TPP 132: Director Marc Smolowitz on His Forthcoming Documentary, The G Word
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
47 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 day ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the purpose and focus of “The G Word” documentary?
Within Gifted, there's all these different sort of points of view. There's Renzuli versus Dabrowski, there's you know, acceleration versus enrichment. I'm all in for getting everybody into the movie and keeping everybody in the room as much as we can and saying, let's think about this stuff together, and let's at the end of the day keep the kids in mind. You know, the it's really about the children and most people I talk to agree that it has to be about the children. Like if we're not helping more children, then then why are we doing this?
Welcome to Tilled Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Grieber, and today we're going to talk about the state of giftedness in today's kids as seen through the lens of independent filmmaker Mark Smolowitz. Mark runs an award winning San Francisco based production company called 13th Gen, and one of his newest projects is a film currently. in production called The G-Word, a documentary exploring where gifted individuals fit in in today's society. Defying popular myths that assume gifted people are wealthy, white, and will do fine on their own, the G word reveals the economic, cultural, and gender diversity of the gifted at every single stage of life, the educational challenges, social isolation, emotional sensitivities, and physical threats faced by many of them in our schools and society at large, and the search for solutions.
In our conversation, Mark Taves. takes us behind the scenes of his film and shares his thoughts on giftedness as it relates to 2e, equity, social justice, and more. You can check out a trailer and some excerpts from the G Word by going to thegwordfilm.com. But first, have a listen to our episode. Hey Mark, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks, Debbie. It's great to be here.
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your work and about the film that you're working on, The G Word. But before we get started, I'd love to just hear a little bit about who you are in the world. I know you have a lot of experience working on a lot of really cool projects. So can you tell us about yourself?
Well sure, thank you so much. Um well first of all, it's really great to meet you this way and have a chance to talk about the G word. Um so by way of background, you know, I've been a filmmaker for gosh, uh going on you know, three decades. Or or in some way I've been in the film and entertainment world going on three decades. You know, I'm a director, producer, an executive producer. And, you know, if you look at my IMDB or my website, you'll see a lot of doc documentaries on there that I'm been sort of closely uh you know involved with. And um documentaries are definitely a sweet spot for me in my work. Um they're not the only thing I do. I do narrative work, I do episodic work, I
How does Marc Smolowitz describe his background and why he made the film?
You know, as a director for Hire, I've worked on lots of different kinds of things for nonprofits and foundations and commercials. But really nonfiction storytelling, I think, has emerged over the arc of my career as my kind of specialty. And um and I love documentaries. And I've sort of come at the documentary space from a lot of different roles and points of view. Um, I think what you see in my career is a real commitment to sort of powerful personal. Storytelling and an interest in social issues and kind of bringing those two things together. And what I do is, you know, I do a very, very deep dive on every film that I'm involved in, whether I'm a director or producer or both. And you know, as I as my career has evolved, you know, and I'm getting older and wiser, you know, I'm I'm taking on more role as an executive producer or a consulting producer, where other filmmakers hire me in my
my company to kind of really help them be successful. But when I do the deep dive, when I'm directing and I'm producing, um I I take that very, very seriously. And I um I do sort of you know, very involved research and, you know, really understand how I can add value to the storytelling landscape.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose and focus of “The G Word” documentary?
0:00–2:49
2
How does Marc Smolowitz describe his background and why he made the film?
2:49–9:54
3
Why did the idea for the documentary emerge and what personal connection does the filmmaker have to giftedness?
9:54–16:16
4
How does the film address equity, social‑justice, and the identification barriers for gifted children?
16:16–23:35
5
What are “excellence gaps” and why does the filmmaker prioritize class and poverty in the conversation?
23:35–30:39
6
How will community screenings and partnerships help broaden the film’s impact?
30:39–38:37
7
What ways can listeners support the project through donations, volunteering, or sharing resources?
38:37–45:21
8
What are the next steps for the documentary’s release and how can the audience stay involved?
45:21–47:20
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids