Jennifer Hill Breakes Stereotypes and Pushes Forward With Her Music

Photo by Mandi Martini designs by Kristin Costa

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Hill or as we know her as Murderous Chanteuse - an inspiring artist, singer, female and mom who not only creates awesome music but also helps other female artists as well at SWAN Day CT. She is also a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault and gun violence and that only made her stronger to inspire and change with her music.

Photo by Mandi Martini at SWANDAYCT 2018

1. Who is Murderous Chanteuse? Why did you choose that name? 
Well, Murderous Chanteuse is a different form of myself as a singer/musician. It’s still the music of me, Jennifer Hill, but in this particular incarnation it’s my pop loving self. The guilty pleasure parts of my music that I felt didn’t have a voice in my previous projects. I chose that name after working hard on some music and a friend said “you killed it.” It’s also in a way taking back a word that terrified me. I have had close experiences with death due to the abuses I have endured and I wanted to make any connotations to that act positive so I could move on from the weaknesses I felt being an abused partner.

2. What inspired you to do music? 
It was born into me. The first song that I knew by heart was Janis Joplin Bobby McGee. My mom taught me that when I was three years old. By the time I was five years old I was singing the songs from the movie Annie in the playground,at the request of my friends. They used to make me sing it over and over to the point I would try to hide on them during recess. I ended up going to college with a scholarship for vocal performance and have a degree.

3. How would you classify your music - a mix of what artists?
That is such a hard question to answer as an artist. I think a lot of my music shapes my experiences in life and the musical backdrop that came with them. Bjork and Madonna are two huge influences in my life as well as Phoebe Snow and Tori Amos. Two current artists that I love are Billie Eilish and Florence and the Machine.

4. What makes your music unique? 
It is genre bending. It doesn’t have one unique formula it sticks to. I write what I feel. That may be electro or rock, dark pop, or an alternative ballad. I write what I feel and the music moves me.

Photo By LSG original 

5. How has music changed your life and the life of others around you? 
Well, it’s helped me to connect and meet a lot of people. It has also taught me a lot about growing a business and sustaining it. As soon as you graduate from college or decide to start the path of becoming a musician, you are your own business. That is something that was not really talked about during college. I guess we all expected to either get the amazing auditions or become famous and that is not really a reality for many musicians and songwriters. But you can make a living if you are smart and you put yourself in all different directions music wise. I am always learning as a musician and I am always evolving because of that. I think that it has also changed my life for the fact that I look younger than I am and a lot of people around me do. I believe working within art and music, although it is not easy, enriches your soul, which in turn makes you look like you are younger and more vibrant person.

6. Favorite female artists? 
Madonna, Bjork, Billie Eilish, Phoebe Snow, Portishead, Sia, Florence and the Machine, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, TOO MANY TO LIST!

7. How many albums, EPs and songs have you written by now? 
I have written more than a hundred songs in my life time.. many haven’t been released or are not recorded. I’m working on fixing that now. Recording is not cheap and I’m not rich 😆 so far I have three EPS out and two singles.

8. What inspires your lyrics and style of music? 
What ever moves me in life. I went to college for music so I’m also a trained opera and musical theatre singer so I can hear some of those influences in my writing styles at times but truly my inner playlist is so diverse that I just write what the radio in my head hears.

9. What and when is the next album or EP coming out? 
Well, I'm hoping for a full length album by the end of March.

10. Your message to your fans? 
Thank you for believing in me and my music, and if you follow me personally on my various social media platforms then please know that I am out there telling my stories for you. I have been told by a few people that I gave them the courage to leave abusive situations and I want to give kudos to all of you that have done that and I want to give strength and support to those who are not ready to leave yet. It is an important time for women to stick together and women in the arts especially because the arts are where humanity lies.

Photo by Jill Hart

To follow Jennifer Hill and listen to her music:

