Shaun Newman Podcast - #623 - Vanessa Dylyn

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Owner of Matt of Fact Media, she is an Emmy nominated and Canadian Screen Award-winning producer. In Mauy she is premiering her documentary “Covid Collateral” which follows multiple experts and their journey of being silenced through the pandemic. SNP Playoff Bracket (password snp) https://bracketchallenge.nhl.com/en/leagues/25613 SNP Presents returns April 27th Tickets Below: https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone/ Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text: [phone] – and be sure to let them know you’re an SNP listener.

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I got nothing. It's time to get on to that tail of the tape because I don't know where else to go. She's an Emmy nominated and Canadian Screen Award winning producer. I'm talking about Vanessa Dillon. So buckle up. Here we go. Okay. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Today I'm joined by Vanessa Dillon. Mrs. Dillon, thanks for hopping on. It's my pleasure, Sean. Now, you know, a shout out to Gary for hooking us up. I've done a little bit of research on you. I've certainly watched the trailer of your upcoming film and a few different things. But let's just start with Vanessa. Who are you?

What can you tell my audience? I'm sure they would love to get to know you just as much as I want to. Thank you. Well, I've been a documentary filmmaker for about. 20 years and I've done a whole variety of subjects right from neuroscience that is profiling innovators in in brain science it sounds dull but they're they are actually popular films and I've done subjects such as a terrorism arts pretty well you know, just a whole variety of subjects.

And recently my film called Plastic People, which I produced with a company called White Pine Pictures, that was invited into the South by Southwest Festival, and that's going to launch very, very soon. And that's a film about how microplastics affect human health. So a lot of films about science, But also politics, terrorism, anything out there. You know, I choose my subjects based on what do I think the public needs to know about a certain subject.

And in a way, my films tend to be almost like a public service. I asked myself, how will the public's knowledge benefit from this film? It sounds dull, but they're actually, but my films are actually quite, quite popular. And I've done films for, in Canada, CBC, Bell Media, Tellus, TVO, right across Canada. And in the US, National Geographic, Netflix, PBS has carried my films. Who else? Artae in France, Germany, Sky in the UK. So I, I, my career has spanned, not just Canada, but I also do a lot of what we call in Canada treaty co-production. So this is a heavily bureaucratic way of making films with France or

Italy or Germany, UK. You'll have to forgive me. I don't think any of it sounds dull or boring. On here, I get to talk to different people from all walks of life. And at times, what I'm searching for is things, well, at all times, I guess, I'm searching for things that I think will move the needle forward on where people are at. And certainly in these difficult times, with so many compelling stories that need to be told, I don't think anything you've just said sounds boring whatsoever.

What I am curious about before we get to your latest project is, you know, like, I don't know how far you want to rewind the clock, but, you know, was documentary filmmaking something you always wanted to do? Or is it something, because I believe I read that, you know, at one point you were an actress and you were into, you know, essentially being on stage, right? Once you're into documentary filmmaking, you're no longer doing any of that. You're actually trying to tell the actual story and doing research and being a video journalist, if you would. Is that something you always wanted to do or how did this all come about? I think it actually evolved over time.

So I realized that I was actually far more interested in real stories than in. than in drama because as an actor, most of the time, you are not, you, most of the time, you are not going to be able to do really good stuff. But I felt that if I created my own work and I looked at and, and, and if I made real stories, if I told real stories out there about what was happening to real people or discussed big issues, I felt that I could control my destiny much more. And my whole, my entire life, I've, I've been chased by demons. And one of those demons is, I want to do good work. I want to do good work out there.

And I want to leave something. I don't have children. So my work, my films are my children. Except that it takes me two years to give birth. So it, and as I, when I started my career in documentary filmmaking, I started off as a researcher researcher for one of the one of the larger companies and I realized that what was important to me was was the format of big ideas it was important for me to look at big issues and try to tell the and try to tell the the the

the most important facts about those big issues. I always looked at a big issue and I would think, the public doesn't really know about this. We should start talking about this. So it started with brain films, and then it went to terrorism. It went to other scientific subjects about human health. And finally, COVID, because we've all experienced COVID, but we've experienced it in very different ways.

And what really motivated me to make this film was that I saw right from 2020 that there were things that were happening that were not making sense to me. There were very prominent scientists who were coming forth and saying we shouldn't be locking down. There's no scientific evidence for us to be locking down. We have a pandemic plan in place. We've had one for years. Why are we throwing out that pandemic plan? And those scientists were called fringe. They were taken down by the media.

