Michel Shane - 21 Miles In Malibu

[Music] My name is Victor Fuhrman. Some call me the Voice. I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now, and we will explore these topics and so much more with fascinating guests, authors, and experts who will guide us to Destination Unlimited. [Music]

A personal tragedy. We have the choice to dwell in darkness or reach out to the light. In that reaching, we may also be inspired to share that light with others, passing it forward in good works. My guest this week on Destination Unlimited, award-winning executive film producer Michelle Shane, along with his wife Ellen, made that choice after the tragic loss of their daughter Emily in 2010. Emily was run down by a crazed driver on a section of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. Her loss inspired Michelle and Ellen to create the Emily Shane Foundation, an organization to support local disadvantaged students with the educational resources they need to thrive in middle school and beyond. The organization not only offers individualized academic coaching and mentorship but works to build relationships that are positive and lasting with each student, passing forward the benefits they receive by performing acts of kindness and compassion. The website is emilyshane.org, and Michelle joins me this week to share his path and his new documentary film about Emily's loss and the dangers of that stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, 21 Miles in Malibu. Please join me in welcoming to Destination Unlimited, Michelle Shane.

Good evening, Michelle.

Good evening. Nice to be here with you.

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your very moving and very important story. We're going to be discussing your new film, 21 Miles in Malibu, and your personal tragedy that inspired it. But let's start with your early path and how it led you into the film industry.

Oh, you know, it's interesting because I was just a couple days ago, maybe a week ago, I was thinking about that and wondering, trying to think of the moment that I decided that I wanted to be in the film business or in the entertainment business. And I think it was influenced by my mother. Of all the crazy things, she had asked me to take a course for her at a university. I was 15 or 16 years old, and to record the course. It was over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and she was, she had to be out of town for work, so she asked if I would go to the class with a tape recorder. In those days, we had tape recorders, and record the class for her. And I went to it, and they were eight hours each, and they showed a couple minute movies during those classes, and the professor spoke about everything. And he was a very famous professor that had started the French movement, the French archives, and, you know, he flew in. I lived in Montreal at the time, and he flew into Montreal at that time to give this seminar every month or two. So I went to it, and I was so taken aback. I was exposed to all these classic films that I think that that's what made me think, I've got to get in this business. I've got to use this as a communication tool.

So from that moment on forward, I kind of looked at the film business and film marketing and things to do with that. And, you know, we're talking, I'm 16 years old, so I hate to tell you that that's 50 years ago, but we're talking a long time ago. And when I went to university, I studied Communications. And when I graduated, I went to law school for a little under two years, hated it, quit, came home, and was sitting on my mother's at my mother's kitchen table trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. You know, obviously, it was a deep tragedy. Here I was, 22 years old, I had quit law school. What did my world hold for me? And I sat there and I said, I can go into two businesses. I could go into computers because it was the beginning of the personal computer, 1981, or I could go into video. And being into film, I picked video. And I proceeded to read all about it, went to a couple trade shows. At one of these trade shows, I bought my first Sprites without even knowing what I was doing. Figured out how to duplicate all these videos and put them in my trunk and started selling video cassettes to stores. And that was the path that brought me to living out here in Southern California and having produced, you know, three very well-known films and probably a dozen others and TV shows that I'm now known for.

And from entertainment entrepreneur with videotapes, how did you go into film production?

Well, you know what I like to say, and it's not an ego talking, it's it's I know myself. So what I like to say is, I, when everyone is looking straight ahead, I'm looking around corners. I tend to see and feel trends that are coming. And in Montreal at the time, it was, I was in the video business. A bunch of businessmen said, we want to expand on this. Let's form a company. You do the marketing and the buying, and we'll finance and do all the back room and run the operations. And I joined then, and we bought about 125 different movies to release on video. We're very, very successful. And I saw what I thought the peak of video, and I felt that we had to move to the next level, which would be film distribution, television distribution, or film distribution, or stuff like that to kind of move on within the business. And they weren't interested. So we parted ways amicably, and I went on in that world.

