Pacifica Performance Showcase - Friday, June 12, 2026

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1. And welcome to Pacifica Performance Showcase, Arts and Culture to Enlighten, Enliven and Educate.
2. I'm your host Donna Walker and we have a jam-packed show today.
3. So I just wanted to make a brief announcement this week on LA Theatre Works,
4. which as you know is on Sunday evenings at 10 p.m.
5. L.A. Theatre Works is presenting Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore.
6. And, of course, that's based on the book about Alan Turing and the Enigma Code.
7. It was made into a movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which many of you may remember Oscar nominated.
8. It's quite a story.
9. the man who helped the Allies win World War II and then was persecuted for being a homosexual in England.
10. It's quite remarkable.
11. Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore.
12. It stars Simon Templeman.
13. LA Theatre works this Sunday at 10 p.m.
14. And I'm going to be speaking momentarily with filmmaker Matthew Solomon on the doc Seeds for Liberation,
15. along with his co-executive producer, Donna Hajikani.
16. I hope I'm saying that correct.
17. And in the second half, I'll be speaking with Dances with Films Film Festival founder, co-founder, Leslie Scallon.
18. She'll be joining us via Zoom.
19. And one of the filmmakers whose film is screening in Dances with Films this year, Jay Diaz, on his film Angelino.
20. So that'll be in the second half.
21. And without further ado, I'm so pleased to welcome in studio, which is kind of a rarity these days, everything seems to be via Zoom, Matthew Solomon and Donna Hajikani. Welcome.
22. Thank you.
23. Thank you, Donna.
24. It's great to be here.
25. And Matthew, we last spoke during your film Reimagining Safety. That was in the wake of the George Floyd murders and the activities happening in the country at that time.
26. And now you're back with Seeds for Liberation. And this is about the travesty that's going on in Gaza and the movement to free the Palestinian people.
27. there's quite an urgency about this film it's an urgent topic but i've noted that
28. when i see and we're fairly aware here at kpfk i like to think of myself as a pretty aware
29. person but um sometimes a film will come along that just really hits home that really reinforces
30. pay attention now. And there was one on climate change. There's several on the extinction of
31. species by Fisher Stevens, remarkable film director. And something about these films
32. just makes you say, okay, now, now pay attention. And yours, I think, is one of those films. And
33. I guess my first question would be what prompted you to do this film? Certainly,
34. we can understand the motivation to cover a topic like this. But what made you say,
35. I going to really devote the time and then decide how you going to frame such a massive topic Yeah thank you It a great question and I do my best to keep it short because it really is like a lifelong journey
36. But the immediate answer is my frustration with the media and corporate media
37. and the misinformation and the propaganda,
38. whether it's Zionist propaganda or white supremacist propaganda,
39. which, you know, are all interwoven. And so, you know, a year ago, after watching this accelerated
40. genocide for the last couple years, followed by the student encampments, which were met with,
41. you know, heavily militarized police on college students protesting against genocide. And then
42. the other element was, you know, we had the fires here in LA, with all of these mutual aid groups,
43. midnight books all power books harriet tubman center who were on the ground day one but the
44. media was focused on sean penn and the red cross and you know all these folks who showed up who
45. does great work by the way does great work props to sean and the the folks who are doing the
46. immediate work right away are never covered and if they are it's a very slanted view and so you
47. know, that was, you know, the sense of urgency with that, the, my, as a anti-Zionist Jewish
48. person who grew up in LA, unpacking and reprogramming and realizing how I had been raised and what
49. the truth was and wanting people to know the truth, which actually, I mean, that ties into
50. our previous film also, like, you know, just getting the truth out there and spending the
51. last three years with that film, being in community with Stop Cop City organizers and
52. hearing and learning about how it's all connected, our police with the Israeli occupation forces and
53. the training and the surveillance and ICE, you know, within the last year, that accelerated
54. experience. So it was all, and all of that's in the film, those connections are all made.
55. But that was what prompted me to, I had that idea. I reached out to Donna. We've been friends
56. since seventh grade. We grew up in Los Angeles. Yeah. So that's how we came to make this film.
