Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey, Human podcast. This is episode 452, and my guest is Jane Shnazi. When Jane was in her early twenties, her little brother was diagnosed with a rare cancer. She speaks to how this changed her life and prompted her to create her foundation Hub Back, which makes socially and environmentally engaged films, including Tiger's Boxer, inspired by her brother's struggle against all odds.
Really lovely talking with Jane. She's in the process of putting it all together, and it's it's for such a good cause and supportive of such an important message. I'm really, honored to have her on the show. Check out heyhumanpodcast.com for links and to learn more about my guests and the show. Check out susanruth.com to learn more about me and my other artistic endeavors, including which film festivals to see my film the first, and follow Susan Ruthism on social media and Patreon.
Find my musical albums on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your music. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening. Be well. Be kind. Stay safe. And here we go. Jane Shanaze, welcome to Hey Human. Thank you. It's nice to see you. You too. Let's jump right in. Tell me, did you where did you grow up? Tell me what shaped you when you were young.
Oh, so I was born in San Francisco, and then I came to France when I was two years and a half. And I arrived in, Paris. It was really really cold and my parents didn't like it so I went to the South and what built me really was the trees, the animals. I was always surrounded by nature and, then my dad recycles so I always have a awareness of, taking care of the environment and, I didn't never understand, you know, the big cities and how can people live in the big cities.
Because if we don't have nature, it's very difficult to reconnect, I find. I always wanted to say stories, and give the voice to the animals and the trees, and I used my imagination a lot as a kid surrounded by nature. First I wanted to write and then I said oh we can make images, of what we write, which is something that I really didn't know and the first time I went to the cinema I saw a movie called Croblanc. It's the story of this
white wolf. It's a very big movie. And so this made me want to to show, what I had in my head through images. And since then, I never changed my mind, which is crazy. You've been a filmmaker the whole time or a storyteller? I wanted to be a filmmaker since I'm, like, seven years old. It takes a lot of time. I thought that by 30 years old, I would, you know, be, already
confirmed and recognized as a director. But, you know, when you're a blonde lady at twenty twenty four you're asking producers if they are interested in reading your script and if you don't know anyone people just like yeah no we don't have time for you, you're just a blonde young girl, how can we trust someone like her And so I never had the chance to really have funding for any projects that I've written. So I decided to start making documentaries and
filming my friends doing humanitarian jobs. I went all around the world to film them and gathered some money from sustainable brands. I had the chance to find TV channels because I was an editor for TV channels and they all said, oh, let's show me your pilots and everything. So I showed and they were like, it's very good. We want to buy it, but you need to find a producer. So I found the producer and I did in two years, eight times fifty two minutes for a series called the hope bearers.
And then I, my brother was diagnosed with cancer and it hurts me to the bone to see a new world with children, sick between life and death. My brother was 15, so he was still with all the other kids, but he was a teenager. So the clown didn't make him laugh. And it was lacking of, you know, activities to really think about something else than disease and sadness and death.
So we had to bring a massage, yoga, music, lavender, all the kinds of any anything that you can have in mind and then I built a non profit with my mum to bring boxing and meditation in hospitals since 02/2015 and it really changed a lot. I received, two days ago a letter, of thank you from the hospital, La Croix du Maranci.
And I tried to do the same here in the South and, with the movie that I'm preparing the feature film, I really want now to give a profit to the nonprofit in France that I have and show the movie to all the hospitals and the schools to build awareness around the subject that is unknown and unfortunately and unfortunately. How old were you when your brother was diagnosed? I was 26, and he was 15. He's twelve years younger than me, so I love him like my
son, let's say. I have another brother who's an actor, Robbie, and a sister seven years old, older than me, Sonya. And Alex was, you know, full of hope. And I mean, he's still now he's alive. He thank God he survived. He's one of the kids who took the most chemo in, in the entire planet. So, you know, his hair don't grow anymore and he he's dying. He's, sterile. Apparently he can not have kids for now, but it, you know, the body cells change every seven
years. So maybe it will change And he still does a transfusion every week of, EGG, EGG for the immune system to go up because the chemo really affected his, immune system. What kind of cancer was he diagnosed with? He had the Burkitt lymphoma. So it's, between the bone and the blood, it's the lymphoma. And, it is one of the cancer that is the fastest and the most aggressive cancer. And my brother was a boxer, so, as soon as the the doctor said, oh,
you maybe you have to lose him. I couldn't live with that sentence and I said, cannot say that my brother will probably die because you are not God and my brother will survive. So can you please, always talk in a positive way to him and all the other kids, which she did, and I came in the hospital when he to build,
a boxing ring and stuff. So my brother was boxing every day when he could and putting rap music and stuff who will, you know, strengthen his mental, his spirit towards surviving and positive, energy. So now he's good. He's still boxing, and I promised him that I was gonna make a movie about what's happening for him and give an example to all the other families and kids who are experiencing the same thing.
