra mile to think about how she could guide me. She was completely correct, and I am in touch with her to this day. I am so very grateful for all my teachers who saved me from an abusive childhood.
So, to get back to Dogme 95 , it seemed like a natural ally for the ideas that I was formulating in order to understand where my work was going. My wish to express concepts of “sustainability” based on my love for the oceans, sealife , aquaculture , farmers markets, small family farms, ocean conservancy, organic cuisine, farm to table, ecological and nutritional concerns in making film & music was a result of my wish to make “food for thought films.” I felt that culture and cultural spaces were becoming so “gentrified” that artists were being pushed out of our own “native waters” in the same way whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions & sealife are bullied out of their own waters or small family farms are bullied by “big agriculture” and in the same way, so many cultures are bullied by “big money” in general.
Even as a teenager I was concerned about what I called “the gentrification of culture.” I felt it was the reason my family did not support what I knew was my purpose in life. The “gentrification of culture” made it appear as though “only rich people” could become artists and unfortunately, the reality seems to almost prove that true. Although many people can make films with advances in technology, distribution and audience awareness through marketing is mostly the domain of the wealthy. As my brilliant partner shared with me, at some point in the history of Hollywood, people could “buy their way” into the entertainment industry, whether it was through nepotism or actual money and connections. It was no longer a matter of merit, talent & hard work / dedication so much as “connections / influence / money” and the illusion of talent & seeming performative “hard work.”
Wings also expressed very rightly that he witnessed the transition of the audience’s interest from quality art to “box office.” He said that as soon as he first heard popular entertainment shows reporting mostly about “box office” profits instead of nuance in films, he felt that was harmful not only to actors but all film makers who deeply love the “making of film.” That reminds me of a great quote from Sir Michael Caine. I’m paraphrasing from him : “plays are performed while movies are made.” That quote has really inspired me. It’s very worrying to think that the audience is being manipulated into thinking about “box office” success and “visibility” whether it be on social media or traditional broadcasting/cultural events, instead of artistic merit because it conflates so-called “success” in industries that have become “gentrified” “closed loops” with actual talent / merit / cultural significance which is a very different dimension of success. That gentrification created the illusion that the privileged few works of art that were distributed / visible were inherently more culturally significant when actually they have only became culturally significant as a self fulfilling prophecy due to their privilege in distribution or opportunistic visibility.
I worried this might deeply harm authentic independent artists and I also worried it was diminishing culture. My pushback against this notion was not just a matter of survival for us as artists, I was worried about cultural ecosystems becoming toxic, in the same way other ecosystems are damaged by neglect. I’m still worried about that. We have to admit that the independent artist like many forms of wildlife, sealife and civilization itself are an “endangered species.“ Part of my graduate studies involved anthropology so I think of these things on an anthropological level as well as a practical creative hands-on artist level.
My aesthetic has also been informed by economics and I have gladly incorporated concepts from experimental theater into my style. Experimental theorists, like Grotowski, Artaud and Brecht among a few very significant others I mention in my upcoming book in various disciplines like painting and music have always inspired me. They were very influenced by economics and societal theory.
Less Can Be More and More Can Be Less
We hope audiences will support our sustainable studio as these methodologies are intended to maintain love, respect and survival for artists on this planet in exactly the same way we wish for us all to protect wildlife, sea life, and human rights on this beautiful interstellar, swimming pool planet. My works are my “babies” and many cultures provide incentives and benefits for women to have babies. Well, I feel so strongly that artists contribute to the culture just as much when we “give birth” to our “babies“ and I think cultures should “support the arts” by sustaining the living artist.
We are all interconnected. If we lose our innocence through indifference towards saving the planet, wildlife, sea life, women’s rights, human rights, the oceans, the forests, the cities AND LIVING ARTISTS – then we have lost confidence in ourselves.
As the great thinker Elie Wiesel said :
“the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference “
It’s so important that we care, that we do what my partner Wings Hauser would describe as “giving a damn.” If we lose our ability to care about others and our planet, we would be abdicating ourselves, giving up on ourselves.
4. The music in the film feels very disruptive—almost unsettling at times. It doesn’t always follow traditional structures, and there’s an underlying chaos to it. Could you talk about how music was used to reflect the disruption of societal norms and to underscore the themes of subversion?
Thank you for noticing and expressing this so eloquently !
As a standalone purposely eclectic album (the album can be found on all music streaming services: Cali Lili “This Female is Not Yet Rated“ ) it has a life of its own along with belonging to the world of the film, as soundtrack. The Album and the Soundtrack are family but they are also individuals.
It’s so interesting that in many cultures around the world, we learn to regard questions that trace lines outside the boxes created by society as “subversion.” Of course the artist space, if it is a free space, provides the freedom to ask questions and think outside norms so our collective consciousness norms find it “sexy” to think of that “rock ‘n’ roll, smash the guitar, question society, style of “subversion.”
For me, it’s about playing, PLAY!
Asking questions and playing with the possibilities. Sometimes when we ask questions we feel are “dangerous” to our sense of status quo, we regard – just asking – the questions – to be “subversive.” If you’ll recall, our “Eve” humorously, refers to herself and anyone asking these questions as “dangerous,” she says:
“OK I want to be dangerous,”
She is playfully accepting a “play pretend” “mission” in-service to a higher goal.
Dr. Goddard responds :
“So you’re not going militant on me?”
Which leads Eve to giggle out loud and say:
“ just a Tango – up Pico Boulevard ”
Like most of us, she just wants to play.
It’s true that the songs AND the choreography in the film – are challenging norms, as are many of the lines of dialogue. The music and choreography support the story moving forward, asking questions, asking questions ASKING QUESTIONS – with a drum beat moving us forward, playing with answers, playing with a Multiverse of possibilities. There are several references to mirrors in the film. Visual rhythm including a few repeating frames and choreographed jump cuts in the unconventional edit design which are syncopating echoes that do follow their own internal map. A structure particular to an internal organic logic that dances unapologetically to its own time signature.
My script was “composed” with songs incorporated into the text & intended for the edit. The edit design is “composed” like one big poem unfurling, blossoming like a flower, one big “symphony” building from a sequence of “movements.” Including dance & actor movement, or non-movement. If you’ll notice, both primary characters are somewhat “penned in, contained” speaking to each other on ZOOM.
The songs rely HEAVILY on syncopated lyrics and percussive build. The lyrics are crucial to these songs and the album is somewhat of a “concept album” exploring new avenues about every theme in the movie carried by the purposely eclectic range of musical styles / genres. It’s not often that one album includes all these genres : rap , Americana, rock ‘n’ roll, folk rock, country punk, Reggaeton, world groove, and 12 bar blues.
So in this one album all the common themes are purposeful “explored” asking the question:
“How can I address each theme as” a rap song, but also as a folk song, a country song, an all out rock and roll song, a jazz or blues song, a punk song or a song that’s influenced by world groove? ” The album is intended to feel like a trip around Americana and world grooves and then back home to America, specifically Los Angeles with songs like “Sindarella GirlZ,” which is heavily influenced by Reggaeton.
The music in the movie wants to break out of the confines of the screen and run wild. In fact it’s one of many “cracks in the cement” where green sprouts break out of their confines described in of the songs “World is My Living Room, ” which includes this line :
The movie wants to jump off the screen, dance in the aisles of the movie theater, out of the doors and onto the street, dancing all the way to the beach splashing into the ocean.
5.
The theme of subversion through movement is quite prominent in your film, especially with the characters’ physical gestures and interactions. How do you see movement as a form of subversion, and what was your approach to choreographing or directing these movements?
Awesome that I began to answer this question in the previous answer. That’s how good your questions are!
So, I would add to everything I said in the previous answer, it was pretty eerie that this film was shot before Covid and yet two main characters speak to each other over ZOOM throughout the entire film. As I mentioned earlier, one of the themes is “communication across boundaries.”
So part of what you’re describing has to do with lack of movement. Or movement constrained, restrained. Wings and I were so excited to work together on so many levels, I mean, we just really love to work together on anything! We would often leave birthday messages for family members in the form of rap songs that we came up with on the spot after talking about it for a few seconds before we made the birthday call. He’s directed me several times and we’ve worked together in various ways. But one interesting factor is that he’s quite a physical actor. And I just knew that this character which remains in one location for the entire film would allow for a very high concentration of his acting chops.
So the characters are both somewhat constrained through much of the film. It’s the rhythm again. It allows us to relax and pay attention not just to what they are saying, feeling, doing and NOT doing on screen but also what we are feeling as an audience. And then – after restrained movement, the characters are set free. And so are we.
My choreography style stems from influences in classic choreography, Bob Fosse (I studied not just the movies but also in class with Ann Reinking), Twyla Tharp, and the OG : Isadora Duncan! Jazz choreography emphasizes “isolations” which for me is very meaningful. The characters are reaching to each other beyond physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual boundaries.