https://www.reverbnation.com/jenniferhill

https://jenniferhillandco.bandcamp.com/

Http://www.murderouschanteuse.com

Http://www.instagram.com/murderouschanteuse 

Http://www.twitter.com/MurderChanteuse

Http://www.facebook.com/MChanteuse

https://open.spotify.com/artist/254NLVyd1F7BP8lPPCrNDd?nd=1

https://open.spotify.com/artist/40JZHehLHsShX1Kn5kTOHb?nd=1

             Album art by James Polisky

Bullitt County Comes to the Windy City This Friday

Ten years ago, four college friends set out on the Bluegrass Bourbon Trail to visit their favorite Kentucky distilleries. But their exciting adventure took a dark turn when a terrible tragedy struck, something that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Now, ten years later in 1977, the friends reunite for Gordie’s bachelor party. Keaton, his best man, figures there’s no better way to celebrate than to relive the good ol’ days by finishing the Bourbon Trail. But ever since the tragedy in college, Gordie’s life has been especially rough. Their shared secret continues to plague him, and after being injured in Vietnam, he hit the bottle pretty hard. Now that he’s sobered up and gotten his life back together, he’s in no shape to visit a bunch of distilleries. Luckily, Gordie discovers a way out during their distillery tour. He hears of the Bullitt Treasure—buried prohibition money out in the woods of Bullitt County. And legend has it that the Bullitt Family protects the money at all costs. Looking for any reason to hop off the Bourbon Trail, Gordie plays the groom card, and soon the friends are digging for treasure in the middle of nowhere. But something much worse than the Bullitt Family awaits them in Bullitt County. This reunion has begun to erode Gordie’s years of repression, and that dark secret they all share is about to resurface in violent and terrible ways; ways that may rip the friends apart for good.

Bullitt County was written and directed by David McCracken and produced by Josh Riedford. Mike Nelson is Gordie. Jennie Meler is Robin. David McCracken is Keaton. Napoleon Ryan is Wayne. Dorothy Lyman is the Mrs. Richard Riehle is the Mr.

Official Film Website: www.BullittCountyFilm.com 
Production Company Website: www.MrPicturesFilm.com
Official Theatrical Trailer: https://vimeo.com/278106182

Bullitt County will be released in AMC theaters this Friday in Chicago, LA, New York, Phoenix and Houston. The film will be available on DVD and VOD in February.

Interview with Mike Nelson (Gordie): 

Tell me about your role as Gordie?
I was really excited to be the lead actor in a feature film and carry a movie. I put a ton of pressure on myself. I was nervous. After reading the script I was excited to play it. I don't normally audition for such roles as I do comedy so getting this opportunity and show a different side of myself was really exciting. What helped me to get in the head of this character... One dimensional is easy so I tried to tap into the guilt of what happened years ago, the survivor's guilt and being a recovering alcoholic. I did a lot of research on that from the mid 70s and talked to friends who went through addiction. What's great about the film some people know right away something is weird about Wayne. There's so much to the movie that it doesn’t get spoiled with Wayne’s character.

Is Gordie in love with his friend Robin? 
There is an unrequited love from a friend you are into. He has always been infatuated with her but 10 years have gone by - the takes of how he is looking at her, his feelings for her, the stuff at the tent where he is imagining stuff. We all make mistakes. Robin’s character is a feminist and a professor. 

We never see or hear anything about Gordie’s wife. Why?
I think the reason is he is trying to live a normal life and get over his skeletons in the closet and trying to act like a normal human being and try to move on. The wedding isn't that important, almost like a convenience thing trying to adapt and make things better.

What did you like most and least about playing this character? 
There is not much I didn’t like - it was challenging and a lot of work. Thinking back it was great working with the crew that cared about every detail. We all got along.

Tell me about the last scene. Why did it end in a bar? 
These were flashbacks right before the incident in 1967 - 10 years prior right after the car accident. The end is the beginning of Wayne and Gordie’s relationship. Things are messy, relationships are hard.

What is next for you?
I shot a movie for Nickelodeon this past summer. Earlier this summer I also produced a feature film. I am also writing a screenplay. Chicago is always home for me. I grew up in Northwest Indiana. 

Interview with Director, Actor and Writer David McCracken: 

Bullitt County is your first feature film. What have you learned about yourself as a director from it and what has been your experience like? 
I think the biggest lesson I learned is to surround yourself with like-minded people. You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with, the crew and cast and so that is the big takeaway. You can have all the ideas but you need have to have a team that is set on the same goal and gets along and is making the same movie.

What inspired you to write Bullitt County and why did you choose that to be your breakthrough film? 
I think a lot of it it all started when I came home for the holidays. I asked my best friend Josh what do you think of a production company? We started Mr. Pictures and then came our first movie. We wanted to make a movie like the movies we liked and put a personal spin on it. That's why we filmed it around our hometowns. It started with the characters. Josh and I have alcoholism in our families and this is a movie that has a soft touch on alcoholism. We felt that it would be an interesting angle. We just didn’t want to make it the message of the movie. It is a very complex story with a twist of humor, comedy, drama and thriller.

What is the message you were trying to convey with the plot?
I do write better when I have a theme because it allows me to filter. This started from a point of that nostalgia for the past - it always affects our present in ways that we don't expect. Set in the 1970s the characters go visit their favourite Bourbon Distilleries in attempts to reconnect and relieve the good old days. The buried treasure came from the nostalgia idea, burying the past in a way to get the adventure started. I do love adventure stories and Indiana Jones movies. But it is about something deeper.

