Details: Written by Super User; Published: 09 April 2014; Hits: 21825

Movies Coming Out This Spring, 2015

This month REAP is again featuring trailers of some interesting films that are scheduled to be released this spring. Take a look and mark your calendar with the release date

Effie Gray

A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray. Directed by Richard Laxton, Cast includes Claudia Cardinale, Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson and Derek Jacobi. Release April 3rd.

Racing Extinction

Oscar-winning director Louis Psihoyos is at it again. Back in 2009, he scooped up the Academy Award for Best Documentary for The Cove, a harrowing look at dolphin hunting in Japan. Racing Extinction takes a similar look at wildlife abuse, with Psihoyos and his team infiltrating black markets dealing with endangered species. Release HBO

Child 44

Set in Stalin-era Soviet Union, a disgraced MGB agent is dispatched to investigate a series of child murders—a case that begins to connect with the very top of party leadership.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa. Cast includes: Dev Patel, Agniezka Grochowska, Anna Rust, Charles Dance, Gary Oldman. Release Apirl 17th

She's Funny That Way

Young Hollywood starlet Isabella Patterson recalls how the actions of a charming Broadway director, Arnold Albertson changed her life forever. As told to a reporter in a not-so-reliable recollection of events, the Brooklyn-born former escort reminisces about how a rendezvous with the director turned into a larger-than-expected sum of money and an offer she couldn’t refuse. Director Peter Bogdanovich. Cast includes: Imogen Poots, Owen Wilson, Jennifer Anniston, Colleen Camp, Cybill Shepherd, Debi Mazer. Release May 1st

Tomorrowland

Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as “Tomorrowland.” Directed by Brad Bird. Cast includes Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy. Release May 22

Dope

Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is a geek, carefully surviving life in The Bottoms, a tough neighborhood in Inglewood, CA filled with gangsters and drugs dealers, while juggling his senior year of college applications, interviews and the SAT. His dream is to attend Harvard. A chance invitation to a big underground party leads Malcolm and his friends into a gritty adventure filed with offbeat characters and bad choices. If Malcolm can persevere, he'll go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa Cast Includes Allen Maldonado, Amin Joseph, Anthony Quinonez, Blake Anderson. Release June 12th

In What Happened Miss Simone?

Documentary directed by Academy Nominated filmmaker, Liz Garbus, the film chronicles Nina Simones Journey from Child Piano Prodigy to Iconic Musician and Passionate Activist, Told in Her Own Words. Classically trained pianist, black power icon and legendary recording artist, Nina Simone lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius, and tortured melancholy. In the upcoming Netflix original documentary, Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus interweaves never-before-heard recordings and rare archival footage together with Nina's most memorable songs, creating an unforgettable portrait of one of the least understood, yet most beloved artists of our time. Release Netflix.

The Salt of the Earth

Celebrated auteur Wim Wenders co-directed this cinematically exquisite documentary about photographer Sebastian Salgado. Also co-directed by Salgado's son, Juliano, the film takes a chronological look at Salgado's career and rise as a master of black and white photography. The doc received a standing ovation at Cannes and went on to win Un Certain Regard’s Special Prize at the festival. It's also on the shortlist for the 2015 Academy Awards' Best Documentary category. Release March 27.

Details: Written by Super User; Published: 08 April 2014; Hits: 10102

Silicon Valley
Minimal Viable Product

By Andy Greene

Silicon Valley is The Social Network…except it’s a comedy from Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space) that satirizes and lambasts the tech industry. Mike Judge worked as a software engineer in the late 1980’s, and is clearly the perfect person to create and write this show, even 30 years later. In an industry that changes every second…clearly the atmosphere and players are always the same.

The premise is fairly straight forward: five dudes live in an “incubator” set up by the brazen, funny and bizarrely shaved Erlich (How To Train Your Dragon’s T.J. Miller). They hate Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley and everything it represents, yet…software engineering is the only thing they can or want to do, and they want the money, fame and power that their nerdy contemporaries have. Silicon Valley is all about contradictions: the nerds are purported to rule the world, but it’s the smarmy businessman who invest and buy their programs that really have the power.

Meet Richard (Thomas Middleditch of CollegeHumor fame), who works at Hooli, a farcical cutting edge tech company known for its innovation and desire to facilitate social change. It’s clearly all B.S., and Richard and Big Head (The Big Bang Theory's Josh Brener) hate it, the brogrammers, and their enigmatic and mysterious CEO Gavin Belson (Big Love’s Matt Ross).

Richard has created Pied Piper, a useless website that can help songwriters find out if their music is infringing on copyrighted music and beats. Of course, as everyone knows, the music industry is notorious for sharing, sampling and stealing each other’s music. Clearly Richard’s focus is all off, and may get kicked out of Erlich’s incubator, or worse, made fun of by the two programmers who jokingly ask to take a look at his project.

But when they finally do, they realize Richard isn’t a joke: his state of the art compression software is a game changer, and could be the next billion dollar idea if used correctly. The technology actually gets Gavin’s attention, while inciting a bidding war with eccentric investor Peter Gregory (RUBICON’s Christopher Evan Welch). Richard is left with a terrifying choice: take a lump sum of money from Gavin, or build a company with Peter Gregory.

Silicon Valley is funny and biting. While Erlich seems poised to get the best lines, I expect Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani of Portlandia and Franklin & Bash) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr of Judd Apatow’s troupe) to steal the show in future episodes, and hopefully The Office’s Zach Woods becomes a bigger player (which seems likely, considering he’s on the billboards and is hilarious). Silicon Valley certainly has a whiff of familiarity. There have been no shortage of films and TV shows on the subject, including most prominently, Amazon’s Betas, which has pretty much the exact same plot points and character archetypes. Unfortunately for Amazon, Silicon Valley is better. It’s somehow more realistic, even while making fun of everything about the Silicon Valley and the douchebag nerds that run it.

The show is male-dominated, as one might expect from the setting, but thankfully Monica (Charlie St. Cloud’s Amanda Crew), Gregory’s second in command, is around to provide the tiniest bit of gender balance. Hopefully she’s not merely a love interest for Richard (or whomever), and Silicon Valley introduces more women to the proceedings. Mike Judge and company already make light of the programming demographic and group dynamics…and hopefully they can use the notion of gender imbalance as a source for comedy and satire in the season ahead.

Silicon Valley is about people who innovate, or try to, and while the show isn’t innovative itself, it’s off to a promising start with its pilot. HBO likely has another winner on its hands.

Details: Written by Amber Topping; Published: 04 April 2014; Hits: 48779

Rachele Brooke Smith:
Renaissance Woman

By Shirley Craig

Rachele Brooke Smith is a renaissance woman. An actor, dancer, fitness guru, social activist and writer, Rachele is an empowering and optimistic person who shines light on all those she encounters. Founder of Unbreakable Dreams, we spoke to Rachele about her dreams and goals and how she is determined to help others and leave her mark on this world. Reap is very happy that Rachele will be blogging for us to help you maintain your fitness goals. See the link to her first blog at the end of this interview.

You had a busy day today. What were you doing?

I was shooting with Reebok, the fitness company. Today was a dance aerobics day and then tomorrow I’m shooting with them for their yoga stuff and I think next week we’re doing CrossFit, so it’s a big workout week for me.

What’s your personal fitness regime like?

