The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability

“Literally during the last week of production, we kept having this conversation. We are part of a cultural moment and we know we are, which is a very out of body experience… Any iconic black show, did they know? Because a lot of those when you look back at their history they were one the bubble, and I always think about Girlfriends and Living Single––did they know that people would still be talking about them?”Amy Aniobi is a writer, director and Executive Producer on HBO’s Emmy-nominated comedy, “Insecure,” starring Issa Rae. “Insecure” will premiere its fifth and final season on October 24th with Aniobi behind the camera as director of the seventh episode (#507) to be broadcast on December 5th. She also served as showrunner/head writer/EP for season one of the HBO stand-up special “2 Dope Queens.” Under her new production shingle “SuperSpecial” and overall deal with HBO, Aniobi already is in development on several projects, as well as two features set up at Universal. Amy recently directed the award-winning short film, "Honeymoon," which explores a modern-day Nigerian couple's arranged marriage. She also co-created, co-directed and starred in the web series, “Lisa and Amy Are Black,” created the web series, “The Slutty Years” and wrote for both seasons of “Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” Amy is Nigerian, hails from North Texas, graduated from Stanford University and UCLA, and has lived both in the US (New York, the Bay Area) and abroad (France, Morocco).· amyaniobi.com · www.creativeprocess.info(Photo Credit: Merie W. Wallace/HBO)

Amy Aniobi is a writer, director and Executive Producer on HBO’s Emmy-nominated comedy, “Insecure,” starring Issa Rae. “Insecure” will premiere its fifth and final season on October 24th with Aniobi behind the camera as director of the seventh episode (#507) to be broadcast on December 5th. She also served as showrunner/head writer/EP for season one of the HBO stand-up special “2 Dope Queens.” Under her new production shingle “SuperSpecial” and overall deal with HBO, Aniobi already is in development on several projects, as well as two features set up at Universal. Amy recently directed the award-winning short film, "Honeymoon," which explores a modern-day Nigerian couple's arranged marriage. She also co-created, co-directed and starred in the web series, “Lisa and Amy Are Black,” created the web series, “The Slutty Years” and wrote for both seasons of “Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” Amy is Nigerian, hails from North Texas, graduated from Stanford University and UCLA, and has lived both in the US (New York, the Bay Area) and abroad (France, Morocco).· amyaniobi.com· www.creativeprocess.info

"The idea of writing memoir is about listening carefully. The way to find a story or, at least the story that needs to be told is that moment that you’re writing is the emerges from a deep kind of inner listening and finding the memories that are charged that don’t want to leave that have a certain kind of energy to them and, if you listen to them, and you allow them to be born in the writing, you discover your own story because your story is basically made up of all the memories that continue to hold the charge for you. All the memories that are lodged in your mind that you’ve secreted away and when you can excavate that story and you can write it down, then you can make sense of it and you can understand why you’re living the way you’re living and why you feel the way you feel. And you can also decide to to release those memories so that you can have new memories that can define and can shape your life."Writer and producer Rebecca Walker has contributed to the global conversation about race, gender, power, and the evolution of the human family for three decades. Author and editor of seven bestselling books on multiracial identity, Black Cool and ambivalent motherhood, she has co-founded the Third Wave Fund, which makes grants to womxn and transgender youth working for social justice. For her efforts, she has been named by Time as one of the most influential leaders of her generation.
· www.rebeccawalker.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Writer and producer Rebecca Walker has contributed to the global conversation about race, gender, power, and the evolution of the human family for three decades. Author and editor of seven bestselling books on multiracial identity, Black Cool and ambivalent motherhood, she has co-founded the Third Wave Fund, which makes grants to womxn and transgender youth working for social justice. For her efforts, she has been named by Time as one of the most influential leaders of her generation. · www.rebeccawalker.com · www.creativeprocess.infoINSTAGRAM @creativeprocesspodcast www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

“Take care of yourself. Bring that love and kindness and compassion into your dealings with self and others. And this world will change dramatically. I think you’ll find great reason for optimism and hope and viewing the way our world can go, but it absolutely involves a change from the status quo from our current direction.”Eben Alexander, MD, was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He experienced a transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection that completely transformed his worldview. A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven and Living in a Mindful Universe. · ebenalexander.com · www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Eben Alexander, MD, was an academic neurosurgeon for over 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He experienced a transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection that completely transformed his worldview. A pioneering scientist and modern thought leader in the emerging science that acknowledges the primacy of consciousness in the universe, he is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven and Living in a Mindful Universe. · ebenalexander.com · www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“What frame, what scene, ultimately what story is going to capture the most emotion to make you feel something? Because those are the films that have always resonated the most with me. Those films that actually make you feel. They stop you and they make you feel and make you think. They really jar you.”Director of photography John Matyśiak’s career has focused on shooting internationally recognized independent films, which have screened at over 50 festivals worldwide, including the Festival de Cannes. Matyśiak is widely admired for his arresting, contemporary images, which evocatively support and amplify his directors’ vision.He recently shot Meet Cute, a genre-defying dark comedy starring Pete Davidson and Hayley Cuoco, directed by Alex Lehmann and produced by Akiva Goldsman. Prior to shooting Old Henry, which premiered at TIFF 2021, Matyśiak achieved the Best Cinematography award at the 25th Los Angeles Asian-Pacific Film Festival for his work on the feature films, Two Shadows and Model Minority. His commercial clients include: Audi, Jameson, Nissan and Lexus. Matyśiak studied film at the Czech National Film School, FAMU, in Prague and Emerson College in Boston, MA. He is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. He is based in Los Angeles, CA. · www.johnmatysiak.com · www.creativeprocess.infoImage: Tim Blake Nelson in Old Henry

