Film & TV · The Creative Process The Creative Process

“With UnPrisoned and with really my whole body of work as a producer, I'm really drawn to stories that make people feel seen that take issues that have stigma and shame attached to them, and making those issues just more palatable and more human. And few people realize that 50% of American families are touched by incarceration. And when you meet someone like Tracy McMillan, who really is a miracle, this is a woman who's now in her fifties who grew up in 22 different foster homes because her father was incarcerated when she was so little. And yet for all of his mistakes, the fact that he was a career criminal, he still, when he could change her diapers, he was present when he could be there. He braided her hair, and there was real love there. But they were separated not only by his mistakes, but by a system that is really unforgiving and really unfair, especially to black and brown men. So, the idea that we could tell a story where a young woman who was raised that way and by that person turns out to be Kerry Washington. You know, turns out to be somebody who you want to be, turns out to be Olivia Pope, this woman that we all see as so beautiful and such a hero and so strong and so powerful, I felt was just an incredible opportunity. And when we first put Tracy and Kerry in the same room, Kerry said to Tracy, 'You know you're a miracle, right?'"

Joy Gorman Wettels is the founder of Joy Coalition, an impact producing venture with a focus on creating purpose-driven film and television content for a global audience. She executive-produced the newly-released UnPrisoned, and is currently working on a multi-part storytelling ecosystem inspired by landmark civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize. Her body of work includes, notably, the critically acclaimed series Home Before Dark, the influential 13 Reasons Why, created by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Brian Yorkey and directed by Oscar-winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight).

“So if I'm managing a complicated life support device while I'm shooting stills or video underwater, there's a dual thing going on. The creative side of my brain loses all track of time, just as anyone that would ever sit down to paint or draw or even play on the computer. Time is just gone. But that left side of the brain has to keep track of time and constantly be monitoring my life support status. So there's a very present sense of time and forcing my brain back into keeping track of that, but these places that I swim through are timeless in the sense that many caves that I'm swimming through are like museums of natural history that inform us about things that happened in very ancient times on planet earth. So I'm swimming through this temporal portal to have a peek at ancient history."

Jill Heinerth is a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. She is a veteran of over thirty years of filming, photography, and exploration on projects in submerged caves around the world. She has made TV series, consulted on movies, written several books and is a frequent corporate keynote speaker. Jill is the first Explorer in Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, recipient of Canada’s prestigious Polar Medal and is a Fellow of the International Scuba Divers Hall of Fame. In recognition of her lifetime achievement, Jill was awarded the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration from the RCGS and the William Beebe Award from the Explorers Club.

“The Harder They Come, that film was made by a very close friend of mine. And it was at a period where Jamaican music had started to really catch fire a bit. It was certainly selling in England. It was starting to grow, and there was interest in England and Europe. Not really in America. America wasn't interested in it at that period in time at all. But it was really decided to try and get this across. To do a film so you could get a feel for where this music was coming from. And a man called Perry Henzell, who was a very good friend of mine, he wanted to do a film. He called me one time and said there was an album cover of Jimmy Cliff, who was one of the other artists that I was working with from early on. And he said he's the guy I really want to be the leader of the film. And so I said, ‘Okay, that's great. Go ahead.’ And so Jimmy Cliff really became the leader of that film. And that film really sort of expanded the whole image and point of view of Jamaican music and Jamaican life. That film was very, very important for getting Jamaican music known in the world.”

Chris Blackwell, an inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is widely considered responsible for turning the world on to reggae music. As the founder of Island Records, he helped forge the careers of Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, U2, Roxy Music, among many other high-profile acts, and produced records including Marley’s Catch a Fire and Uprising. Blackwell currently runs Island Outpost, a group of elite resorts in Jamaica, which includes GoldenEye—the former home of author Ian Fleming. He produced Kiss of the Spider Woman and Stop Making Sense, and other films. He was location scout and production assistant for the Bond film Dr. No before deciding to devote himself to the music. He received the A&R Icon Award in recognition of his lasting influence on the music business. He is author, with Paul Morley, of The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond.