As an executive producer of HBO's Autism: The Sequel, I sit in my quarantined household with a sense of hope amid a worldwide pandemic that has us all in an equally uncertain state. The 40-minute short is a follow-up to HBO's 2007 documentary Autism: The Musical. While the original followed five kids of different ages for a year as they created, rehearsed and ultimately performed a musical theater production, the update revisits them more than a decade later.
The kids featured in the film — Lexington Aaron, Wyatt Isaacs, Neal Katz, Adam Mandela Walden and my own son, Henry ...
The kids featured in the film — Lexington Aaron, Wyatt Isaacs, Neal Katz, Adam Mandela Walden and my own son, Henry ...
- 4/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The origin of this project goes as far back in our women's collective memory to the time in the late 80s when Janet Grillo was head of Acquisitions for New Line Cinema and Sara Risher was head of production. I was buying features for Lorimar or Republic Pictures. We did not know at that time that one day, after Janet had completed her directorial debut, the lovely and loving film "Fly Away," that Sara would tell a certain writer-producer. to show her script to Janet as a possible director.
Janet liked it and together they developed it further at L.A. Film Independent. They then won the PGA Script Award. They hired an 18-year-old who had been a child actress and was a Nyu Freshman just finishing a TV Career. She agreed to star in January and the film was shot the following May 2014.
It premiered in Geena Davis’ Inaugural 2015 Bentonville Film Festival in May 2015 where it won the Jury Geena Davis’ new effort to celebrate the work of women and diverse voices in media also is the only festival to guarantee distribution for its winners’ project.
“The goal of the festival is not just to showcase women and diversity—it’s to really have a proactive and powerful effect on the industry,” says Davis, Bff co-founder and founder and chair of the nonprofit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. “We’re intent on being extremely proactive in showing the films that include women and that are very commercial. Our goal is to show that this is the direction in which things are heading and we should get there sooner.”
"Jack of the Red Hearts” has now arrived in theaters nationwide as of February 26, 2016. "Jack of the Red Hearts”. Arc Entertainment and Trent Drinkwaer who founded the Bentonville Film Festival with Geena guarantees a minimum of one week in AMC theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Mimai, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington D.C.
On its opening night, Thursday, February 25, Geena Davis, Famke Janssen, Phyllis Nagy (writer, “Carol”), Catherine Hardwicke (director, “Twilight ”) and Danielle Carrig (Svp Lifetime) joined "Jack of the Red Hearts” director Janet Grillo, producer Lucy Mukerjee-Brown and writer Jennifer Deaton for a special screening of the film and Q&A at the YouTube Space in L.A. In conjunction with Broad Focus, Lifetime, the Genna Davis Institute on Gender in Media and the Bentonville Film Festival, the Q&A, moderated by the Wrap’s Sharon Waxman, will begin immediately followed the 7pm screening.
It will play on Lifetime April 20 which is Autism Awareness Month. It will show again at Bentonville Film Festival’s second edition May 3 - 8 of this year.
Bentonville’s strong affiliation with Walmart, the only vendor and the largest still selling DVDs will release it in its stores and on its VOD site.
Anna Sophia Robb portrays “Jack,” a tough teenage runaway on the lam from her parole officer. The conniving street kid brazenly impersonates a trained caregiver and forms a unique bond with an 11 year-old autistic girl named Glory, brilliantly played by newcomer Taylor Richardson. Famke Janssen, as the child's desperate mother Kay, also bonds with the imposter, as a surrogate daughter she can actually talk to. And the girl’s cute older brother Robert (Israel Broussard) falls in love. When the deception is exposed and the cops descend, loving father Mark (Scott Cohen) struggles to hold his family together as the pieces of this puzzle are reshuffled into a new, satisfying whole.
"Jack of the Red Hearts” is directed by Janet Grillo (writer/director of “Fly Away” and executive producer of Emmy®-winning “Autism: The Musical”) and written by Jennifer Deaton. Both have strong ties to the autism community as Grillo is mother to a child on the autism spectrum and Deaton is aunt to a child on the spectrum. The producers are Stefan Nowicki, Joey Carey, Lucy Mukerjee-Brown, and Morgan White.
The film stars AnnaSophia Robb (“The Carrie Diaries,” “Soul Surfer”), Famke Janssen (“X-Men”), Scott Cohen (“One Life to Live”), Taylor Richardson (“Annie”), Israel Broussard (“The Bling Ring”) and John D’Leo (“Unbroken”).
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/jackoftheredhearts.