How did you go about the casting and finding the stars as Mike Nelson, Richard Riehle and Dorothy Lyman?
I had worked with Mike before. I wanted to work with a darker material in the hand of comedic actors. When I wrote the lead part I wrote it for Mike. It is his first lead role in a feature film. I met Richard over 10 years ago in a writers’ retreat. I told him I wanted to work with him. I wrote to him, he reached out and accepted. We got a lot of audition tapes. We shot in Indiana, New Harmony.

What is your goal for Bullitt County? How far are you going to take it? What’s next? 
We are coming out in theaters nationwide this Friday in NY, Chicago, Phoenix, Houston, LA. We will run for a week or more and then it is going to be released on VOD and DVD in February. Also on Amazon, Itunes, and Redbox.

How did you go about funding for the film? 
We raised a bunch with private investors prior to shooting. The movie got bigger and bigger as we kept going. More investors come on board as the film has been successful.

Any other feature you are working on or you have in mind? 
We have about 5 or 6 scripts that I wrote. Next one is a full horror movie - a female driven ghost story that takes place over 3 generations. We love 1977 so much! We will hopefully shoot early next year.

Do you like directing or writing better? 
I like them all in different ways. The writing is solidarity. They are in the opposite ways of the spectrum. I like writing and directing together, which makes the rehearsal process very fluid.

What advice will you give to young directors/writers trying to emerge in this business?
Never give up - just outlast everyone else. If you stay in the game and keep hustling and keep working hard, and believe in what you are doing, it will be infectious and other people will believe in it too.

Chicago Native Yelyna De Leon Leon Raises Immigrant Issues as Blanca in “Will and Grace”

Chicago’s Native Yelyna De Leon landed a remarkable role as Blanca in Episode 3 ("Tex and the City") on NBC’s Emmy award winning sitcom, “Will and Grace” Second Season. The character’s remarkable journey and presence allows us to see a special bond and transformation between her and Karen (Emmy award winner Megan Mullally) where drama and comedy merge into one, addressing one of the nation’s leading issues - immigration.

Yelyna De Leon/ Photo by Katie Cleese Photography

In Texas, Karen arrives to visit the border where she makes remarks about sponsoring the wall and illegal drugs and meets Beverly Leslie (Emmy award winner Leslie Jordan) whom she argues with over sponsorship of the wall. Both end up in the detention center with Blanca. Blanca is an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who gets captured after trying to cross the border. She was a professional in her country and a mom who snuck across the US border fleeing the brutal gangs. She had traveled over 2,000 miles and spent her life savings paying off the cops and hiding from the cartels. In order to save her family, she let her daughter and husband escape first and now she wants to reunite with them. Blanca ends up in a Texas cell with Karen and Beverly Leslie, where she has a chance to share her personal story of grief with Karen where we, the audience, become first hand witnesses of the humane side of Karen as she shows empathy for Blanca’s deep painful story. “I have studied law and all I can say is that it is a slippery slope, as the laws affect everyone which is why Karen and Leslie end up in the detention center where I am being held. I am sitting there listening to their conversation but we are all in the holding cell together. Karen is still grieving over Rosario. She is telling me about it and I am there to listen to her story and she is there to listen to mine. There was definitely a bond between me and Karen and we bonded as human beings,” said Yelyna De Leon. “The writing on the show is truly amazing and so timely. When I read it, and booked it, I was so happy that this was an opportunity to humanize the immigration experience, something we don’t often get to see. This is what is really happening right now, all over the world and I look at it as a forced migration. I also loved that the role of Blanca was completely in line with my purpose, which is to represent the Latino community in non-stereotypical roles with counter narrative stories that are relatable and humanize us, so I am very grateful to the show for this amazing opportunity."

Blanca’s scenes were so touching and very important, and relevant scenes especially with the current political climate, so bravo to NBC and the show’s writers for this heart wrenching deep yet funny storyline. But we were left wondering what will become of Blanca? Will Karen help her get out of jail and be reunited with her family? It would be great to see the future return of Blanca as the writers have a lot to play with the special bond between Karen and her, especially after Rosario’s death and immigration is a subject that has many stories that need to be told.

If you liked Blanca’s character as much as I did on “Will and Grace” please tweet, instagram and shout out on Facebook @nbcwillandgrace.

To follow Yelyna De Leon on Social Media: @yelynadeleon.
To watch the episode, go to NBC and the NBC app:
https://www.nbc.com/will-and-grace/video/tex-and-the-city/3811158Also, episode now streaming on Hulu.