Even the head of the National Institute of Health, Francis Collins, he sent an email to Tony Fauci saying, we've got to do a real swift takedown of these fringe. But these people were leading epidemiologists in their field. You had Sinatra Gupta from Oxford. You had J. Baticharia from Stanford. You had Martin Kooldof at Harvard. And then a big public policy, a big health policy scholar, Dr. Scott Atlas,

started speaking publicly and saying, this is wrong. Lockdowns are wrong. There's no scientific basis for these lockdowns. we have a pandemic plan in place. So I thought, this is really interesting. And then I watched as some of the restrictions around people didn't make any sense to me. Small businesses were shut down.

So your small business person was declaring bankruptcy, losing their livelihood, but the big box stores stayed open. So apparently, you were you were able to catch COVID if you bought a hammer at your local hardware store, but not at Best Buy. You know, if you bought a croissant at your local bakery, you might get COVID, but not if you bought it at Costco. So, and I noticed places of worship were shut down, gyms were shut down, and yet we were shopping

at these big box stores. And kids were kept out of school. So none of these policies made sense to me. And so I started digging further and further, and I thought to myself, what's a good angle for this film? How can we tell this story? Because I knew that there was going to be a lot of hostility towards this film as I started pitching it out there. So I had to take an angle that made sense that could. that could work. So I built the film on the big question. What happens when science is censored in a free society?

So we look at two storylines in the film. We look at the storylines of lockdown. How were the decisions made to lock down? What was the scientific basis upon which the U.S. and Canada lockdown. And the second story about the corruption of science is, why was the lab leak theory suppressed? There were really intelligent people saying, this doesn't look like it comes from an animal source because we've decoded the genome of the COVID-19 virus.

And it looks like this thing has been tampered with in a lack. lab. But the lab leak theory was shut down. It was shut down by the Fauci administration. It was shut down by the by the group of scientists that were working with with Dr. Fauci. Even CNN, I mean, the media had its role. Even CNN said, told it's it's news people that they were not to report on the lab leak theory because it was racist. And yet it was not racist to report that COVID may have come from an animal source in China. So there was, so that's how I, that's, that's how I started that that's the basis of this film.

How long did, how long did you work on this for Vanessa? Two years. So in two years of, of digging, what conclusion, you know, and I. hate to spoil a good documentary, you know, but at the same time, you know, I sit here and I go, I started, I changed my, my tune in, well, I shouldn't say that, the podcast changed its tune August of 2021. Since then, all I've been doing is interviewing doctors, lawyers, professors, filmmakers, and on and on and on and on and on. And so when I'm watching the preview of your upcoming film, you know, I see some of the names in there. And I'm like, I have interviewed that person.

I've interviewed that person. And I've listened to these people, you know, Jay Batacharya. I mean, I haven't had them on the podcast. But like if anyone's and my audience is probably listened to them more than I have, if you've sat and listened to that, man, you're like, how could you ever shut these people down? Now, I have my theories and thoughts. What can, did you get to any conclusions? Because once you started pulling on that string, I assume you, you've been through this in different areas.

You've talked about the human brain. talked about terrorism. You know, you have probably some ideas, but then once you started pulling on it, what did you, what did you get to? Okay. So what we did was we, we had people like Jay Letcheria on camera telling us what happened to them, how they were censored, what happened to their reputations, what, what, what the, the big, what the big organizations did. What, what, what, the big organizations did. why they censored science. So we have people like Scott Atlas telling us his experience about being appointed by Donald Trump to go to the White House

and what he found in the White House. In his book, Scott Atlas says that he went to the White House to be a special advisor to the coronavirus task and he said he was shocked because there were career bureaucrats there that they had not appointed any of those people that should have been involved in in in in in a in in in decision making meaning if you're looking at a possible lockdown of a country it's not just the epidemiologists that you that you talk to you talk to you talk to the social you talk to the economists, you talk to the public health people, and collectively,

you look at what is the risk-benefit ratio of locking down? And he said, there were none of those people there. He said he brought data because he kept hearing, he kept hearing in real time from scientists worldwide as to what was happening in there. in their countries. He had tremendous data. This guy is one of the sharpest people in terms of health policy. So he said he would bring in data into the White House

to share with Dr. Fauci, Dr. Berks, Redfield, and they wouldn't look at it. They would just look at him and say, you're a fringe. He said there was a complete disinterest in science in the risk ratio, the risk, benefit ratio of what would happen in the country. What we did find was that when we were looking at how the decision was made to shut down, we looked at the influence of China. And China knew about this virus, at least by 2019 it was circulating in China. We do know that

there were whistleblowers in China about this, about COVID-19. that had disappeared. And we know that China lied to the West and said, look, we locked down for a month here, and COVID is gone. They invited this delegation of Western experts to come to Wuhan and see that the virus was gone. It's absolute nonsense.