Janet liked it and together they developed it further at L.A. Film Independent. They then won the PGA Script Award. They hired an 18-year-old who had been a child actress and was a Nyu Freshman just finishing a TV Career. She agreed to star in January and the film was shot the following May 2014.
It premiered in Geena Davis’ Inaugural 2015 Bentonville Film Festival in May 2015 where it won the Jury Geena Davis’ new effort to celebrate the work of women and diverse voices in media also is the only festival to guarantee distribution for its winners’ project.
“The goal of the festival is not just to showcase women and diversity—it’s to really have a proactive and powerful effect on the industry,” says Davis, Bff co-founder and founder and chair of the nonprofit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. “We’re intent on being extremely proactive in showing the films that include women and that are very commercial. Our goal is to show that this is the direction in which things are heading and we should get there sooner.”
"Jack of the Red Hearts” has now arrived in theaters nationwide as of February 26, 2016. "Jack of the Red Hearts”. Arc Entertainment and Trent Drinkwaer who founded the Bentonville Film Festival with Geena guarantees a minimum of one week in AMC theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Mimai, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington D.C.
On its opening night, Thursday, February 25, Geena Davis, Famke Janssen, Phyllis Nagy (writer, “Carol”), Catherine Hardwicke (director, “Twilight ”) and Danielle Carrig (Svp Lifetime) joined "Jack of the Red Hearts” director Janet Grillo, producer Lucy Mukerjee-Brown and writer Jennifer Deaton for a special screening of the film and Q&A at the YouTube Space in L.A. In conjunction with Broad Focus, Lifetime, the Genna Davis Institute on Gender in Media and the Bentonville Film Festival, the Q&A, moderated by the Wrap’s Sharon Waxman, will begin immediately followed the 7pm screening.
It will play on Lifetime April 20 which is Autism Awareness Month. It will show again at Bentonville Film Festival’s second edition May 3 - 8 of this year.
Bentonville’s strong affiliation with Walmart, the only vendor and the largest still selling DVDs will release it in its stores and on its VOD site.
Anna Sophia Robb portrays “Jack,” a tough teenage runaway on the lam from her parole officer. The conniving street kid brazenly impersonates a trained caregiver and forms a unique bond with an 11 year-old autistic girl named Glory, brilliantly played by newcomer Taylor Richardson. Famke Janssen, as the child's desperate mother Kay, also bonds with the imposter, as a surrogate daughter she can actually talk to. And the girl’s cute older brother Robert (Israel Broussard) falls in love. When the deception is exposed and the cops descend, loving father Mark (Scott Cohen) struggles to hold his family together as the pieces of this puzzle are reshuffled into a new, satisfying whole.
"Jack of the Red Hearts” is directed by Janet Grillo (writer/director of “Fly Away” and executive producer of Emmy®-winning “Autism: The Musical”) and written by Jennifer Deaton. Both have strong ties to the autism community as Grillo is mother to a child on the autism spectrum and Deaton is aunt to a child on the spectrum. The producers are Stefan Nowicki, Joey Carey, Lucy Mukerjee-Brown, and Morgan White.
The film stars AnnaSophia Robb (“The Carrie Diaries,” “Soul Surfer”), Famke Janssen (“X-Men”), Scott Cohen (“One Life to Live”), Taylor Richardson (“Annie”), Israel Broussard (“The Bling Ring”) and John D’Leo (“Unbroken”).
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/jackoftheredhearts.
- 2/29/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Espn isn't the only network announcing its fall doc lineup -- HBO announced its own new set of nonfiction films set to air in the upcoming months today, among them the Alec Baldwin and James Toback Cannes feature "Seduced and Abandoned," Whoopi Goldberg's directorial debut on Moms Mabley and the David Cronenberg-narrated "Tales From the Organ Trade." Here's the full list, with descriptions courtesy of the network: Valentine Road (debuting Oct. 7) unravels the school shooting of a young teenager who had begun exploring his gender identity, detailing the circumstances that led to his murder by a fellow student, as well as its complicated aftermath. Directed and produced by first-time filmmaker Marta Cunningham and produced by Sasha Alpert (HBO’s “Autism: The Musical”) and Eddie Schmidt (HBO’s “Twist of Faith”), the powerful and disturbing documentary raises questions about the safety of Lgbt teens, while challenging the efficacy of...
