Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by Fireheart Pictures and viewers like you.

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Since season two, we have celebrated women trailblazers.

We've talked to women blazing the path in entertainment law.

Teaching our children about Covid.

And leading the largest bar association in the country.

Tonight we continue our conversation with a woman trailblazer who is telling the untold stories of women behind America's most beloved road.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to Everybody with Angela Williamson, an innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody, with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Michelle Kantor is here.

And we are going to start by talking about her documentary, route 66 The Untold Stories of.

The women on the Mother Road.

I love that.

But before we do that, I want our audience just to get to know about you.

And then let's segue into this documentary.

Sure.

I'm originally from Colorado, and, I'm a first generation American.

My parents escaped Communist Czechoslovakia.

and so I've always been drawn to stories where you just you have an underdog, you're telling stories that are unique in that, and that haven't been told before.

And so, and so I've been a filmmaker and a producer.

I moved to San Francisco and I've been in LA just, making documentaries and.

But when we think about route 66, we don't think about those untold stories, especially about women.

That paved the way on route 66.

So how did that get started?

Because you actually, in college, started a unique nonprofit to help women filmmakers.

So my co-founder, Katrina Park, she's the director of route 66, women on the Mother Road.

And, we started a nonprofit in grad school.

We looked at the the rates of success for women directors.

There just wasn't, enough support financing.

And, so we decided to essentially create, legal money laundering apparatus where we could.

Put that in quotes.

I mean, that's our account.

Yes.

Describe it, which I love, because it's it's a way to think outside the box to identify, the need, which is money to make films and, and find ways to work around obstacles.

And so, since then, I've actually been able to bring almost 60 projects, features, short films, film festivals, activists, websites.

There's a very vibrant community of women activists, artists and filmmakers.

And so it's been just a pleasure to be able to, bring their help, bring their content out.

Since its inception in 1926.

Route 66 has been an icon of the American West and a defining element of the American experience from Chicago to Los Angeles.

The Mother Road takes us on a journey from the east to the American West, but it's wide open skies and a mix of different cultures.

Route 66 is open, the gateway to a lot of opportunities.

You can still drive it.

I'm like, oh my gosh, how cool is that?

We got approached.

There are many.

International visitors come by, the tens of thousands hungry for an American experience.

Yeah.

Somebody help me!

Send me home.

She or she.

Oh, yeah.

What's the most famous person of all who meet you in?

They grew up watching American television.

Route 66 with George Maharis, Martin Milner, and they're all here to see America of yesterday.

Beloved television shows like the route 66 TV show and films like Easy Rider have celebrated the road from a male perspective, in which women are seldom in the driver's seat.

We forgot that women were on those journeys.

We forgot that women were working all along the way in those businesses.

Despite its moniker, The Mother Road, little attention has been paid to diverse women's experiences across many different cultures, and almost 100 years of history.

When I first got the motel and they were having a convention and they said, no, no, a woman doesn't come, there's no women.

And so they put this man beside me.

I don't know is that they just said, well, no, you just just has to be a man with you.

It's a mirror held up to the nation, a road that can be really a living classroom.

She was entrepreneurial.

She was very business oriented.

And she allowed.

Us to live a very comfortable life.

From archeologists to politicians and countless entrepreneurs, women overcame segregation and gender discrimination to build fulfilling lives for themselves and generations to come.

On America's most beloved road.

This is their story.

Let's talk about content, because we just watched this really empowering trailer.

And I would have to say, you know, nine out of ten of our viewers that watch this show have traveled route 66.

But we don't realize there's so many untold stories behind route 66.

But just the women that paved the way there.

So how does this idea come to Michelle, and how do you decide to get on board to get this story told?

Well, the idea came to Katrina, because she had a feature documentary called The Harvey Girls Opportunity Bound, and it's about, the first female workforce, waitresses who came about by the railroad, system set up the restaurants by Fred Harvey.

And so, in collecting oral histories, which is how often women's histories are told over, over the years, she realized that, yeah, there's just so many different stories that haven't been told.

And the thing about route 66 is that it is our living history book for the United States since 1926, on and in many ways, it's also a lens to look at Jim Crow.

It's a way to look at segregation, discrimination.

so many different things.

And the women who came upon these obstacles, they weren't able to, be afforded the types of privileges and rights.

And so, again, you know, these women worked around these obstacles.

They were able to, in some cases, create generally generational wealth.