Any epidemiologist, any scientist knows that a highly transmissible disease like COVID doesn't just disappear. So as soon as this delegation came back, which they started saying, look, it seems like China really knows what they're doing. It seems that China, you know, this has worked in China. Then the media got on top of it and the media from the New York Times, Washington Post, and we showed these headlines in our film. They were saying, what are we doing here in America? Why aren't we locking down? China's got this.

Look at what China's done. They've got this covered and we're lagging. So there was the media that put a tremendous amount of pressure to lock down. And then there was another crucial point, and that is the modelers, the people who forecast how many deaths there's going to be if we don't lock down. So those modelers were out of the Imperial College of London, and the head modeler Neil Ferguson put out this chart. And this is a very, very influential institution, the Imperial College of London. And he showed on this chart that if a country like the U.S. didn't lock down, that there would be two million deaths within several months. So you had all of these factors.

And he and his numbers were right off the charts wrong. So there was an incompetence. We do a deep dive into the numbers. And we've got commentators that say, this is just incompetence. And then and the chief modeler, as I mentioned, Neil Ferguson, admitted that they were wrong. And he said, well, yeah, our numbers were wrong, but I didn't expect that countries would base their health policies on our numbers. So we look at the whole incompetence of an expert class. And so we look at, so we go from 2019 from the time COVID is announced in China right down to the present day.

And we look at all of those factors that influence lockdowns. And we also look at why there was a cover-up of the lab leak theory. So your viewers who are probably very well informed on the subject, your viewers, and many people know bits and pieces of this story. But what we do is we put it all in place. We put it in one big story and we show the entire trail of evidence. And we have some pretty spectacular people on camera.

We had to consult lawyers for this film, as I have to do for all my films because I can't get a broadcaster to broadcast the film to broadcast the film without a legal letter. And this film was lawyered up and down every side. And it's solid. The lawyer, the legal firm that we used in California pointed out 30 points in this film. And they said, you've got to back these up.

And we had backup. We had all the backup. and and and uh and so the the the the the film is is is uh clear how's how's the like um for for the audience when does it release where can they find it and then has it been an easy thing to you know like i don't know is netflix jumping all over it you mentioned these different places where you where you've done documentaries before what's the reception been like that that'll be the third question where can they find it and what date does it release so it's it As a premiere in Toronto for your Toronto viewers, it opens at the Isabel Bader Theatre on May 9th.

And tickets are available on the website, www.covictcollateral.com. And after that, there's probably going to be a screening in Alberta. I think we've got, we were in talks for screenings in Washington. Soon after that, it's going to be available on the on the website, www.com. And it will also be available on a broadcaster in Canada called New Tang Dynasty. And they are, they are our official Canadian broadcaster. So after May 9th. So May 9th is the big day. You didn't, you didn't pitch it to Netflix and get them going, yeah, we want to, we want to tell the story of COVID?

It will be, it will be sent to them. I think it's been, it's been a film that, look, distributors that have looked at the film, they're just too scared. It's a film that is really well researched and really well laid out. And it's people that have seen it in my industry say, this is really, really good. It's a good film. It will be, so we haven't, because it's not, it's not, it's in its final stages right now,

we still have to actually pitch it, to the more mainstream broadcasters. Well, you'll have to forgive my cynicism, but I feel like, you know, when it comes to this topic, this specific one, there's a lot of smart people, as you well know by doing a documentary about it, that have been shut down and are still shut down.

And, you know, if it wasn't for Elon Musk doing what he did with Twitter, probably would still be shut down. and the entire conversation around the COVID thing is kind of like the, I don't know, is it the elephant in the room, folks? I don't know. It's kind of like that. Like, we all know about it and a whole bunch of people really know about it, but we're kind of all kind of, we got through it and kind of whatever.