For me, choreography like surfing, like life, is all about “flow.” So while the jazz choreography & character movement emphasized sharpness, anger, pain and challenges, “the elbows and knees of isolation” the other movements represented “flow” including water elements, pointing us toward healing, acceptance, understanding, communication, love and freedom.
6. The film also tackles the nature vs. nurture debate, particularly in the context of how societal expectations shape our identities. How do you see this theme playing out in the film, and why is it such an important issue to explore?
Nature is definitely a character in this film. When we cut to nature, it is always a reference to the essence of Eve, or Lilith. The “sacred feminine.” Eve is defending nature in her arguments with Dr. Goddard. It’s ironic because she’s advocating for freedom in the creation of this masterpiece called “Mother Earth,” and what I refer to as “Sister Ocean.” While “Doc” is afraid of that freedom because he’s defending that creation. We can see things from both perspectives.
Eve is an advocate! In the same way that proverbial “man” sought to conquer “nature,” he sought to conquer the sacred feminine. Before ancient female priests and goddesses were “kicked out” of the clergy, religion and out of many governmental / cultural leadership positions (sound familiar? Yeah,it’s happened before) there was a feminine, earthy, watery, often matriarchal aspect to many cultures which found itself dampened, muted and relegated to the “barefoot in the kitchen” duties.
The vestiges of such “excommunication of the feminine” & the natural watery world, expressed itself as patriarchy, which we all know is still active in many cultures. The voice of patriarchy might think it is “rallying” but unfortunately, all one needs to do is look around us on this beautiful blue planet, and recognize that patriarchal attempts at domination are harming everyone by denying its own feminine nature at the expense of its own survival.
Personally, we experienced this when we noticed the way culture retreats from married women. To be sure, my marriage with my amazing, beautiful partner and husband Wings Hauser, it’s not a conventional marriage. We are creative equals. Equals in every way, but we often encounter societal pressures and bizarre misunderstandings, simply due to the fact that we always express our relationship in terms reflecting our equal partnership. But then again, as a result of this expression, we would literally have people come up to us in the grocery store or at fancy parties, telling us how much they were inspired by our partnership.
As this was my first marriage, I was amazed to find myself in certain 21st century societal circumstances treated like “wives” may have been treated in the 1950’s – or the 1600s – or cavemen times! It was a bizarre “awakening” and you might’ve noticed that Eve “wakes up” quite a few times in the movie which is as much a dissertation about marriage as it is about every other theme. The discussion of what it means to be married as a 21st Century Girl is a deep core theme.
My beautiful partner / husband, Wings, is a real “feminist!” Always advocating for women. I mean, he raised a daughter on his own with no trust fund – having lost his own father at a very young age. He worked for everything he accomplished and still managed to raise a daughter as a single father! He’s much older than me but my reaction to the antiquated societal expectations of my identity, awoke his own inherent feminist nature. I had always said that I would never get married. Until I met my perfect partner, my soulmate, the love of my life, the only husband that could ever make sense. We bring out the best in each other. What more could anyone ask for? We are very lucky and always puzzled at the antiquated societal weirdness towards women and partnerships.
Ultimately, I figured out that cultures based on supremacy/domination benefit from division amongst people, whether it be race, culture, class or gender. The movie is based on a form of Socratic argumentative attempt to discover answers through finding more questions. The tension between a female “goddess entity” who wants to remain free while still enjoying partnership and a male “god entity” who basically wants the same thing – that’s what’s interesting. Edward Albee’s play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” rocks a similar vibe in that regard.
A good marriage, a good partnership whether it be marriage or bandmates, athletic team or crew, whether it be male and female or female and female, or male and male – whether it be binary or trans or whatever, it’s about the partnership – the partnership is SO soul-affirming. It is also an affirmation of a society that can work to solve problems not just for the community but for the individuals.
Once again we return to the idea of “Cooperation Beats Competition ™.” Working together with well matched partners is a humane sustainable model for human happiness, planet happiness. It’s good for humans and it’s good for wildlife and sea life and plant life. I’ve always thought it was amazing that the country of Bhutan has a ”happiness index.” I think that’s really interesting for the 21st century world to consider. After all, we are literally spinning on a ball in the middle of the Multiverse splashing like a big old swimming pool. Let’s at least solve some of our mutual problems together, find some happiness together and stop fighting each other together.
Partnerships can solve problems instead of creating new ones. When people are divided, new problems are created. When people partner together, we solve problems, if our hearts are partnered with our minds and if our motivation is to make the world a better place for everybody, not just for a few of us. For all of us! It’s so simple.
Unfortunately, too many societal expectations have shut out the very important female energy in problem-solving. Once again it’s like the failed attempt to dominate nature. Those who attempt to eradicate the feminine, and dominate nature, do so at their own peril. The problem is, they also put the rest of the planet in peril.
As Eve’s dialogue is structured like a filibuster (like Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic masterpiece “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”) she’s making an argument before Dr. Goddard, otherwise known as the white straight male authority deity she refers to as :
“the most Supreme Court “
Her argument is a plea for the world to embrace the feminine “wild” because this sets us all free:
“It’s the wilderness in yourself!”
Eve says.
Without that freedom for the wild, for the feminine, we imprison the planet.
7.
The title, This Female is Not Yet Rated, feels like both a commentary on how women are often categorized or judged in society and a challenge to those labels. How does this title encapsulate the themes of the film?
Yes! and as I mentioned, that’s the title of the standalone album.The “female” in question is “not yet rated” because she is often “discounted” ( valued less ) as Eve informs Dr. Goddard.
Eve also says, “that female” still exists. She may be met with patriarchal “indifference” in the same way the great Elie Weisel defined it but she exists. She may “not be rated,” she may experience attempts at erasure or appropriation, but the look in her eyes and the arguments she makes, her actions – might save us all! As long as most of us do not remain silent.
The movie asks :
“ Are we dreaming of Eve
or
Is Eve dreaming of us ?”
Either way, if we don’t wake up and respect her, if we don’t save the oceans, save the climate of our precious blue planet, we won’t be able to save ourselves.
8. Lastly, in today’s world, where subverting traditional styles has become almost a style in itself, do you think there’s still room for truly revolutionary cinema that challenges established norms?
I feel that somehow the arts & media commercial marketplace has surrendered to corporate attempts to interfere with, even steal the magic of our inherent human response to each other’s authenticity. I mean, the proof is in the AI. What’s the AI doing? It’s attempting to “capture” our humanity. Yikes. But it’s not the actual technical advances because those can be used for great good. Those technological advances can be used to help humans. Should be in the hands of humans with guard rails everywhere. So this attempt to “capture” humanity far predates the advances in AI.
Once again it is the worship of domination, the use of unfair competition, instead of the embrace of cooperation, which could include all forms of technological advance. The entertainment industry was already moving towards a “simulation““ of what the artist really does. It was already edging out the independent artist with integrity who cannot be controlled by a corporation. The one presenters who are corporate artists many of them are billionaires might mean well, but they are part of a system that suppresses the less wealthy, less powerful independent artists, and therefore diminishes the potential freshness of any given cultural marketplace.
That’s why I feel strongly that if we don’t embrace the authentic independent artist, the living breathing artist who may not be privileged enough to be featured by the upper gentrified levels of the media industry, who might live next-door to us or in another country and if we don’t set some boundaries with AI, tech giants, big money corporate art and also set some boundaries when it comes to privacy and individual human rights, then we really risk our ability to connect with each other.
There should be nobody standing in the middle of that sacred space between the artist and the fellow art lover. The artist is also an art lover. These are love stories! As I mentioned earlier : every project we make from our sustainable studio is a love story. Not that status quo thing we are taught to recognize is a love story. There are so many ways to express love stories.
There’s just an “authentic” human response to “authenticity” and for the artist – artist lover relationship – it’s a lifeline. The more big money corporate entities continue to do what I have been referring to as “gentrification of culture,” the weaker the authentic relationship between artist & art lover.
No middleman or middle woman belongs in the middle of that relationship, but so often, artists with smaller budgets just don’t reach the audience, rendering “the arts” a playground for the wealthy, the powerful, leading cultural ideas, tastes and aspirations to mold (dominate) the minds of individuals who form the “body” of every culture. On so many levels of culture and society, I think we should be careful to sustain our humanity. Not just ideologically, but somatically. Through our bodies.
One of our sustainability mottos is:
“Support The Arts,
Sustain The Artist ™”
If we can embrace the living artists around us. The artist right now, especially those who are respectful of those who came before us, then we can honor traditions while paving new pathways.
We can show respect, but also expand our boundaries toward each other, not away from each other. It really does “take a village” and as we are all spinning on this blue, beautiful planet in the middle of so many solar systems my movie and album are asking :
“When will we finally get the clue that WE ARE – the village. WE ARE – the family.”
