Teddy Grouya, AmDocs Festival | From Statecraft to Storycraft: Building Festivals, Films & Community

TRANSCRIPT:

Patrick Evans, Host: [: 00:00:00

Randy Florence, Host: I'm bending spoons.

Patrick Evans, Host: You're like the Kreskin of Palm Springs.

Randy Florence, Host: I'm the Kreskin of

Randy Florence, Host: podcasts.

Patrick Evans, Host: You are

Patrick Evans, Host: Randy Florence, my co-host. How are you, Randy?

Randy Florence, Host: I'm, it's

Randy Florence, Host: great

Randy Florence, Host: to be here. It's really good to be here.

Randy Florence, Host: The weather is fantastic. Everybody in town likes you again.

Patrick Evans, Host: We'll see. It's been a thunderstorm later this week, so

Randy Florence, Host: But

Randy Florence, Host: we like the thunderstorms.

Randy Florence, Host: Those are okay.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah. But a lot of roads close and then people get upset.

Randy Florence, Host: Not in LaQuinta.

Patrick Evans, Host: No, because you guys built bridges.

Randy Florence, Host: Nobody goes out when it's raining.

Patrick Evans, Host: Oh, that's LaQuinta a better idea.

Randy Florence, Host: Hey, so there's some,

Patrick Evans, Host: the only thing that closes roads in La Quinta is that Iron Man thing. That shuts everything down.

in [: 00:01:00

Patrick Evans, Host: Are you? Is it because it's eight lanes wide in both directions?

Patrick Evans, Host: It's eight

Patrick Evans, Host: lanes wide, but it moves into one lane so you can turn right.

Patrick Evans, Host: Okay

Randy Florence, Host: and this is my Abe Simpson moment.

Patrick Evans, Host: This is,

Patrick Evans, Host: this is Randy Soapbox. Thank you for joining us.

Randy Florence, Host: Let's talk about you though,

Patrick Evans, Host: why

Randy Florence, Host: you're, it's probably too late now as we record this, but you're in the running for the most popular radio personality in the desert.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yes. The Coachella Valley Independent.

Randy Florence, Host: Yes.

Patrick Evans, Host: Jimmy Bogle and his team.

Randy Florence, Host: Yeah,

my radio station where I'm on: 10:00

John McMullen, Producer: So

John McMullen, Producer: basically what you're telling us is that they have to give it to you?

Patrick Evans, Host: No, see, they actually,

Patrick Evans, Host: actually, and when we partnered with the CV Independent, they took away the best TV personality category because they didn't want there to be an appearance of impropriety.

, Host: Why is there no best [: 00:02:00

Randy Florence, Host: most of the television,

Patrick Evans, Host: we would've run away with it hands down to

Randy Florence, Host: that's all

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah.

John McMullen, Producer: We have

John McMullen, Producer: no competition.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah.

Randy Florence, Host: There's fire and ice. That would've been disappointing for them, right?

Patrick Evans, Host: No. That was a very popular podcast when the Firebirds were popular, but that I don't think is the case anymore

Randy Florence, Host: or until we started. Yeah,

Patrick Evans, Host: they're on thin ice is what I hear about that podcast.

Randy Florence, Host: Oh, puck. You

Patrick Evans, Host: so well, you go puck yourself.

Randy Florence, Host: Puck yourself.

Randy Florence, Host: Good luck if we I voted for you

Randy Florence, Host: eight or nine times.

Patrick Evans, Host: You're only supposed to vote. I did two. But that's,

Randy Florence, Host: I hope you win.

Patrick Evans, Host: Thank you very much.

Randy Florence, Host: More importantly, I want, it would be

Randy Florence, Host: great to have the winner. As a co-host on the podcast,

Patrick Evans, Host: I

Patrick Evans, Host: want 1 0 3 1 Met TV v FM to win because it would be a nice feather in the radio stations. cap, and Brad Fuhr, who is one of our former guests,

Randy Florence, Host: yes,

Patrick Evans, Host: owns that station along with kga, so he can't lose.

is somebody that we've been [: 00:03:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Thank you. I'm honored to be with.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Such celebrities in the Little Bar.