And as I was doing that, the Quebec government announced tax shelter financing in 1988, where the individual could get a 166% write-off for every dollar they put into a film, no conditions. And I just said to myself, when I read about that in the newspaper, I said, that's the future. They're going to make so many movies here because at that time, if you were making a hundred thousand dollars, you were in a 55% tax bracket. I said, this is where what I want to do. And I started working towards producing my first shows, and that's how I ended up in the film business.

And what was the first major film you produced, and how did this manifest?

So the first major film was because I made probably about half a dozen or so tax shelter films, whose goal was not distribution, just getting them made and released and put in some pseudo distribution so that the investor could get his write-off. So I wouldn't count any of those as anything major. But the first project that kind of put me on the ground and at cocktail parties would be the reason people would speak to me rather than all the other movies I'd made was Catch Me If You Can. And in 1990, I acquired the rights to the book. I owned the book because coming out of distribution, I never realized that you could option. I always thought that you purchased and you owned it, and then it was yours to do it as you please. And it's a good thing I didn't, because had I optioned it, I would have been at risk to lose that option at a given date, you know, 18 months or 24 months after each option period, or come up for the money to keep the option alive. And the film business is very up and down. So I was very fortunate. I bought it. It was the greatest mistake I ever made. It took me 11 years to put together. It was under option at Sony, at Disney, TriStar, and then the last option was DreamWorks, which got it on the path to getting made.

And for our listeners not familiar, just tell them a little bit about that wonderful film.

So, that movie, and it's very funny because a lot of people told me at the time, why are you wasting your time on this anti-hero, bad kid? No one's going to be interested in this movie. And I looked at that movie and said, you know, it's that's not what the story is about. This story is about a child looking for love and family, not about a kid kiting checks and meeting women and traveling all over the world. And I was very lucky. I mean, Steven Spielberg read the script and made it the first film that he made for DreamWorks. When he read the script, Tom Hanks jumped on board, Leonardo DiCaprio was already on board. He had director approval, and that's how we were able to get him. And we had, we had started the film previously. There was a strike pending, actors strike, so that fell apart. And, yeah, you know, I gotta say that 80% of it is luck in being in the right place at the right time.

And as a huge sci-fi fan growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I loved I, Robot. How did that come about?

Oh, that's so funny. So I, Robot, I had met a young writer at the time by the name of Jeff Vintar. He was a bus driver full-time in Houston, I think it was, if I remember correctly. And his agent sent me a couple of his scripts to read, and I just loved them. They were so unique, with a unique vision. It was, it was, it was incredible. So I signed him to a deal where I would market his films and try to get them made and all that. And one of his films was, it wasn't called I, Robot at the time, right now I don't remember the name, but it'll come to me. So we had set it up at Disney, and we're developing it, and it went into turnaround. And then Sony picked it up, and then it just disappeared. Nobody was interested anymore. It was gone. And it was 2003. I had just come back from the Cannes Film Festival, and I got a phone call, and it was Fox Business Affairs telling me that they had acquired the original script and meshed it with I, Robot, with the Isaac Asimov story, because our script was 85% that movie. And the two production companies got together, and our film was set to go at the time. I had, well, I'd just put it, I had signed a deal at the time with Disney way back when, in '95, I think it was, where I had final approval of the cast. And that's why I was executive producer because I was living in Canada at the time, and the producer didn't feel that he wanted a producing partner, some kid in Canada. So he said, you'll be executive producer. And at that time, my lawyer said, okay, he'll be executive producer, but he gets final approval of cast. And they went, okay, no problem. So here we are, fast forward 2003. I got the phone call, and the business affairs tells me, oh yeah, we're in pre-production, we're about to go pre-production, and we've, uh, not Will Smith attached to star in the film. I need you to give us your approval. And I went, hold on a second here. You need to speak to my lawyer. And needless to say, off we were to the races with I, Robot.

And the beautiful music of Alan Parsons. Oh, fantastic, fantastic. And, uh, Alex Price did an incredible job with that, Bill. Absolutely. You know, as a viewing audience, we see producers, executive producers, assistant producers, and other production roles listed in the film credits. What do members of the production team actually do?

So, it, it's a, it's a great question because it's very different depending on what you're doing. So in television, an executive producer is usually a writer or someone who owned the underlying rights to the project, mostly writers. In film, an executive producer is usually the financier or had some underlying rights in the project. And the producer is the person that basically controlled the project, who has the final say on that project.

Do you have a personal project, a personal favorite, rather?

Do I have a favorite? Yes. Oh, it's like asking, do you have a favorite child? Yeah, yeah. It's really hard to say. I have projects that never got made that I adored, that I loved. And, uh, I'd have to, I'd have to think deeply on that. Maybe it'll come to me while we're talking.

Your latest film is your first documentary, and it's very, very personal to you. It's entitled 21 Miles in Malibu. When those of us who are not Californians, here in Malibu, we think of magnificent beaches, surfing, the Beach Boys, and the awesome blue Pacific Ocean. Share with us the magic of Malibu and what drew you there.

Oh, Malibu's incredible. I mean, it's a little bit of heaven on Earth. You are very close to LA, yet you're in the country. I was lucky. I had a business partner. I was living in Montreal. I had a business partner out here, and my mother's American, my father's Canadian, so I had dual citizenship. And I was doing, I was basically living on LA time in Montreal. I was trying to set up my movies. And my business partner said to me, you should move out here. And I came to visit and fell in love with it. My kids could go to public school. It's very safe. There's only one way out, one way in, so there was very little crime at that time. And it was just, you know, heaven on Earth. Like that's the best way I can put it. It's just gorgeous. And it's, and it's a place where if you're a celebrity or you're a regular person, everyone kind of melds in and is treated the same way. You don't stand on ceremony in Malibu. You are who you are, and that's it. So you could be very famous and walk into a store and restaurant, and you won't be chased. I mean, yes, there'll be paparazzi all over the place, but there are plenty of rules, and we don't see that much of them out here.

And did you ever get on a surfboard?

Unfortunately, I'm a skier, so no, I didn't. I didn't end up doing surfing. Did a lot of boogie boarding, and my kids tried surfing, but no, we were never big surfers, unfortunately.

Your new film title, 21 Miles in Malibu, refers to the longest stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway running through any town or city along the California coastline. The highway itself has an interesting backstory. Please share how it went from a privately held and closely guarded property to being a public thoroughfare.

So Malibu was part of the Rindge family. May Rindge was the person, her husband had died, who was basically controlling all of Malibu, and it was her ranch. And she really was, you know, she sought for what it was, its whole beauty and everything. And, you know, we're talking in the 1900s here, 30s and 40s. So she wanted to keep Malibu to herself. And the public wanted easy access because the people that lived out here could get to school in Santa Monica because they'd have to go through her land. So to make a long story short, the city and the state finally opened up the land. She went to court and lost that battle, and Malibu was created, and the first highway roadway was put together, and people could come out here in their cars, their Model Ts and whatnot. And the colony was created for film people, and it became an enclave. It was a beautiful, beautiful place.

The statistics concerning accidents and fatalities on this 21-mile stretch are absolutely staggering. Why is this roadway today so dangerous?

Well, it's tough, Victor. It's, as you said, 21 miles, and it's 21 miles of a main road, which happens to be a four-lane highway, two, two lanes each way. It's the only way in and out of this area. And so this becomes your main thoroughfare, and it's a highway, and people are driving fast. And with how we live today, where we're all distracted, and then you throw in the beauty of the roadway, I mean, excuse me, the beauty of the ocean, the beauty of the mountains, the bright sunshine, you have a lot of people distracted, and they're not paying attention. And that causes accidents. And the biggest statistics is that a lot of people who come out here, I'm just going to pull up that statistic, but a lot of a lot of the deaths are caused by speeding, and a lot of, and there are a lot of distracted driving. And, you know, of course, there's, you know, unfortunately, people get killed, and a lot of people have been killed on this road. And the sad thing is, it's been since the '50s since anything seriously has been done to fix this highway.