Director of photography John Matyśiak’s career has focused on shooting internationally recognized independent films, which have screened at over 50 festivals worldwide, including the Festival de Cannes. Matyśiak is widely admired for his arresting, contemporary images, which evocatively support and amplify his directors’ vision.He recently shot Meet Cute, a genre-defying dark comedy starring Pete Davidson and Hayley Cuoco, directed by Alex Lehmann and produced by Akiva Goldsman. Prior to shooting Old Henry, which premiered at TIFF 2021, Matyśiak achieved the Best Cinematography award at the 25th Los Angeles Asian-Pacific Film Festival for his work on the feature films, Two Shadows and Model Minority. His commercial clients include: Audi, Jameson, Nissan and Lexus. Matyśiak studied film at the Czech National Film School, FAMU, in Prague and Emerson College in Boston, MA. He is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. He is based in Los Angeles, CA. · www.johnmatysiak.com · www.creativeprocess.info

“I went to the Amazon and I got a canoe and I started rowing into the forest. It was absolutely like going back into the 17th century! I went around for six months on my own and that was fantastic because in this part of the Colombian rainforest there were absolutely no roads, no towns, no electricity, no flowing water. You are with the indigenous group. They are all still in their loincloths. They speak different languages. I went through about eight different ethnic groups. They all spoke different languages. I couldn’t understand what they said. They couldn’t understand what I said, but we got along well.”Martin Von Hildebrand has dedicated the last five decades strengthening indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. During this time he obtained the recognition of their rights in the National Constitution, including the collective ownership of their land and the development of their governments. They now own 26 million hectares of continuous rain forest, their rights have been recognized, and they have set up many of their governments.Currently, Martin, along with NGOs, indigenous organizations, civil society, governments, and private enterprises, is coordinating the protection of the largest stretch of rainforests on the planet (the northern part of the Amazon between the Andes and the Atlantic, 260 million hectares).He is an ethnologist, with a doctorate from the University of Paris VII, founder, and the current president of the Gaia Amazonas Foundation. He has been awarded a dozen international awards, such as The Right Livelihood Award, the Talberg Award, The Golden Arc award, the Special Irish presidential Award for Irish Abroad, and the Colombian National Environmental Award.Gaia Amazonas Foundation · gaiaamazonas.orgAlianza Noramazónica website· alianzanoramazonica.orgRAISG website· amazoniasocioambiental.org/es/Why is the Amazonia important?/¿Porque la Amazonia es tan importante?· youtube.com/watch?v=_mO1bf8iTMINetflix: "El Sendero de la Anaconda"Flying rivers/Los rios voladores en la Amazonia. El Corredor Andes Amazonas Atlanticobbc.com/mundo/noticias-41038097#:~:text=Son%20%22r%C3%ADos%20voladores%22.,m%C3%A1s%20agua%20que%20el%20Amazonas· www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

Martin Von Hildebrand has dedicated the last five decades strengthening indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. During this time he obtained the recognition of their rights in the National Constitution, including the collective ownership of their land and the development of their governments. They now own 26 million hectares of continuous rain forest, their rights have been recognized, and they have set up many of their governments.Currently, Martin, along with NGOs, indigenous organizations, civil society, governments, and private enterprises, is coordinating the protection of the largest stretch of rainforests on the planet (the northern part of the Amazon between the Andes and the Atlantic, 260 million hectares).He is an ethnologist, with a doctorate from the University of Paris VII, founder, and the current president of the Gaia Amazonas Foundation. He has been awarded a dozen international awards, such as The Right Livelihood Award, the Talberg Award, The Golden Arc award, the Special Irish presidential Award for Irish Abroad, and the Colombian National Environmental Award.Gaia Amazonas Foundation · gaiaamazonas.orgAlianza Noramazónica website.· alianzanoramazonica.orgRAISG website· amazoniasocioambiental.org/es/Why is the Amazonia important?/¿Porque la Amazonia es tan importante?· youtube.com/watch?v=_mO1bf8iTMINetflix: "El Sendero de la Anaconda"Flying rivers/Los rios voladores en la Amazonia. El Corredor Andes Amazonas Atlantico· bbc.com/mundo/noticias-41038097#:~:text=Son%20%22r%C3%ADos%20voladores%22.,m%C3%A1s%20agua%20que%20el%20Amazonas· www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info