Randy Florence, Host: You're gonna be disappointed here by the end of the hour,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I think. No, I'm so impressed. I actually forgot why I was here listening to the two of you, because you're so entertaining and erudite that I. I don't wanna be a part of a, any letdowns so

Patrick Evans, Host: that it would be impossible.

Patrick Evans, Host: You first of all, just we could spend a long time talking just about AmDocs, but you also are a filmmaker as well as the founder of the film festival. You've been, you just told us you were doing some judging as well as you had a film entered. So you travel all over the world for film festivals.

Randy Florence, Host: And have we had any guests who work for the State Department?

Patrick Evans, Host: I don't believe so. I don't believe so.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So I would've probably been dismissed at this point. But

tate. Didn't you work in the [: 00:04:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yes, that's correct. Is that on my bio?

Patrick Evans, Host: It is.

Patrick Evans, Host: So you guys were doing your research. It will be Rain is our research department, but I, you and I have known each other for a while. Yeah. Long. I've been lucky to participate in AmDocs from time to time. But I did not realize you were A-U-C-L-A guy, but then you went on to study in Australia and that's where you got involved in the State department worked.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yes. I was doing a master's in international Relations. Not easy to say,

Randy Florence, Host: no,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: when you're sober or not, we can fix that too. And I was very, at that time I was very fortunate. I was very fortunate to get into UCLA. I was very fortunate to get into the A NU, the Australian National University because at that time, that particular program was limited.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: The. Graduate program was limited to up to 12 people.

SFX: Wow.

program and somehow I got it [: 00:05:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I myself had been an exchange student years before in Denmark. Oh. And some of the people that were volunteers, there were embassy staff but I was always interested in working at state outside. So my two loves were international relations and of course, film.

Patrick Evans, Host: And your undergraduate degree from UCLA, you

Teddy Grouya, Guest: studied film intelligence.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That's right. But at UCLA, it's it's not easy. We're on the quarterly system there, so each quarter, which is 10 weeks, is like an 18 week or 20 week semester.

Patrick Evans, Host: Wow.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: But you do three of them.

Patrick Evans, Host: Right.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And you're not really, you can take some coursework, but they're very much into the breath requirements, meaning your first couple of years you have to do, you can't just jump into film.

rything else from biology to [: 00:06:00

Randy Florence, Host: probably happy to get it.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. And you use your own car. And I was the hardest working person on the set. But there were people that would've died, to get that opportunity. Yeah. I was very fortunate. I hope this isn't boring you, but I was very fortunate to get. That job. Part of it was related to my Danish language experience because my dad knew Lou Gar, Lou Garfinkel, who was a writer of the deer Hunter.

Randy Florence, Host: Wow, okay.

r chops. So he said I know a [: 00:07:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And maybe because he's, he learned Danish. She was a Dan, she's from Denmark, but in Hollywood, maybe he can take her to lunch. And that's how it started.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Okay.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: As far as getting my first break working there, so my youth exchange experience helped pay off. Yeah. I wanna

Randy Florence, Host: ask you about that. The, that's a pretty big move, obviously becoming a foreign exchange student.

Randy Florence, Host: Yeah. Was this something, as you grew up in the family, was there, was the family saying, Hey, you gotta go out and explore? Or was this something you came up with on your own? These are

Teddy Grouya, Guest: pretty, your partners are pretty smart here on the set. I'm just a pretty face. I think I Hi Candy. I for some inex and I think you can relate Patrick because you've done a lot more pro traveling recently, especially, since you've gotten married with this lovely woman who's has Lithuanian origins.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Correct. And that is a

aint. She's, no, I heard she [: 00:08:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: but yeah, the desire I think came at the age of 12 to 13. I remember being in geography class, we had that back then. It was probably seventh grade and they'd have a map and you had to do capitals and stuff and I was always the, it's like spelling bee or something.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I was the champion and, I don't, and my father came from Europe, but the interesting thing, so I was intrigued by anything foreign. I thought I wanted something always better than where I lived in Northern California, which is of course a very idyllic environment. Yeah,

Patrick Evans, Host: it's a terrific spot to but it was,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: it wasn't enough.