- 7/26/2013
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
The former CEO of Bunim/Murray is now Strategic Operations Director at the privately held media holding company that wants to expand into different entertainment sectors. Carson is best known for his work on reality shows including The Real World, Road Rules and The Simple Life, as well as the documentary Autism: The Musical. A former production and finance exec at Fox’s 20th Century Television, Carson’s “major studio management and operations experience, along with our 20 year relationship, will be key to building a successful company as we continue to grow.” Hollywood Studios International‘s Steven Saxton says. Carson has been involved with more than $1B worth of production deals network, cable and first-run syndication, the company says.
- 1/23/2013
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
- Deadline TV
Last year, I wrote an article for Autism Awareness Month, covering three films that focus on this subject matter (those three being Mozart and the Whale, Chocolate and Temple Grandin).
Since last year’s article was well received, I thought that it would be good to do another one this year covering three new films from different countries and genres. If you are interested in reading the previous article, I have added a link at the bottom for you to enjoy.
After Thomas (dir. Simon Shore) – 2006
Based on the book A Friend Like Henry written by Nuala Gardner, this ITV drama focuses on the story of the married couple Rob Graham (Ben Miles) and Nicola Graham (Keeley Hawes) as they struggle to control the behavior of their six-year-old autistic son, Kyle (Andrew Byrne). As Kyle hates everyday social activity, Rob and Nicola have a hard time to communicate with him that also affects their relationship.
Since last year’s article was well received, I thought that it would be good to do another one this year covering three new films from different countries and genres. If you are interested in reading the previous article, I have added a link at the bottom for you to enjoy.
After Thomas (dir. Simon Shore) – 2006
Based on the book A Friend Like Henry written by Nuala Gardner, this ITV drama focuses on the story of the married couple Rob Graham (Ben Miles) and Nicola Graham (Keeley Hawes) as they struggle to control the behavior of their six-year-old autistic son, Kyle (Andrew Byrne). As Kyle hates everyday social activity, Rob and Nicola have a hard time to communicate with him that also affects their relationship.
- 4/10/2012
- by Martyn Warren
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Janet Grillo is an Emmy Award winning producer, an Award winning writer and director, and a former Studio Executive. We date back to our days as acquisitions executives in the late 80s when I was with Republic and she was with New Line and based in New York. She came to L.A. for the American Film Market and stayed downtown. One day she went to a well known antique book store called Caravan Books (founded in 1954 and still operating!), located underneath the Biltmore Hotel at 5th and Grand and was held up at gunpoint! We were all totally confouned by such New York style brazenness confronting our New York friend.
In 2007, Janet executive produced the esteemed documentary Autism: The Musical with Bunim Murray Productions, which premiered on HBO in March, 2008. It is distributed by New Video. Autism: The Musical received the coveted audience awards at Newport, Palm Springs and Mill Valley Film Festivals, and premiered to uniformly excellent reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was short listed for an Academy Award Nomination. It won two Emmy Awards in 2008, including Outstanding Non Fiction Special (i.e.; Best Documentary).
A filmmaker in her own right, Janet wrote and directed two short films; At the Beach starring Lucinda Jenney, and Flying Lessons starring Dana Delany (Desperate Houswives, Castle, China Beach). Flying Lessons premiered at Palm Springs International Film Festival in August of 2008, to good reviews. It was programmed by many prestigious festivals here and abroad, including the Atlanta, L.A. Short, Rhode Island and San Luis Obispo International Film Festivals. It won the Silver Lei Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Honolulu International Film Festival, the Best Dramatic Short at First Look Festival, L.A. and Best Performance at WILDsound Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. Her feature script, Fly Away, won the Dylan Thomas Award for Best International Screenplay from the 2010 Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales.
Made as a SAG Ultra-Low Budget Independent film, and shot in 14 days, Fly Away premiered as 1 of 8 out of 2000 submissions in Dramatic Competition at the influential South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, this March.
Fly Away, went on to win the Best Film and Special Jury Prize for Performance (Ashley Rickards) at the Arizona International Film Festival. The film opened immediately afterwards in April 2011, in limited theatrical engagement, to rave reviews. It is currently distributed by FlatironFilms/ New Video via iTunes, NetFlix, Amazon and VOD/Time Warner-Comcast.
The complex portrayals of a single mother and her severely autistic teenager daughter (Beth Broderick and Ashley Rickards, who does not actually have the disorder), in collaboration with a talented ensemble, were widely lauded by major critics, as “exceptional...remarkable...first rate...as natural as breathing...The actors are so exemplary it is hard to imagine this is not a documentary,” and “deserving of an Oscar Nomination.”