So if it's done really well, I'll be excited to watch this, Vanessa, because, you know, one of the things, there's been some really good documentaries done on COVID. done on the freedom convoy, done from different angles. I'm very curious on your angle and, you know, with your background, your, accolades, if you would, because I'm kind of curious how it's received if it's kind of shut down and not allowed to see the, you know, the daylight of the world or if it's, you know, because like that, to me, this whole, this whole entire topic has kind of been pushed from society's view. Absolutely. Yeah. And no, I think I am, even though I have jumped through incredible hurdles in the last few years and I've had pushback in my own industry.

I mean, I know what the challenges are. Look, I couldn't even get outside of my creative team. I couldn't even get business people to work on this film. because once they saw the outline and who the broadcaster was, they said, I don't have time for this, I'm sorry, and they would scoot her away. I can't get a publicist in Canada to work on this film. I have a U.S. publicist that looked at and said, man, this is real good, Vanessa. I'm going to go ahead and see what we can do here. And it's a film that's really pitched Sean to the thoughtful left of center to the thoughtful right of center. And this is for people who can actually engage in in thoughtful dialogue.

It's like I said, I actually went through hell the last two years trying to get this. I've tried to get this made of faced hostility. financial problems, even a technician, like a closed captioning technician, saw the film and said, sorry, I don't want to work on this. Right in my own industry, which, you know, people think, well, people in the arts, you know, they're open-minded. No, they're the most censorious people you're going to come across. So, but I do think that once it's actually out there, I think it will get good distribution

because it's a well-made film and it's a well-reasoned film. We don't go after local politicians, we don't point fingers. We let people tell their stories. all of the major people that were involved in the COVID drama, like Dr. Paul Merrick in the U.S., Scott Atlas, Jay, Jay Beticharia. We've got great commentators who know exactly what happened during this, during this period. And we just let the story, we let the story go. We look and thank God for Elon Musk. Once he released those Twitter files, then through freedom of information and through some really good journalists,

we were able to see all of the emails, all of the collusion. We were able to see that the Biden administration had talks with Twitter and Facebook and basically said, you need to take down these people. And there is a court case. There's a case right in front of the Supreme Court right now that accuses the Biden administration of violating the first amendment regarding free speech. So we have the lawyer on who was one of the key figures

behind that lawsuit. So it's right then and there. There's so many revealing things in this film. And it's because, you know, we did get one of the key journalists who went through these, one of the key investigative journalists, a guy, a real smart cracker jack of a journalist called Paul Thacker, who has spent his entire career investigating corruption of science. and he knows where all of the bodies are buried. And he said a few things on camera that we used,

and he said certain things we couldn't use. But he basically said, look, he said, the Fauci did not want the entire, that the lab league theory even talked about. He said, because Fauci had been funding through his institute he had been funding

coronavirus research in China for years and we know that the Wuhan Institute, that the reason that was likely a lab leak is that the Wuhan Institute which is a level

for biohazard institute and that's the most that's the most dangerous. You should be walking around in a hazmat suit in that place. So we know that this institute was operating at a level two biohazard. Because China's never been interested in human safety. We know that.

So some of the Americans, including the FBI, were kind of worried. Back in 2018, they were already worried that. was going to be a lab leak. As a matter of fact, one of the scientists who was one of the people that that gave money to the to the Wuhan Institute, one of the, one of the, he's a, he's a UK scientist. He was so worried about a lab leak in 2018 that he petitioned the National Institutes of Health to cover insurance. If there was a lab leak, 2018. So this was known, this dangerous situation was known to the FBI. They knew that the Americans were working with Chinese scientists on gain of function research on

coronavirus. Your viewers probably know what what gain of function means, but what it means is you take a relatively harmless pathogen and and you make it pathogenic, so you make it more likely, might likely to infect human beings. Why do you do that? Well, the benevolent reason is that in case it becomes more powerful, you've got a vaccine ready. But this is super dangerous research.

And under the Obama administration, this was banned. But somehow when Biden came into power, there were certain loopholes and it just started up. So the likelihood, and the FBI in our film, we have them on camera saying that everything points to a lab leak from China. Can I just hold you back on the gain of function? Obama banned it.

Biden started it. But just in the timeline, Vanessa, that wouldn't it make sense? Wouldn't it be a Trump bandit and Obama had it? No, because this research had been going on for many years. This research didn't just start now, like the gain of function research had been going on. Pre-2018, so it had been going on. And so it was banned at one time, but apparently after Obama left office where there were some loopholes. And it's not that Biden, it's not that Biden said, yeah, we're going to go back and do this.