Has anything been done in recent times to make the roadway safer, to protect the people?

Elected, because the way we do it here in Malibu is your mayor for a year as a councilman, and then the next councilman becomes mayor. So it's not controlled by one person. And the, and the community is ruled by X number of councilmen that are elected. So they've all done studies. And in the last time they went around and did a study, which was about, oh, probably three, four years ago, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent, and research was spent, and you can't imagine how many studies have been made on this study. The people doing the study found that there were 52 different things that could be done to make PCH safer. So that to me makes a lot of sense. Okay, so you start with one, or you start with the lowest hanging fruit, the easiest one, and you implement it so that it works and you're making the road safer. Well, in that time, since that time, since that study, 52 things, Victor, zero have been implemented. Why? I don't know. Why? That's a great question. I really don't know why. I think part of the problem is the highway is controlled by the state and the feds. It's not controlled by the city of Malibu. So you have to go to Caltrans, and you have to go to the federal government, and you got to figure out how to make things happen. And as you know, you know, bureaucracy wasn't invented but by the common man to make things hard. It was invented by government so that it would slow things down. So that's where we are now. And what I'm really hoping is that people get angry. People watch this movie, and they start to get angry and upset with the people that are running the situations for them and start making noise. A grassroots campaign is the best way I can put it. And as we mentioned in the introduction to this interview, the loss of your daughter Emily occurred because of this horrible situation on the 21 miles running through Malibu. We're going to talk more about that in the next segment. My guest is Michelle Shane. His film is called 21 Miles in Malibu. Michelle, please tell our listeners they can find out more about the film and also about the foundation that you created in Emily's name.

Sure. So the film, there's a website called 21 Miles, 2-1, not right now, 21 miles in malibu.com. And on there, there'll be all the information you need when it'll be, be seen. Right now, we're putting it out through film festivals, so we'll be announcing festivals as we get accepted at each one. And the foundation is Emily Shane, E-M-I-L-Y S-H-A-N-E dot org. And that is the foundation website that'll tell you everything that we're doing in the foundation. And we'll discuss more of that great work in the next segment. My guest is Michelle Shane. We'll be back with more after these words on the Om Times Radio Network, the best of the holistic, spiritual, and conscious world. Om Times Radio, iom FM. Om Times Magazine is one of the leading online content providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization, their net proceeds are channeled to support worldwide charity initiatives via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on a global scale. Om Times, co-creating a more conscious lifestyle. [Music]

Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week, Michelle Shane. We're going to be talking about his film, 21 Miles in Malibu. 21 Miles in Malibu was inspired by how it personally touched your life, that of your wife Ellen, and your entire family. Please share with our listeners what happened on April 3rd, 2010.

Well, on April 3rd, it was a regular Saturday when we woke up. It wasn't the night we went to bed. Emily, who had a sleepover, she's the youngest of my three children. She had a sleepover at a friend's house. We were doing errands. It was spring break. And my wife checked in with her in the late afternoon and asked her what her plans were. And Emily was 13, and she said that she wanted to come home. I had some work to do, but my wife said she sounded like she really wanted to come home. So she'd been out, you know, on a sleepover. I figured, okay, I'll go get her, and then I'll do my work then. And we'd had plans to go see a movie that evening. I live up a canyon out here in Malibu. And as I was coming down the canyon, waiting at the light for for the light to change at Pacific Coast Highway, I noticed a car driving erratically, weaving through lanes, creating lanes, just really driving, excuse the term, like an idiot. And, you know, I turned to myself, I said, this is going to end badly. This guy is going to do something terrible. Well, little did I know that badly was an understatement. He was an erratic driver. He was having a bad day, broken up with his girlfriend, lost his job, and was just out of control. And he saw this figure of a woman walking along the, walking along the road, and aimed the car at her and hit her, sending her at 70 miles an hour, sending her through the air, and basically murdering her. That person was my daughter. I drove by the accident and thought to myself, oh, I better get out of here because they're going to shut the highway. And for a split second, I said, well, Emily was supposed to be there. And, you know, you never think these things will happen to you. Well, unfortunately, in this scenario, it happened to us.