About Actress, Writer and Producer Yelyna De Leon:
Born and raised on the southside of Chicago, where she fell in love with storytelling through the theater, Yelyna has been in numerous plays, television shows, “Bones,” “Shameless,” “Ray Donovan,” and the feature films, “A Better Life,” and the GLAAD award winning film “East Side Story,” to name a few. And will soon be seen in the comedies, “Milfriend” and “Bride Plus One.” She is a “Br-ojan,” having received her BA from UCLA in Film/TV/Theater and Chicano Studies and her MFA from USC in Film and Television production. While at USC, she studied film, TV and comedy with director Barnet Kellman (George Lopez Show, Murphy Brown), writer David Isaacs (Cheers, Madmen), producers Gail Katz (Air Force One,) and Bonnie Bruckheimer, (Hocus Pocus, Beaches) and was the co-creator, head writer and showrunner for USC’s first single camera comedy pilot, “Teacher’s Lounge. Currently the award winning, slasher feature film she wrote, produced and is in, “Murder in the Woods,” starring Jose Julian (A Better Life), Chelsea Rendon (Vida) and Catherine Toribio (Jane The Virgin) with Danny Trejo (Machete), is doing the festival route and garnering rave reviews and a lot of buzz. The film premiered to a sold out audiences at the 2017 FICG in LA at the Chinese Theater, won the Best Film Award at the 2017 LA Skins Fest, and sold out every screening in Portland, NY, Denver and at the Chicago Latino Film Festival in April of 2018.

For more information: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0209680/.

LATINX HORROR FILM ‘MURDER IN THE WOODS’ WITH JOSE JULIAN AND DANNY TREJO TO MAKE ITS EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Belgium & Germany to screen Luis Iga's Latinx, award-winning slasher which is becoming a cult classic and breaking diversity barriers in Hollywood. 

Los Angeles, CA, October 08, 2018 – Luis Iga’s Latinx, award-winning film “Murder In The Woods,” starring José Julián (“A Better Life”) and featuring Latinx icon Danny Trejo (“Machete”), will have its European Festival Premiere at the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival in Bruges, Belgium on Saturday October 27th (For more information go to: http://bit.ly/mitwrazorTixPR) and on Saturday November 3rd at the Obscura Filmfestival in Berlin, Germany (For more information go to: http://bit.ly/mitwobscuraInfoPR). The film from Mexican auteur Luis Iga was written by Latina writer Yelyna De Leon and has played to packed houses in Los Angeles, Portland, New York, Denver and Chicago. Now Bruges and Berlin will get its first taste of what critics have called, “a breakthrough,” “smart, funny & very effective horror” film with a “phenomenal storyline” that “delivers on its promise in heaps” and “recalls classics of the genre like ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Scream’ but has a voice and style all its own.” “Our goal was to make a horror / slasher film for a global audience to showcase ‘People of Color’ in lead non-stereotypical roles and we are excited that these two prestigious Horror Film Festivals in Europe agree with us,” said Director and Producer Luis Iga. “I want to thank Patrick Van Hauwaert (Razor Reel’s Managing Director) and David Ghane (Obscura’s Festival Director) for being pioneers in reshaping how the world sees ‘People of Color’ and Minorities in cinema,” he added. 

Writer and Producer Yelyna De Leon said, “I am very grateful to both festivals for the opportunity to have European audiences see our independent film as our goal was to make a universal horror film with a diverse cast that global audiences could enjoy.” The rest of the ensemble cast includes Jeanette Samano (“Female Fight Squad,” “Isa”), Chelsea Rendon (“Bright,” “Vida”), Catherine Toribio (“Jane the Virgin”), Kade Wise (“Empire”) and Jordan Diambrini (“The Outfield”). It also features Soledad St. Hilaire (“Beatriz at Dinner”), Kurt Caceres (“Dexter”) and Rolando Molina (“American Dad!”) “Murder in the Woods" is a production of REZINATE Entertainment, founded by Luis Iga. REZINATE partnered up with Yelyna De Leon to produce this film. Both graduated with an MFA in Film and Television Production from the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) at the University of Southern California (USC) where they met. About REZINATE Entertainment: REZINATE is an entertainment company founded by Luis Iga. The company is involved in the production, financing and distribution of audiovisual projects including Film, Television, Animation, Video Games and Virtual Reality.

 REZINATE has a global presence with clients and projects that are developed around the world. www.rezinate.com 

For more information on “Murder In The Woods:” 
Website: http://www.murderinthewoodsmovie.com 
Trailer: http://bit.ly/EUprmitw 
Facebook: @MITWMovie 
Instagram: @murderinthewoods 
Twitter: @MITWMovie 
Snapchat: @MITWMovie 
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6083146