Critical Acclaim For
Fly Away
“Fly Away is a gripping, life-enhancing low-budget little film about the physically and emotionally punishing struggles of a single mother raising an autistic child. The actors are so exemplary that it is difficult to imagine this is not a documentary. They might not be household names, but they will be...As the mother, Beth Broderick is as natural as breathing... In a class by herself (Rickards), she deserves, at the very least, an Oscar nomination. Not since Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker has any actor portrayed a handicapped child (especially one with autism) with the same depth of passion and realism. Her emotional range seems to know no limits. She’s more heartbreaking than the movie itself, and that is very high praise indeed.”
- The New York Observer By Rex Reed
“The lovely, heartbreaking "Fly Away" benefits from superb performances and a gripping story managed with simplicity and grace by writer-producer-director Janet Grillo. As sensitive and affecting as this mother-daughter drama may be, the film skillfully bypasses its genre's potential pitfalls, opting for intimacy over sensationalism, poignancy over sentimentality.... Broderick is wonderful, a delicate mix of the resolute and resigned, her face a quietly expressive map of pain and pride. But enough can't be said about Rickards, best known from TV's "One Tree Hill," who so convincingly embodies Mandy's wild child spontaneity, startling effusiveness and unwieldy physicality. She's remarkable — in a remarkably challenging role.”
- La Times By Gary Goldstein
“Treading warily into territory that few dramas dare to explore, “Fly Away” is a defiantly unsentimental look at the complex codependency between a harried single mother and her severely autistic daughter... Taking a coolheaded approach to hot-button issues, “Fly Away” overcomes its neatly bow-tied ending with strong performances (including Greg Germann as a sensitive neighbor) and a spare, intelligent script. Ms. Grillo has no need of wordiness: Jeanne’s bruised body and exhausted face say it all.”
- New York Times By Jeannette Catsoulis
“The best thing a serious, no-nonsense movie can do is give us a glimpse into the world of someone whose experiences are so far away from our own that they are difficult for us to even imagine... Jeanne is multidimensional in a very real, down to earth sense...Broderick plays Jeanne with a lost look on her face. She is overwhelmed by her circumstances, but is determined to persevere. After many changes in key, when the symphony that is this film comes to a close, we see that Jeanne may be about to face her biggest challenge yet. An ending can be seen as a new beginning, and this film leaves me hoping for a sequel.”
- Huffington Post By Joseph Smigelski
Also highly awarded, Ashley Rickards, the extraordinary young actress who plays the severely autistic teen Mandy, also stars in the new MTV comedy hit, Awkward. For which she was just listed as one of the 10 Breakout TV stars of 2011 in Entertainment Weekly. Ashley is Not autistic, obviously. Although most people think she is, after watching the film. She turned 18 when she shot Fly Away. Pretty remarkable range and talent, and at such a young age.
Previously, Janet worked at New Line Cinema for ten years, rising through the ranks to become the Senior Vice President of Production, East Coast. During this time she established an outstanding track record initiating the careers of many emerging filmmakers, including Reggie Hudlin, for whom she developed his feature debut, House Party. The film received the coveted Audience Award at Sundance, and went on to become a cult classic, grossing $25 million in North American theatrical revenues on a budget of $1.5 million. Janet then executive produced its two financially successful sequels. At New Line, Janet developed and executive produced Joseph B. Vasquez's acclaimed feature Hangin with the Homeboys starring John Leguizamo. It received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. She then went on to develop and associate produce Pump Up the Volume starring Christian Slater, as well as Ted Demme directorial debut, Who's The Man. The same year, she also managed to develop and executive produce David O. Russell acclaimed feature debut, Spanking the Monkey. It won the Sundance Audience Award and launched his prestigious career.
After a decade at New Line, Janet left to produce independently. Since then she executive produced the critically acclaimed independent feature, Joe The King, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with Ruth Charny (Grace of My Heart and Search and Destroy), Janet produced Searching for Paradise, which was developed by the Sundance Institute, and distributed on the Sundance Channel.
A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, with an Honors in Theatre, Janet also trained at William Esper Acting Studio in New York City. While completing her Mfa in Dramatic Writing at Nyu Tisch School of the Arts, she served as Assistant Literary Manager for Circle Repertory Company, where she was also a member of their Playwright Workshop Lab. In addition, Janet was a finalist for the American Film Innstitute Women's Workshop in Directing, 2008. Her feature screenplay, 2B, was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in 2009. Her plays have been publicly read at Playwrights' Horizons and by actors including Annette Bening, Patricia Arquette, Catherine O'Hara, Hart Bochner, Dana Delany, Bradley Whitford and Jane Kazmarek. She is a member of the Playwrights Workshop at Ensemble Studio Theatre, West. A frequent blogger for The Huffington Post, Janet is also an Autism Advocacy activist. The mother of a son on the Autism Spectrum, she served as a Board Member of Cure Autism Now, which merged with Autism Speaks in 2007. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
In 2007, Janet executive produced the esteemed documentary Autism: The Musical with Bunim Murray Productions, which premiered on HBO in March, 2008. It is distributed by New Video. Autism: The Musical received the coveted audience awards at Newport, Palm Springs and Mill Valley Film Festivals, and premiered to uniformly excellent reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was short listed for an Academy Award Nomination. It won two Emmy Awards in 2008, including Outstanding Non Fiction Special (i.e.; Best Documentary).