e you can't leave. It's like [: 00:09:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And they said, you can't leave Santa Rosa. And so they were all telling that to me and I couldn't wait to get out. And so I was, I thought I was gonna go to the south of France to play tennis and they lost my application and there were only two. So I'm like calling, like I told you, I called Australia, I want to get into the program.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I called and they said, oh, everything's closed. You can't go. There's no French speaking programs. 'cause that was the most desirable and you had to be like ultra straight A's. And they said, Paraguay's left and Denmark. And I was like. In retrospect, Paraguay would've been really intelligent, pretty cool.

ercast. But I said, you know [: 00:10:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Let's try something different. So that, so

Randy Florence, Host: what was that experience? You get over there?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So what happens, and I was there for about 13 months. The, there is a difference by the way, whether you're in high school or college, you see a lot of college students that and that's fine. I'm not knocking it, but they do a semester abroad and that's a lot different than doing a year abroad because you're basically partying.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That time that you're away and it takes a while to really enculturate yourself into the society that you're visiting. Because in the beginning a lot of people are interested in speaking English 'cause they wanna improve their skills. But then they get tired of that. It's a natural human reaction, so you have to start learning the local language.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah, it was probably eight or nine months and I didn't have any Danish background. Wow. As far as language skills, you were

Randy Florence, Host: living with a local family? So

tough part. She was also the [: 00:11:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And so I would say something in Danish and she'd go, Knight,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: it's always constantly

Teddy Grouya, Guest: correcting you, but that was so that's frustrating. And yet it's a good thing. Yeah. That

Patrick Evans, Host: someone is on top of you. It helps with that full immersion, that immersive experience. I was an exchange student. I went to Italy in my junior year of high school and wow, I didn't know that.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah, that's

Teddy Grouya, Guest: fantastic. So par Italian. What

Patrick Evans, Host: my, my, I didn't, I went on to study Italian in, at the University of Virginia and my Italian professor told me that I was her cross to bear, so I wasn't, I was not a good student.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Study, it's interesting because you were probably like me in college.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: They really require you to do, it's not just going to the class three days a week. You have to do the labs, right? Yeah. And

Randy Florence, Host: and are you conversational now? Could you go back and. Start a conversation. Yeah.

ple that I see, I think that [: 00:12:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: 'cause what you say is flu, not, or fluent. As far as reading a scientific journal might be a challenge. I could read it, but as far as. Perfectly smoothly. It's another issue. But people that I meet that are somehow, there's Danes, there's only a little over 6 million Danes. Yeah. But in our industry, Denmark's like a superpower in the arts, television, and particularly film.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So I meet them and I remember going to a festival in Copenhagen for work, and you go to Regi, to the registration and, to get your passes and all this, and there's some hot shot. People, some girls from women that worked in the industry that came, flew over from New York and I'm in this one queue, this one line, and I'm speaking Danish to the people, they're setting me up and they look over at me and they got.

started, I studied a little [: 00:13:00

Patrick Evans, Host: and then I turned and walked away. That's outstanding. Obviously it must have been an enormous formative experience for you spending. Length of time in Denmark and away from your family and outside of the United States now. 'cause the senior year in high school is, that's a big year.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: You grow a lot. Yeah, my dad even though he was European, he loved me and he offered to send me to Hawaii for two weeks instead of going off to Denmark. And I didn't take the bait, but so yeah, I mean it's actually reverse, as you probably understand. It's a little bit reverse.

that it's much easier today, [: 00:14:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Not

Randy Florence, Host: required anymore, right?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's a lot changed after nine 11. They made things easier, more expeditious and that's another discussion, but because they needed more, supposedly more people as far as monitoring. What's going on out there, national security. But I was just very blessed to work in that environment because I was surrounded, Australia, that's an, that's a plumb posting and yeah, very much yeah. So I was like the youngest guy there, but I was surrounded by crack professionals. The expo like. My getting to work in Hollywood and then getting to work at the embassy in Australia. These are some of the greatest diplomats in the world because they'd had to serve, in other tough locations.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So I, I learned a lot. Did they send the,

Patrick Evans, Host: to the lousy places first?

re exceptions, but typically [: 00:15:00

Patrick Evans, Host: This is something else we haven't done. Italy's not one.

Patrick Evans, Host: Italy's not a hardship post. No, we have this in common. I actually, I passed the foreign service exam and it was a provisional employee

Teddy Grouya, Guest: of the State Department for a while. So you just didn't follow through on the ne on the remaining interviews. Yeah. That's a huge deal, Patrick.