The “Eve” in my movie refers to her twin, “Lilith” as “mitochondrial eve” – “the one mother” of us all who originated in Africa. Whether people want to find controversy with that theory or that discovery under the microscope, doesn’t really matter. In the 21st-century, it should be quite apparent to us all that we are all on the same airplane – what I call an “interplanetary swimming pool” and we need each other to make good decisions and to solve problems wisely. Even if it’s only for our own self interest. It would be great if we could all cultivate a sense of responsibility and motherly sisterly brotherly fatherly love toward each other, but even if we inexplicably feel the need to eschew utopias, if only for our self interest, let’s get it together and save this planet. Please.
On behalf of myself, my partner, Wings Hauser, and our little family at the Cali Lili Indies : We always knew the project was ahead of her time.
Tragically, devastatingly, in 2025 I find myself breathing for us both now. Seeing through my partner’s eyes, literally walking through the world with our twin souls in my heart and carrying us into the future, as he made me promise I would do. I gladly accepted the responsibility and the privilege. But I won’t be talking about him in the past. I will keep him in the present tense, which is where I feel him every day. He’s right here with me helping me.
He has many endearing nicknames for me, like “Cali Curls,” but one nickname he took seriously. He called me “his future” and it is my privilege as well as my responsibility to fulfill that role of carrying on our work at the studio, honoring our partnership goals, our ongoing forever love story, and his legacy.
We hope your readers will support us and our projects in every way possible now and in the future.
I always strived for and managed to not only express our love to the audience, but also to make my partner proud. That’s what I’ll continue to do.
9. To wrap up, do you have any underrated film recommendations for our audience—something that pushes boundaries in a similar way to “ Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ ?
I am in love with so many films and my beautiful partner Wings and I watch so many films together more than once. We love revisiting films.
So many quality projects are underrated! Because the rating system is hijacked by big money on many levels so movie lovers, music lovers, art lovers, we have to discover each other for ourselves.
I can hear Wings tell me right now:
“YOUR film has been
“under the radar”
And is literally “not yet rated” ! “
It’s quite awesome. That film festival is like yours have suddenly discovered my film in 2024 and 2025! We are thrilled about this! Thank you !
So as Wings always said to anyone inquiring :
“go buy a ticket and support our movie … go download our songs and SHARE “
“WE are underrated! “
it’s in the title! lol
On behalf of Wings & the team – we encourage people to see it more than once and hear the full album!
Mentioning other underappreciated films is so challenging because it’s like being in a candy store. There are so many, truly unique films which many people are not exposed to. ever since the ancients.
So I think the most important thing is – for US – the lovers of art – to be adventurous in our tastes! Like lovers, we must seek out our own love of the arts ! Those of us who love the arts understand that this is a lifestyle in and of itself !
Once again, I will employ a metaphor from “Farm to Table.” If we explore new ingredients that are fresh and then explore new cuisines that might be unusual or new, we expand our thinking and our capacity for appreciation. That’s how we meet each other! If we get to travel or try new cuisines, it’s so very similar to trying a new kind of film or music.
So I would suggest a similar approach to discovering what’s out there! It’s also like going to an art gallery. Or a museum. You could follow the pathway that has been designed and learn something, but you could also do what I do in an art gallery – I just go towards the pieces that call out to me and then place myself in the vibe. Communing with the artist. like a surfer : “be the wave.”
In this current climate, I don’t really know who appreciates what. Maybe that’s a good thing? The Internet makes it easy to rediscover classics and I really love to learn from the classics.
I love everything by Bob Fosse and I feel “Lenny” directed by Bob Fosse starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine & an excellent cast might be under-appreciated?
I adore the movie “Network” written by the great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Piper Laurie.
Any movie that Cicely Tyson has ever been in!
Sidney Poitier in “Lilies of the Field” and “A Patch of Blue.” And the one he directed, “A Warm December.”
Wings introduced me to a film called : “They Might Be Giants” early on in our relationship and it was an ongoing favorite for us. Directed by Anthony Harvey starring George C Scott , Joanne Woodward, Jack Gilford, Lester Rawlins.
“Defiance” directed by Ed Zwick is a fave of ours.
All of Hal Ashby’s films, especially “Harold & Maude,” “Coming Home,” “Bound For Glory,” and “Being There. ”
“Heaven Can Wait” starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. So romantic.
“McCabe & Mrs. Miller” also with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, with holy music by the Great Leonard Cohen. My partner Wings, once met Mr. Cohen in a hardware store in West Los Angeles and cherished that moment.
I love all of George Clooney’s films. Especially “Good Night and Good Luck” as well as “Up In The Air” and “Michael Clayton” with Tilda Swinton.
Every film by the great director, Frank Capra.
I love films made in the 1930s when they were very strong female roles.
Every film that the actress Jean Arthur was ever in.
Every film that John Crawford was ever in.
Every film with Elizabeth Taylor.
Every film with Katharine Hepburn.
Every film with Ingrid Bergman!
And I also have to mention every film with Spencer Tracey, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis –
Rosalind Russell, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper!
I think there is a romance to the films that I feel are underappreciated. I think we’ve been so busy as a culture trying to “act cool” – we started to become a little bit “cold. ”
It became fashionable to withhold emotion from the screen it seems? Like suddenly, if you “grunted” your lines as an actor, with people imitating the great Marlon Brando or James Dean, then maybe they thought they were being “cool”?
But no, Brando, Jimmy Dean did not grunt without passion. There is a volcano of emotion sitting dangerously underneath each subtle moment and you can’t fake that. Similarly, there is a gentle vulnerable flower underneath each explosion. I think what’s underrated, is a feeling for humanity in cinema and music. Almost as though we are being guided toward robot culture.
That’s one thing we are not afraid to illustrate at our studio : humanity. I just hope we can all cherish and support films made with heart, where humanity triumphs over the so-called “ box office .” Where kindness and cooperation beat competition. Where the artist can thrive.
This is not just some sort of platform. This is very personal to me and to us as partners and as a family carrying on a tradition. Especially now during a time of deep grief. Movies play such a huge role in my personal love story with my beautiful partner, Wings. We had a very platonic friendship as buddies way before we became creative partners and then – we grew in love as we deepened our creative partnership.
There is such a huge difference in age between us but we truly met as a result of our sheer love of acting, filmmaking and music making. I was sort of a “runaway with a scholarship” and he sort of “rescued me” and then I sort of“rescued” him.
We rescued each other. That’s a vibe that’s carried into our work and continues today.
Thank you so much for your time today, Cali. Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated” is truly an extraordinary film, and I’m sure it will continue to spark conversations for a long time. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Thank YOU so much ! I love that you mentioned “sparking conversations” – especially at this time in history/herstory when dialogue has been replaced by vitriol!
I always wished for this film to spark dialogue, and there have actually been audience members who wrote to us telling us that they have formed watch parties where people discuss the film after the viewing. In fact. we sometimes describe the film as :
“ a conversation, long overdue “
As far as the future, wow, thank you so much for that. I am eager to share upcoming projects with everybody.
I feel that I need to add a personal note here. My beautiful partner and husband, Wings Hauser, and I battled a terrible disease which had attacked him. The disease is known as COPD. As we always had a multigenerational age difference between us, we knew that someday I would be carrying the work forward. We always knew this would be excruciating, and it has been much more painful than I could ever have imagined. But I have to say I did always know that it would be excruciating.
In spite of the fact that I am currently feeling quite broken, devastated about the love of my life, my soulmate, I’m so grateful for the love that never ends. Few people are blessed with this level of partnership and the depth of our love makes this moment ever so much more painful. I am getting all kinds of spiritual signs from him every day and those are shocking because I’ve never really been into ghost stories. But I know now that he is still with me.
He made me promise that I would continue to be motivated in my art and he was worried that I had to set aside some of my acting career time while we were battling the disease. I made sure he understood that there was no place I would rather be than here with him at our studio. I am so grateful I did not waste one moment of precious time with him.
As I mentioned, for us, the work in and of itself – is ALL about LOVE. The upcoming projects are our babies. He called me “his future.” I am breathing for us both now, seeing the world through his eyes as well as mine and carrying our twin souls in my heart and into the future.
We prepped future feature films, as well as several books, including his memoirs and at least five or more albums worth of music/soundtracks.
There is also an upcoming documentary about my partner :
“ Wings Hauser ; Working Class Actor “
produced by La La Land Films, which features clips from “Eve N’ God This Female Is Not Yet Rated,” as well as discussions of our unique partnership and love story.
A new music single will also be released with the documentary. The producers of that documentary asked me to record one of my songs for their title track. As with all the songs, Wings & I co-wrote the music. We recorded it at the “legendary rock n’ roll hotel” : Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood, which houses the equally legendary Nightbird Studio, where Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Rihanna, and so many others have recorded.
That recording session was pure magic. Complete with a rare thunderstorm in West Hollywood that night. Epic.