And so I did a short movie who did who had some prices and who will also be probably, with Eoflix, on at the cinema. Then we also did a documentary that was broadcast at the Ministry of Culture and Health for three months. And then now I need to do the feature because when you do a promise, you are in-depth. So, my debt is to fulfill my, my promise. And, my brother is really, really excited to see the movie. So we are advancing slowly but surely and, voila. I'm glad that he's still with us.
That's wonderful. Yes. Me too. To me, when children are diagnosed with cancer, the people around them get to experience something quite extraordinary. I think when when adults get diagnosed with a sickness, there is a defeatist mentality that oftentimes comes with that. It's hard to stay positive. The kids see the world in such a different way. Exactly. They don't, suffer in the same way as adults would. They want sweets, candies, and they even don't like hospitals most of the time, so
they wanna go out. I had a kid who really wanted to go to Disney with his parents, and, she did. She went out. She went all day to Disney. But when she came back, the doctor said it's unbelievable because I don't know how she walked. Her bone was completely, turned and, a normal human being would not be able to walk. But she she's so used to pain because she was in the hospital since,
probably six months. And, she grew up in the hospital because she had a immune disease and so her body she she wants to live so much and to have fun so much that she she doesn't take care of the pain she she just wants to be like other kids So she's stronger actually than adults. Adults has tendency to, oh my god, dramatize everything. Kids are like, okay, it's a world. And so what? Let's focus on the positive side. And they wanna play. They wanna live life as much as possible.
Absolutely. We like I said, we could learn a lot from the way kids handle disease. Yeah. And I think attitude is a great part of healing. So it it makes sense that incorporating those sorts of programs, like you said, you brought the boxing in and and the the talking to the doctor about being positive, being happy, being uplifting makes a huge difference, and the brain believes what you tell it. The brain believes what
you tell it. Even, a very famous in France told me, art and, and, sport and any activity that will give you strength to live will heal you better than chemo, better than anything. It is first you and yourself, how you you take away all the negative and you focus on the positive that will condition your body to survive and go through everything. Yeah. I really believe that for sure. Tell me about the movie. So it's the premise that I did to my brother.
I did this short, like I said, and then it was really, really, long process to write something that is universal because of course, each family is different and how to bring the three years of experience I had with my brother and my family into one single story that could touch the entire planet, cultures, different countries. So I'm doing it in English, America. Maybe we're gonna shoot in Portugal. Maybe we're gonna shoot in London. Maybe we're gonna shoot
in The US. We still don't know. With David Ornstein, we really, saw the script since a couple of months. He helped me to build something more powerful and, to find people who could give advice that I, with my, my step back my eyes, I couldn't on
my own. It's impossible. So, I found a great team around me and now we have, well now we have, I don't know if you heard about him, Javen won a Walton, so he played in Euphoria, he played in Under the Bridge and he played in Umbrellas at Callemy, he's turning 18 this summer, he's a boxer, champion of box actually, and he's a very very good actor so we are his parents are his manager and he wants to be Alex my brother so we are advancing with him with his parents as well and
then we will fix where we're gonna shoot, when we're gonna shoot. And hopefully it's gonna be in 02/2024. We're really thinking about December now. A movie is so long to build that we don't know exactly when is it going to be possible. We're doing everything, we're working every day on the
movie and, never give up. That's the mantra of, my brother first and then it was the first title of the movie and now the movie will be called the Tiger's Boxer because the tiger is the cancer because it's aggressive and fast like this cancer Burkitt lymphoma and my brother is a boxer so the Tiger's boxer makes sense, I guess. And, it was also the title of the shorts that you can find on Eoflix and, twenty minutes at last. And this one will be an hour and forty five minutes.
What did you learn about filmmaking that you, you know, as you went along that what was something that surprised you? Well, it's how to build a team that is really, really focused and good around you because when you don't have a team that is, involved in the team that you wanna develop, you can feel very quickly lonely and, the movie will have a soul. If you have every movie with passion and love, everything will transpire and sweat love and passion. So this is how you recognize a good movie,
regarding a bad one. When everybody does it for the money, of course, it's important to be paid and but it the most important is really to do it with passion and love, especially in this industry. The it takes so much time to build a movie that if you don't have that I don't think people really understand how much it takes to make a movie. It's such an undertaking. My god. Yes. It's been eight years that I'm, developing it, trying to find a good team who trust me, that I can trust as
well. And, finding the finance is a big part of it. I think it's the hardest for me right now, Especially right now. I mean, the industry is really slowing down. It's crazy. I think every business is the same, but, I got in the the movie industry is really, having a difficult time right now. Yeah. It is very tough out there for sure. Yes. And we also have, Mae Leung who worked as a super, ethics supervision supervisor ethics with the movie, Buenie and Rhapsody, Inception.
