Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins

Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins tells the story of media firebrand Molly Ivins, six feet of Texas trouble who took on Good Old Boy corruption wherever she found it. Her acerbic wit left both sides of the aisle laughing, and craving ink in her columns. She knew the Bill of Rights was in peril, and said "Polarizing people is a good way to win an election and a good way to wreck a country." Molly's words have proved prescient. Now it's up to us to raise hell!

Screening of film is followed by a moderated post-film conversation with Directors/Producers Janice Engel and Carlisle Vandervoort, as well as producer James Egan.

Janice Engel, Director/Producer

Award-winning filmmaker and showrunner, Janice Engel has made numerous documentaries, non-fiction television specials and series including: JACKSON BROWNE: GOING HOME (Cable Ace-Award), TED HAWKINS AMAZING GRACE (Rose D’Or Special Jury Prize) and the docu-series, ADDICTED (Prism Award.) Under her own banner, she co-created WHAT WE CARRY, an ongoing multi-media documentary series dedicated to preserving Holocaust survivors’ stories. Premiered at The Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and housed in the permanent collection at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, WHAT WE CARRY has been viewed by 50,000 + people. Janice is a professor at Academy of Art University, San Francisco, where she teaches documentary film. She is a member of the International Documentary Association and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A longtime resident of Los Angeles, she enjoys her tenure as Vice-President of the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and lives in Los Feliz with her wife and two dogs.

Carlisle Vandervoort, Director,/Producer

Carlisle Vandervoort is a born and bred Houstonian. After successful careers in both film production and promotions/public relations in NYC and LA, she returned to Houston. Carlisle shares much with Molly Ivins i.e. the trappings of a privileged childhood and the debutante party circuit as well as family involved in backroom business dealings in the oil and gas industry during the 1960’s. Activism runs deep in Carlisle’s roots, and she invokes the true Texas spirit that Molly Ivins embodied. Her paternal grandmother was an early advocate for school integration while serving on the Houston School Board. This position resulted in hate mail and cross burnings in her front yard. Continuing in her grandmother’s shoes, Carlisle has been an LGBT rights activist for near 3 decades.

James Egan, Producer

James Egan is an award winning producer, screenwriter and CEO of Wild at Heart Films, a film and VR production company founded to create “Media that Makes a Difference.” His credits include Spirit Award winning, JACKPOT (2001), produced with Participant Media, the documentary ANGELS IN THE DUST (2007), with Mike Figgis, KIMJONGILIA (2009) which also premiered at Sundance in competition in 2007, and SOUND OF REDEMPTION (2014) partnered with international best seller, Michael Connelly. Wild at Heart films has also produced THE DEFECTOR directed by Oscar winner Mark Harris. James was the editor of “John Waters Interviews”, a book in the prestigious series, Conversations with Filmmakers.