Randy Florence, Host: When your dreams to be a meteorologist,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: He does it as much better than me. The thing about Patrick Evans, not that you need me to say this, but here we go. He does. He's an exemplar of community service. He's not being paid except for maybe a meal at some,

Randy Florence, Host: and he vouch for that. Yeah. No, but

Teddy Grouya, Guest: he's done a lot. He continues to do a lot.

. Just do the weather. No, I [: 00:16:00

Randy Florence, Host: Patrick and he certainly has.

Randy Florence, Host: How are you involved in the local community?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I, besides Amoc, so I am part of the. I'm on the board for the foundation of the Plaza Theater. Oh, that's right. For the restoration of the theater. And of course AmDocs really takes up a tremendous amount of time. We do a lot of, I'm thinking off the cuff here, sorry.

their study guides but maybe [: 00:17:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And I have delicately, share with them this subjective process. But that's some of the things that we do. We do a lot of education outreach and we don't really have. Specific sponsors for this. We do it with our own, guts and what we earn at our box office. And

Patrick Evans, Host: you have a small team.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's not our team, first of all let's tell you this before the dirty little secret. The festival, now everyone knows about the Palm Springs International, which of course deserves a lot of a claim of, and great part. Because they do well at the ticket office, but of course I think their greatest notoriety local and in southern California is the gala that they have because they're able to bring in the publicist bring in a lot of stars during the award season.

ival, but interestingly. The [: 00:18:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: We had over 300 industry guests. So now that being said, as far as the team behind it. I'm the, I'm full-time. And then we have some other directors like Leighton who is full-time. Has

Randy Florence, Host: he accomplished much over the last couple years? He's the thing about Leighton

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Jen he's pretty dynamic in, in always coming up with some ideas.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Do I do we always adopt them? No, because some of our resources are limited, but he's got a lot of great intuitive ideas that he continues to pursue.

ost: He's had his hands in a [: 00:19:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: this desert. Yeah. In order to grow our event. But we do have a team of different, as we get closer, like we're already having meetings now, so we have different department heads, so running a film festival is really making a film or building a house because you have to have all these different elements that go into the final product that most of the public don't see. It's not just me picking films and then we screen them. It's a real complex process. At least the way we do it. It's complex. And so they're really.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Incredible people that have been with us, that have volunteered since our very first season, for over 15 years that I've been working with. And we're always seeking new blood to work.

Randy Florence, Host: And I imagine the people making the submissions know that you guys do it differently than a lot of other places.

s a Yelp for film festivals. [: 00:20:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So some of the festivals I went to recently, I was in Australia, I was in Tacoma. They're all wonderful people. They had absolutely no industry events. Not even an opening night party where they offer you a beer. So what's

Randy Florence, Host: the point?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. Yeah, they just had you go to the screenings and I think part of it's expenses Yeah.

. Maybe there's a party at a [: 00:21:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Style home or there's something going on at a, in a canyon. Things that are identifiable with the desert so that these people have a unique experience outside of the viewing rooms, and that pops up your Yelp review. So that, so yes. Thank you for bringing me back once

Randy Florence, Host: we found out it was there.

Randy Florence, Host: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. You can

Teddy Grouya, Guest: look that up. Yes, we're rated in the top 100 consistently. Out of over 14,000 festivals in the world. Wow. So we get, its remarkable. We get the five stars consistently. Yeah.

Patrick Evans, Host: What you had been making films and you'd been working in television as well, but what made you decide to found the film festival itself?

Patrick Evans, Host: The AmDocs Festival. So that was.

ginally the Camelot theaters [: 00:22:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Walking, no tourist or whatever gonna walk. You have to drive there. Yeah. It's not, you're not gonna come upon it like No. Like the plaza. Like the plaza, yeah. Exactly. Which is a blessing for them, for people that are like, what can we do in town tonight? Yeah. So the Camelot didn't have that and they asked me, what is it we can do to try to help build some more visibility?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And that's how it started. They thought it would be just like a little weekend event. I said, I'm not gonna get involved and walk away from my filmmaking unless we're gonna try to make it the biggest and the best. I didn't mean it arrogantly, just I, if I'm gonna pour 110% into it, I want it to be something that's great.

nk we fulfilled or we're, we [: 00:23:00

Randy Florence, Host: Yeah. What are the requirements for a submission to He knows, he

Teddy Grouya, Guest: knows all the expressions. That's great. We're not excuse the expression, premier Horrors a

Teddy Grouya, Guest: lot of festivals. Did you know that expression?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. The, it's not a requirement. One of the only, it's typical, unless it's a retrospective, honoring, a great filmmaker who might have a body of work. It has to have been, typically has to have been completed within the last three years and it can't have played within a 70 mile radius.

ng premiers, certainly World [: 00:24:00

Randy Florence, Host: Wow.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So yeah. And then there's different categories. We have. A documentary feature doc, short animated work. We even have music video now, which is fun. Thi

Randy Florence, Host: this is, I'm sure going to be difficult, but throughout the years that you've been doing this are there a few that have just really stood out for you that you would use as an example of what AmDocs is about?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And if the answer's no it's virtually impossible. It's virtually impossible every year because I do get this, your friend Bruce Sier used to ask this bloody thing. Okay give us

Randy Florence, Host: what an ask Bruce is. Yeah, give us

Teddy Grouya, Guest: The top 10 films of this. And I said, how am I gonna, I. I understand. It's a very good Bruce, by the way.

e else that's also a part of [: 00:25:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: We had. We've had everything from, Oliver Stone, our first season where we did, I think five or six, because he's really into documentaries now, by the way. Yeah. But he'd already done at that point, I think four or five, and we screened all those, whether it was the Israeli, Palestinian conflict.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: He happened to have been there when there was a horrific bombing at a. Mall or restaurant type thing. And then you have, we had Peter Bogdanovich, who's of course a famous director and even did some acting

Patrick Evans, Host: famous in the Sopranos. That's right. Which is interesting.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I only in this last year.

n a documentary about Cloris [: 00:26:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. And he gives a lot of insight as far as when he was casting her for the last picture show, which she got the Oscar for, and he said when she first came in, she came in with a dog and four kids, and he was like, oh no. This is not, this isn't gonna work. How about.

Randy Florence, Host: Surprising submissions from a group that you were just shocked that they put something together or a part of the world that put something together that you hadn't seen a submission from before?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: You should probably have sent me an email preparing me for that one. Let's go back

Randy Florence, Host: even further

it's like anything that you [: 00:27:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So what's different? What's different about the AIDS crisis that hasn't already been shared? What's different about the Holocaust that hasn't already been shared? What's different about veterans returning from, conflicts and having to deal with PTSD that hasn't already been shared?

d that's why I'm viewing over: 2000

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I don't have to scout them, or we do reach out to people, like we had Sean Penn a couple years ago.

Evans, Host: You always find [: 00:28:00

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That's that's a good point. There's plenty of star power people that are getting involved. The actors that. I was prepared for this. You see it a lot and you guys can watch the film credits on Netflix or Hulu or HBO, whatever, but you'll see that the, a lot of the actors, and that's fine.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: They want to start to wet their appetite or, get some chops directing and they'll take on documentary subjects. Sean was not necessarily directing the film but it was really his film, that he was a part of in Ukraine. And I felt it was I wasn't. Personally in love with that picture, although when I saw it again on opening night, it got better.

t of this choppy, yeah. Edgy [: 00:29:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I had to moderate I had to ask the questions. It wasn't open to the audience was there, but we didn't want to do the q and as. It was just too complicated. And his people didn't want that. But that doesn't mean we didn't ask, relevant questions. And he was. Affected emotionally.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That's how sincere he was. I would ask him questions about people, and the two pilots that he really got to know that ended up flying F sixteens were two of the guys that got killed one, during the screening and then subsequent subsequently. So he's very passionate. And of course, the other thing when I was talking about doing more for your community, not just dribble.

eddy Grouya, Guest: That guy [: 00:30:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I think they gave out 500,000. They helped people. Wow. They go to hurricanes, they do everything. He walks the

Randy Florence, Host: talk.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: He walks the talk. Yeah. And I only respect that, and I'd heard things about Sean in advance. I'd met him a couple times. But I was told, oh, be careful. He's not gonna show up. So I was so Patrick's talking about, how important, how great it is.

honor maybe a director, but [: 00:31:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's not easy to get them. It's hard to get 'em. Yeah, sure. So the star directors and rarely do they get these stars, but you've managed to do it pretty regularly. Yeah. We have a lot of goals this season on our 15th annual. I love the

Randy Florence, Host: smile when you said that, it was just kinda yeah, I do.

