Season 2 | Episode 2: Passing Pt 2 - The Roles We Play with Chaz Ebert and Brenda Robinson
The co-Star of this episode:
French 75
We’d love to hear from you!
Featured Guests: Brenda Robinson & Chaz Ebert
We return to explore the theme of passing – and the duality of preserving one’s identity while being forced to navigate the world in certain ways.
Joining us for this episode are producer and philanthropist Brenda Robinson and CEO and civil rights attorney Chaz Ebert. As Executive Producers on the film Passing (2021), Brenda and Chaz have so much to share on their respective roles, as well as the vital importance of the critically-acclaimed movie.
Together, we examine systems of oppression and share personal stories of what we gotta do – and what we’ve had to do – to survive and thrive historically. We also examine Modern Day Passing and the many ways we might pass (intentionally or otherwise) outside of skin color.
What is modern-day passing and what are the roles we play to gain equity? How do you find ways to fit into the dominant culture? How do you stay true to self and show up empowered and authentic to everything that you are?
QUESTIONS
Power-producers Chaz Ebert and Brenda Robinson join hosts Jason and Yvonne Lee to talk access. In this mini-reunion, these four friends and film professionals share why they do what they do – and that is to lift and provide opportunity for voices of color working in film. By highlighting impactful projects like Regina Hall’s award-winning debut film, Passing, to new projects like veteran Lisa Cortes’ documentary Empire of Ebony which covers 70 years of culture from Ebony and Jet magazines, we learn from the inside what it’s like to operate from what can often feel like the outside. We also learn that what matters in this industry is being empowered from within, showing up to the table as your authentic self… and knowing that the table you’re at is THE table.
What do you gain by not having to pass as anything?
In our very first episode with a delicious mocktail, we acknowledge the increasingly popular addition of inclusive mocktails as a beverage choice in social situations. Jason whips up a non-alcoholic French 75 and the conversation flows, as always. Knowing that modern-day passing takes on many, many forms, our guests also share personal stories of how passing has affected them and how it has shown up in their own families. Yvonne poingantly presents Chaz and Brenda with their confessional question, what more needs to be done so that people of color can show up authentically and not have to pass for anything?
For more spirited discussions, make sure to subscribe to the podcast.
And if you’ve enjoyed thinking and mocktailing along with us, we’d love for you to leave us a review.
Cheers … and Please Drink Responsibly!
Links:
Guests:
Brenda K. Robinson
https://www.filmindependent.org/people/brenda-robinson/
Chaz Ebert
https://www.rogerebert.com/contributors/chaz-ebert
Book:
Passing by Nella Larsen
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/passing-nella-larsen/1001883168
Film:
'Passing' filmmaker Rebecca Hall shares the personal story behind her movie
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/30/1059824073/passing-rebecca-hall-film
Empire of Ebony
LIFE Camp
(Erica Ford, Violence Interupter)
https://www.peaceisalifestyle.com/
A Most Beautiful Thing
https://www.amostbeautifulthing.com/
Additional Links + Special thanks to:
Podcast Haven - https://thepodcasthaven.com/
Liam E. Allen (original music) - @Liamea97
“I remember being fascinated, the idea that this phenomena [Passing] existed, that people actually engaged in this form of identity and just creating a way of existing that allowed them to infiltrate spaces and go undetected.”
-Brenda (minute 27:00)
Cocktail: French 75 (Mocktail AND cocktail)
Mocktail
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Float San Pellegrino Sparkling water
Cocktail
2 oz gin
3 oz champagne
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Shake ingredients and strain into a champagne flute
Float champagne on top
Add a lemon slice garnish
About our special guest
Brenda Robinson
Brenda Robinson is Producer and Philanthropist, and current Board Chair of Film Independent and a partner at Gamechanger Films.
Robinson, also a member of film-financing collective Impact Partners, was a financier on the Oscar-winning documentary Icarus among other projects. Her executive producer credits include Rebecca Hall’s Passing, United Skates and upcoming The Empire of Ebony directed by Lisa Cortés. She previously was Film Independent’s vice chair, and also has roles including serving on the board of The Representation Project founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an advisor to The Redford Center and is board chair of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. She is also a member of the Recording Academy and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
About our special guest
Chaz Ebert
Chaz Ebert is the CEO of the Ebert companies which publish movie reviews (at RogerEbert.com), and produce television shows and movies (Ebert Productions LLC and Black Leopard Productions).
She is a co-founder and producer of The Roger Ebert Film Festival (Ebertfest), entering its 22nd year at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her civic interests include programs to help break the glass ceiling for women and people of color, and to provide education and arts for women, children and families, with a global interest in encouraging empathy, kindness, compassion and forgiveness. She carries out these missions partly through the Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation, where she is the president, and with whom she established a scholarship for African-American students at the DePaul University College of Law.
For over 30 years she has participated in film festivals all over the world, but what she most values is her establishment of outlets at the festivals where she encourages and supports emerging writers, filmmakers, and technologists with her endowment of scholarships, internships or awards at the Sundance Film Festival; the Film Independent Spirit Awards; the University of Illinois Ebert Fellowships; the Hawaii International Film Festival Young Critics Program; the Telluride Ebert/TFF University Seminars; the Chicago International Film Festival Ebert Director Awards; and the Columbia College Links Journalism Awards in conjunction with the Chicago Urban League. At the Sundance Institute she has participated as a Creative Investor in both the Catalyst Forum and Catalyst Women programs.
Along with her late husband Roger, she is the subject of the award-winning documentary, Life Itself, directed by Steve James, and based on the New York Times best-selling memoir of Roger Ebert.
Previously, as a civil rights attorney, she was named Lawyer of the Year by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, and also previously served as a litigator with the EPA, the EEOC and the law firm formerly known as Bell, Boyd and Lloyd (currently, K&L Gates), in the areas of environmental affairs, equal employment opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property litigation, and general litigation. During that time she was a member of the Chicago Bar Association where she helped organize and sponsor the 1984 U.S. Presidential Debate with the Environmental Law Committee, and also served as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Cook County Bar Association.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Dubuque, a Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a Law degree from DePaul University, College of Law (BALSA President, Law Review, and Student Government Representative). Mrs. Ebert is a Life Trustee of the Art Institute and currently serves as a director on the boards of the Lyric Opera; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation; After School Matters; The Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, the Honorary Board of Family Focus, and the Advisory Board of Facets Multimedia.
She has also served on the Lawyers Committees of the presidential campaigns for President Clinton, President Obama, and Senator Hillary Clinton.
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