I hope your readers, Film and Music lovers, will not only choose to see & hear “Eve N’ God ; This Female is Not Yet Rated “ more than once, listen to the full album soundtrack, read the lyrics and follow our studio : @CaliLiliIndies™ on all social media for updates on future releases and current content, but that they might also take the initiative to actively support our work. As I mentioned one of our mottos is:
“support the arts sustain the artist” ™
Humanity faces so many challenges. Artist rights,, like women’s rights , wildlife and sea life, our nature, our wildness, and our innocence are very much at risk. Like “canaries in the coal mine of culture,” we artists really need the support of our fellow art lovers, our community, our villages. It really is one big global love story.
As far as our personal love story, we were always amazed that people could see our love story so clearly – whether it was at the supermarket or at a fancy party. It’s a never-ending love. We spoke together on stage in front of several audiences, including a sold out crowd at the Egyptian Theatre in West Hollywood,Los Angeles and a simulcast streamed into an audience at a theater in Atlanta, sponsored by Videodrome Atlanta.
In preparation for these appearances, I made a few notes, to prepare for speaking before a large crowd. Wings introduced me to the audience when he asked me to speak to them about our partnership and future projects as he was so keen to bring his fans forward with us on our future adventures.
My notes turned into an essay, which is now a chapter in an upcoming book about the movie, album and our sustainable studio ™ in Venice Beach, Los Angeles California.
Here is the essay, a preview of the upcoming book :
2021 / 2022 Update : Cali ‘s innovative work will be featured in exciting upcoming documentaries … Stay tuned….
Interview REPRINTED ( please scroll down below links and promotional photos ) FROM the 2017 interview during post-production and prior to run-up to the Oscar’s 2020 Contender run :
2021 update: See Links for Oscars 2020 Contender information :
1 Day in the Epiphany of a 21st Century Girl, who kissed a Girl ™
2017 Interview with Actor/Writer/Director/Producer Cali Lili
(2021 Update !
NOTE : Updated Oscars 2020 Contender information enclosed below as an addendum to this 2017 interview )
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Wow thanks so much ! And THANK YOU for this opportunity ! I appreciate it and so does my team ! LOL Why ???????? Whew. It was INEVITABLE. “Destined,” so to speak ( I am not “religious” … only speaking “spiritually” ) … there was NO WAY this film was not getting made.
I had and still have a burning need 2 express feelings welling up in me as a “21st Century Girl” … and what I hear from others … it was literally a “coming of age” film for me … the script was my reaction to my own “awakening” to the fact that sexism, racism and homophobia were indeed still “active” in this Century.
I had taken for granted that these “Isms” were an … “anachronism” … but upon entering the professional world of the film industry, and as I began to “navigate” the world outside University, I began to realize, to my shock, that these ugly “isms” were still a factor in some “guiding hand” / bias underlying most of society’s institutions including marriage, law, medicine, and also of course the entertainment industry.
Since then, I realize that some of those old “biases” old “paradigms” are now unconsciously incorporated into new “institutions” that were created to counter the old ones … so … even in LGBTQ and Feminist communities and organizations … we seem to have “ingested” the old patriarchy of “labelling” and “exclusionary” behaviours … the “cliques” the “hierarchies” … so … these are some of the factors I consider when telling my stories …
A super cool elderly guy who manages an lgbt owned store in West Hollywood, took me aside one day when I was shopping for stuff for the film set … and he told me in a whispered tone ” you know missy, our lgbt community can sometimes be quite racist and misogynist … ” well … to say the least, having just recently learned about my own sexuality … I had definitely idealized the LGBT community … but of course … we are PEOPLE … and humans are fallible … so… yeah … we all need to find our better angels don’t we …
A world that includes “Girl” … should be one that improves upon old models … and I feel strongly we must begin by learning from the mistakes of “HIStory” as we create “HERstory.” I have been learning this as I reflect on experiences lately … “growing up.”
I ADORE being an actor. I mean, I am BORN to be an actress. I realized however, that most actors are treated like slaves in the entertainment industry ( I am not referring to the 1 Percenters, however, they take their orders from the “powers that be” too ).
FLASHBACK : This was our heritage, as I am told that in “ye olde Hollywood” certain “Rooms 4 Rent” establishments discriminated against Actors, Jewish Persons, and LGBTQ, as well as African American Persons alike … again it’s that “exclusion” that I feel we must do our best to let go of as a culture of “humans being” … that’s what we are … “humans … being …”
Cut To : Modern Times : Still we find, actors of the female persuasion, actors of color and LGBTQ persons are often subjugated to even lower “totem pole” positions within the industry.
Flashback : I had an excruciating childhood, featuring emotional and violent abuse, but my knowledge of my “inner artist, my thirst for knowledge and passion for performance, along with my precious TEACHERS, who were angels … became my saviors. These beautiful educators guarded and guided my path during a very dark time. Their faith in me, the scholarships and awards, provided for me the “space” I needed to sprout from a seedling, who always knew my purpose.
Flash Forward : I’m “commuting” form NYC to LA for acting roles while finishing school and it’s cool … I learn that I truly belong on a film set, doing this work.
Montage : For some unknown reason, I have always “known” in my bones … that THIS is what I know, THIS is what I do … and that THIS is where my “contribution” to humanity can best be accomplished. Due to that difficult childhood, I knew : contributing to the world around me, thru my art, was my ultimate healing. In fact it was that “knowing” ( and my teachers ) that literally saved my life.
After a few initial roles as a teenager, I began to realize : most of the female roles involve degrading material. Well. After a few”offers” for roles in films that might have been somewhat lucrative, and maybe provide some professional benefits as a new actress in Hollywood … I surprise myself by turning down three roles in a row.
I could not betray my teachers, myself, or … other women in that way. Mind you , I felt this as a teenager, but that’s a response in keeping with a kid who has grown up too soon.
I was lucky that my manager ( and also my partner, Wings Hauser ) were supportive of my decision to build my own film and music studio like Charlie Chaplin did. It was a crazy idea but the best one I’ve ever had. I wrote my “WomaniFest0™” Vision Statement : “The Declaration of IndiePenDance™ feMt0™ re EVOL ution™ ” and … raised the “half a shoestring” budget.
eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated™ was outlined on a bunch of stickies. It was one of several films I had planned to create, with it’s own soundtrack. All my films have their own albums. I also secured the rights to a Zane Grey novel during this period too … and that is a project I plan in future …
Around this time I began writing more songs … I had already written like, 100 songs in various stages of completion … I am not good with math, numbers, etc … but my voice was always “burning” to sing … I mean, physically it was a burning sensation. For certain reasons connected to my abusive childhood and a violent person who was a musician / mathematician … I felt that music was not available to me … and yet songs in the form of poetry … and singing was always there just under the surface … and when that bubbled over … my healing began. That healing lit the way for me to embrace who I am.
My first “deal memo” was with an Academy Award winning producer who fell in love with my project and my work … and for whom I will always be grateful for both the support as well as the really disappointing but important lessons I learned. During that deal I realized that I know what I am doing as a producer, as well as an artist. I found myself getting yelled at by some major players in Hollywood … and LOL found myself able to yell back … LOL
We were in a co-production deal to make a film written by myself and my partner Wings Hauser. Throughout that pre-pre-production I met great people. However, as I lived through that deal, I kept hearing from my co-producer that ” I had too much power in the deal.” This was so confusing, bc we had negotiated through lawyers, a 50-50 deal. But my co-producer claimed he should have 51%. That extra 1 % would have made my choices in the destiny of the film, practically nullified. I realized, that if I did not give up that 1% … thus giving up my voice, my control on the finished project … my co-pro would not come thru with the financing as promised.
It was time to do my own thing “for reals”. That meant, taking responsibility for every aspect of the projects. I didn’t fully know what I was taking on … but somehow, I just knew that this was the right path for me … I am not certain it’s the right one for everybody … it’s really challenging …
I consider the “nuts and bolts” of my hand-made film and music – making “works” to be the work of a magical, mystical, “craftsperson” that is channeling through me, ideas and sounds, pictures… as I called it ” Pictures Words Music In Motion™ ” … something akin to “witchcraft” 😎 Same for my acting and music.
Coincidentally, in my personal life I was learning about my own sexuality, I was learning about what it means, to be ” a girl ” in the entertainment industry and in fact, the world … so … I began the fleshing out of those notes I had written on “stickies” for eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated™ and it flowed like water … the script and the songs literally poured out of me … and the rest is HERstory.
eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated™ – all female crew
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
To partially paraphrase fromscreenwriter and actor, Quinn Redeker …The film will “take you somewhere you have never been, ” … I’m pretty certain of that.
I believe the studio is worth supporting for various reasons, it’s female owned and operated, it’s “green” … and my themes always deal with social justice / earth justice topics in fun entertaining manner … This film was shot almost entirely on the water. The album was also recorded on the water. This was important for me bc … the Ocean is “temple” and “home” for me … and I am VERY concerned with preserving our waters … our coral reefs … I feel this is CRUCIAL to life on earth.
My tiny feMt0™studi0 is made from “upcycled” and “recycled” materials and in harmony with the water / nature surroundings in Venice Beach. I created Cali Lili Indies™ Pictures Words Music In Motion™ at “VenusBeach™ Cutting Edge of The Pacific™ as both a destination and state of mind. We are at the edge of the water, just a few blocks from “Hollywood.” Completely indie, self sustaining, and green.