57. And then how do you approach it in your role as executive producer?
58. So when we did Reimagining Safety, Matthew presented it to me as his master's thesis,
59. and it was such a wonderful film. I said, what is it going to take for us to get it out there?
60. People have to see this.
61. This tells a greater story than any of the documentaries I had been watching at the time,
62. any of the books I had been reading.
63. I just felt the urgency for the first film.
64. And to be honest, had he approached me with another topic,
65. I don't know that it would have been a 100% hell yes for me.
66. But I spent time in Gaza and the West Bank in the 90s during the first intifada.
67. And I knew that children were thrown rocks and being met by machine guns.
68. I was held in detention for five hours at the airport because I'm Iranian-American.
69. And they were wondering why I was traveling.
70. and the group of people I was with we were held by the IOF on the side of the road while we were helping people in the West Bank So I ever since then have held the hearts and souls of the Palestinian people in my heart and soul So when October 7th happened and Matthew
71. a year later said, this is what we're going to work on. It was a 100%. This is the most urgent
72. thing we need to put out there. And the way I look at this film, like Reimagining Safety,
73. Seeds for Liberation isn't just a movie. It isn't just a documentary that documents a particular
74. moment in time. I like to think of it as a historical artifact that will live on beyond
75. what's happening right now and tells a story of the history past, the current history,
76. and will live on and be timeless for future educational purposes or just knowledge transfer.
77. So yeah, that was our intention with the film and the format that we used.
78. And, you know, KPFK audiences are very familiar with the Nakba.
79. In fact, we've even offered films for our fund drives that have to do with that and some of the history involved in that, which you cover in this film.
80. And the opening quote, by the way, which I made note of, is dedicated to the martyrs, political prisoners, journalists, doctors, and freedom fighters.
81. and you cover the Free Palestine demonstrations.
82. There's also a poet, and I love this too,
83. I pray for peace, but all I see are casualties,
84. tragedy due to travesty, no amnesty for the families of the damned.
85. And it goes on to talk about, of course, a lot of the history.
86. What was very interesting to me, and it's one of those kind of clicks, I didn't really think about this part, was a lot of the young people of Palestinian background who are either in this country and can't go to Palestine.
87. Maybe they've never been to Palestine, but their family is from Palestine for generations.
88. Or those who have been displaced and had to flee Gaza and say there was one young man that ended up in Germany.
89. And you don't kind of think about the younger generations who have those familial connections and even direct roots who cannot go back to their country, especially young men, because they're such targets.
90. targets. So what prompted you, maybe Matthew, to take that angle? Because I found that particularly
91. interesting. And there are a couple of cases where I think he had a German passport, and there's
92. another who had an American passport, and that basically saved them, because otherwise they
93. probably would have been added to the toll of victims. Right. Yeah. You know, in looking
94. and assembling, you know, the people to interview, you know, was a very organic process that
95. revealed itself. Originally, the focus was going to be more on the encampments. And so I was looking
96. for students who had been at the encampments. And it was very challenging to find students to
97. who are willing to speak on it because of the backlash and with the Trump administration even before Trump came into office but you know having visas revoked and things like that
98. And so Yousef Kafaja, who was at the UCLA encampment, who you're talking about,
99. was one of the first people that was like, I want to speak on it. You know, I want to tell
100. the story. It needs to be told. And so I met with him a few times. And even, you know, we had many
101. conversations about what he wanted to include and if there was anything he didn't want to include
102. and things like that. And so I didn't, I didn't going into it know so many stories of displacement
103. and that he was born a refugee, even though he was, he never fled. You know, so he's like,
104. he's born stateless, even though he has a German passport, because that's where his
105. parents ended up. And then Mo Hamza, who's known as Mo Hamz on Instagram, you know, he grew up in,
106. I believe was in Jersey. I know he lives like on the East Coast. And, you know, he was able to go
107. and visit because he has an American passport. But also, you know, several of the folks in the
108. film, Palestinians, weren't able to say at, you know, when they were younger, yes, I'm Palestinian.