Randy Florence, Host: It's paranoia that's ins

Teddy Grouya, Guest: insecurity because a lot of people ask that question, who you got this year? And so then there's an expectation and that's a challenge. Sometimes we mix it up. Last year we opened with. Themes that were related to dance and music and things to still entertain, the audience.

r I was at the film festival [: 00:32:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: The guy who did Brokeback Mountain. The guy from Taiwan Ang Lee. Ong Lee Ali I met him. No one recognized him. They were all jumping over chairs to get to Brad Cooper and Ali couldn't have been, but I recognized him and we were having a drink and no one came up. But he couldn't have been more gracious.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So yeah, that goes in, if you're think worried about selling tickets, that's an issue. That's not our. Premier thing that we're focused on, but we want to recognize these people that have contributed so mightily to this incredible art form.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah. The star power does help, draw people in.

Patrick Evans, Host: But I think, you've crafted a film festival that, that speaks more about the genre. And the quality of film that you bring in the star power is always nice for opening night or for the q and a, but I think it's the consistent quality of the films

: Yeah. And the stories. And [: 00:33:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I can't really answer you. I did it in a roundabout way. We'll get you back

Randy Florence, Host: for another episode here. Let's now

Patrick Evans, Host: a question, I want to transition away from the film festival and talk about your own personal filmmaking. Now, tell me about some of the things, the projects that you've been most happy with, most proud of, and what are you working on next?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I was reminded by a. One of my best friends, whose name is Patrick he looked it up 'cause I shot a my first feature here. 'cause it was so difficult to try to get people to read a screenplay. It wasn't a documentary. And he reminded me that the writer for variety called it abysmal.

Randy Florence, Host: And that wasn't the name of the film?

Randy Florence, Host: No. And it was

itimately or through love or [: 00:34:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: We actually did. But that was, again, not part of the story. So that was one of his criticisms. And part of the reason I ended up going to documentaries is because it was soaked. Expensive, make, it was shot with film. So everything we did, we had craft service. I had to pay sag, insurance for the actors.

valdi. Peter gave Valdi. And [: 00:35:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: There was someone in the movie colony. Sales. I was the only filmmaker there. They said, oh, it's gonna be all these industry people. And I was the only one there. And some guy who worked at nasa in Pasadena, you know the, oh, jet Propulsion. JJPL. Really sharp guy who loved music, but he was also a rocket scientist, literally.

about the Four Seasons, but [: 00:36:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: 'cause Vivaldi was basically the Beatles of the Burque period. Yes. And then Bach slightly after. And I kinda listened, but at some point, I'm done. Okay. It's nice meeting you. But I went home, I don't know if something told me to buy some discs and I bought seven or eight things of Valdi.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And I'm list, it's like that scene where Ri is, listening to Mozart. To Mozart for Yeah. And he's

Randy Florence, Host: and he's loving him and hating him at the same time. Exactly. But I,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I'm on the ground next to the speaker and I'm turning up the volume. I'm probably losing my hearing, but I'm getting closer to the speaker and I'm mesmerized.

t very well. So I went, very [: 00:37:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's flooding in San Marcos and, but I went to, and there's no tourist there though, was this,

Patrick Evans, Host: which is the bonus?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. I wrote to someone who was specifically they had a baroque orchestra and I wrote to him, he didn't really speak great English, but he said we have a concert in a few days, and why don't you come?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And there'll be a few, there'll be a few people involved with Vivaldi, like historians and musicologists there, here in Venice. And what did I do? I bought a ticket and I went and he said, and I'm like, and I have all my luggage. It's storming outside. This is all the truth, God's truth. It's just storming. I don't have a place to stay.

. It was some school, it was [: 00:38:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And I said where am I staying? Back to the exchange dude today, right? And he says you're gonna stay with Mickey. And I said, who's Mickey? And I'm looking around and I turn around and it's a really diminutive. Lady and she goes, here I am. And that's how it started.

