California Woman 411, an Edgy…Progressive…Thought Provoking Talk Radio Show, hosted by writer/producer Dee Jae Cox, that showcases ‘Women who Lead and Inspire’, will feature an interview with  Country Music legend, Dolly Parton on the Saturday, January 18, 2014 show, airing at 10am on KPTR 1450 AM, in Palm Springs.

Parton, (an International Music Icon and Superstar) is scheduled to appear for a rare one night only performance on January 24, 2014, at ‘The Show’ at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage, just prior to the kick-off of her ‘Blue Smoke’ World Tour.

Dolly Parton, who is not only an iconic singer/songwriter and business woman, but is also a  philanthropist and the founder of the Dollywood Foundation, which promotes literacy education, scholarships, raises funds for HIV/AIDS related charities and the American Red Cross and whose legendary success in country music is the classic “rags to riches story.”  Dolly will spend time in a one on one interview with California Woman 411, host Dee Jae Cox on January 18^th, exemplifying the show’s intent to feature women who are inspirational leaders in their professional fields.

‘California Woman 411’ is Produced by Michele Weiss under the auspice of  ‘The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Project ‘ (www.lawomenstheatreproject.org), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create opportunities for women in the performing arts.   Marketing & Promotions Director, Susan Norris, (snorris@californiawoman411.com) rounds out the show’s production team.

‘California Woman 411’ broadcasts on RR Broadcasting’s KPTR 1450 AM Progressive Talk radio in Palm Springs, CA and can be live streamed from anywhere on www.kptr1450.com

For more information visit our website at: www.californiawoman411.com.

The title of this film documentary may be a little long and/or obscure for a theatre marquee – “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” – but its story and style (hand held camera) presents a window to the world where countries and their people still struggle to survive at the low end of the economic and social ladder, resonates with societies everywhere not just here in the United States.

Gypsies or Roma people from Europe have been discriminated against for centuries.  Powerful stories of the disenfranchised are few and far between in mainstream cinema, because there is very little monetary gain to be had in telling their stories.  But that hasn’t deterred Danis Tanovic, one of Europe’s finest documentary filmmakers from bringing a heart-breaking story to the screen.  The total budget for film is reputed to be about $50,000, but looks more expensive up on the screen.

Tanovic has produced a compelling film mainly using non-actors to tell the story of one Bosnia Roma family.  The narrative text appears be non-scripted for the most part, although director Tanovic is listed as the screenwriter.  The Mujic family, husband Nazif, wife Senada, and young daughters Semsa and Sandra who look to be about 5 and 6 years of age, live in a Roma shantytown in the Tuzla region of Bosnia/Herzegovina.

Although a veteran of the War, he served four years fighting for Bosnia/Herzegovina, Nazif has no pension, no insurance, no child benefits, or prospects of working within the government system.  As a Roma he is forced to eke out a meager living for his family collecting scrap metal from dumps and junk heaps.  In the States, he would be called a poverty junkman, a step away from homelessness for himself and his family.

Senada, now pregnant with her third child, develops a serious medical complication with the fetus, which the local doctors have declared as dead.  She has been bleeding for a week and needs immediate medical attention.  Nazif drives Senada and the children, in a borrowed car, to an urban hospital, miles away in the hope that she will receive medical help.  Without an insurance card, however, no hospital will care for her, emergency situation or not.

Nazif is frustrated at every turn.   His brother and his neighbors help him in whatever way they can, but the disenfranchised and the powerless have little chance succeeding.  Finally, Senada’s sister-in-law gives her own insurance card, and the journeys to the hospital begin again.  The procedure is finally performed and Senada comes home to recuperate.  However, the after-surgery medication is more expensive than the initial procedure… but the beat goes on.

The plight of the Mujic family is unrelenting in its hopelessness.  I was struck by resignation of the family who accept setback after setback, yet keep plodding forward.
The next time I’m tempted to complain about slow service in a restaurant, I think, I’ll just tough it out.

It’s dangerous living, working, or just being in an occupied country.  The film “OMAR”, now screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, is the Palestinian Territories’ Official Submission for the 2014 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  It is   a very violent and graphic look into such an existence.

As in all spy thrillers, it’s a difficult world where one is trying to tell the good guys from the bad guys.  It’s a story of counter-intelligence agents (the Israeli’s) trying to be a step ahead of the local Al-Aqsa Brigade, in the West Bank, and in this case, three radicalized young Palestinian men: Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) Amjad (Samer Bisharat) and Omar (Adam Bakri) who grew up together as boyhood friends.

Written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, “Omar” is an intense action-fueled movie of street chases in, over, and around narrow-lined streets and buildings in the on-going cat and mouse game of counter-intelligence.  The scenes of interrogations are brutal and graphic.

When an Israeli soldier is killed in a guerrilla attack one night, Omar (Adam Bakri) is arrested and tricked into an admission of guilt by association.  Before he knows it, he’s pressed into work as an informant.  Now the cat and mouse game begins in earnest.  Omar knows the identity of the shooter (Amjad) whom the Israeli’s want.  But he’s conflicted.  Tarek has a beautiful sister Nadia (Leem Lubany), who is love with Omar, and when the time is right Omar must ask for Nadia’s hand from her brother Tarek.  How can he betray her brother and his friends and expect win Nadia in the process?

The story and the dilemma concerning young lovers is as old as Shakespeare.  It’s “Romeo and Juliet” all over again except we’re in the modern Middle East instead of Renaissance Italy.  Omar and Nadia write letters to one another every day.  And every day Omar climbs over the wall separating the West Bank from the Territories to meet and deliver his replies to her letters.  That has the ring of Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” delivering letters, every night, to Roxanne from the battlefield.  But, seriously the issues involved in Hany Abu-Assad’s movie about the moral and political dilemmas are, not only very real, but compelling and vexing, and are likely to be with us for years to come.

The performances are intense, riveting, and first rate.  Writer/director Abu-Assad has a genuine, hit on his hands, despite the radioactive subject matter as well as the locations and the setting of his film.  He already has a distributor for the film, which goes into selected theatrical release sometime in late February.