I like to do everything. I’m really obsessed with yoga because of just how much it changed my body, my mind…And because I have so much going on all the time it’s really helpful to center me and calm me down and get me ready for auditions and just puts me in a really good place. I do a lot of biking, hiking, martial arts. I've been studying kung-fu a lot lately and I do a lot of sparring and a lot of dancing. I grew up a gymnast, so I think a lot of that comes from me growing up a gymnast. I've been into this workout called Cardio Barre recently. It’s like a dance workout where you do strength cardio exercises, but really I've been working a lot on creating my own workouts that I've been filming. I’m just starting out as a thing on my web show, doing short clips of it, but I’m actually working with a company…and we’re creating workout videos to compete with Beach Body and P90X right now and they hired me. They brought me on as the main girl for it for all my creative workouts and bringing that personality to the workouts.

You grew up as a gymnast?

I did. I grew up a gymnast and I was super competitive and I was a very stressed out little girl. But I’m so grateful for it because it gave me such an amazing work ethic and time management and determination and perseverance; all these great qualities or skills at such a young age.

When did you stop being a gymnast?

I was about 14. I was competing Level 8, and at the time I used to get so nervous either I was going to hurt myself or get yelled at by our coaches, because they would yell at us, and I was always such a perfectionist. I couldn’t handle not being perfect all the time, so I used to get so nervous I would throw up before every practice and it just got bad. And then it ended up I was winning this whole competition in San Francisco and I was supposed to win the whole meet. Then on my last event, I did a back handspring pass on the beam and I shattered my hand. I could hear the cracks and they said, “Rachelle, sometimes knuckles crack. Your team needs you.” And I was just crying. At the time, I was 13 and I was like, “Okay, I’m going to try.” So I tried to do a cartwheel on a completely shattered hand and I fell on my head and my other coach saw it happen and pulled me from the competition. Later on I had to have surgery and have six pins in there.

It was a really hard time in my life because that was just my life, my world, and I was trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I actually saw this dance film called Center Stage. It was the first dance film I had seen, and we were sitting in the theater afterwards, everybody had left and I just sat there and had this overwhelming experience. I just cried and said to myself, “I’m going to do that.” So I just sat there and closed my eyes and saw myself doing that and went outside and told my Mom and she was like, “Okay, sure you are.” And then years later, when I was 18, I moved to L.A. on a performing arts scholarship program.

Which scholarship program?

It’s called Edge Performing Arts Center. I got picked out of hundreds of people. They picked 18 kids a year and I ended up doing that program for a year. It was just mainly dance but they also had acting and singing in there as well in the program and I did that all day every day, like eight hours a day for a year. Then after that year they had a big show, and I got signed to an agency. Literally my first audition that I saw they were casting on the wall was a call for Center Stage 2, the sequel to that very film where I was like, “I’m going to do that with my life.” Six auditions later…I ended up booking the lead role in that film and it was just a really crazy surreal experience for me to really live my dream, especially at such a young age.

So how old were you, about 18?

I think I was 19 at this point.

What age did you start being a gymnast?

I started gymnastics probably when I was like five. I was so young. I was five or so.

I assume that you probably had aspirations to be an Olympic gymnast.

Oh yes, I wanted to be Kerri Strug.

But, tell me how did you know at age five that this was what you wanted to do?

I think my parents put me in a little class and I loved it. You just get kind of hooked so fast. I've just always been a performer and I think the real aspect that I love about gymnastics is performing. I really loved the floor and the beam because you could perform. Gymnastics led me; it was my first stepping stone to lead me on my path to being a real performer. So that’s why I’m just so grateful for it today.

But now your goal is to concentrate primarily on acting?

Yes, my main goal is acting, but I feel very blessed to have been given a lot of different talents and skills. I try to live my life every day waking up asking myself, how can I use my gifts and talents I've been given to make this world a better place, to inspire, to motivate? Especially after I had my experience with what happened with Center Stage and booking that role and everything, I really learned the power that I found in myself that I believe everybody has to really kind of realize their dreams and do dream big and not be scared to dream big. So I created Unbreakable Dreams.

Tell me about Unbreakable Dreams.