I try to operate my little “SurfShack” feMt0™studi0 as “green” as I possibly can! All biodegradable materials in harmony with the Ocean and Marine Life all around us. I also try to serve organic lunches for crews ( unless they prefer junk food LOL which we also serve … we cater to the crews’ wishes ! but I do encourage healthy food ).
I hope also that my film and album will inspire you to care about the world in a new way … and about yourself. I truly believe you will have FUN if you relax into the experience, bc I intended it to feel like an experience…
I know you will see some beauty, hear some cool beats and … I hope hope hope … some of the imagery andmusic might mingle with your own dreams that night …
and the next day … images and sounds might return for you as I wish them to… perhaps inspire you to treat yourself and others in an extra loving way … perhaps you might question some bit of dialogue or idea in the film… which might, I hope … inspire you to see it again …. and then see it again … perhaps a third and fourth time after that … and then … six months down the line, a year later, five years later, perhaps you might revisit the film … and in the revisiting … perhaps you might see how you have personally changed, by virtue of your own new responses to the material … and perhaps you might learn something about yourself as you see your own responses to the film change over time … always … it is my wish that when you are in that experience with my films … you are in contact with “love” and with”rhythm” …
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Ah. Great GREAT question. They work completely synergistically. They are completely inextricable from each other. That is my ethic, my method, and my sincerest wish.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I shared a bit earlier about the “stickies” … which became the script. It really was a “coming of age” bc … I found my voice as an artist in the development of the project and my feMt0™ studi0 was “built” concurrently with the development of the script and album … so … this was an organic birth … with every step of the way feeling “guided” byMy “Goddess Of Film” … “she” seemed to light the way … and along with the “Goddess of the Ocean” … it seemed really “ordained.” Again I don’t say this as a religious person … just a “spirituality” that is based in nature and “girlpower.”
When I decided the project would be an “all female crew” … I didn’t realize how many nasty responses I’d get from simply including in my adverts that we considered every resume but that we : “encouraged resume submissions from women and lgbtq communities as well as “persons of color” ( these labels bother me but we tried to communicate to applicants, that this project was supporting under-represented persons in the entertainment industry and in the world ). Well, it was amazing that some crazies wrote in to protest this little statement … WOW.
What further amazed me, was that my assumption the project would immediately find support from feminist and LGBTQ organizations was not accurate. Somehow, we have perpetuated a patriarchal exclusionary model of the universe. I write about these things in order to figure out how to contribute to the healing of these hurtful habits. I’d like to help form an economy and ecology that is nourishing for our entire planet and the one “race” “gender” to which we all belong : “living beings on mother earth.”
I believe eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated™ is possibly the first or one of the very first narrative feature motion picture productions crewed by an all female team of technicians and artists ? I haven’t definitively declared that, bc I haven’t done that heavy research on the topic … but I began blogging about it approximately late 2011 / 2012 and I do believe we inspired the current trending of “all female crews” on some projects. I am super proud we got the “Triple F rating” from Bath Film Festival, which stands for “written, directed and produced by a female” … and of course my theme deals with “girl” themes, and related themes. Our set was “magical.”
I needed two of three main characters “Miss eVening Lily / “eVe” and “doctor goddard / “god” to be in separate locations … so I had to figure out a bunch of logisitics …. and as the practicals became clear … they influenced my story-telling style and things began to flow quite easily after the “hiring” stage was completed.
The completion of the film, the shooting of the “ending scene,” was delayed by approximately 1.5 years because initially, I had the idea that I wanted an all female music team to match the all female production crew. But after a few female musicians and a female recording engineer came on board the project and experienced complications in their personal lives / professional lives, some of which were the result of conflicts with OTHER female musicians who felt challenged by the work they were doing with me ( HUGE EYEROLL HERE ) … I decided … that true diversity would include male musicians … and indeed the music backing my lyrics and vocals needs “muscularity” … why not include male team members in the music? I felt my integrity was on the line bc I had “pledged” in 2010 … to use all female crews … but … I was evolving as the project evolved … and after all, some of the male musicians were in the LGBTQ community … some were “allies” … so … that included an added “diversity” …and again … I am … “growing up… ”
eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated™
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Amazingness. The few persons who have seen the film, are people who’s opinions I truly respect, and I just wanted them to be honest with me about their “experience.”
I had this idea … to ask “regular people” ( albeit people who’s ideas and intelligence / integrity I respect ) to “write mini reviews” … If you think about it … our “reviews” come from people who are seeing hundreds of films and let’s face it, they are in the biz so they often do have allegiances and “inside baseball” “inner circle” dramas LOL …
Now, I believe in art “scholarship” … film “scholarship” … I love reading or hearing from professionals who do this for a living … I truly believe in the age of “cell phone movies” and “good enough” videos on YouTube … the de-professionalization of the artist is democratizing but a bit … um … deplorable. Artists are treated badly enough … so I don’t relish any further disrespect of the professional artist, OR the professional art “scholar.”
But I did feel it was cool to ask “people” for their “mini reviews” during this early stage …here are some of the quotes … with more on the way … ( they remain anonymous out of respect for them and for the project in its early stages of distribution )
A.K : “Wow. Every minute is engaging. It really (draws) you into the experience …just incredibly engaging from start to finish. You are both sympathetic and conflicted as a character. At times I go , hell yes ! You are so right. And at other times I go, un, whoah. Take a step back. It is awesome ! It also gives you time to just reflect on things … I have to admit, I really wasn’t sure what to expect or if I would find the film engaging or relatable, but it was both ! … You wanted to know how it made me feel. Well. I think I ran the gambit. It is a sexy film. The tension, the beauty, the music. All of it together makes for a very sensual experience. So if you aren’t paying attention to the intellectual side and just letting the film set the mood, it does that. Of course, that only really lasts for the first 30 minutes or so. After that, the conflict changes a little, it becomes grittier and more real and less sexy and more awkward. Like watching two people fight at a restaurant. You don’t really want to interfere, but you also don’t really want to stop watching. Sometimes I felt lost in a good way …and other times in a bad way. But I felt empathy for both characters, and at each step I was curious as to what would come next … (and) the soundtrack is just killer. We loved it. There is something there for everyone. ”
M.K : ” … i felt like I had to talk to somebody about this film … but I was just watching it alone … so I talked to my dog about it … ”
H.H.S : ” this is a real cinema experience … it’s not trying to be a “feminist” or “lgbt” themed film … but so fitting that it is all that too … it takes those themes to a whole other level into cinematic innovation and disruption … it’s unusual in LGBTQIA material in that it deals with bi-sexual and poly-amory themes too …this is a new voice, an auteur pushing the boundaries of cinematic art “
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Hmmm. It has confirmed my highest wishes for my “baby” project … my first … of course I wished for comments like these … not really just an “ego” thing ( tho yeah it feels good lol ) but it feels as though I “communicated” thru the medium of film and music … and I wished to communicate ! … so that feels awesome …
My point of view, such as it is … is usually about discovery. So my pov is expressed in the making of my art … although my characters are not always “me” … I am exploring ideas and in fact, my characters speak through me … I am feeling more like I am channeling their voices.
Once my art is out there … it’s like my “baby” is taking her “baby steps” and while I definitely am a “jaguar” when it comes to protecting my art and my team … my baby … ( jaguar mothers are VERY protective grrrrr….. )
I am quite interested in allowing the audience to embrace and experience whatever it is they will experience … bc I have experienced audience members telling me stuff I hadn’t dreamed of … bc my projects elicited something in THEM …. and THAT is really fascinating for me to hear !!!!!
Not many people have seen the film, but those who have, are people I truly respect. Their enjoyment and delight and their unexpected comments about the film has nourished me.
I am SO pumped to share the film with TONS more … I am REALLY stoked to hear about people’s experiences!
As my team and I weigh options for distribution … we are interested in opening up opportunities for sharing the film with as wide an audience as possible … I also do need to make sure that the film earns something … bc I am working as a professional artist and doing so independently of corporate. I am grassroots, sustainable and “fiercely indie” I like to say. Additionally my “green” / “water-based” studio requires upkeep AND I PAY my crews … nobody works for free on my projects … my budgets are modest but crews are paid.
One of my mottos is “HandMade 2 Make A Difference™” and I have put the blood, guts and sweat into that statement… so … yeah … I really have made this film in order to hopefully”make a difference” … I really wish for as many girls, women, LGBTQ communities, global communities, allies / men … and humanities / democracy – minded individuals as possible, worldwide, to see and hear the experience of this film … and I wish for it to “spark” feelings, thoughts, ideas, action, and dialogue …
I am already working on my next film …. so I want to spark a dialogue with our audience … ASAP … bc I want to share some ideas … and at this critical time in the 21st Century … I feel a true URGENCY about sharing these ideas ASAP ! So … when you see this film, hear this album … you are in “dialogue” with me / us for the next one … and you are supporting this new concept of a “film and music studio ” … literally “supporting the arts by sustaining the artist ” … and I believe in that … buying from the artist and sustaining artists … I really need that kind of support from the audience …
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Buyers !
Distributors !
Film Festival Directors !
Journalists !!!!!!
YES PLEASE !!!!!!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
LOVE ! and AMPLIFICATION ! and SHARING through purchasing my films, albums, merch … and telling others about it please … encouraging Audiences to BUY from the Artist instead of expecting our work for free … after all … a movie / album can be played over and over … and you purchase it once … why not purchase it and support an artist who works toward a better world ? I really do believe … if we lose artists to poverty or indifference … if we ignore the artist … we nail the coffin of our own cultures. We need artists like oxygen and so often, they are victims of the worst cultural tendencies …. the canaries in the coal mine … look at all the authoritarian governments who sacrifice the artist … an artist disrupts our assumptions … and that’s both healing and crucial.
We have gotten used to “free music ” and “free movies” … well .. the corporations who are “gatekeepers” of what’s in movie theater and on tv / on the radio … they are not working for free … but very often artists are … and independent artists are ” an endangered species” … I’m not kidding. Let’s pay the artist, let’s keep her alive … our lives depend on it.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
This is a critical time in History and HERstory … please everybody … SHOULDER to SHOULDER we MUST overcome autocracy and BUILD DEMOCRACY TOGETHER … this is IT .. this is THAT TIME and every moment matters.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
We are working on the next project in the slate …
Now laying down new demos for the next album and I am in pre-rewrites on the next script.
I have sometimes considered it a “trilogy” … but each project is really its own universe … so that might be confusing … it’s more like, each project is organically “flowing” into the next … and each one is very much interconnected … which is fitting … bc … we are all dreaming together … and the movies, the music, allow us to hold hands, share some time together, feel the rhythm, move together … and dance.
Cali Lili skipped several grades (having been tested as reading at college level in grade school) took her first college course in the entire works of Shakespeare, at age 13, never graduated high-school, never even went to a prom, was swooped up, landing at NYU, then completed her Masters’ Degree on full scholarship with awards / stellar reviews for early works.
Cali is told that she was born “early” and “on the water.” Her love of body surfing, all things “ocean” and all marine life, especially dolphins, has proven to her that this must be true.
Having experienced an extremely difficult childhood “on land,” she does not revisit childhood memories and often speaks out against all forms of abuse.
Born of multi-cultural heritage, Cali is keenly aware and concerned with what she sees as a form of “tribalism” too often employed as “nationalism.” Cali writes about these issues and acts accordingly when it comes to her public image.
Cali adores being an actor and takes that craft very seriously, but found herself turning down 3 acting offers, that she felt were disempowering to women, in order to “turn up” what she calls fempower (TM) by scraping together “half a shoestring budget” to build her “green” “off-grid,” upcycled “floating” “surfshack” feMt0 (TM) studi0 at the Venice Beach Canals in Los Angeles, California where she makes “Signature” auteur Motion Pictures, Albums and Books, with “ToyBoxTechnologies” (TM) “HandMade2MakeADifference” (TM).
Based on the quality of her work as an artist, and her uncompromising dedication to excellence, she then raised modest financing for her upcoming Slate of Motion Pictures, Albums, and Books.
She works from the Cutting Edge Of The Pacific ” (TM) Venus Beach (TM) at The Cali Lili Indies (TM) ” where she stays “afloat” connected with her love and devotion to “rippling waters of the world,” the “mother / sister ocean” energy, so inspiring to her work and life, in order to make social justice themed films, albums, and books.
Cali’s degree included extensive studies in anthropology as well as performance techniques from all over the globe. She holds an added background of intense New York studies in dance /choreography.
She is proud to share her deep connection with “Mother Africa” and is greatly inspired by African culture, the cultures of Oceania, and that of her other diverse intercultural studies.
Cali Lili :
“We all originate from one mother in Africa, the Ocean is our collective unconscious, so let us honor each other, our mutual mother, our waters, and our blue mothership, earth. In doing so, we save ourselves. ” …
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): Buyers, Distributors, Film Festival Directors, Journalists !
Made in association with: Sister Ocean, Mother Earth
Where can I see it in the next month?
(2021 Update : please see enclosed links for Oscars 2020 Contender information ; Both Movie + Album available on 🍎 iTunes Apple TV 🍎 Apple Music , Youtube, Vimeo etc …)
Recently completed both film and album, We want to be sure this film and album are distributed in a manner that is in keeping with the quality of the material …”
end 2017 interview :
2021 Update : OSCARS 2020 contender information + links below
In 2012 I set out to make a sustainable, green, upcycled, lgbtqia , interracial love story – an – all- female-crew motion picture —
with — an original, eclectic soundtrack —
much of it to be shot + recorded on a floating film set
and surrounding Venice Beach “hood” near my “AquaCultureZ™ WaterGarden™ feMt0™studi0”
Upon graduating early with a Master’s Degree from NYU, then entering the life of a “working actress” I learned most roles offered to girls + women (except a lucky few) were too often broadcasting degrading messages about us.
I tried to “adjust” a couple of the early roles – to balance ‘ the power in the frame.’ Despite the content of any given dialogue or role, I worked to imbue the character with strength.
I was beginning to get offered somewhat lucrative roles, I was more than willing to work hard – “work my wayup.” The problem with that plan – is summarized by the “MeToo” movement, which is not just about inappropriate sexual innuendo, but psychological abuse leading to agony, resulting in self-doubt.
It’s also anEconomics problem, with roadblocks held in place by threads of racism, sexism , homophobia , climate-ignorance in a gate-keeping culture – when all I wanted was to excel in theprofession to which I’d dedicated myself whole-heartedly.
I’d been warned about this environment by older actors ( not actresses ) but assumed times had changed so I walked blindly into an environment reminiscent of a bygone era that had never updated it’s own “operating system.”
There I was with all this 21st Century software but there was nothing to run it.
How does a professional, work their way up such a slippery ladder? Perhaps economic inequality is sourced in such pathologies?
Until #MeToo became a hashtag – I’ll venture to guess that most women suffered under the weight of judgement by their families, friends and self-criticism about why they hadn’t progressed further despite their talent and drive. The worst part, is not being supported by “sisters” of a sorority I feel could be so comforting – and even worse, navigating a hyper-competitive “pigeons-for-scraps” culture based in scarcity where ideas and intellectual property can be so easily appropriated by those with power, harvested from those without.
I’ll venture to guess we all felt as though it was just happening to us alone. Similar to the “Occupancy Wall Street” awareness – when people realized that getting their degrees and working hard was not enough in an economy rigged for the 1 percent.
Even if I’d been willing to be willing on whatever levels of “consent” – I’d just come from surviving an abusive childhood – literally “rescued” by my passion for acting , dance, arts , learning – and my teachers who saw the talent, had invested their care in that little girl rushing through the streets of Manhattan – from dance class to acting class to anthropologyand science classrooms.
They’d invested their own passion for education – in that little girl – me.
I couldn’t let them down and I couldn’t let down other little girls who might someday see a movie that I was in – and when she sees me in that movie, she sees herself and when she sees herself, I want her to feel strong, not helpless. I want “her” to feel proud of “HERstory.”
After turning down three lucrative roles in a row, especially after bumping into one of the producers I’d turned down at a social event – noticing his “WHO are YOU to turn ME down glare ” –
I sucked it up – GLARED BACK with a smile –
and THAT was the moment I learned :
WHO I AM ? Is a girl who won’t get bullied – ever again.
Who I am – is a girl choosing integrity over expediency – no matter how ambitious I may be.
Ialso understood that it wasn’t “men” – it wasn’t “directors” or “producers” — it was the Culture at large.Certainly I’d run into plenty of women who had internalized misogyny to enact upon sisters and there was plenty of it in every profession. I had to find a way to work in my chosen profession, to which I had already dedicated – so I chose – to literally “be the change I wished to see” as the saying goes.
Having studied anthropology along with intercultural, interdisciplinary performance modalities – I felt uniquely equipped to grapple with these new insights – even though, they’d prove beyond challenging to implement. I’d be needing some miracles and tons of hard work integrating the education + early work experience I’d earned – with the realities of making a movie and album. A tall order.
I had saved up babysitting, lemonade stand, acting gigs and yoga teacher earnings and these were “startup funds” which I partly used to create our first music video “ElectionTrain” made in urgent support for Obama. Then we began pre-pre-production on the feature motion picture :
” I didn’t want to make a film or album that I’d already seen before.
I was aware that most noted ‘counter-culture’ revolutions in media had previously involved an examination but also ultimate glorification of violence + what is sometimes described as ‘toxic masculinity.’