To, I was waiting for, I called my wife. My wife called where she was supposed to be, she wasn't there. And then my wife called me and said, there's been an accident. And I said, oh, I'm right there. Let me go there and talk with them because they wanted to airlift her out, and I did not want her to be moved without me being with her. So I went over, found a sheriff who brought me to the point where they were going to airlift her out. She was in the EMT truck being worked on, and the EMT then came out and told me that she had died. Now, I can talk openly and clearly right now because that's 12 years ago. But it's a brutal thing. There's no one, I wish it on. There's no one to hate enough to wish it on. And it's not anything anyone should ever have to experience in their life. Our lives changed forever that day. You know, our youngest daughter was gone forever. And we spent two years in court trying to put him away. While, you know, you bury your your daughters hard enough, but having to relive it over and over and over every three or four months, kind of revisiting it, it's kind of like having a wound reopened each time. And finally, he was convicted to 15 years to life. And because everything is backwards here, and the DA has a warped sense of right and wrong, he's now on his second attempt at parole to be released from prison. And we will, of course, be fighting that when the date is set. But he's been in prison less time than she was alive.

Your daughter Emily was referred to as the unofficial ambassador of her school, something that evokes images of kindness, compassion, and a very special heart. Tell us about Emily.

Emily was unique. I mean, all, look, all we all think our children are special, but Emily was unique. She had a huge heart. My wife actually had to carry extra, you know, bars with her because if Emily saw someone that was homeless, she wanted to give them something so they would eat, so they wouldn't be alone. At school, if you were a kid sitting alone at lunchtime, she would call you over to sit with whoever she was sitting with because she didn't want people to be alone. She was truly compassionate to all and didn't judge people by how they looked or how they behaved, but as people, as as souls that belong to each other. And that's how she went through life. And at 13 years old, to have that type of deep compassion, it was something that was extraordinary. And half the stuff we only learned about after she died because you see your kids in one light, and then your kids are seen in another light when they're interacting in the world, and you often don't get to see that person.

By the same token, when we hear about children who reflect these wonderful qualities, we have to recognize that these are imbued by their parents and family. What were some of the ways that you and Ellen modeled this for Emily?

Oh, um, I don't know if there was something that was, you know, that we did that was extraordinary that that imprinted her. I think part of it is, look, Ellen is a very compassionate, giving, understanding woman. She definitely is my better half, as I like to say, because I'm, you know, out there dealing in the film business and dealing with the most interesting people around. But I think that it's mostly because of Ellen and the way she behaved and the way we felt that you treat people around you. I mean, there's no reason to be egotistical or to be self-important. And I, I, that's probably what she caught on to.

Tell us a little more about her. What were her loves, her interests?

So Emily, what loved them to her, dancing was everything. She, she struggled in school. She had processing issues. She was on what's called the 504, which gave her extra time to do stuff. She wasn't, you know, she did, wasn't part that hard in school where she had to have a special dispensation, but it was enough to give her some of the dispensation so she wasn't in a special class, but she needed extra time. And she would, you know, we would think she would be off studying, and she'd come out and she'd go, look at this dance I invented. And put on music and dance first. And we'd be going, Evelyn, you were supposed to be studying your math homework. Why are you dancing? And, you know, she'd do that with her friends. She loved to ski, and she really loved her friends. She just really enjoyed being around people and doing things. And when she was 12, 11 or 12 at one time, she turned to, she says, you know, it girls have too much drama. Do you mind if I'm friends with some boys because we could just play and do stuff and not have to worry about all the drama that's involved all around us? So I thought that was pretty fun. And if you looked at friends that you know that she had when she was 13 years old, there was a wide array of different types of people, and they all got together, and they were all friends because of her. And the proof I have in that is is when she died, and was no longer part of their little clique or group, these kids learned all friends.