109. They had to say I'm Syrian or Jordanian because of the, you know, the danger in admitting that.
110. And, you know, honestly, as you know, my grandparents on my mother's side were Holocaust survivors.
111. And so I grew up with their stories.
112. And so hearing these stories, it was even more like, how are people not making this connection?
113. And it became – Donna and I had many conversations about just how horrified I was in the deeper we went and the more we learned and then just being appalled by how – like even trying to make those connections for Zionists, it's like a brick wall.
114. Right. And also, and you touch on this in the film, too, that you run the risk, even as a Jew, of being called anti-Semitic if you support the Palestinian cause.
115. And just for our audiences, next week I'm going to be running my interview with director Nick Davis, who has a documentary called This Ordinary Thing.
116. And it's about the non-Jews who helped hide Jews during the Holocaust.
117. It's an extremely moving film.
118. And, of course, they're honored.
119. You know, you save one life, you save the world.
120. They're honored in Israel for that.
121. All-Star Cast is a remarkable film.
122. And one of the things we talked about in the interview was how these days even anti-Semitism is used as a political weapon, certainly by the Trump administration and all of these people who say they're against anti-Semitism.
123. But what they're doing has nothing to do with anti-Semitism at all.
124. So you touch on that in the film.
125. You touch on so much.
126. but talk a little bit about
127. that backlash and I realize
128. these are all big topics that we should
129. be spending an hour on
130. but some of the
131. I guess some of the screenings that you've done
132. the responses that you've gotten
133. and then we want to get to the upcoming screenings
134. so that people can see this
135. film themselves
136. We've had almost 30 screenings
137. since our premiere at the end of January
138. and that's been in the United States
139. been in Canada, been in
140. Mexico. We're going to have another one in Mexico, Mexico City next week. We're headed to Europe for
141. Copenhagen and London and Dublin in August.
142. So the response has been incredible.
143. You know, and we're still, there's a big grassroots following and support for the film.
144. And, you know, we're still in that space with people who are aligned.
145. And, you know, some folks who are like on the edge and, you know, need to be like brought in a little bit.
146. Right.
147. Yeah.
148. Right.
149. That's where we're at.
150. And I think this film might turn the tide on some of those people because there's footage.
151. Certainly, there are images that really get in the public mind.
152. And I remember on the immigrant issues in the Mediterranean, the film of the little boy who had washed up on the shore, the little child.
153. People never forget that.
154. And there's a scene in your film of footage of the young child on the roof, bloodied and reaching out.
155. And in a tower across the way is another child who was blown in half.
156. And, you know, these are images that we can't ignore and can't forget, even if, you know, we want things to wash over us.
157. And people will be able to see this for themselves because we can't begin to cover.
158. I love that you talked about the cop cities.
159. I would say the second half of the film revolves around the alliances, the more of the grassroots.
160. But the cop cities is certainly something that has gotten some press, and then we kind of promptly forget about it.
161. So there's so many things like that.
162. But tell us, you're going to be part of the Beyond Hollywood Film Festival.
163. And in fact, we're going to give away a couple of pairs of tickets for that.
164. Talk about that and then your virtual screenings coming up.
165. Certainly. All of our screenings, whether they're in person or virtual, you can find them on our website at SeedsForLiberationMovie.com.
166. We have a virtual screening coming up next week, June 17th, 5 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Pacific.
167. You could go to our website to sign up for that.
168. We also have a screening on July 18th at Midnight Books.
169. And we are going to be featured at the Beyond Hollywood Film Festival July 25th at 245.
170. You could find that on their website or our website.
171. And I'm glad you guys are giving two pairs of tickets away.
172. That'll be exciting to see.
173. We'll remind people as we get closer to some of these events.
174. We'll remind people of these.
175. Wonderful.
176. And at the Beyond Hollywood Film Festival, we're nominated for three awards, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Documentary Feature.
177. So it'll be an amazing venue.
178. It's at LA Live.
179. So it'll be awesome to see the film on an amazing big screen.
180. That's great.
181. Down there at the Regal Theaters.
182. And maybe what we can do is when we get closer in July,
183. maybe we can have you back to remind folks of these,
184. and then we can touch on some of the other issues that, unfortunately,
185. we haven't been able to get to today.
186. Of course, of course.
187. But in the meantime, check out the virtual screenings,
188. and then we'll just say, well, see you in July, and we'll plan something.
189. Wonderful. Thank you, Donna. Thank you so much.
190. Okay.
191. This was wonderful.
192. And I going to do a little segue Free the People by the Dubliners And I will be back with Leslie Scallon who the co of the Dances with Film Film Festival
193. and director Jay Diaz to talk about his film Angelino.
194. Laws were made for people,
195. and the law can never scorn the right of a man to be free.
196. Free the people,
197. Let them have their say
198. Free the people
199. Let them see the light of day
200. A dismal dawn was breaking when they took our man away
201. Not knowing what was his crime
202. Just what he was guilty of, not one of them could say
203. But they think of something in time
204. He says goodbye
205. I thought that was kind of appropriate.
206. So I am so pleased to welcome via the Zoom
207. Leslie Scallon, who's the co-founder of the Dances with Film Film Festival
208. and director Jay Diaz.
209. We're going to talk with you momentarily, Jay, about your film Angelina,
210. Angelino, excuse me.
211. But first I wanted to get from you, Leslie, kind of an overview of the festival
212. You've been around an amazingly long period of time, which is kind of hard to believe
213. But this year it's running June 11th through the 28th at the TCL Chinese
214. And first of all, congratulations on the longevity and tell us about this year's fest
215. Well, thank you, thank you for having us
216. Just one quick correction on that.
217. Not June 11th, June 18th.
218. Oh, I'm sorry.
219. I misspoke.
220. June 18th through the 28th.
221. We're a long festival.
222. We're not that long.
223. So, yes, we've been going for 29 years.
224. This is number 29.
225. It's unbelievable to us.
226. We started off as a scrappy film festival with 36 features and shorts and I think one documentary.
227. And we have expanded over the course of time to now have almost 300 or slightly over 300 films that we're showing, which includes not only those categories, but also pilots slash series.
228. We have a family section.
229. We have an award-winning midnight section that we got a claim on Dread Central because of being one of the top non-genre specific festivals for our midnights.
230. We have a, because we are called Dances with Films, we also get a lot of dance films and music videos.
231. So we actually created a section called Downbeat that is programmed specifically for those kinds of films.
232. And Jay, your film Angelino is going to be screening at the festival. Tell us about your film.
233. Yeah, so Angelino is about life in L.A. through the Latino perspective.
234. I was born and raised here in L.A., and I just kind of wanted to show my version of L.A. through my perspective.
235. So we follow Angel, who is a first generation Latino American navigating his life through a series of parties that he attends throughout Los Angeles.
236. So we kind of get to see all the different corners of L.A.
237. And, you know, I notice. Oh, and when is it going to screen, by the way?
238. On June 20th at 630 p.m. at the Chinese Theater.
239. Now Leslie if they go to your website danceswithfilm I believe they be able to see a full schedule but can they also get tickets there as well Yes they can And we kick off with actually a community concert on the 18th starting at 4 p
240. And it's something we put on in coalition with the Ovation,
241. which is what the mall complex is that's attached to the Chinese and also has the TCL6 in it.
242. And so we are going to be having the Flux Capacitators, which is an 80s, 90s aughts cover band, which is fantastic.
243. So I hope that everybody can come down and enjoy that.
244. And followed by that is our opening night film at 730 called Yale, which is a wonderful father-daughter road trip of very disproportionate, not liking each other means, if I can put it that way.
245. You know, there were a few because it's really hard for me to get to all the screenings, needless to say.
246. But a shout out to John Wildman, by the way, who always sends me some wonderful films and always in the loop on the Dances with Films.
247. There were a number of films that jumped out at me and that, you know, some I've gotten links for, some I'm definitely going to try.
248. I like to follow films throughout the year and see what happens to them after they screen at a festival.
249. But there were a couple that jumped out at me.
250. The Last Place on Earth looks really interesting.
251. Talk about that one.
252. And we're going to go out with the Pina Colada song because Kabali and the Tiki Mug Obsession caught my eye.
253. There's a Stan Lee film, a Peter Frampton film.
254. Talk about some of these highlights.
255. and particular ones you might recommend as well?
256. Well, first of all, I've got to say I've got an amazing programming team
257. that, like, combs through the thousands of entries that we get.
258. I remember our very first year we got, like, 300,
259. and now we're in this thousands category.
260. It's just unbelievable how much the festival has grown.
261. And, you know, we are here for the filmmakers
262. who are oftentimes being overlooked because they don't have stars in it.
263. A lot of the ones you just named, those are coming from our documentary section, which we are not as strict on.
264. But all of our competition films are about basically talent that is in the process of being discovered instead of people that you've already heard their names a thousand times over.
265. So it's really fresh, new voices that you're going to see at our at Dances with Films.
266. But but in conjunction to like all of the different films, what I love about our festival is that we have a flavor for everybody.
267. You know, there are there's animations shorts.
268. There are films that are about the drama of like Jay's is here about the drama of just life in Los Angeles and a bit of a love letter postcard to Los Angeles at the same time.
269. And then you have other ones that go through the gamut.
270. like I have a pilot series section, which, you know, I have everything from a reality type of
271. show to a, I have one where he goes to and he reviews restaurants. And I mean, just there's
272. something for everybody. And some of the ones though, that I know that my team really, really
273. loved, let me put on my glasses. So because they sent me a little thing about, about films,
274. a couple of the ones that they loved,
275. beyond Angelina, of course, Jay.
276. Yes.
277. Of course, right?
278. That's a natural.
279. It's The Queen of Shock,
280. which is also it a film out of Mexico actually Spanish language and about what they faced down in that country And one like June Not Here which is really about the struggle of finding your identity when
281. you wake up out of a coma and you don't have your memories the way your memory should be.
282. I've got short films. Let's see what she, God Power, it's a short from Nigeria,
283. about the challenges there.
284. And just so many.
285. We have also in that midnight section,
286. which is, like I said, very critically acclaimed.
287. Where is the ones he told me about?
288. UAP, which is kind of an 80s adventure film.
289. And Jump Scare, which he calls an artistically awesome horror film.
290. So, I mean, there's a lot.
291. We really do.
292. And by the way, I just do want to tell you thank you so much for the support you give to the film festivals and the indie filmmakers, not just with us, but all of the different festivals.
293. We really all appreciate it.
294. In the next couple of weeks, too, we'll have the opportunity to announce maybe some more films that people can look for.
295. And again, go to the website.
296. And Jay, I wish I had more time to speak with you.
297. but once I've seen the film too
298. I'll be able to actually speak more intelligently with you about it
299. but I know it means so much to a young filmmaker like you
300. and I believe this is a world premiere, correct?
301. It is a world premiere, yeah.
302. We're really excited.
303. We had a really small team make this film
304. and I'm really proud of it.
305. I hope you guys come out June 20th, 6.30pm.
306. Well, I want to thank you both.
307. Leslie, thank you for taking the time.
308. I wish we had more
309. But we'll continue to announce and follow the festival in the coming couple of weeks.
310. So thank you.
311. Let me just remind everybody, it's www.danceswithfilms.com.
312. Tickets are available there.
313. Right now we're on a pre-sale price, which is a little less expensive than when we start the actual festival.
314. It will go up at that point.
315. But we have pictures, synopses.
316. Everything is very well laid out for you to be able to find anything that you want to.
317. And tickets are available at the door as long as we're not sold out.
318. Terrific.
319. And again, that's happening the 18th through the 28th over at the TCL.
320. And we're going to go out with, just because I'm inspired by the Tiki film, the Pina Colada song.
321. Thank you again.
322. And stay tuned for the Pocho Hour of Power.
323. too long
324. Like a worn out recording
325. Of a favorite song
326. So while she lay there sleeping
327. I read the paper in bed
328. And in the personal columns
329. There was this letter I read
330. If you like pina coladas
331. And getting caught in the rain
332. If you're not into yoga
333. If you
334. Hi, this is Michelle Coltrane.
335. Join me every Saturday at 4 a.m. for my show, Awakenings.
336. We will be taking a musical and spiritual journey
337. into the world of Alice Coltrane and beyond.
338. That's Awakenings, every Saturday, 4 a.m. on KPFK,
339. 90.7 FM Los Angeles, and online for the world
340. at kpfk.org.
341. O que é que é o Supremo Reino?