Surprises proliferate for L.A. TV executive.
By Julie Uribe (’84)
Adjunct Faculty, Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film
Former senior vice president FremantleMedia
I felt like a fish out of water when I returned to Lincoln after 30 years in Los Angeles. However, my mission was clear: my husband and I would move back to be with my aging parents. Dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and my mother needed my help. Done. The decision felt right. In fact, it would be a privilege to spend this chapter together, but what would I do for work? I had been a television executive for the past 13 years and a producer before that. Luckily, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film had a guest teaching position open in the spring of 2017 and three decades later, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln changed my life — again.
I graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in theater in 1984, and since that time, I’ve seen the confused looks and heard the giggles when I would tell colleagues that I was from Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s no secret that the heartland doesn’t get a lot of respect as a creative force on either coast. I have to admit, I arrived back home with a few judgments myself. That all changed when I was assigned to executive produce a short film funded by the Carson school with the support of the Johnny Carson Foundation.
There wasn’t a film department when I was a theater major in the ’80s until Dean Chuck O’Connor created one in the ’90s. Now it is possible for students to work on a professional film set alongside Hollywood pros. As producer, I needed to attract incredible mentors for the students, and this would require a story with an important message. Plus, there was another mandate — the script needed to be about Lincoln or Nebraska.
During my research phase I learned that Lincoln is a large resettlement community for refugees. Today, Lincoln Public Schools teaches over 3,000 children in English Language Learner classes and interprets over 120 languages. In a Washington Post story a few years ago I read, “It may surprise you to learn that Lincoln, Nebraska, is a haven for refugees and between October 2015 and September 2016 actually led the nation in resettling the most refugees per capita.”
This discovery quickly led me to The New Americans Task Force — a group comprised of public and private organizations and community members dedicated to supporting New Americans in Lincoln. Through the NATF, I met and interviewed refugees as well as UNL alums that are part of the many systems that help them get settled and succeed. One of the refugees I met, Harman Doski, was Kurdish and had arrived in Lincoln with his young wife and infant son around the same time I moved back. After hearing about his experiences of survival and the years he worked with the U.S. Army as an interpreter, I asked Harman if he would come on board as a consulting producer. He’s an amazing man who makes you want to be a better person.
Inspired by tales from Harman and others, I had my story. My goal quickly became, not only to train the students about the technical aspects of filmmaking, but to produce a film that could inspire a local, state and global audience and elevate the unique story of Lincoln as a refugee resettlement community.
I co-wrote the script with my cousin in which we tell the story of a Kurdish refugee who works in Lincoln as an interpreter and meets a mysterious man who asks for help with life and death consequences. The Healing of Harman is an emotional, heart rending story about the power of forgiveness to heal that which is seemingly beyond healing.
“As producer, I needed to attract incredible mentors for the students and this would require a story with an important message. Plus, there was another mandate — the script needed to be about Lincoln or Nebraska.”
Three of my students, Elijah Watson, Ben Hartzell and Jack Hoppe, would be alums by the time we shot and finished the film. I brought in Academy Award-nominated director Seth Pinsker and other experts such as sound guru Chris Welch whose credits include Frozen and Pearl Harbor. We also had faculty member and alum Sandy Veneziano (’73, ’75, ’77; Dead Poets Society and an Academy Award nomination for art direction for Terms of Endearment) who lured her friend, Hope Parrish (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as prop master.
The casting director from Showtime’s Homeland helped us land the two male leads based in Los Angeles who would act alongside theater students Karen Richards and Kasey Halvorson. We cast local refugees including Sara Khalil — a single mother and a Lincoln police officer — in a prominent role. Alumnus David Landis also appears in the film.
During the research and production phase, alums who are now leaders in LPS, Bryan Health, city hall and the university, were ready to support anyway they could. Dr. Helen Abdali Soosan Fagan, assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, helped us secure Bryan West as our key location and was another consulting producer to advise on cultural accuracy. When I needed a motor home, an alum who now has kids at UNL offered his new one because he “would do anything for the university.” That was the same response from the owner of Gana Trucking, whose rock and sand quarry became our location for Iraq.
We shot the film in May 2018 and had a seven-day run in Los Angeles in September. Two local screenings followed at UNL’s Ross theater in November and December. The Johnny Carson Foundation embraced the film and its message and is continuing to fund The Healing of Harman as it makes the journey around the festival circuit this year. The hope is that the film will not only move hearts and minds but will showcase the student’s work to the widest audience possible.
The creative opportunities available to students are astounding, particularly with the opening of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts this fall. The center will be an internationally distinct program where students will learn how to create content for film and television, game design, interactive media, internet media, and augmented and virtual reality. The coasts won’t be giggling much longer.
It was a special night last October when my parents sat in the front row at the Ross theater for the local premiere. They had supported my dream of living and working in Hollywood after I graduated more than 30 years earlier. Once again, my mom and dad were responsible for bringing me to one of most rewarding experiences of my life.
Returning home to be with my parents was a no-brainer. Rediscovering why Lincoln and the University of Nebraska yield so much pride and loyalty from its citizens and alums was a big, wonderful surprise.