It was just my understanding is just that there were just certain loopholes and it just kind of started up. How it started up, I don't know. I mean, we don't go down that kind of detail. But we do know that it was back in action at least by 2018. So this research was- Which would have put it in Trump's presidency. I'm doing the I'm doing the jumps here between presidents. Obama is from, well, forgive me, folks, is it 2008 to 2016?

And then you have Trump from 2016 to 2020. Although Biden is around there, Biden isn't the acting president until 20. I mean, I would, it may have been that Trump didn't even know, you know. This is research that has been going on between. these two countries. There's research going on all of the time. There's collaborative research going on all the time between China and the U.S. When the coronavirus research actually started, I have no idea. Well, and the thing I learned from journalist Annie Jacobson's book, Project Paperclip, was this, now, Project Paperclip was about Nazi scientists coming over to the United

States. And when the public caught wind of this and were very upset, then they just moved their facilities outside the U.S. so it was no longer in the U.S., and I am putting that in air quotes, folks, so that they could continue the work on, but not under the jurisdiction of the United States. And when you think about that, you go, man, that is nefarious. But that is inside the laws and the rules

and just finding a place, a safe haven't you wonder why all the, why there's bio things in, in, uh, bio lab, sorry, in China or Ukraine or I'm sure there's a bunch of different ones, is they're scurting the laws that be there. And, you know, the world is a giant place. So it's finding, you know, here in Canada, it was Winnipeg, right? And now there's, I believe, Regina, once again, somebody from Saskatchewan out here is going to point me correctly on that. But regardless, there's things happening in our backyards that if you get them stamped out, there's a good chance.

They go, okay, we can't do it here. And they just move it on down the road to somewhere else. Yeah. My understanding in Canada is that the Winnipeg Lab is the only level four biohazard lab in this country. That is the only one. That's my understanding. And the Chinese scientists that came here to collaborate with our scientists were apparently stealing intellectual property.

And I think what, you see, one thing that puzzles me, I don't understand this. We have known for many, many years that China is not friendly, that China, let's say, is not a fair player in this world, and that they engage in all sorts of spycraft, and they're very good at stealing intellectual property. And even though North American scientists may become friendly with Chinese scientists, sometimes North Americans are really naive and that they don't understand that if you're a Chinese scientist, it doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what kind of a person you are.

You are technically in the employ of the Chinese Communist Party. And if they tell you, thou shalt steal secrets, that's what you're going to do. because you don't have any choice. Every Chinese citizen is in effect. If they are needed to serve the Chinese Communist Party, they have to do that. They don't have a choice. Well, it has been interesting to watch as more and more things come out

about China's influence on our country. You know, the police stations, the involvement in the 2019, the 2021 election. If you go to British Columbia, the real estate, buying up of different Canadian companies. I mean, it goes on and on and on and on. And I can't disagree with you on the fact that we were still pretty naive to think, oh, it's not that big a deal.

It seems like it's a pretty freaking big deal. And yet we don't approach it that way. And I should probably point out our fearless leader doesn't approach it that way. He seems to think it's quite all right. And then, I mean, the further you go down, down the rabbit hole on that when it comes to just the testimony, sorry, on the Chinese collusion in our elections, you know, then it's pointed out that, well, the Chinese collusion was to help the liberals win and maybe that's why they didn't voice any concern to it.

That makes sense to me. I think that makes sense to a whole lot of us. You know, you had mentioned hostility on this. So on this project specifically, you've faced a lot of hostility. And I think you said, you know, but once it comes out, I think people are going to see the work that's there and they'll be able to interact with it. Sticking on the hostility, though, I'm curious. You know, this is not your first go around. You've been doing documentaries for some time.

You've done it on some pretty tough subjects. Terrorism, I would say being probably one. Was there a similar level of hostility in any of your previous projects, or is this something new that you're witnessing? This is something new, and it has to do with the subject matter. So when I approached a number of people to work on this, some writers, people like that, they were just shocked. They said, I mean, these are pretty bright people. But they said, I don't see a story here. People did. Everyone tried to do the...

