- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Working for a more a healthier, more equitable New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

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MD Advantage Insurance Company.

PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

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And by Englewood Health.

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Keeping communities informed and connected.

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Informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change presidents in this country is by voting.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been better!

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- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - (Ominous music) - We review about 4,500 cases a year.

We have about 1,200 autopsies a year, and about 170 of them are homicides.

- Welcome, everyone.

We are honored to kick off the program with Dr. Guiseppe Fazari, who is criminal justice professor at Seton Hall University and a documentary filmmaker of a film called "Why They Kill".

Joe, how you doing?

- Good, good, Steve.

Thank you for having me.

- And Guiseppe is your born name.

But I can call you Joe, correct?

- Of course.

- "Why They Kill" is about what and why does it matter so much?

- Well, "Why They Kill" is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes, a prolific author, has written, you know, over 30 books.

And this is one of his books that he wrote.

So it's based on his book by the same name, "Why They Kill: The Discoveries "of a Maverick Criminologist".

And that maverick criminologist is the renowned criminologist, Dr. Lonnie Athens.

So Rhodes's book is about his life and his theory.

And so my film basically takes the theory, we touch upon the life of Dr. Athens but we take his violentization theory and we put it in this new medium, to give it a wider audience to the market.

- Who are they?

And then why do they kill?

- So they are, you know, the folks who, you know, plague different communities, different societies.

Those folks who, you know, commit the murders, commit rape, the agg assault.

You know, as you know, crime is bifurcated between violent crimes and property crimes.

Not necessarily the folks who are, you know, committing the violent crimes are not also committing the property crimes but the focus of the theory is those folks who are committing really those heinous crimes, those, you know, violent crimes in our communities, in our society.

- So I'm curious about this.

Why is it important for us to know why people kill?

- I think it's critical because it's in that way that we can get this kind of information out to and one of the main reasons I made the film was to take Dr. Athens's theory and kind of give it to the policymakers so they could ultimately use that information, use this theory that I think has great practical application, to prevent crime.

- I'm curious about something, Joe.

And I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons why people are violent in this way, why they kill, why they engage in violent crime.

to what degree, Joe, does bullying play a part in all of this?

- Well, the bullying is an interesting phenomenon.

So bullying would fall into what Dr. Athens's first stage is, which is the brutalization stage.

That's not to say that everyone who's bullied.

Plenty of folks get bullied.

Plenty of folks don't go on to commit, you know, atrocities of murder, rape, and what have you.

But it's that first stage, that the brutalization stage, where bullying would fall into.

And then if they subsequently move into what the second stage is is belligerency, excuse me, and then violent performance and then virulency.

If they get through each and every one of these stages, at that point you have a person who has what he would refer to as this unmitigated violent kind of self-image.

- Teachers.

Our schools.

I mean, they're asked to do so much.

They do so much more than teach, which is hard enough.

- Indeed.

- Are we expecting that educators at our schools identify the potential for students, a 10, a 12-year-old, to be violent in this way?

- Well, not necessarily, but what the teachers can do, what principals can do, what superintendents can do in concert with other policymakers, local politicians, the police, the courts, it's a system, right, people coming together to bridge the gaps where we don't necessarily are communicating enough with the potentiality of, you know, what's happening in the schools, what's happening with the particular child.

You know, Steve, as you know, I spent the greater part, the lion's share of my career, not in academics but you know, managing the trial courts here in New Jersey.

And I often say that the issues, the problems within the criminal justice system are actually not in the criminal justice system.

So I oftentimes would see those kind of the genesis of those problems actually in the family courts.

You see them in the domestic relations cases.

You see them in the domestic violence, right?

You'll see them in truancy, bullying, juvenile delinquency.

It's only that when you're seeing that, you're really seeing it at the very beginning stages of problems that potentially can materialize into bigger issues, bigger problems where those same individuals then we're seeing in the criminal courts.

Not all of them certainly but you'll see that the problem really starts within those units.

- To what degree are judges, those involved in the judicial system, aware of and understand what you're saying right now, A and B.

What the heck are they supposed to do other than mete out justice, if you will, in terms of penalties and jail sentences, et cetera?

- I think that the judges, attorneys, prosecutors in particular, those folks who have been exposed to Dr. Athens's theory, they immediately grasp it, right?

And they actually see it sort of play out in our professional setting.

To the extent that the judges I worked with in Essex County, Union County, and made the theory sort of more accessible to them, to talk to them about it.

Particularly those judges who are assigned to the dockets within the family court, they see this sort of playing out.