We are able to, you know, we're documenting the incredible story of the family and their descendants of, the only African American owned and operated filling station on route 66.

It was a Green Book property where, African Americans, everyone, they were welcome to stay there.

They could camp safely.

and she was an amazing entrepreneur.

The site still exists.

the descendants are preserving it, and they're turning it into an interpretive Green Book site.

So the people who do travel route 66 can really understand the history, the context and the meaning and truly just how profound it is to write the historical record on some small level, which means a lot to me as an American.

it's just our job, I think.

Michelle, you talked about a living history and I know several people who just take vacations down route 66.

So how can we use your documentary to help us with the living history so that we understand those untold stories?

Well, one of the things we're doing is we're doing a traveling museum tour.

So we're working with different historical societies, along route 66.

And so this summer we've had a summer film series and, and I've taken it around to Oklahoma, to Missouri, and we're, we're having very, region specific screenings where people can really understand the history of where they live.

And so just just knowing there's all these little towns, you can look at the film, you can see the beautiful motor courts, the motels everywhere.

There's some really wonderful, routes that people can look up and have very specific itinerary for as much time or as little time as you want to spend.

But really just understanding, okay, this is where this story happened.

A good example is we interviewed, the first Latina mayor of San Bernardino, and she told us an incredible story about how her, brother was the one to desegregate San Bernardino by jumping into the community pool.

And there's a long history there of segregation in the pool system.

So that's really interesting.

But there's something that you also said to you, and you actually provided a story I wanted to ask you before we go to our break, what do you think is the biggest takeaway from all of the stories that you've heard or shot during this documentary?

I mean, women are just so much fun.

There's so incredible.

I can't get over all the stories.

One of my favorite is the Gypsy coeds, the Silver Streak.

The Silver or.

Silver Streak.

Okay, back, back, way back in the 2030s, they would pile into an old jalopy that they broke graffiti on.

They, I mean, it would be many girls piled in.

I don't even know how they how they did it.

But they would take these road trips down route 66.

In fact, they ended up at, with Thomas Edison when their car broke down.

Something to that effect.

And so there's just incredible stories I have written in the Silver Streak in Springfield, Missouri, which is the the birthplace of route 66.

It's where it was officially designated.

Oh, wow.

A route.

Amazing.

Wow.

So this is one documentary that you have, but there's another one that you actually alluded to it at the very beginning of our segment when you talked about your family and your family coming over here.

And so you started that documentary.

And when we come back from our break, I would love for you to talk more about Red star.

We want to talk about that.

But because that's really personal for you, and you have helped us with the history of route 66, those untold stories of women who paved the way.

But now you are going to tell us a little bit about your legacy, which I think is important that we hear right now.

So will you just hang on through the break and we'll come back and we'll talk about the red star.

Thank you.

Come back to hear Michelle's family's legacy in her upcoming documentary, Red star.

When I was in foster care, I never knew when I would have to move, so I always had my suitcase ready to go.

Then one day I was adopted.

My new parents open their hearts and home to me.

My parents cooked my favorite breakfast for me every morning.

My parents take me on trips.

I never thought I was gone.

They gave me a home and an even better reason to use that suitcase.

My parents aren't perfect, but they're perfect for me.

No.

I want to eat apples and bananas.

I need to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.

Why can't I eat, eat, eat apples and bananas?

Support the Feeding America Nationwide network of food banks to help provide meals to those in need.

Join us at Feeding america.org.

Welcome back.

So before we actually look at Red star, I want you, Michelle, to set up the documentary trailer that we're about to see.

So this is a feature documentary.

it's a trailer, but it's also a scene from maybe one of the most profound moments in in our shoot.

So the documentary is about my parents escape.

My dad is the only man to escape communist Czechoslovakia by scuba diving.

He did this in 1965.

He left behind my mother and my brother, who then escaped in 1968.

And so, And so here we actually go, and we find the point in the river where my father passed underneath the bridge where the guards were, you know, killing people.

There's a memorial there.

400 people died.

And so, again, this is another untold story where I was, compelled.

I love my family.

I love our legacy.

And so I just, I crowdfunded, and I wanted to, be able to, tell it.

It's a great it's a great story.

Now we're going to watch the trailer for Red star.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Thank you.

For this film.

It's a documentary about my escape from communist Czechoslovakia.

50 years later.

Are tracing my escape from behind the Iron Curtain in 1965.

Czech Republic, Slovakia.

Austria and I came to Austria to reveal more of a man.

I got into the river here.