Your loss inspired the founding of the Emily Shane Foundation. How did this come about, and what are the great works of this foundation?

So the night she died, I was very concerned that she would be, who is that poor little girl that was killed on PCH? She was 13 years old. And I didn't really want that to be her legacy. So the night of her death, I thought of a pass it forward campaign, do something for somebody else without recognition or anything like that, and get them to do something for somebody else and pass it on that way all the way through. And that really caught on when she first, when it first started. And we kind of did that throughout the whole trial and everything like that, and people were doing amazing things. And we had done a Twitter feed which listed all the good deeds and all that. And my wife really wanted to do something in memory of Emily, something that could be substantial. And Ellen remembered that Emily struggled in school. So she designed a program with a teacher who had been teaching, I think I want to say 40 years, but I've been teaching a really long time, well-loved teacher in the school. And she and this teacher designed a program which we call the C program, Successful Educational Achievement. And what this program does is, and this is through us learning, we take a university student because you're dealing with middle school children, so it's someone that they can look at, in essence, project that they could become that person, and isn't old enough to be someone that's like a parent or is older that could be an authority figure. So we put them together with a university student for one hour, twice a week. And that student works with that child to help them succeed, whether it's organizing, whether it's they're failing in math or English or or something like that, it's their cheerleader. They're having personal issues, whatever it is, this person is there to help them. And the cost of the child is the child has to do a good deed for each mentoring, mentoring, tutoring session that she, that they go to. So it instills in the child that's getting the help of giving back, forgetting, and builds society and people who are compassionate and willing to give back in exchange for help that they're getting. And we started with three children in 2012, and today we're at 14 sites here in Los Angeles and Ventura County, and we've helped over a thousand students.

That is so wonderful. What are some of the good deeds that those students pay forward?

Oh, you know, it's not even what the good deeds are. And it's more because, you know, they're 12, 13 year olds, 11, 12, and 13 year olds. So it's holding the door for my mom, I cleaned the house, I cook dinner. You know, it's stuff like that. But I'll tell, I'll share a story with you that I love to share, that I really impacts how I feel about the foundation and what we do. There was a young girl that came to us in middle school and went through the program, and we helped her and got her organized, and she went off to high school and did quite well. And that was the last we heard of her because after they graduate middle school, we really are not in touch with them very much. And lo and behold, we got an email from her saying, I was a student, you guys really helped me, and I would like to be a mentor for someone during my first year in university because I would never have gotten here if it hadn't been for you. So to me, that says everything.

Wonderful. That is, I have a little tears coming out of my eyes right now when you shared that. That's just so special. If one of these children asked you for advice, what would you share with them?

My my biggest advice is believe in yourself and never give up. The philosophy that I've lived with my whole life is that yes, you can have problems, things can be difficult, you can have misery, but you gotta brush yourself off, feel the pain, live with the pain, but move on. And and go through life in the sense that you're there for a purpose, and that purpose is to make the world around you better. Change the world. Just make the world around you better. If every person to the right or the left of you felt better because they were beside you, maybe they would do that to the people beside them. And before you know it, you've got a whole community, society, city, country that's all about doing better.

I had a wonderful spiritual teacher who used to share that there should be an 11th commandment: Thou shalt have purpose.

So true. And in that purpose, using that purpose, we not only embody what we're here to do ourselves, but also to share that with our neighbors, our friends, and our loved ones.