The film prologue introduces my storytelling concepts which I’ve been referring to, as : “orgasmic” instead of “phallic.” I’m positing that my liquid, fluid, music-based, “orgasmic” storytelling journey to tell the “love-is-love-triangle-story” of eVe, Lila + Doctor Goddard – can exist in harmony with the more normative “phallic” cinematic storytelling styles most cultures expect in a narrative movie. While other directors have experimented with dabbling in it – I feel my movie, while working within the constraints of a modest budget, fully explores this type of storytelling, not with outer special effects, but with inner ones.
The movie draws us “under” and “into” the deep end of the pool, the pond, the ocean as if vacillating between conscious + unconscious time-space dimensions but always flowing like water (orgasmic) instead of rocketing into space (phallic) as “eVe” describes from “inside the closet.”
While I’m proud to say my film was made “like a girl” as that popular hashtag proudly proclaims – I’m almost tempted to ask the audience to consider my innovative storytelling “as if” this were directed by one of several guy filmmakers who’ve experimented this way, but with larger budgets but perhaps a bit less insight about the female nature of this “orgasmic” storytelling style which, in my work, seeks to flow poetic, liquid, music.
It is, in fact, I guarantee you, a different type of “orgasm.”
As my movie does include a theme + dedication to victims of violence against the LGBTQ community, women, black individuals + communities, indigenous individuals + communities … and … AND : our oceans, our mother Earth, wildlife – especially Sea-Life (most feminine) – I did portray an act of violence, but I was cognizant of telling the story of the movie in a manner I described onscreen as ‘orgasmic’ existing alongside most storytelling which is often “phallic.”
I posit that both ‘orgasmic’ + ‘phallic’ storytelling can ( and must ) exist inter-dependently in our Arts + Culture.
I found myself having to not only “shatter glass ceilings” + “break sound-barriers” – but I also had to “break” some storytelling / cinematic / music ‘ rules ‘ – in order to tell my ‘love-triangle’ ‘love-is-love – story’ : AUTHENTICALLY.
This wasn’t going to be structured like other movies – this “herstory” neededsomething from me + “she” is composed of the twin-Tao-yin-yang characters : “eVe” + “Lila.” “She” wrote herself, directed herself.
An all female, openly LGBTQIA crew in 2013 was VERY NEW (still rare) – if we were not ‘the first’ – we are definitely among the veryfirst –
Eyes widened whenever I floated the idea. Also pushback – pushed back — on a variety of levels.Sigh.
Some men “mansplained” – my idea was discriminatory. Others proudly displayed their self-hatred through open sexism, racism, homophobia, climate-denying biases, which was – briefly surprising but eventually – worthless, because hate, though ‘loud’ – is such a drab, useless – one way ticket.
Recently, I became aware of a “mini-genre” to which my “eVe” belongs – and by that I mean – movies which explore the internalized concepts of various religious “eves” – in the context of secular, colloquial (notbiblical)culture.
As my Master’s degree incorporated both Anthropology+ Performance Arts – I tend to “study” culture – even while I’m creating it.
I’ve noticed + personally experienced – the regulations + limitations placed on HER-stories – the ” ‘slut-shaming” of “eVe” ‘ – which has : palpable, real-life consequence for most women, girls, feminine males + wildlife(especially Sea-Life , most feminine) —with it’s victims buried deep in the roots of most cultures.
Shaming-eVe :
When looking “in the closet” of any given Culture – if we venture to explore past the climate-denial, past homophobia and racism – we’ll find misogyny – hiding – way – WAY … at the back of that closet – where most of us, even women, are unaware of the insidious odor seeping deep :
All that “femme” – is feared by the toxic entity which has hounded Humanity for eons – I’ll name it here : “that which believes it must control others or die.” That toxin can be presentin women too.
My “eVe” spends a good bit of the movie “trapped” indoors and she wisely uses some of that time – exploring the “closet.”
Those espousing hateful views towards people – or environmental conservancy – often cite economics + productivity as excuses for exclusionary actions. In fact, hate, exclusion + climate denial are completely – un-productivefor society + for the planet.
It’s pure economics if one needs that sort of excuse. Discriminatory, hateful, wasteful energy create nothing except toxins + problems .
We already have a surplus of those.
This planet needs solutions that heal our problems. More than ever I believe education + quality communication skills are the universal “solvent” whereby wecan dissolve + detoxify globalcultures from such maladies.
– surviving independently, indigenous + sustainable – like an endangered species ( along with all other endangered species wildlife, Sea-Life, and the working class / middle class in every economy ) – on gasps of oxygen –
we are hand-made – on sustainable half-a- shoestring budgets – I’m hoping that the Academy considers my written request to create a new category for this budget level –
hand-made by an artist – with a crew of fellow artists + craftspersons (not a corporation) positing this idea :
Just after graduating at an impossibly early age, having been skipped several grades, earned scholarships to pay my own tuition- with a Master’sDegree but no high school diploma – i stepped out into the “real world” only to discover that the “ISMs” I had believed to be “anachronISMs” – from history books – racism, sexism, homophobia , climate denial – the “male gaze” – the “white gaze ” + other “gazes” – were still alive and finding their way back , insidiously, into our world consciousness, our current histories + HERstories.
The HERstory that we are living now – became a source of great worry to me. I had survived an abusive childhood + I know abuse when I see it.
Abuse of Power exhibited all the tell-tale signatures of Domestic Abuse, Child-Abuse — AND – Environmental Abuse — on a larger scale. The ‘family’ is ‘humanity’and as my family of origin was never a safe place to be — I had already adopted “Humanity” as the family with whom I “belong.”
As a person born of vastly varied, multi-cultural heritages – I could see early on – that “tribalism” was a way to keep walls between people. Which is why I was a “global citizen” before that became a hashtag.
‘Born on the water,’ I’ve always felt – my “true heritage” – is water.
The two debating characters in my movie – “eVe” and “Doctor Goddard – are never – in the same room.
They are separated by “walls” – through which they “debate” – but their ultimate “union” is a form of “healing” … a little miracle.
SurFShackLoft™h20
Large Partof the purpose forthose Project – was my dedication to Sustainability + Green Practices.
My alarm at what’s happening to our planet – especiallyto our waters, ocean life, wildlife –all of which endanger human life + civilization, led me to take my own tiny climate- actionsvery early on.
In high school – I had designed a “SurFShackLoft™feMt0™studi0™h20 “ to be handbuilt very frugally – from biodegradable + upcycled materials.
Miraculously, this loft was built very economically – butequallyimportant – was combining that Sustainability Ethos – with my aesthetics + methodologies developed from early background in dance+theater – to create my signature style along with SustainableFilmSets™.
An added touch of sweetness came when i had asked my local farmers to donate lemons, avocados, kale and flowers, along with other produce – to the creation of our GardenOfeVe™ film set — and they were THRILLED to do so.
As I planned for the movie, I realized that while I don’t consider myself a “designer” – my script – born from story + music (the lyrics are written into my scripts) — but also from methodology + aesthetics, had already designed both sets + costumes.
I hadn’t intended to do this. It just created itself.
We built an “indoor garden” that looked as though a proverbial metaphorical “eVe” embodied by a contemporary – “surfer-chick-student-burlesque-dancer eVe” – had left somewhere in a hurry + quickly planted her own indoor ” victory garden” – out of survival.
This wasn’t fully autobiographical but it metaphorically mirrored my childhood.
Hard as it was to convey – not wanting to sound grandiose – I just knew in the heart of that little girl who survived with the aid of her dedication toward the arts + teachers encouraging her talent – that little girl (me) – her eyes – were witnessing – what ‘eVe’ in my movie refers to – as ‘an ancient grief’ – her precious ‘global family’ – was falling victim to ancient abuse.
In addition to a ” Coming Out ” this movie, this music is intended as a “Coming In From The Cold.”
All through the making of this project, I found myself fighting to save my studio and home in Venice Beach from the severe gentrification and homelessness growing all around me.
It was a familiar fight – against an unjust encroachment from abuse of power. Many times I found myself staying up all night figuring out legal documents, in order to fight back against Trump-style developers – while during the day – working to keep the project going.
A familiar struggle, reminiscent of a childhood framed with terror but propelled by hope and love. A childhood and adult-hood experienced by many less fortunate than myself.
Love.
It can heal everything.
I learned that early in life.
It’s odd, like me, earning a Masters’ degree (NYU) with no high-school diploma, having been skipped several grades directly into University. Odd – like me. My fellow students in the Masters’ program were already professors in other countries who had done all they could, to come to America, to study at NYU. I was a kid with no high school diploma – and they were grown-up professors. Odd, like me. I often think about them now, back in their countries and what they must think of America now.
Having survived an abusive childhood – I was dedicated to the arts and grateful for the “shelter” I could find in my deep love / passion for the arts and my teachers, who’d encouraged my work.
Dance was my first love – along with her twin – music. Then I discovered their sisters – theater and cinema. Along with the support of my teachers, these ladies “saved my life.”
Alone with my dreams, walking the pavement of NYC streets, afraid to go home on the subway until
late at night, I learned my craft comforted by the shelter of dance classes with Broadway Pros, art house cinema screens, and haunting legacy of timeless masterpieces echoing from the halls of every Manhattan museum and library.
