GIRLTRASH Blog

I don’t know why I raised my hand when Stacy Codikow, Executive Producer and Founder of POWER UP, asked if anyone had a spare bedroom. After all, she had just looked me square in the eyes, told me I had a reputation for being a hard worker and that I more or less better not f*ck it up. No pressure.

But in that preproduction meeting for “GIRLTRASH: All Night Long,” I somehow found my hand in the air agreeing to house two fellow mentees, Fontessa and Erin. They were homeless because they had come in from out of town for POWER UP’s mentorship/educational program. In that room of 40+ women who were experiencing their first day in the program, Stacy somehow instilled a sort of immediate team work ethic. We were all about to embark on a big project with lots of women we already admired.

Alishe, Janelle & Fontessa

I certainly wanted to make the most out of the experience. Perhaps I expected that others in the room had a spare bedroom; but regardless, I offered my roommate’s vacant room to not one, but two fellow mentees without asking either of my roommates’ permission. Oops.

You see, we have three bedrooms in our house. One room is occupied by my dear fellow UC Irvine Alumni, Trevor. We’ve lived together for over three years at this point, so we are used to each others’ ebb and flow. The other roomie, Tara, had to head back home to Alabama for a few months while recuperating from an accident. She’s been paying rent on an empty room and I thought some unexpected subletters might be an awesome option to give her a bit of a financial break.

After smoothing over the fact that I hadn’t asked before agreeing to house two mentees, I informed Trevor and Tara that it would only be two girls and only for two weeks. Boy, did I misinform them.

Erin & Racheal on the set.

The falsity wasn’t on purpose though! I mean… how was anyone to know that it would rain through a vast majority of our shooting schedule, pushing our wrap day by two weeks? I also had no way of knowing that Morgan would get drunk and need to crash on our couch. Nor could I anticipate that Sky and Marybeth would fall in love and need a place to crash as well. Or that the two original subletters, Fontessa and Erin had girlfriends who lived out of town that would want to come and visit.

I’m sure you’re picking up on the fact that during the course of filming, my home turned into the unofficial Hotel Girltrash. For those couple of weeks, there were at least two extra bodies in my house at any given time. Shoes, showers, and carpooling, Oh My! It was like being back in college, only the dorm was full of lesbians and we all had the same classes. On paper, this may seem like the premise for a porno, but in reality, it was crazy!

Amanda & Noam

While it’s easy to complain about the constant come and go of the mentees, and Trevor and I are certainly content to leave Tara’s room vacant for the rest of her recuperation… the experience of playing Hotel owner was also fun. After all, I’ve personally traveled and crashed on couches all over the world. It’s the traveling Jew in me- I like to play host. http://www.facebook.com/pages/POWER-UP-films/99261618727#!/video/video.php?v=404542549904

I loved group grocery shopping. I loved getting home at 7am after a 15 hour shooting day and greeting the sunlight with all the girls and a big glass of wine. I loved getting to have a group study therapy session after working our asses off. We supported each other, learned from each other, and I’m sure will connect again on future projects. After all, we’ve all seen each other in our pajamas, laughed at each others’ jokes, and wished each other the best on our careers. That is perhaps what makes the POWER UP mentorship program so valuable: the connections.

Gaby Christian & Dez

I heavily encourage you to sign up for the program, or any of the other countless opportunities POWER UP has to help you in career as a filmmaker.

My only advice is to be careful what you volunteer for.

Janelle K. Eagle finished the POWER UP mentorship fully intact. Trevor and Tara are still recovering  She has now returned to her regular life as a documentary filmmaker and travel blogger. You can read more about her adventures at www.journeywithjanelle.com