A filmmaker in her own right, Janet wrote and directed two short films; At the Beach starring Lucinda Jenney, and Flying Lessons starring Dana Delany (Desperate Houswives, Castle, China Beach). Flying Lessons premiered at Palm Springs International Film Festival in August of 2008, to good reviews. It was programmed by many prestigious festivals here and abroad, including the Atlanta, L.A. Short, Rhode Island and San Luis Obispo International Film Festivals. It won the Silver Lei Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Honolulu International Film Festival, the Best Dramatic Short at First Look Festival, L.A. and Best Performance at WILDsound Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. Her feature script, Fly Away, won the Dylan Thomas Award for Best International Screenplay from the 2010 Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales.
Made as a SAG Ultra-Low Budget Independent film, and shot in 14 days, Fly Away premiered as 1 of 8 out of 2000 submissions in Dramatic Competition at the influential South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, this March.
Fly Away, went on to win the Best Film and Special Jury Prize for Performance (Ashley Rickards) at the Arizona International Film Festival. The film opened immediately afterwards in April 2011, in limited theatrical engagement, to rave reviews. It is currently distributed by FlatironFilms/ New Video via iTunes, NetFlix, Amazon and VOD/Time Warner-Comcast.
The complex portrayals of a single mother and her severely autistic teenager daughter (Beth Broderick and Ashley Rickards, who does not actually have the disorder), in collaboration with a talented ensemble, were widely lauded by major critics, as “exceptional...remarkable...first rate...as natural as breathing...The actors are so exemplary it is hard to imagine this is not a documentary,” and “deserving of an Oscar Nomination.”
Critical Acclaim For
Fly Away
“Fly Away is a gripping, life-enhancing low-budget little film about the physically and emotionally punishing struggles of a single mother raising an autistic child. The actors are so exemplary that it is difficult to imagine this is not a documentary. They might not be household names, but they will be...As the mother, Beth Broderick is as natural as breathing... In a class by herself (Rickards), she deserves, at the very least, an Oscar nomination. Not since Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker has any actor portrayed a handicapped child (especially one with autism) with the same depth of passion and realism. Her emotional range seems to know no limits. She’s more heartbreaking than the movie itself, and that is very high praise indeed.”
- The New York Observer By Rex Reed
“The lovely, heartbreaking "Fly Away" benefits from superb performances and a gripping story managed with simplicity and grace by writer-producer-director Janet Grillo. As sensitive and affecting as this mother-daughter drama may be, the film skillfully bypasses its genre's potential pitfalls, opting for intimacy over sensationalism, poignancy over sentimentality.... Broderick is wonderful, a delicate mix of the resolute and resigned, her face a quietly expressive map of pain and pride. But enough can't be said about Rickards, best known from TV's "One Tree Hill," who so convincingly embodies Mandy's wild child spontaneity, startling effusiveness and unwieldy physicality. She's remarkable — in a remarkably challenging role.”
- La Times By Gary Goldstein
“Treading warily into territory that few dramas dare to explore, “Fly Away” is a defiantly unsentimental look at the complex codependency between a harried single mother and her severely autistic daughter... Taking a coolheaded approach to hot-button issues, “Fly Away” overcomes its neatly bow-tied ending with strong performances (including Greg Germann as a sensitive neighbor) and a spare, intelligent script. Ms. Grillo has no need of wordiness: Jeanne’s bruised body and exhausted face say it all.”
- New York Times By Jeannette Catsoulis
“The best thing a serious, no-nonsense movie can do is give us a glimpse into the world of someone whose experiences are so far away from our own that they are difficult for us to even imagine... Jeanne is multidimensional in a very real, down to earth sense...Broderick plays Jeanne with a lost look on her face. She is overwhelmed by her circumstances, but is determined to persevere. After many changes in key, when the symphony that is this film comes to a close, we see that Jeanne may be about to face her biggest challenge yet. An ending can be seen as a new beginning, and this film leaves me hoping for a sequel.”