And she's, she she's part of the team now as a producer. She's really involved. She helps a lot. She's very talented. She's teaching me all the special effects. She built the tiger, and the tiger is beautiful. He will look like, he can be particles, fire, fur. He's very realistic and at the same time, humanized. So it it is, this is amazing to see. So you also have a voice actor, correct, that voices the tiger? Yes. We are cast we are working on the casting right
now. We don't have a definite answer, but, I'm soon gonna tell you. Well, that's great. What is the plan with the movie once it's out? I know that I'm assuming that because the subject matter, part of your fundraising is perhaps with people that are in the realm of cancer research or cancer fundraising, that sort of thing? Yeah. We I don't we are trying to make it, as much universal as possible and have a cinema, many cinemas international distribution.
Either we'll have multiple distributors or just one or two, depending on how it goes. Right now, we have to work first on the cast, then the finance and then the the distribution. David is my mentor, very structured, very organized. I'm learning everything in production. I thought before we could do a movie with low budget, but, it's possible.
It's just, even harder and longer, I think, depending again on, what's, what kind of movie you wanna do, but because we involve a lot of three d special effects and, a hospital, that we probably have to build. It is not a cheap movie. I mean, it's not a big, it's not a marvel, but it's not a cheap movie either. So Yeah. Marvel is yeah. Marvel is really expensive to make. Are you doing the movie in English? Yes. Of course. Yes. Yes. We went to international, so English is the best language.
No English accent on, like, American. Yeah. Well, everybody understand the the American accent. Everybody can relay it's so big that, this is the the way to go with a subject like that. I always want to give voice to the ones we don't hear. I always want to tell stories about social, families and environment and, everything that,
is celebrating life. So right now I'm also writing a comedy series about all the, the experience I had, all around the world with the humanitarian documentaries that I've done, the amazing people that I've met and how it is to be a woman, 38 years old in this industry, and, all the dreams that we can have and not enough time to fulfill everything. So comedy, I think, is the best way to for me to show, even if it's always dramatic subjects. Comedy is a good way to
to touch the hearts of, many. Tell me about life in in France. What's it like living there? How do you your day to day, what what's it like there? I was in Paris for twenty five years. Now I'm back in the South Of France because I may go back to LA.
So it's like a transition for me. But in Paris, it was, you know, sometimes working as a teacher or as, as an extra, as a second AD, as a first AD, as a cameraman, a woman, as a editor for TV channels, and also with my non profits doing all the activities and celebrating in Paris. We we celebrate a lot, like, more than in LA. It's crazy. So in LA, it's more like, okay, you need to pay your rent because the rent is very
high. So I had, like, three, four jobs at the same time in LA, not like in Paris. Now in South Of France, it's more cool. I'm just focusing on the Tigers boxer, waiting for, I'm not waiting because the energy of waiting is bad. Always go forward and act. So that's why I'm, like, trying to find as many people who want to get involved in the project and building a community around it. We're soon gonna do an Instagram page that is gonna be more
and more. I mean, we already did the Instagram page, but we, as soon as we, we did the deal with the actor and other actors will start to, celebrate on Instagram with lives and everything. And we really wanna build a community with people helping us. Cause the way we do the movie is non profit money and, normal, investors who have back back end points and all that stuff. So we are combining both, and, hopefully, it will soon be over, and we can, finally do the movie.
Yeah. And so if anyone listening wants to be a producer on a film, now's your chance. Yes. It is time. We have a good team right now, and we need more. We need more people like that. So, also, my favorite part in the movie is editing. Because when we edit, I always feel that, the baby is coming to life. You know, it's the first time you see your baby once you give birth, you're like, oh my god, it's so cute. And you see the future of all his life and you imagine the best. And so this is
Yeah. Editing is is fun to bring it all and put it all together, but, boy, after making my film, I have a definitely a new respect for editing process because it's complicated. You're building this intricate puzzle with there's so many parts. There's so many different ways you could go. It's an integral part of the storytelling process. It's it's really quite fascinating. Yes. Especially, it depends how you wanna build
your movie. But when either you take a lot of time on the script and the shot list so that when you edit, you everything is aligned and it's going going like ten days and finish. Or you, have a lot of, impres vous, contingencies on the set, things that you don't even expect that are far more better than than what you wrote. And suddenly you want to adapt and construct a different way. And so it depends Yeah. How free you can be. Yeah. For sure.
What happens after the film? What do you have other stories you're working on? So I also have an animation film that won the best screenplay prize, in France with, organism of French, like, Sassen, CNC, Maison du Film. It's like French organism. But, of course, it is way too expensive to do it in France.