My teachers were angels + allies in my “dreams come true” and thanks to them, and to my love – I won scholarships, was skipped grades and offered a scholarship to NYU where I earned my Masters’ Degree at a very young age.
One of my report cards described me as a “runaway imagination” and of course, I imagined my imagination running away and I myself became a “runaway with a scholarship.”
I caught a wave + scraped together my “half a shoestring” budget, built my tiny “green” grassroots, up-cycled, recycled, mostly “off the grid” floating film + music Tiny SurfLoft On The Water in Venice Beach, hand-picked my team + went to work !
I had saved up lemonade-stand, babysitting, yoga teacher + acting gig earnings and my hand-built studio and methodologies as a matter of following a course I had set, upon navigating my way from graduating with a Master’s Degree at an impossibly young age. There was a virtual drummer playing an indigenous soundtrack to my life and — I was listening and following the steps. The ocean was an important core for me and I had dedicated my artistry toward creating my own style of “AquaCulture.“
“HandMade 2 Make A Difference with ToyBoxTechnology ™ ”
Riding the subways alone at too young an age, doing all I could not to go home – I found myself “living at” all my dance classes in private studios on additional dance scholarships, then “living at” the museums and libraries of NYC – kept me busy, along with part-time babysitting and other jobs to pay for anythingscholarships didn’t cover.
So … I just … – never had time – to explore / learn about my own sexuality.
By the time I did learn about it – I was married to my much older male partner, and then BOOM – one day – I FELL — in love with a girl.
It felt CRAZY –
But it was also – BEYOND GREAT !
The LOVE I had for dance, and the arts – had now come full circle into bloom.
I was blooming.
My amazing male partner – reflected this too. He said – you are more YOU now.
I had a lot of figuring out to do.
First — I had to figure out – WHY – did I feel as though I was SUPPOSED to be upset?
I DID agonize about –
feel GUILTY about it —
but I HAD to ask – WHY?
That’s when it came to me – the title of one of the soundtrack songs + a work of art I released with the project :
“We Don’t Fall in Love, We Rise ™”
Little did I know how many times I would repeat that to myself + others.
We had a lot of figuring out to do. Luckily – I was and am still – married to an amazing human being.
Well, of course – I was growing up – growing into Me.
Along with this personal growth, came my awareness of what was happening in the 21st Century world at large.
My personal anguish into ecstasy and my growing deep concerns for the future of Humanity / Mother Earth as an “Endangered Species” became so agonizing – that my only way to deal with anxieties about what I saw happening to this planet in the 21st Century while I was literally “blooming” personally – was to speak up and speak out – doing what I do best.
Suddenly I KNEW that there were people who were experiencing the same “awakenings” about their sexuality but who were living in repressive cultures – and I wanted to reach out to them – to hear THEIR stories – and tell them it would be ok – share my experiences with them – when I first began visualizing this project in 2010.
So many of my posts regarding this project were aimed at persons who lived in other ( more repressive ) cultures and dictatorships.
And here we are, ladies and gentlemen.
Here – we – are.
2019.
A ” Coming Out ” and a “Coming In From The Cold.”
I hoped to release a “healing balm” for the “global family” – at the intersections of LGBTQIA communities and my growing concerns for inter-related social justice crises such as – reproductive rights / women’s rights, violence against LGBTQ and female communities, Indigenous People’s and Black Lives Matter and Climate Change / endangered species.
As intended – this movie, soundtrack and everything my feMt0™studi0 has been working on since inception in 2012 has already reached selected but passionate audiences from Los Angeles to Lagos, Uganda to Agra, Mali, to Manhattan —
My wish after graduating – was to create an international – inter-disciplinary – multi-gender – mixed orientation team – in order to reach domestic + global audiences, without the “Over-Lords” of corporate media, stifling the creativity my teachers had encouraged in me.
Much to my surprise – I got a bit of that wish with the limited releases of this project and my first Youtube music video “Election Train” leading up to the movie. I had taken some time from the creation of the movie – to make the music video in order to support Obama’s re-election.
I am REALLY WISHING that with an acknowledgement from YOU — that this project can TRAVEL FARTHER – and reach MANY MORE people who might be comforted by it’s message of acceptance and LOVE IS LOVE – along with being entertained by the work itself.
Creating high quality cinema and music – was of utmost importance along with the “message” of the story. Excellence and Craft is a must.
Lovers of Movies + Music as well as – Free-speech a Free-Press, Journalism + uh – Basic Freedoms of Democracy might do the Culture + the Planet ( ourselves ) a favor – if we simply support an authentic indie artisanal “maker” like myself and my team.
I’m not against big budget films – I often love them!
And – I’d like to find more opportunities to work in them as an actress – because the current system is one big roadblock.
Often , I liken my signature artisan-made process to “farm to table” + “Aquaculture.”
There’s a scene in Billy Wilder’s movie “Sabrina” where Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina , having been to the Sorbonne – is able to cobble together a feast – from just a few eggs + crackers + milk … – THAT’S my aesthetics …
Yes I’m mixing metaphors when I say I’m allowing the “AquaCulturalZ™ Oyster-Pearls to “vine-ripen” + then when we release a project – I aim to “nourish” through “pictures words music in motion ™” encouraging Audiences to :
Every day at my ocean studio – I send out RIPPLES on the water – wishing for love and peace in the world …
My most effective “Ripple” is this move, this album … –
I hope that your acknowledgement — will help this Ripple travel much farther than I can get it to go on my own …
It’s funny how sometimes we have to do what GingerRogers described along the lines of “dancing Backwards In High Heels ” – in order to move forward one step.
” and though she be but little, she is fierce ” – (Shakespeare )
this quote is invoked in one of my favorite true-life stories about the great ” seabiscuit ” – a story warming my heart from the very beginning of this journey with my own movie – Tiny Budgets + tiny teams – uphill climbs – hopes + dreams –
‘ She KNOWS she’s the Dark Horse here – but darkness she doesn’t fear
My process is based on my methodologies in my book ‘The Declaration Of IndiePenDance™’ where I explore my film-making+music-making approach – I call it c.lili™ ‘s CynAesthetiX™ and it includes a variety of innovations in cinematic+music aesthetics.
As a young actress who’s taken the time to respect the history / HERstory of my craft – from the craftspersons’ perspective – I know that ‘innovation’ rests upon the past + is a bridge to the future.
With My Sisters – For My Sisters : in my recent writings and explorations about feminism — I am finding it crucial for us to find out – not so much why men hurt women – but instead, why some women – hurt women –
including the fact that often, we women, hurt ourselves, it’s a vicious cycle – and by hurting our sisters, we are expressing our self hatred …
I explored this – but it was not until VERY recently that I fully understood the depth of how these incidents shape us from childhood, into our teenage years, school experiences and then –
importantly, as we enter the professional world and encounter the competitive forces from our sisters, which often lead women to do unspeakable things – things they write about and rail against as #feminists – but which they do to each other, sometimes unconsciously …
As we know, our work as feminists – and feminism can be fragile, as the world is often cruel to women who speak out, we often need each other — a form of Stockholm-Syndrome style bond out of necessity … so now the “famous feminists” can become the new bullies, having internalized the misogyny — perpetuating the predatory abuse of power — which is why I don’t often avail myself of friendships that are based in “need” or which arise out of hardships like global misogyny …
But there is a bond among us sisters and I always hold a wishful hope that women / girls I encounter will understand the need for true friendship, genuine caring, listening to each other — behaving towards our sisters in ways we wish to be treated … Unfortunately though, I’m going to say it here, and elsewhere – we often miss that mark.
I’m sorry to have to say it, sorrier to have experienced it, but damnit – we need to do better with each other. “Mean Girl Culture Cool” is often invoked when women / girls are acting all “empowered” – but of course that’s just stupid and self-defeating. We must do better.
Sisters – we really must. I offer the project below – which is the first in a trilogy on the subject. This project was a gift I made with my sisters, for my sisters all over the world. We might have been the first AllFemaleCrew as a production team – but we were certainly among the very first ever and I am certain we were a catalyst.
The Project is not easy to pigeonhole – and that’s true to form. I never wanted to make a movie I’ve already seen anywhere else.
One could describe this movie as :
A meditation on ‘male-gaze’ – ‘white-gaze’ – ‘mens-wear’ + other ‘ISMs’….
I offer it up and hope it reaches both Sisters and Brothers too –
Together – we really must GirlTheWorld™ – this is why I made this project – I believe this is how “we shall over-come” our challenges – the ISMS – racism, sexism, homophobia and including climate denial.
iTunes 
IslandChildWild™ 
Cali Lili Indies™🏝 PicturesWordsMusicInMotion™🎬🎧 femt0™studi0🏄🏽♀️🏄🏼♀️🏄🏿♀️ CuttingEdgeOfThePacific™🦀 ©CaliLili™AllRightsReserved. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.