- Huffington Post By Joseph Smigelski
Also highly awarded, Ashley Rickards, the extraordinary young actress who plays the severely autistic teen Mandy, also stars in the new MTV comedy hit, Awkward. For which she was just listed as one of the 10 Breakout TV stars of 2011 in Entertainment Weekly. Ashley is Not autistic, obviously. Although most people think she is, after watching the film. She turned 18 when she shot Fly Away. Pretty remarkable range and talent, and at such a young age.
Previously, Janet worked at New Line Cinema for ten years, rising through the ranks to become the Senior Vice President of Production, East Coast. During this time she established an outstanding track record initiating the careers of many emerging filmmakers, including Reggie Hudlin, for whom she developed his feature debut, House Party. The film received the coveted Audience Award at Sundance, and went on to become a cult classic, grossing $25 million in North American theatrical revenues on a budget of $1.5 million. Janet then executive produced its two financially successful sequels. At New Line, Janet developed and executive produced Joseph B. Vasquez's acclaimed feature Hangin with the Homeboys starring John Leguizamo. It received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. She then went on to develop and associate produce Pump Up the Volume starring Christian Slater, as well as Ted Demme directorial debut, Who's The Man. The same year, she also managed to develop and executive produce David O. Russell acclaimed feature debut, Spanking the Monkey. It won the Sundance Audience Award and launched his prestigious career.
After a decade at New Line, Janet left to produce independently. Since then she executive produced the critically acclaimed independent feature, Joe The King, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with Ruth Charny (Grace of My Heart and Search and Destroy), Janet produced Searching for Paradise, which was developed by the Sundance Institute, and distributed on the Sundance Channel.
A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, with an Honors in Theatre, Janet also trained at William Esper Acting Studio in New York City. While completing her Mfa in Dramatic Writing at Nyu Tisch School of the Arts, she served as Assistant Literary Manager for Circle Repertory Company, where she was also a member of their Playwright Workshop Lab. In addition, Janet was a finalist for the American Film Innstitute Women's Workshop in Directing, 2008. Her feature screenplay, 2B, was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in 2009. Her plays have been publicly read at Playwrights' Horizons and by actors including Annette Bening, Patricia Arquette, Catherine O'Hara, Hart Bochner, Dana Delany, Bradley Whitford and Jane Kazmarek. She is a member of the Playwrights Workshop at Ensemble Studio Theatre, West. A frequent blogger for The Huffington Post, Janet is also an Autism Advocacy activist. The mother of a son on the Autism Spectrum, she served as a Board Member of Cure Autism Now, which merged with Autism Speaks in 2007. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
- 2/22/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Everyone’s favorite ‘Rock Professor’ Jack Black and the legendary rocker Stephen Stills are to perform a new and original song, “Sensitive,” on TV’s Everyday Health this week. The song, written by Wyatt Isaacs, is about his experience living with Autism.
The syndicated television series, Everyday Health, profiles The Miracle Project in an episode on January 28 which unites families living with Autism alongside legendary musician Stephen Stills and actor/comedian Jack Black—with a common goal of raising funds and awareness for Autism.
The subject of the HBO double Emmy Award-winning documentary Autism: The Musical, The Miracle Project is an organization which brings Autistic children together to help them uncover their potential through music, dance, acting, storytelling and writing.
Read more...
The syndicated television series, Everyday Health, profiles The Miracle Project in an episode on January 28 which unites families living with Autism alongside legendary musician Stephen Stills and actor/comedian Jack Black—with a common goal of raising funds and awareness for Autism.
The subject of the HBO double Emmy Award-winning documentary Autism: The Musical, The Miracle Project is an organization which brings Autistic children together to help them uncover their potential through music, dance, acting, storytelling and writing.
Read more...
- 1/26/2012
- Look to the Stars
Holly Robinson-Peete will receive a handmade award honoring her dedication to the autism community and Jack Black and Stephen Stills will perform with stars of HBO’s “Autism: The Musical,” at the Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, on October 4 at 7pm.
The Autism is Awesomism concert will be filmed as part of a new series called ‘Everyday Health’ from the producers of the “The Biggest Loser”. The show profiles teens and young adults with health challenges that are making a real difference in their communities and will air on ABC this fall.
Joining Holly, Jack and Stephen at the concert will be Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca of “Survivor Africa” as series hosts, and Matthew Asner, son of Ed Asner from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and host of Autism America Radio, and other “surprise guests.”
Read more...