And so why that's important is when you're seeing a child in that brutalization stage, potentially in that belligerency stage that Dr. Athens talks about, there should be available options and there are available options that judges can at that point do to stem the issue of this child going further down that path.

Now, with respect to the that's not to say that we give up on the folks that are implicated in the criminal justice system and we find them in the criminal court.

I think the benefit of his theory shows that with this empirical data, with empirical evidence, you could do risk assessment and you could tailor approaches that rather than just locking up every single person that comes to the court, you could take a measured, tailored approach to what you do with this individual on the basis of how violent their fan of community is.

- PS, the pandemic mental health issues obviously complicates the research that Dr. Fazari and his colleagues are doing.

But doctor or excuse me, Professor Giuseppe Fazari, criminal justice professor and documentary filmmaker of "Why They Kill" at Seton Hall University.

I want to thank you so much for joining us.

And PS, Seton Hall is one of our higher ed partners.

Joe, thank you.

All the best.

- Thank you, Steve.

It's been a pleasure.

- You got to stay tuned.

Be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Hey folks, as part of our Arts Connection series, we welcome back Tom Hall, who's Artistic Director and Co-Head of Montclair Film, a great cultural institution in my hometown in Montclair.

Good to see you, Tom.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

Thank you for having me - As always.

Listen, we're taping right before Thanksgiving, be seen a little bit later.

The Montclair Film Festival was in the fall.

You guys had all kinds of great things going on.

Give us a recap.

- Yeah, during the pandemic we had originally been for our first eight years a festival that took place in May.

And then in March of 2020, when the pandemic hit, we postponed the festival until October of 2020 to give ourselves time to sort of relearn how we were gonna operate in a COVID environment.

And we have, this is our third year now in October, having used that time to sort of mix up a little bit with what we were doing in the past, which was, you know, in person.

And we spent a couple years doing virtual screenings, drive-ins, sort of a mixture last year in 2021.

This year we were back for the first time in-person, full schedule in-person from October 21st through the 30th.

We expanded into Newark this year, we had a special event at NJPAC.

We had a- - Sure did.

- Opening night film, Glass Onion with Netflix that we partnered with them to bring in, and it really just kicked off a very encouraging week and a half of films, film going with our patrons and talent.

We had over 130 films, about 140 filmmakers, producers coming to town, conversations, discussions Q & A's.

It was really a great 10-day event.

- Now talk about the... We're gonna show some pictures of this, the event, terrific event at NJPAC, New Jersey Performing Arts Center with Stephen Colbert and Daniel Craig.

Stephen does these exceptional, compelling interviews with prominent figures in the arts community talk about that event, which is also a significant fundraiser.

Go ahead.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we don't like to do sort of black tie gala dinners for fundraiser as a nonprofit.

We tend to lean more heavily into programming and celebrating artists and working with them.

So this was our 11th conversation event that we do with Stephen every year as a fundraiser for the festival.

It's the first time we've ever done one during the festival itself.

'Cause we wanted to use our new position in October to sort of kick off awards season, and highlight someone whose work we feel sort of should be in the conversation for those Oscar conversations and end of year awards, Golden Globes, things of that nature.

And so Daniel Craig came to us through our friends at Netflix.

We, as I mentioned, opened the festival with Glass Onion, his new film.

And we really loved that performance.

We were always in sort of conversation to try and get Daniel Craig to come to one of these events and have a conversation with him.

And it turns out that he is a charmer, incredibly funny, compelling guy.

A lovely man.

And we were thrilled with the results.

We had a full house at NJPAC.

People told us it was one of their favorite of these conversations that we've done.

We've had Meryl Streep in the past, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

- That's great.

And John Oliver was great.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was great.

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

- Yeah.

No that's- - The ones I remember.

Go, ahead.

- No, that's right.

So yeah, we were thrilled to have him with us, and I think this is something that we're gonna try to continue to do.

I mean, they walked off the stage together and they're like, "What's gonna happen next year?"

So I think next year, 2023, we'll have another conversation during the festival at NJPAC and bring that back, because it seemed to be very popular and well-received.

So, just a thrill for us to have him.

- And also, to make it clear, Stephen Colbert very involved with Montclair film.

Evie Colbert his wife partner, a real leader on this effort along with our good friend and colleague, Bob Feinberg, a great team of people who made Montclair film a reality over a decade ago.

Let me ask you this.

There was also an in-depth interview with Brendan Fraser, The Whale.

First of all, talk about the Brendan Frazier interview and also what The Whale is, that film.

Brendan Fraser, as many people know, sort of took a step back from acting several years ago because of injury.

And he was part of actually, part of the "Me Too" movement as well.