Randy Florence, Host: And that night I became a man.

Randy Florence, Host: Yeah.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Because I was committing several years to, fleshing out this story about Vivaldi and these people dedicated their whole lives to this man. They would give, they would be my historical reference and I'd come up with characters, but they would. Read the drafts and say, no, this didn't happen.

that became consultants were [: 00:39:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: The point is I was working on the narrative screenplay, and at some point I said. These people are interesting characters themselves, so that's why. Why Vivaldi? Why are you guys committing your life to him? So that Mickey, she quit. Her father was an angling high up in the Anglican church in England, and she left, became a Catholic because she was so in love with Vivaldi and she would volunteer.

an, and then would study the [: 00:40:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: This is the Hollywood story, but I've written it so no one needs to steal it. Everyone knows about the Four Seasons, but he became, because he was the oldest son in his family, and it was typical in Italy that the oldest son goes to the church. And they didn't have any money. So he would be the provider.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And he also, the interesting thing I learned a lot doing this research because composers then were like artists that might be commissioned to do the Evans family. And he, a lot of these rich Venetians had their own little orchestras. So he would be paid and he would compose. For them.

they might have a deformity [: 00:41:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: And that became La Pieta and all it was for girls and Vivaldi was hired to be their music teacher. Pretty incredible. That's a, that's amazing story. And they became some of the great musicians in Europe. Under his tu. I had no idea about that story. So that's the basis of the screenplay. And then all these people that were the, historians, I went out and interviewed them and that became the genesis of the documentary.

ry that's played in a couple [: 00:42:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: you,

Teddy Grouya, Guest: but it's called Memory Collector, and it's about a guy who grew up in La Quinta.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: He doesn't live here anymore, but he was a projectionist and he was a very quiet. A gentle man who loved rabbits, and he used to go to, he still does go to the Salvation Army or to estate sales, and he would collect for 25 cents or for free VHS videos. And he played one and it showed a family memory of a child that was born and just came.

e that looked at it. I said, [: 00:43:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: You know what you know, inspired this guy to try to help these people. And he was able to locate them. Even though there was nothing. That's a

Randy Florence, Host: great story.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah, so that's what the film is. It's called Memory Collector. That's new. I'm working on another little short narrative film, but I just completed a film called The Quest, which is a contemporary donte thing that I am absolutely in love with, and now I'm working on.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: But no one's seen it yet. Okay. But I'll share it with Patrick and you if you're interested. Yeah. Breaking news. It's a nice inspiring story. And then I'm working on a new outline. I don't wanna bore you, but it'll be a little bit for a little bit younger audience, a another Cyrano de re what was that film?

it. Yeah. Oh yeah. This is a [: 00:44:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So yeah, and then of course, AmDocs. That's what we're constantly working on.

Randy Florence, Host: When I. You mentioned something earlier about everybody's doing docs now.

Randy Florence, Host: When I turn on Netflix, is it just my imagination or my algorithm or am I just seeing a ton of documentaries available now?

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Absolutely.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Abso freaking ly. I, and is that because of the

Randy Florence, Host: cost of making them is I think

I said, okay, but what else?[: 00:45:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So you won $900,000 and you sit and you point a couple cameras at them. It's, you're not being honest, if you've got her, you can make it for appreciably less, but you. They wanna pay themselves. That's great. Yeah. But no, you're absolutely right. And this is one of the issues though I have with those films.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Now Netflix is interesting, 'cause one of the people we honored was Joe Berliner, who's a huge director now. He gets a lot of Netflix contracts. He did the one on Tony Robbins that was really successful on there. But he does a lot of the crime ones, the Ted Bundy. Oh yeah. Okay. Stuff like that. And then, and he's also.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Gone into some narrative stuff that he's done very well. But they limit who they work with. So you think there's a lot more opportunities because document, that's the dirty little secret is what you said. Docs are big. Yeah. So someone's making money off them. And if you go to the gym, I've told this to Patrick before.