They don't see a story here? That's exactly when I started looking, when I started putting this thing in place. They felt, they felt, I had the suspicion that they felt I was a conspiracy theorist and they were rather shocked. And they said, I don't see a story here. They said they had the attitude of, you know, all our politicians did what they could. our medical officers did what they could. We were all in this, you know, we everyone did just, you know, they were frightened of pointing fingers, demonizing people that they felt were just doing their job. And that's why they were hostile to it.

And it was, and it was that way, all the way, all the way along. You know, I tried to get a business affairs person and he looked up, who the broadcaster was and he said, well, Wikipedia says that the broadcaster is right wing. Oh, horror of horrors, a right wing broadcaster. Oh, my God. It's like, it's like all of a sudden I was associating with a child molester. You know, it's, it's this, it's this label right wing in this country. I mean, you, you know. Even child molesters, Vanessa, they're trying to normalize that, you know. Pedophilia is just a condition. We should we should normalize this and get them the help they need.

Yet if you work with a right wing broadcaster, whatever the heck that means these days, heaven forbid you put anything in there because that would be just deemed horrendous. I mean, there are no right wing broadcasters that I know of in this country. Everyone is left or far left, but I don't see a robust. I mean, we're so different from the, from the U.S.,

at least in the U.S., polarized though they may be. You've got a robust mainstream media that skews left. But you've got a robust right-wing media also. And you've got, but they are both healthy entities. You know, there's a lot of people. There's, but in this country, it's left and far left. And there's really no outside of alternative media, outside of people like you, outside of, but in terms of established media, you know, like I come back to the story, you know, like over and over and over again, right? And I guess it just shocks me to hear, you know, like writers. Yeah, there's just no story here. Are you kidding me? This is the biggest story in the last hundred years. Like, I mean, it affected the. entire world. How is there no story? How can you not see that a group of people who voice concerns against this were locked out of society? Isn't that a story? Like, I mean, to me,

that just seems completely insane to say that. But I, you know, I forgive me. And I get wound up here. But, uh, you know, like I look at media. I'm one of my biggest qualms with media was that I looked for all like the, the, the dedicated journalists. Where was there, it takes some, you know, hillbilly out of a small town in Alberta, Saskatchewan, who has no background in journalism to just start talking to people. What a wild idea. And deal with the arrows that came their way. But I mean, like, when you're a journalist and you start digging into uncomfortable situations, that's kind of a prerequisite, is that you're going to have some people not happy about that. Am I wrong in that thought?

No, you're absolutely right. and the problem with journalism is, I'm afraid it's become, as you've seen, journalists as a group of people tend to swing left. But we've gone to the point in this country, at least, where people are just not doing their job. Journalists are not doing their jobs. They are copying and people. pasting. They have become, they, they, they have become propagandists for the, for the government.

They are not looking at alternative points of view. I watch the CBC and I have made, I have pitched the CBC on a number of ideas in the past. They have financed some of my films. Not this one, but, but other politically neutral films, you know, And the people that I have worked with have been very good people. But as an organization, it is failing Canadians. As an organization, the issue with the CBC, it's not its drama programming. It's the public discourse on the CBC is not intelligent. We do not have big panels.

We don't have really smart people engaging in dialogue. dialogue around a table. We don't have, we're worried about pronouns instead of worrying about big world issues, instead of looking at the fact that these goon countries out there like Russia, Iran, and China are posing an incredible threat to Western civilization. We're not discussing the big stuff on our national broadcaster. It's the public discourse. course that is lacking. So on these, so on these news shows, all the experts that are lined up are checkboxes. And they give a very left point of view. I do not see enough right of center experts or people on the CBC. It's not balanced. It's just not balanced. Well, we have

diversity, just not diversity of opinion. And that is a big, a failure. of where we're at. And, you know, in talking about Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and probably on and on and on, the one thing I, you know, on this side of things, I feel like we're becoming the problem. More so than, like, they're a problem, like, I'm not saying anyone, I'm not scapegoating anyone here. But we're into La La Land where we are, we think we're morally right all the time, even though we've shut down half of our society and won't talk to them. we we preach about

I hear all the time about diversity this diversity of that except if you have a different opinion you don't get anywhere and so like to me on the world stage we're a problem like what's going on in North America is a problem right now

and we've got to figure it out man how do I view this film now you got me curious on on what you've built here I can send you a confidential link and if you want to talk more If you want to, you know, we're especially promoting the Toronto Premier because we'd like as many people to see it as possible.