And in having been victimized, I think, and survived an assault, a sexual assault.

And so he stepped back from Hollywood and decided he wasn't gonna participate anymore.

And slowly has been coming back.

But this is really his first big performance that then is drawing rave reviews.

We were thrilled to bring that film and Brendan to the festival.

Stephen Colbert sat down with him and did a nice 30-minute sort of post-film conversation with him about the work.

But it's about a man who's sort of morbidly obese and his relationship with his daughter, his estranged daughter, and trying to reconcile with her as his health fails.

And it's really a family story, very powerful drama, moving performance.

And Brendan, it brings so much good will as an actor to that role, that you're rooting for him so hard.

And it really just for me, echoed how much people didn't really, I don't think appreciate him as a comic actor when he was doing a lot of the comedies that he was famous for, but also sort of his work as a heroic, lovable figure for so many people of a certain generation.

And I think that it really trained- - All The Mummy films he did.

- Absolutely.

And I think that it really sort of trade, the movie trades off of that reputation, and the good feeling that he brings.

It was a real thrill to have him, and I think you'll be seeing more of that performance at the award season time as well.

- And again, Stephen Colbert, a pretty darn good interviewer.

And let's do this real quick.

Can you talk about arts education?

We're gonna show some pictures and/or video of arts education because Montclair film doing a great job introducing particularly younger people to film, the art form of film, all aspects of it.

Please talk about it.

- Yeah.

Year-round.

So we have a... We were given a space about five years ago at 505 Bloomfield Avenue, via friends at Investors Bank, made a donation to us and we've transformed that space really into our office administrative building, but also our education center.

And so we're teaching classes for middle school students all the way through adult education filmmaking, performance, editing, screenwriting, we're doing podcasting now, we're doing television production, film production.

And as New Jersey starts to roll out more and more film production throughout the state, our hope is that we can plug these students into career opportunities, do some economic uplift as well throughout New Jersey by teaching them crew skills, and giving people access to, you know, good-paying film and TV production jobs.

So that's one of our long-term goals.

But during the festival itself, we bring in students from all over the Essex County area.

We're in the Newark schools, we're doing charter school work in Newark as well with students year round.

We have a junior jury that comes and adjudicates films at the festival and gives out an award from, I think we had 18, 19, different regional high schools that participated in that.

So we're working really, really hard to get kids to be not only passionate about consuming media, but about creating it and having bringing their voice to the media landscape.

- Tom, before I let you go, 30 seconds left.

For so many people comfortable with On Demand, I could watch whatever film I want, the place for going to...

Going to see film, a film, movie live, is the place for that.

Talk about it.

People still want that.

- Yeah, I think so.

I think the collective experience of sitting down in the dark with strangers and feeling something together and having that sort of post-screening conversation is incredibly important to building social connection, to discovering stories and empathy that we may not have in other areas of our lives.

And I think we've tried to provide that.

We're operating a cinema year-round now, the Claridge in Montclair, and it's been a real- - Great, right around the corner from me, it's first class.

- Absolutely, six screens.

We're showing films all year, and we're seeing a lot of that same response from our patrons as well.

People are glad to be back to the movies.

- Tom Hall, the Artistic Director and Co-Head Montclair Film, a part of our One-on-One Arts Connection miniseries.

Tom, I cannot thank you enough to you and the team at Montclair Film.

Thank you for everything you do.

- And thank you for having us, Steve.

We're big fans of your work as well and appreciate you having us here.

- It's mutual.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're joined once again by Joseph Lee, who's Vice President and General Manager of the NJ PBS.

Joe, you like that?

You ever hear people, the Ohio State University?

(chuckling) The NJ PBS.

I like it better.

How you doing?

- We will take it.

We will take it.

How are you, sir?

- Doing great.

Hey, lemme get this out of the way.

You and I talk offline.

We'll talk about public broadcasting in a minute.

You have a big Syracuse connection.

Our son happens to be up there right now.

Huge communication, media, programming, and journalism, correct?

- Oh, absolutely.

The Newhouse School of Public Communications, typically rated top one or two in the country.

Just a ton of broadcasters, people in our profession come out of there.

So yeah, it's a huge school.

That's a school that I reported into.

- Absolutely.

By the way, the website information about NJ PBS will be up there.

Check out NJ Spotlight News every night on NJ PBS as well as WNET in New York.

Let me follow up with this Joe.

These days, as we get to the back end of 2022, the most significant two or three challenges that public broadcasting in our state faces are.

- Well, I think one of the bigger issues beyond public broadcasting is the collapse of local media, which obviously public media is a huge part of.