Very true. My guest is Michelle Shane. We'll be back with more of Michelle after these words on the Om Times Radio Network. Humanity Healing International is a small non-profit with a big dream. Since 2007, HHI has been working tirelessly to bring help to communities with little or no. Our projects are not broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions, but they bring the reassurance that no one is alone and that someone cares. To learn more, please visit humanityhealing.org. Humanity is where your heart is. Hello, I'm Sandy Sedgeby, a host of Om Times Magazine's flagship radio show, What Is Going On? My passion is sifting through information, research, and innovations from new thought teachers, speakers, and researchers, pushing back the boundaries of what we know about life, energy, metaphysics, and the universe. I love shifting perceptions about who we are, why we're here, and how quickly impossible becomes normal when we open our minds, expand our awareness, and accept that the only limits that exist are those we place upon ourselves. So if you're the kind of forward-thinking, eager investigator of what lies beyond the current reality that most perceive, why not make a date to come play with me in the field of possibilities at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern Time every Thursday, and together we can discover what's really going on. Adopt US Kids presents: What to Expect When You're Expecting a Teenager. Learning the lingo. Today, I'm going to help parents translate teen slang. Now, when a teen says something is on fleek, it's exactly like saying that's rad. It simply means that something is awesome or cool. Another one is totes. It's exactly like saying totally, just shorter, as in, I totes love going to the mall. Or bae. Another word you might hear is jelly. Jelly is a shorter, better way to say jealous, as in, Chloe, I am like so jelly of your unicorn phone case. You don't have to speak teen to be a perfect parent. Thousands of teens in foster care will think you're um, rad, just the same. To learn more, visit adoptuskids.org. A public service announcement brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Adopt US Kids, and the Ad Council. [Music]

Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week is Michelle Shane. We're talking about his film, 21 Miles in Malibu. Michelle, how may our listeners support the work of the Emily Shane Foundation?

emilyshane.org. All the information you need about the foundation is there and how to contact us. And also, uh, what you can do. We hold events, uh, once, a big gala event once a year, and sometimes we have a secondary one that's a little smaller. You know, we're a charity, and we're always looking for ways to raise more money because that is what holds us back. I mean, the reason I've been haven't been able to help 10,000 children is because we, we don't have the capacity to go out and and help these kids. And because we use, uh, university students, there's always a turnover. So there's not that, obviously, we have people that work with us, but we're a small little organization. My wife takes a stipend right now. She does, it's not really a salary. And it's really about helping others and moving, uh, this program, the C program, Successful Educational Achievements, forward and making it grow. And the model is very replicable for any school district or any community, anywhere. It doesn't matter where you are, it would, it works.

What are some of the other ways that Emily's memory has been honored?

That's for sure. Uh, my wife started a campaign to get a major street sign, a change that goes along PCH to Emily Shane Way. She, you know, I think you needed something like two, or I don't remember now, two or three hundred signatures to go in front of the city council. Well, we got something like 2,500 signatures, and we went in front of the city council to get a road change to Emily Shane Way. And it was, it was difficult because a lot of people felt that they couldn't change the road, people would know what it was if they changed it. And a solution was thought of. It's the name of the road is Heather Cliff. It's Heather Cliff, and underneath it, the Emily Shane Way shares the name. So it's Heather Cliff, and underneath it says Emily Shane Way. So it's very interesting because, uh, because of where a tourist destination, a lot of people will drive by that street sign and go, who's Emily Shane? I wonder what that is. And they'll Google and they'll find out the story. So that has been very good for us. The Kiwanis put together a fund for a park bench in the Malibu Bluffs Park where Emily played soccer and baseball. And that's, it's right there. There's a fountain in one of the malls locally, the wishing well type thing, that is named after her. So she's, she's not forgotten. And in that sense, we have succeeded in making sure that her name will live on forever in Malibu, long after we're gone.

And in the film, you talk about rainbow halos. That is incredible, uh, uh, project that we were lucky that we were able to participate in. Artists created this rainbow halo to put in places where people were killed through traffic accidents, so that there would be a rainbow, which signifies a change and beauty. And by having this rainbow halo project, rainbow halo statue, which is really just on a pole, it allows again, people who go by to say, oh, what's that? Look into it, and then realize what it's all about. I mean, the reason I made this movie, and it's very hard to say being a filmmaker, but it was never a project that was done out of commerce. It was a project done to create a groundswell, to create change. And that's really why I made this project. I started this project in 2013, you know, doing it part-time, and we were able to complete it this past October.

Do you think, or do you hope, that the film will inspire your community as well as other communities to get more serious about getting involved in traffic regulation?

