The Oscars have got us thinking all about the magic of cinema, and we’ve got two stories on the power of film, and the hold it has on people. So whether your favorite movie of 2024 was I Saw The TV Glow, Challengers, or Sing Sing - the actual best film of 2024, get your popcorn out, and get ready to watch a, well, listen to, a story. This episode was hosted by Emily Couch Storytellers: Frank Ortega begins his career in the movies. Brittney Cooper gets an unexpected call from Tyler Perry. Podcast # 908 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the theme of The Moth Podcast: At The Movies?
Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm Emily Couch, and on this episode... He's looking at you, kid.
Rosebud.
Forget it, Jake.
It's Chinatown.
Yes, it's the moth at the movies. The Oscars have got us thinking all about the magic of cinema, and we've got some stories on the power of film and the hold it has on people. So whether your favorite movie of this year was I Saw the TV Glow, Challengers, or Substance, my favorite movie of 2024, get your popcorn out and get ready to watch, well, listen to a story.
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Chapter 2: How did Frank Ortega start his career in film?
First, we have Frank Ortega, who told us at a New York City Story Slam where the theme was, appropriately enough, movies. Here's Frank, live at the moth.
I love movies, and it's hard not to. I mean, you'd have to say, like, I don't love dreaming. And I grew up watching them, and one of my memories, a few times I was alone with my mom, we had a time together, was the Oscars when they went really late.
Everyone else would go to bed, and she and I would sit up on the couch and watch it to the end, and she would make these special snacks that she never made at any other time. And then I got a Super 8 camera and a video camera and I would do this stuff in high school and then in college. It was just so exciting. And so I graduated and then I came to New York. I was just like itching to make movies.
And it was like hitting a brick wall at 90 miles an hour. Because it's like you need to work, you need rent, you need... And my mother, who had always been... Both my parents were very sarcastic about that line of work. My mom would be like, well, I'm sure you could go to an employment agency and just say that you want to be a director.
And that's expressing love to your child and disapproval at the same time. So I got my second job. All the jobs were horrible, the early jobs. And of course, I was sending out resumes everywhere. You know, film crew, anything, anything, anything. Because I did a lot of film work and I'm fast on my feet. Nothing. So I ended up at the Yale Club. This was a horrible job, the front desk.
And one morning, I'd done the night shift. This is the early 80s. And so I come out at 8 in the morning, after a whole night at that place, and I'm still wearing the hideous outfit I hate, that Yale Club outfit. You gotta wear this blue polyester jacket, the gray polyester pants, the fake leather belt, the fake leather shoes, and the Yale Club tie, which they give you.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Frank Ortega face in the film industry?
And I'm walking up to my horrible tram ride to Roosevelt Island, which is like the island of death. It was such a weird place back then. And I'm walking up, and there on the street, almost to mock me, is that whole Hollywood setup. You know, the trucks, the lights, the gaffers, the rigs, the equipment, the craft table, the whole thing. And I just, it made me like, ugh.
And I walk past it, and I walk... about a block, and this thing rises up in me. This whole, like, rebel yell comes up out of me, and it's like my body, without my mind, turns around and starts walking right back to the hive of the activity, the set. It was a restaurant, and the whole thing was focused in there. While I'm walking, I'm then having this quick conversation. What are we doing?
We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna get a job. We're gonna do this. Well, what do you know? What are you good at? I'm good at, okay, I'm good at painting, and I'm good at building, and I'm good at, like, creating. Art, okay, so not lighting, not electricity, not, oh, okay, so art, art department.
Right about the time I got to, like, the first layer of people, I go, hey, yeah, hi, where's your art director? Oh, he's inside, but you don't want to talk to him now. I go, oh, no, no, I do, I do. What's his name? Well, it's James, of course. Yeah, okay, well, I've got to talk to him. He's in a really bad mood right now. Why? We're totally under budget. We're overstretched. It's a real disaster.
He's really mad. Okay, thanks. Where is he? Over there. I go right over there. Excuse me, where's James? I go right up to him. Hey, James. He goes, what the? Who are you? My name is Frank Ortega. I'm from Wisconsin, and I went, I studied film, and I'd love to work in movies. I want to work in movies. The fuck? What are you doing here? And I said, no, no, no, no, I can work for you.
He goes, no, the reason, no, we're crazy right now. I don't have, we're a mess right now. This is a disaster scene. Get the fuck out of here. I go, but no, no, I can work, and my brain was flying, and I go, I can work for free. And he froze. He froze. He was really a nervous guy. And he froze. He goes, what? And I said, I can work for free. And he just goes, oh. Let me go check with legal.
One second. And he goes away. And he comes back like a minute later. He goes, if you just sign the waivers here, you can work for us. You can work for me, a production assistant, for free. And I said, yeah. And he really said, and when can you start? And I had just worked, right, the whole night through. And I just, I love that moment because it's true. I said, right now. So I began working.