So I want to do it like with Disney or, you know, big companies for now, they look at me like if I was a 24 year old blonde girl who never done anything like that, because it's a three d animation. So, but it's sci fi, it's fantasy. I believe sci fi and fantasy is also very much in my, world. I I'm waiting. I don't know. I don't have any producers for this one either. It's the story of a friendship between a tree and little girl, and there is AI taking over the world. And,
trees are scarcer and scarcer. It's very hot. And, this girl is gonna save the world with her tree because all she wants is to plant back her Christmas tree, in the forest. And, she's gonna illegally cross all the city to go back to the forest where she's not allowed to go and plant the tree next to his parents because she hears the voice of the tree. Oh, I love that. Yeah. I can't wait to do it. It
took me twelve years to write it. And, it was a dream and it was a story that my dad was telling me when I was very young and then it became a dream and I transformed it into AI, Sci fi fantasy. And I build a whole world and a whole politic, organization, that is very different from what we have now, but basically it's that, politics are, all all into AI. Well, I mean, that's a very timely
thing to write about. And I am curious to see what AI is going to do in our future, especially for creatives, but in nature too. I think it will go one of two ways. Either everything will become so automated that we spend all our days in nature and let AI do everything, or it's a more dystopian and machines will just take over everything. And augmented reality will become when we go to the forest, it'll be through a headset, which I
hope it doesn't come to that. That would be a real bummer because I'm a big tree hugger myself. Of course. But I mean, everybody should be no. I don't understand. The people who are disconnect connected with the trees, are totally, wrong because, the trees give you oxygen. Without oxygen, you cannot breathe. They don't need us, but we need them.
So I don't understand the people who are, you know, laughing about tree huggers like us because they should all understand and have a humility about seeing what gives them oxygen. Yeah. Water tree water is, also in danger. There is a guy who told me there's not one place on the earth where water is not crying out for help, because of all the pollution and everything that we do with the planet. I don't understand because when you see animals, we are animals too.
And I believe we are in a circle, not in a pyramid, but a lot of people believe we are in a pyramid and humans are on top. But, if we were on top, then why the heck are we, leaving so many trash behind us? Why are we transforming the landscape in such a way that we don't have any more natural resources to survive? Why do we still want kids? Although we know that how are they gonna live with no no natural resources, they're not infinite. They have an ending if we don't replant
and take care. And it doesn't seem that the planet goes on the right side. That's why I built an alphabet of trees that is free on my website and I wanted to make it as a book so that all the school could study the trees before the numbers. But this is also a struggle. Even this simple thing is not with one yet. Though humans do feel like they're at the top of the chain, the truth of the matter is the planet
doesn't need us. And if we don't respect her and and take care of her and coddle her in her time of need, we will find in not too distant future that she just spits us right out and off, and they don't I mean, anyone can see that nature will override human. We're just visiting. We're just passengers, and we better not be like a bacteria, a bad one, a parasite. We need to be, I mean, we we we have the choice, which is beautiful. Either become the friend of our house and a good,
how do you say it? A steward. A good gift. Yeah. A steward. Or, and learn from the environment and learn, because we are just, students and the life is just teaching us.
But then if we think that we are the teachers that we know everything and that we are just going to destroy everything and pass like that, of course, it's going to be horrible and I don't know how it's gonna end, but it's not gonna be pretty if we don't respect this beautiful nature that is very respectful to us and offers us everything we need. There is a beautiful movie that is French called La Colleen Vert,
of Colin Zero. This it is the story of, another planet with lots of aliens and suddenly, someone says, who wants to go to the Earth to see what's going on over there? And nobody wants to go there. Everybody said no way. Kidding me? Planet Earth is the most stupid planet ever. People just covered the Earth with concrete, built tickets, papers to give to other to have the trees that are in front of them.
They they kill animal to eat, we are never gonna go there, but there is one alien who said, maybe my grand grand grandparents were there, so maybe I need to go to see where I come from. So she goes and she discovers the human planet in her engineers' eyes, and it's so well done. It's so funny. I will send it to you, but it's really worth it. Thank you. Definitely send it to me, and I'll put a link on there. Tell people how they might find you, how they can support
your work, or look into you more. Beside I'll I'll put a link for IMDB, but, also, is there a good place to find you? Yes. There is my website that I will send to you, Hackback and Magical Route, and there is also, you can check the Hope Paris, my documentary series, Le Porteur des Poins in French, and it was on TV five, Oshoia TV, and the Planet Plus TV. I I wish there were more, but for now, that's all. But I'm trying to No. That's great.
That's wonderful. Send me any links you want, and I'll put everything on heyhumanpodcast.com for people to to find easily. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Jane, I wish you so much success. Please let me know when you're back in The States and continued health and well-being for your brother too. Thank you. Yes. Yes. I will. That's what family is there for and friends and all the the positivity people who are around. Thank you for listening, everybody. Bye. Thank you. Bye bye.
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