I think that's up to the communities. I think it's up to people like you and me, Victor, who can, who get involved and make noise. If there's enough noise made, if there are people elected based on that noise, there will be change. And it's really, it's a, it's a grassroots campaign. And I don't want to diminish or use it as an example, but what's going on in Iran right now, by the week, from the women's movement, is a grassroots campaign brought on by the women of Iran. And that is that hopefully will be a success. It has already created some change. But that's the, uh, that shows what can be done if the public gets involved and is passionate about something in society that needs to be changed.

From personal family experience, as well as working with families who have lost children, there are few words of consolation that have meaning. You and Ellen turned your tragedy into positive and compassionate action. What would you offer parents processing the loss of a child?

Oh, you know, we all deal with this type of tragedy differently, all tragedy, for that matter. But the loss of a child is deep and different. You know, a widower is someone who's lost a spouse. Their words to describe what's happened to you. There is no word in the English language for losing a child. There's no definition of that. So as my wife Ellen said at the very beginning, and actually says it in the movie, we caught her do it saying, you have two choices in life. You can go into darkness and be upset and not come out of it. And I don't blame anyone if they're in darkness because of the situation. Or you can go to the light. And if you go to the light, you can use the tragedy that happened to you to create something different. And it doesn't mean I miss Emily less, or I mourn less than the person that's sitting there in darkness. But I find that by being in the light and interacting and trying to make positive change, I'm honoring her rather than mourning her. And by honoring her, I'm moving forward with her. She's always will be, always be my daughter. She will always be part of my life. And she has now become part of being impactful in society around us.

Absolutely. Very beautifully shared. Tell us about the award you received from President Obama in 2015.

Oh, wow. That was, sits right here in my office, right on my wall. I'm, most proud of it. It's a Lifetime Achievement Award. It seems that someone nominated us. They spend a year vetting you, and we were, we were contacted and told that we had won this award, and I thought it was a joke. I thought something was playing a prank on us. But it's not. My wife and I both won this award, and we were given a certificate signed by then President Obama, honoring our work in the community.

Beautiful, wonderful, and well-deserved recognition. 21 Miles in Malibu is the first documentary film you produced. Do you see yourself doing other documentaries in the future?

It's, it's actually the second documentary. The first documentary I made was the very first film I ever made as a producer, and it was done in Canada, um, and that was in 1988. I guess if I find a subject that is strong enough and speaks to me, I would make another documentary. I'm more of a storyteller. So right now, I'm gonna stick, stick in my lane and kind of tell, I like to tell true stories, kind of like Catch Me If You Can. I'm working on a couple, which unfortunately I can't share right now, but hope to very soon. It's all about, it's all about the journey, and it's all about how people react to what you're doing. And hopefully, I will be able to create some projects that people will enjoy.

His name is Michelle Shane. His film is called 21 Miles in Malibu. Michelle, please tell our listeners where they can get the film and also about the foundation.

So the film, as I just said, was finished in October, so it's not out yet. We're going to, uh, film festivals. So for about the next six months or so, we'll be at film festivals, and then we'll be releasing the film, whether it's through a distributor or ourselves. I mean, the purpose of this film is to get it out there and to get people to see it, so we're going to do it as the best ways we can. You can find, keep in touch with me and keep in touch with the film. It's 21, the number 21 miles in malibu.com. And, uh, we'll be posting on there. And we also have a Facebook page and, uh, and an Instagram feed as well. And then the foundation is Emily, E-M-I-L-Y Shane, S-H-A-N-E dot org. And everything we do and everything we we stand for is on that website. And you can sign up there and sign up for our feeds, and we'll be sending, and we send out newsletters all the time, touting the success of the children and and the programs.

There's an expression in Judaism, when someone has lost a loved one, "May their memory be as a blessing." And Emily's memory is most certainly a blessing and will continue to be through the Emily Shane Foundation. Michelle, thank you for joining us and sharing your very important message.

Thank you very much, Victor. This is a real pleasure. And thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm Victor, the Voice, Furman. Have a wonderful week. [Music]