It was this horrific disaster of a movie. It's not on Netflix. It's... No, no, but it had Elliot Gould, Shelley Winters, Carol Kane, Margot Hemingway, Sid Caesar. I mean, it was over the Brooklyn Bridge. And so, okay, it was this epic education in guerrilla filmmaking because it was super low budget. What not to do, what to do. I got to meet everybody that was there.
I worked on the sets, and after a while... They put me on the payroll. They even gave me back pay to the day that I walked in and did that stunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was $50 a day for, like, 15-hour days. Come on. Come on. And... We're adults here. Come on. And so...
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Chapter 4: How did Bhaskar Sumpali's childhood influence his view on movies?
That was Frank Ortega. Frank has been a writer and performer his entire life and knows no other way to live. He never writes fiction because few even believe the amazing things that happen in real life if one pays attention. We asked Frank if he had any reflections on his movie experience. Here's what he had to say.
That film I worked on, Over the Brooklyn Bridge, was shot in just five weeks instead of the scheduled six and way under budget, which made for some crazy times. I got to have a great talk with Sid Caesar about the old days in showbiz, and I loved dressing the sets down to the smallest details and realizing how any movie
becomes a documentary of a time, a place, and people as real as anything by Ken Burns.
If you'd like to tell a story about cinema, or anything else really, you can always send us in a pitch. Here's a pitch about growing up at the movies that we really enjoyed.
When I was about 9, 10 years old, the only source of entertainment we had in the village that I grew up, in southern India, was an open-air theater. where we could watch old Indian movies for free. And it was a thrill to watch all these Indian movie stars in their shiny shirts and bell-bottom pants and David Bowie-inspired hairstyles on the screen.
But what we enjoyed the most were these fight scenes between the hero and the villain, and particularly the sound effects, where the punches would land to the sound of the shoe. It was so popular that kids in the playground We thought that's how real people fought. So whenever we fought each other, we would just make the sounds ourselves.
Over time, as we got older, we would go into town to watch movies in the theater, fancy theaters. And one of these bus rides, taking them was a rite of passage to adulthood. So we would go there. And during one of these bus rides, a couple of drunk villagers started fighting each other. And it was so funny to watch because
They were drunk, old, out of shape guys trying to punch each other and nothing would land. Instead, they ended up hitting all the handlebars and other passengers and they were kicked out mid-ride. But we didn't go and watch that movie after that. But the magic was gone because we knew that in real life, there is no Dishoom sound. There are no sound effects.
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Chapter 5: How can you pitch a story to The Moth?
It's just a bunch of old guys trying to hit each other. And really, the magic that we used to see on the silver screen was gone. It was sort of a coming of age story for us.
That was Bhaskar Sumpali. If you've got a cinematic story and would like to pitch us, you can call our pitch line at 1-877-799-MOTH or just leave a pitch on the website themoth.org. Be sure to take a look at the tips and tricks on our website about how to make a great pitch. Many of these pitches are developed for Moth mainstages each year, and we'd love to hear from you.
We'll be back in a second after a short intermission. Feel free to get some popcorn, soda, and maybe even some gummy worms while you wait for the next story. And the Oscar goes to... On this episode, we're exploring the power of cinema. We watched a lot of old movies in my house. My mom took great pride in introducing me to some of her favorites. The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins.
We'd go to the library and rent the VHSs, in case you'd like to guess my age. I was a really obsessive kid, and I'd end up falling in love with whatever movie she showed me and watching it on repeat ad nauseam. I think she ended up wanting to kill me and needing a massive break from her own favorites. Sorry, Mom.
So whether your favorite Julie Andrews movie is The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, or The Princess Diaries, we've all got strong opinions about film. And our final story is a favorite from the archive, about what happened when one woman shared some of her opinions. Brittany Cooper told this at a Princeton main stage where the theme of the night was between words. Here's Brittany, live at the Moth.
So in the early 2000s, I became the first person in my family to graduate from college and to go on to pursue a PhD. Now when you go to med school, you become a doctor. And when you go to law school, you become a lawyer. But when you go to grad school in the humanities, you become a critic.
Imagine studying for six years for the express privilege of telling everybody who's ever written or said anything what is wrong with what they have said. Imagine further explaining this to your family at Thanksgiving. So one of the ways that I would cope with this unfortunate turn of events is that I would go to the movies, typically a matinee on a Wednesday.
And my favorite filmmaker at the time was Tyler Perry. When I went to see Diary of a Mad Black Woman, I thought to myself, here is a man who understands black women who have been done wrong. When Kimberly Elise's character slaps the shit out of the husband that has been abusing her, I'm in the theater hooting and hollering with all the ladies in there.
But at the same time, I'm also becoming a feminist. And you know, I'm down for smashing the patriarchy and everything. But nobody tells you that the first casualty of a feminist analysis is movies. You hate them because you see the patriarchy absolutely everywhere. You become a feminist and suddenly you can't like anything anymore. You're a professional unliker of everything.
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