The Autism is Awesomism concert will be filmed as part of a new series called ‘Everyday Health’ from the producers of the “The Biggest Loser”. The show profiles teens and young adults with health challenges that are making a real difference in their communities and will air on ABC this fall.
Joining Holly, Jack and Stephen at the concert will be Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca of “Survivor Africa” as series hosts, and Matthew Asner, son of Ed Asner from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and host of Autism America Radio, and other “surprise guests.”
Read more...
- 10/3/2011
- Look to the Stars
Emotional and involving yet also clear-eyed and with a cool wisdom, Janet Grillo’s Fly Away is a sharply observed and strongly acted tale of a mother learning to allow her autistic teenage daughter to transition into the adult world. Beth Broderick plays Jeanne, a single mom with her own home-office corporate consulting business. Ashley Rickards is her daughter Mandy, and the two have a tight, well-ordered relationship, with Jeanne trying to grow her business during the day while Mandy attends a special needs school. But when Mandy begins a series of violent outbursts at that school, Jeanne’s almost preternatural composure begins to crack.
Exploring not just autism from a mother’s perspective but also the struggle all of us have to maintain our own identities and emotional lives amidst all that life throws at us, Fly Away has a remarkably sagacious insight into all of its characters. The...
Exploring not just autism from a mother’s perspective but also the struggle all of us have to maintain our own identities and emotional lives amidst all that life throws at us, Fly Away has a remarkably sagacious insight into all of its characters. The...
- 4/16/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Nobility counts for so much in people and so little in movies. Director Janet Grillo's "Fly Away" is an exceedingly noble film. I admire its commitment to autism education even while I admit I did not like it very much. Its heart is in the right place, and I'm sure it was a labor of love for Grillo and for many in her cast and crew.
It is the story of mother's struggle to care and provide for her autistic daughter, Mandy. She's 16 and despite medication and her mother's constant attention and hard-work, her behavior isn't improving. Mandy's too much of a handful for her public school teachers, who continually press mom Jeanne to get Mandy into a full time care and education facility while Jeanne fights like the Dickens to keep her family together.
That, along with a warm and optimistic love story between Jeanne and a man...
It is the story of mother's struggle to care and provide for her autistic daughter, Mandy. She's 16 and despite medication and her mother's constant attention and hard-work, her behavior isn't improving. Mandy's too much of a handful for her public school teachers, who continually press mom Jeanne to get Mandy into a full time care and education facility while Jeanne fights like the Dickens to keep her family together.
That, along with a warm and optimistic love story between Jeanne and a man...
- 4/16/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Janet Grillo, a producer (Autism: The Musical, Searching for Paradise), former New Line executive, and writer/director (the short, Flying Lessons), has directed her first feature, Fly Away. From the film’s website:
Based on the award-winning short Flying Lessons, Fly Away tells the moving story of a single mother, Jeanne, grappling with the challenge of raising her autistic teenage daughter, Mandy. As Mandy becomes more and more unmanageable, so too does Jeanne?s life. Over the period of two weeks, Jeanne is confronted with the most difficult decision a parent can make: to let go, allowing her child to grow, but also grow apart, or to hold on tight and fall together.
The filmmakers are currently in post-production, so look for the film in 2011. The trailer is below.
Fly Away Trailer from Fly Away on Vimeo.
Based on the award-winning short Flying Lessons, Fly Away tells the moving story of a single mother, Jeanne, grappling with the challenge of raising her autistic teenage daughter, Mandy. As Mandy becomes more and more unmanageable, so too does Jeanne?s life. Over the period of two weeks, Jeanne is confronted with the most difficult decision a parent can make: to let go, allowing her child to grow, but also grow apart, or to hold on tight and fall together.
The filmmakers are currently in post-production, so look for the film in 2011. The trailer is below.
Fly Away Trailer from Fly Away on Vimeo.
- 12/25/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
HBO’s "John Adams" solidified its position as an Emmy frontrunner, converting eight of its 23 nominations to lead the way at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
The two most nominated series, AMC's critical darling "Mad Men" and NBC’s Emmy-winning "30 Rock" followed with four and three wins, respectively.
"John Adams’"s wins for casting, costumes, prosthetic makeup, visual effects, sound mixing, editing, cinematography and art direction gave HBO 16 overall nods to lead all networks, followed by ABC and PBS with nine apiece and CBS with eight.
There was a sense of deja vu at the ceremony held Saturday at the Emmys’ new home, the Nokia Theater.
For the second year in a row, Bravo's "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," topped the outstanding reality series category.
And for a second consecutive year, an obscenity-laced song from a late-night show won the original music and lyrics category. Last year,...
