Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
141 Q4 2018 / CINEMONTAGE approved out of 29,000, with most applicants being denied for having the wrong loan type or missing or incomplete information. An estimated 32 million Americans may qualify for the program. Lawyers for nine teachers and members of the AFT, represented by the firm Selendy & Gay PLLC, plan on pursuing class-action status in their Navient case. KENYAN GAY-THEMED FILM ESCAPES CENSORSHIP Kenya's chief film censor is furious, writes Geoffrey York in The Toronto Globe and Mail in September. He has ordered his enforcement officers to descend on Kenyan cinemas, checking for violations of the rules. The reason for his anger: a court ruling that lifted the ban on one of Kenya's most acclaimed films. The movie, Rafiki, has won praise at festivals from Cannes to Toronto. Its gentle lesbian love story has triggered outrage from many Kenyans, including government officials. The court decision to overturn the ban is "a sad moment and a great insult," said Ezekiel Mutua, chief executive of the Kenya Film Classification Board, the censorship agency that had earlier banned the film. "I am not convinced that Kenya is such a weak society whose moral foundation will be shaken by simply watching a film depicting gay themes," Justice Wilfrida Okwany said in her ruling. LABOR MAT TERS Swingtown was also the show on which Tesoro met award-winning editor Sidney Wolinsky, ACE. "We became very good friends and worked on House of Cards together," she says. "I now consider him my mentor. We always ask each other for advice. There is a lot of mutual respect and trust between us because we are both very honest with each other. You don't get a lot of that in Hollywood." Tesoro considers HBO's In Treatment (2008-2010) to be her breakthrough job. "It was the second show I did as an editor, and really it was the most impactful," she attests. "I wouldn't have gotten that job had Alan not bumped me up. Before I was bumped up on Swingtown, I had assisted on the first season of In Treatment and cut a little short for one of the producers, Rodrigo Garcia. The show moved production to New York City, but they kept the post- production in LA, and I was made an editor that season. Working on an HBO show gave me pedigree moving forward." Two full seasons on In Treatment led to another breakthrough when HBO senior programming executive Gina Balian put Tesoro's resume in a large pile of applications going to director/executive producer Michael Mann. "For whatever reason, I got picked to work on his new show Luck," the editor says. "I'd never worked on that level before. At the time, it was pretty intimidating; I was junior to everyone else, and my assistant and I were the only two women in editorial — although I was never uncomfortable being one of the only women." Tesoro worked on Luck for two seasons and, as mentioned above, met and worked with Leder on the show's finale, which ultimately led to On the Basis of Sex, her fourth feature editing job. The others are Natural Selection (2011), for which she won SXSW's Best Editing Award in the Narrative Feature Category; Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014); and Shot Caller (2017). Having worked in television for most of her career, Tesoro says she feels she's still transitioning into feature films. "I'm still trying to make that move, and it often feels very parallel, like I'm doing two different things at once," she explains. "I still mostly get high-end TV series, and sometimes those credits don't translate to features. People still question my feature experience, saying 'You've done some great TV, but only a few features…' I still feel like I have one foot in each pool." But whether it's theatrical films or television, Tesoro thoroughly enjoys her profession. "There's the intimacy of working with directors and trying to create something they have spent years developing," she says. "They have an idea in their heads, and you're doing it together. On every project, I learn a lot about the subject with this person who has a vision for it. And the editor is the last person to touch the film before anyone sees it." Her advice for up-and-coming editors, especially women of color, is to keep challenging themselves. "Be confident in yourself and what you have to offer," Tesoro stresses. "You can't hide what you are, so you might as well be really good at what you do and build a practice of integrity." The editor adds one more piece of advice: "Whenever my fellow female editor friends ask for advice on what to do in a situation, I often tell them, 'Pretend you are a white, 27- year-old- male, and do what he would do.' Basically, as long as you've got the goods to back it up, be entitled to what you want." Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg would not disagree. f A Justice for All CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41 On the Basis of Sex. Focus Features