So I hope your viewers will come. I will send you all of the, by email, I'll send you all of the. The details. So for the listener, we'll put it in the show notes. That way you can just scroll down. And if you're, you know, we got some, we got to, you know, forgive me, I'm forgetting your name, which is terrible. But no, no, no, not your name.

One of the listeners' names. Sorry, Vanessa, not you. Sorry, I'm talking figuratively to the audience that will eventually listen to this. When I put out, like, give me your best worksite pictures and skylines. There's a guy who works on a crane in Toronto and he's going to listen to this. And then he's going to text me and I'm like, I forgot your name. And I'm sorry. But we got people who listen to Toronto.

And certainly I would love to hear if any of you decide to make it to this film premiere, shoot me some text and different things. Because I just, to me, you know, I want nothing more than to see more discourse on everything. And to hear your story and the fact that we got another credible journalist building something that is. pretty like, you know, I love how you phrase it, you know, like, you know, to people on the center left and center right. And it's, you know, except, you know, it's this topic. And I don't even know what what center left, right means on this topic, because it feels like if you are willing to go see this film, you're, you're extreme right and you're dangerous human being right now. So I would love to hear of, uh, of anyone who's going to attend. Hopefully

there's a few. And, uh, well, just the journey on this, Vanessa, no, I would, I would love to hear what comes to this for you. And if you're willing to send a link, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to make some time. The preview for it looks great. It looks like another film that is right up my alley, but I'm a dirty extremist. So, you know, once again, that's this guy. I appreciate you hop on and talking about this. I think it's always interesting to have different voices come in and chat about what they're seeing and how things are going. The fact that this is unique to you, as well who's dug into some unique topics that you would think it would get some pushback but this one gets the full pushback although not surprising is it just isn't surprising at this point

that that's the case but Sean we we approached Calgary we approached theater in Calgary one of the people that you know Gary approached one of the theaters in Calgary to see if they would do a a screening, we had a panel lined up. We had a great panel out of Alberta lined up. And the theater came back and said, we can't take this film. Alberta, I thought conservative Alberta, woke Toronto is showing this film. But conservative Alberta, and this was the owner of one of the multi-ploid, Multiplex's well-known theater in Alberta, and I felt sorry for her because she said that they had just gotten tremendous hate back from, she said that they had recently hosted last month a UCP Town Hall and that they had that she and her staff had received a tremendous amount of abuse from what she called.

Vanessa, would you bring the film to little old Lloydminster? What are you looking for in a venue? I'm kind of curious now. To me, it doesn't shock me that one of the cities, the big cities in Alberta got an extreme amount of hate. There is a mobilized, marginal, like a mobilized small portion of the population that when they see things like this, they're mobilized and they go out at heart. And that doesn't shock me.

at all. I mean, it's shocking that it's Alberta again, but again, I'm like, well, I mean, this is, this is what happens. So what are you, what are you looking for when, when it comes to a venue to put one of these on? Well, we're looking for a, a sizable theater. We're looking to charge. And we're, we're, we're looking to, to, to sell tickets because the film, the film owes money. I took, I took a big financial risk on this. And, So we're trying to sell tickets to make sure that we can pay our bills. But now, Gary, Gary is the person who's representing my film. And so I'll just put him in touch with you.

Gary. So Gary, you're listening to this right now. Me and you are going to have a chat because to me, I feel like out in this neck of the woods, there's got to be a way to make it so that it's, financially viable to have Vanessa come out, premiere her film, and do it in a way that can be well received. Because, you know, once again, from the preview, you know, and your line of work, I'm like, this doesn't look like it's going to be a flop, you know. It's just finding the right people, places to help it along because as we've witnessed with the COVID topic, there's still a ton of

pushback, which is wild, except, you know, it just goes on and on and on. Like this topic you think would be old news, except it's just, you know, it's, as you're pointing out, Alberta just shut it down coming here to Calgary. That is wild. Yeah. Terrific. Well, thank you, ma'am, for, for hawking on, hawking, hopping, hopping. You use my tongue here, Sean, for hopping on the show this morning and updating us on a new film.

Once again, that is COVID collateral, correct? That's correct. Documentary COVID collateral. and they can find all the info out if they go to www.w.com. Oh, nice and easy. Nice and easy, folks. There you go.

Thanks, thanks, Vanessa, for hopping on. Great to meet you. And we'll look forward to your show, your movie, your documentary. Somewhere out here in Alberta, we'll make that happen. I'm quite sure. Thank you. Wonderful to be with you, Sean.