Go under the bridge with a border patrol.

Guns and then come to this side and enter Austria.

I enlisted.

With I desire freedom.

My own land.

To.

For.

Let's continue our conversation with Michelle about Red star.

Wow.

Michelle, I.

So what what do you want?

To come away with us?

I know it's your family's legacy, so it's very personal for you, but what do you want the audience to come away with?

The thing about stories like this is that it really puts into relief how lucky we are.

And how differently people in different parts of the world during different eras experienced freedom.

And so I hope that people can walk away and really, just have some kind of mindset shift, be entertained as well.

I think documentaries should be fun to watch.

but we also are, looking for support to.

And so if you go to our website, red star movie on cinema FM as well, we're looking for, donations always.

Fundraising is, very important in documentaries.

And so, you know, this is a story that deserves to be told.

My father is, now in very ill health.

And so there is, an impetus to make sure it gets, gets told.

So.

Well, and I thought was really interesting that your whole family went back together to, to this one part of the river.

I mean, how do you feel?

I mean, not only is this your father, but I mean, you're a filmmaker.

I mean, I feel chills just.

Oh, it was it was crazy.

I actually wanted to scuba the river.

I had some, you know, like, fantasy running in the countryside.

But of course, there were, you know, health reasons.

So being able to be there with my dad, though, he had he had never been back, you know, his mother died.

So we were able to visit my grandmother's grave, you know, and when my mom escaped, it was the moment during the the Velvet Revolution, and my brother was actually wearing a GI Joe costume that my dad had sent from New York City, where he was working as a detective.

You know, interesting story.

But my brother heard the tanks rolling past the house, and he runs out in front of them, ready to play.

He thinks it's it's make believe.

And thank God they stopped.

And after that, my mom got out.

But, you know, it's just now is we're seeing this in Ukraine, too.

So it's, it's very visceral.

It's very relevant.

These stories, there's so many of them.

This is just one of many.

But I hope the in telling them, people can really have empathy and understand the, the privilege that we live in here.

This is amazing.

After 50 years, you can walk to Austria.

They created a bridge.

I wish this would be here 50 years ago, in 1965.

Czechoslovakia could not come to this point.

If you came here, you got arrested.

This was forbidden zone.

I am at a point where these three countries unite Austria.

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and I came to Austria through river.

Moreover, when I got into the river here.

Go under the bridge was a border patrol.

Guns and then come to this side and enter Austria.

First to the Czech Republic.

Slovakia.

Out to stop.

Now I need to.

Watch out!

Border state.

Border.

Moreover, coming from that.

From north.

They're coming from west.

The drawn here.

And these are why they're more of a going and becomes a border between Czechoslovakia and Austria, then Slovakia, in Austria.

And now.

Just like this.

Quiet was midnight.

August 1st was July 31st.

The last day of July.

1965.

I was floating, and my oxygen generating machine ran out.

And I fought under the bridge.

And I'm looking at it, and I says, when they're going to shoot me, they're going to shoot me.

I'm on a mission to find the roots of the old bridge.

Okay, now we see here the remains of the bridge.

I was afraid I going to drown because I was already exhausted.

German called eight hours in the water.

So I was panicked and I started praying.

Jesus are going to be good Jews.

Be more good out of this water and other shores.

Crossing my own river.

Is not as scary as it was 50 years ago.

This is amazing.

I almost said, a crazy son of a bitch.

I'm in Austria.

After 50 years again.

As a side note, coming to the United States as a white man, you know, he certainly enjoyed a very different experience than African Americans here.

And so there is a tie in with my other work with route 66 and understanding, you know, who are we as a society and as a world within the context of our histories and the histories we do tell and we don't tell, and the clichés of who tells these histories?

Well, you know, I can't.

And I love what you're doing is you're changing the face of people who are telling these stories so that everyone can understand these histories from a different point of view.

But our time is done.

But I feel like I need you to come back to talk more about cinema film.

So will you do that, especially as you're working on Red star?

Because when that's done, we want to talk more about that too as well.

So I would love that.

Oh Michelle, thank you.

Thank you so much for even with what you did while you were in college to finding a way to get these stories told on route 66.

But last but not least, by preserving your father's legacy and your family's legacy.

Thank you so much for all of that and and sharing those stories with us in this episode.

So thank.

You.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for joining us on Everybody with Angela Williamson.

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Join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.

And.

Hi, I'm Angela Williamson, host of everybody with Angela Williamson.

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