But local media plays an important role in our democracy in keeping people informed, staying on top of the issues, serving as a watchdog to a degree.

And as those institutions, small businesses, begin to fold up, there's no one holding public officials, the business community, accountable for things that are happening in our community.

So staying on top of those issues, having a robust journalism program, a robust newsroom, I think's critically important to public media.

The other is really the migration of audiences away from what we call legacy media, and figuring out how as a business we stay in front of people with our brand, with our content, with our service.

So that's a huge issue that public media is gonna be facing over the next two months to 15 years.

- Follow up on that, Neal Shapiro, the president of WNET Group, which NJ PBS is a part of, along with WLIW, we have this conversation all the time.

No money, no mission.

You say?

- That's absolutely right.

I mean, you can't.

- It doesn't stop, Joe does it?

It doesn't stop.

- It does not.

We, obviously as a non-commercial entity, we can't go out and sell ads, so we have to have public support.

There has to be support from the private sector, from foundations.

It's a community effort when you talk about making good public media that folks come together, pull the resources together, so that we can provide a critical service to our state and our communities.

- As you see the NJ PBS website up, if you choose to find out more, if you choose to support, we will not turn this into a fundraiser.

But I wanna follow up with this, Joe.

So, creating new programming, for us at the Caucus Educational Corporation to disclose a long time partner, if you will, with public broadcasting in this region.

Every time we come up with a new idea, new initiative, it's like, oh, that's a great idea on paper.

But if you don't raise the money, it doesn't happen.

Constantly coming up with new, significant, important, impactful programming.

A big part of your job, is it not?

- It is.

And it's not necessarily driven by sort of the creative process in your head.

It's thinking about, what does the community need?

Who's not being reflected in our content?

What issues are out there to explore?

What's happening in our community that is worth celebrating?

And when you start from that point, there's a ton of ideas.

The creativity begins to flow when you think about public service and addressing issues and celebrating community, then you can start thinking about those creative ideas.

But yes, you have to have support in order to bring that about.

So you can have a great idea, but if no one's behind it, if no one's willing to support it, it will sit in a computer file on your desktop.

- Follow up to this, Joe.

You talked about, I don't know if you mentioned the term diversity, but it's implied there that this is a very diverse state.

But in many ways, if we know the public school is a very segregated state, right?

- Yeah.

- No secret.

How important is it to continue to seek and achieve more diversity on the air, in our programming, as well as those who are creating content at NJ PBS?

- Well, it's critical in that we are a publicly supported entity.

All the people in New Jersey need to be reflected in our news coverage, need to be reflected in our content, need to be reflected on our staff, people that we partner with, businesses that we do business with.

So it's critical.

If you are going to be what I want NJ PBS to be, which is a bit of a town square, a town center that people come to for news, for information, for entertainment, and see themselves on the screen and online, in our content, that, I mean, that is the mission of public media.

And if you're not fulfilling that mission, then you need not exist.

- Joe, you've been a journalist, you've been in media for more than a couple years.

Same here.

And I have my own reaction when people call us the, quote, not people, certain people call us the, quote, enemy of the people.

Certain very high level officials, otherwise known as the former President of the United States, enemy of the people, fake news.

Your reaction, personally and professionally.

- A robust news operation is a cornerstone of our democracy.

And if you are going to take down democracy, that's one of the first places that you're, one of the first institutions that you're going to attack.

And so, we have to brush those criticisms off.

We know that we provide balanced news and information, a balanced perspective.

We offer perspective on what's happening around us, and we just have to keep doing that.

We know that our supporters believe in what we do and support that.

But if you are going to alter democracy in this country, you're gonna attack a free press.

And a free press is critical to the success of this country as a democracy.

- So if people wanna check out what's going on in New Jersey, NJ Spotlight News every night on NJ PBS and WNET.

In the region, Metro Focus, you'll find at NJ PBS, WLIW, WNET, whole range of other program at arts, culture, a whole range of important issues.

As Joe Lee said, a town square, if you will, for our region, for our state and our region.

Joseph Lee is Vice President and General Manager at NJ PBS.

Joe, as always, thank you and best to you and the team at NJ PBS.

- Well, thank you, sir.

Thanks for all that you do.

It's important to have a place to have important discussions so that people can hear their ideas reflected.

You provide that with this program and others.

So again, bringing people together for conversation and understanding and finding common ground.

It's what we do, it's what we're all about.

- Imagine that, civil discourse in media.

Thank you Joe Lee, and thank you everyone for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Johnson & Johnson.

Investors Bank.

MD Advantage Insurance Company.

PSE&G, Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

NJ Best, New Jersey'’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Summit Health And by Englewood Health.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

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