The two most nominated series, AMC's critical darling "Mad Men" and NBC’s Emmy-winning "30 Rock" followed with four and three wins, respectively.
"John Adams’"s wins for casting, costumes, prosthetic makeup, visual effects, sound mixing, editing, cinematography and art direction gave HBO 16 overall nods to lead all networks, followed by ABC and PBS with nine apiece and CBS with eight.
There was a sense of deja vu at the ceremony held Saturday at the Emmys’ new home, the Nokia Theater.
For the second year in a row, Bravo's "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," topped the outstanding reality series category.
And for a second consecutive year, an obscenity-laced song from a late-night show won the original music and lyrics category. Last year,...
- 9/13/2008
- by By Lesley Goldberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Thursday March 20th:. NYC: Get your Yakuza film fix via Asia Society's Yakuza film series which runs until mid April. Tonite catch Yasuzo Masumura's Hoodlum Soldier. Check here for details & directions. Friday March 21st:. NYC: IFC Center starts their run of Christophe Honore's Love Songs (Les Chansons d'amour). Ismael (Louis Garrel) has slipped into a comfortable menage a trois with his longtime girlfriend Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) and his co-worker Alice (Clotilde Hesme). After a sudden tragedy, these young people must deal not only with the reality of loss but also with the fear that love might never return. Saturday March 22md:. ...and speaking of three-ways....play catch up with one of these: Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Gordon Green's Snow Angels or Ira Sachs' Married Life. Sunday March 23rd:. NYC: Matchsticks and geometry. Film Forum has a brand new, clean print of Alain Resnais' Last Year at
- 3/20/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
- In recent years I've often criticized the Academy Awards for not having the foresight and fortitude to include docu films that have not only completely reinvigorated the genre, but have pushed the medium to new possible artistic and narrative terrains. This year's short list of 15 titles only further confirms that the Academy has tremendous difficulty in acknowledging the wider scope of films that merit year-end salutations. The formula for the docu-filmmaking and docu movie-going experience has significantly changed since Y2K, yet the most prestigious award film ceremony seems to come up short when it comes to new trends in storytelling and filmmaking. Today IndieWIRE reports Aj Schnack will collaborate with online independent film distributor IndiePix to launch a new nonfiction filmmaking awards event, set for March 18, 2008 at IFC Center in New York City. Below you find a Top 15 list of films that will be nominated for eight categories,
- 1/7/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
NEW YORK -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday unveiled the 15 films on its 2007 documentary feature Oscar shortlist.
Four ThinkFilm releases made the cut, a record for the company and one of the biggest lineups ever for any distributor. They are Tony Kaye's abortion epic Lake of Fire, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's World War II expose Nanking, Alex Gibney's Iraq War study Taxi to the Dark Side and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's look at a Ugandan musical competition War/Dance.
The biggest boxoffice hit among the bunch by far is Michael Moore's health-care expose Sicko, from the Weinstein Co., but other high-profile releases were left off the list. Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains and Amir Bar-Lev's child prodigy study My Kid Could Paint That from Sony Pictures Classics were expected to make the cut but didn't. Other notable absentees were Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's look at Darfur, The Devil Came on Horseback; Picturehouse's gamers study The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters; and ThinkFilm's space-themed In the Shadow of the Moon.
Aside from Taxi, other films covering the Iraq War that made the list included Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.
Features about other wars made the cut, too, including Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham's World War II art study The Rape of Europa.
Virtually all films on the list were topical, including Tricia Regan's look at special-needs children, Autism: The Musical...
Four ThinkFilm releases made the cut, a record for the company and one of the biggest lineups ever for any distributor. They are Tony Kaye's abortion epic Lake of Fire, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's World War II expose Nanking, Alex Gibney's Iraq War study Taxi to the Dark Side and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's look at a Ugandan musical competition War/Dance.
The biggest boxoffice hit among the bunch by far is Michael Moore's health-care expose Sicko, from the Weinstein Co., but other high-profile releases were left off the list. Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains and Amir Bar-Lev's child prodigy study My Kid Could Paint That from Sony Pictures Classics were expected to make the cut but didn't. Other notable absentees were Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's look at Darfur, The Devil Came on Horseback; Picturehouse's gamers study The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters; and ThinkFilm's space-themed In the Shadow of the Moon.
Aside from Taxi, other films covering the Iraq War that made the list included Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.
Features about other wars made the cut, too, including Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham's World War II art study The Rape of Europa.
Virtually all films on the list were topical, including Tricia Regan's look at special-needs children, Autism: The Musical...
- 11/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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