Guest: They might talk about [: 00:46:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That's been my experience when I'm. Talking to people. Yeah. Someone's doing well with docs. Are they doing them really well? It's another issue. I think they can do, as you say in your business, B roll or what I call coverage. There's a lot of, it's a North American, American and Canadian formula for documentaries.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It goes way back journalism as far as sitting down and talking.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: But it's not always that interesting to go from one person talking to another. They need to cut away. To archival footage or something else. There needs to be, that's my opinion.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah. There needs to be some sort of video of what you're discussing.

eah. And so they're a little [: 00:47:00

Randy Florence, Host: and I'm no expert on 'em, but I certainly see the same thing. No, you have an eye, just somebody watching.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah. Yeah. So I was watching something on Ted Bundy. I just threw it on yesterday.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: The Ted Bundy and Green River thing. They didn't do it very well, but. They shed and the University of Washington, and they had this old footage. It was Royce Hall, UCLA that they used the stock footage

Teddy Grouya, Guest: of. Really? I really Poor

Randy Florence, Host: Shutterstock. Yeah. I said that is not uw.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: That's crazy. So I'm sure you see that stuff like that a lot though.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: I have a problem and it drives people nuts. Shut up. Because

Patrick Evans, Host: You mentioned your dad a couple of times. And. Did your love of the arts come from the fact that your dad was a music composer and songwriter?

t me use that and doing home [: 00:48:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: But yeah, I think the expo, he never discouraged me. He didn't say, you have to be a doctor. Which probably in hindsight would've been definitely better for the pocketbook. But he never discouraged me and he was very proud in that regard. So I love him so much for that. He was a brilliant composer.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's one thing to be a musician, but the compose is a, is another thing altogether. And he would get, he'd have an idea, strike him like lightning or I'd say touched by the hand of God. And so my sister and I, little kids, we'd be so proud because you'd hear him playing at three in the morning and pitch black.

hone, right? In those REM or [: 00:49:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: This clarity of creation. And it's one. And for

Randy Florence, Host: me, sometimes not so brilliant. I've read stuff that I've written. It's

Patrick Evans, Host: why

Randy Florence, Host: did I write, what was I drinking last night? No, but

Teddy Grouya, Guest: at least, but at least you. You had it. I did. So it might only be one out of a hundred things, but it might be that one that we were talking about that has the hook.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah, good point.

Patrick Evans, Host: Yeah.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Like you said, the

Patrick Evans, Host: touch by the hi of God. Yeah. That kind of idea.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: Yeah.

Patrick Evans, Host: Teddy, thank you so much. We wish you a great deal of success with. This is the 15th edition of AmDocs.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It's our 15th, and we, keep up to date. We're in a couple weeks up in Alaska doing a satellite event.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: We're currently looking for. Volunteers or team members as we like to call 'em, whether they're drivers or they want to be in the theater or maybe they have social media skills, whatever, it doesn't matter the age. We'd love for you to reach out to us. I think you'd really enjoy and dig what AmDocs does.

wanna volunteer so they can, [: 00:50:00

Teddy Grouya, Guest: It was really a terrific experience being here with you today. And if you'd we'll offer, we've done it before on tv, but we'll offer some five, six for five pass. We don't wanna do those anymore, do we? Laton, but we'll offer you a couple, we'll offer you a couple free day. Free two day passes to come to AmDocs.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: So if you, if five of your listeners reach out to us, reach out to you. I beg your pardon. And you let us know, we'll offer that Grati,

Randy Florence, Host: I hope both the people who listen, we have a lot of, listen actually, I

Teddy Grouya, Guest: think we'll have a lot of interest in that. I think your program is absolutely. Stellar. I'm very impressed.

. Thank you. It's definitely [: 00:51:00

Randy Florence, Host: certainly will help that, and I hope it hasn't hurt you too badly on this podcast.

Teddy Grouya, Guest: No, you're all great. Fellas, thank you so much again.

Patrick Evans, Host: Our thanks to our guest, Teddy Grouya, the founder of the AmDocs Film Festival. Randy, thank you. Always great. Another good week. We made it through.

Randy Florence, Host: Another one

Patrick Evans, Host: was phenomenal. John McMullen, you pressed all the right buttons this week. Thank you to our producer. Our thanks to Skip page and his team here at Little Bar.

Patrick Evans, Host: Nicely done. This is Big Conversations, Little Bar. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. On behalf of the entire team, I'm Patrick Evans. Thanks for listening.