I created Unbreakable Dreams because I always wanted to be a positive role model for kids because, looking around when I was younger, I never really had that, other than watching movies like Center Stage—somebody that I could really watch videos of or look up to that was a celebrity, and I just always wanted to do that. I saw how much influence that people had on the world and I just wanted to use that for good. I also realized that so many people in this world never get told, “Have a dream” and the power of having a dream; and that there’s so many different tricks and techniques you can use to really live a happy life and stay positive through challenges and create the life that you dream of.

So give me a couple of tips. What would you—?

Yeah. One of my first things I always tell—because I teach Unbreakable Dreams workshops around the country where I do motivational speeches, I always combine dance and fitness and even acting exercises into those workshops because I have found that when I had been to different speakers, I had realized the power of exercise and when you hear inspirational talks there’s a power that comes with you hearing that. When your endorphins are high and you’re feeling amazing, there’s just this power and this rush of energy you feel when you’re doing exercise and fitness; you feel on top of the world and feel like you can do anything. I really tried to merge the inspiration and goal setting with doing fitness and I've just found that can be such a life-changing experience.

So my tips would be… The first thing every day that I do that has completely changed my life and helps me stay positive and motivated to keep going, especially when I’m in an industry where you get hundreds of nos for every one yes, the first thing I do when I wake up is I watch something that inspires me. I look through YouTube or different things like Ted Talks or I Google inspirational speeches or motivational videos and while I’m getting ready in the morning, I listen to them and it just really sets your day off right. Then I write five things that I’m grateful for for that day. When things start coming into my mind throughout the day—I really kind of think illogically sometimes because you can have one hundred things that are said to you that are nice and one person says one mean thing, you’re going to focus on that negative thing unless we really train our brains and our minds to focus on the positive and be open to looking for good.

Our mind, I think it’s just a big computer and whatever questions—this is another big one I teach a lot—is to always ask, “What can I do to make this situation better?” Instead of what I think when bad things happen to us, automatically our mind goes to: “Why is this happening to me? This is so unfair.” And people put themselves in a victim state instead of a place where you can actually do something about it. Whatever questions somebody might ask themselves, your brain, you’re going to search your computer and it’s going to give you an answer either way. So yeah, I would say watching something that inspires you every day, writing out gratitude lists, and always watching yourself talk and asking yourself questions.

I think that’s really terrific advice. You're also very involved in anti-bullying, correct?

Yes, I’m very into that. I saw the Bully documentary that was done, I think a year or so ago, and I was so inspired by it and I had no idea, I grew up, I got made fun of in high school. I used to be a huge tomboy and all the girls would pick on me because I didn’t wear girly clothes and I didn’t want to play with Barbies and I liked doing a lot of guy stuff. So there were a lot of times I would come home from school crying because I didn’t feel like I fit in or a lot of the other girls were being mean to me or they wouldn’t want to be friends with me and they would do a lot of those mean things to me, but I never had it as bad as some of the things I was watching in this movie, Bully.

When I saw that film, I was just like, I have to do something to help make this better. It took me a while to figure out an idea, but I came up with—me and my friend Chelsea Croft, we came up with the idea…Selfies are a huge thing in our society recently and now we have the un-selfie using un-selfies to help tell people’s stories and help encourage anti-bullying. We believe that the more people that are standing up against it and sending the message that it’s not cool, especially when you have people that are in the public eye that kids look up to, they’re going to realize what they’re doing and now think twice.

Before, when you were kids, it’s like people encourage it. “Wow, let’s go make fun of that kid.” And I think the more celebrities and people that the kids look up to can say, “Hey, this isn’t cool. Let’s love people. Let’s help each other out.” And my biggest thing is, you know, I took an un-selfie celebrating being different because I feel like that’s what makes this world so awesome is that we all have these gifts and talents that are all different and they’re all unique; and just because somebody is different than you doesn’t mean that it’s bad or stupid or weird. It’s like looking for the good in everybody instead of bad. So yeah, celebrating being different is kind of my big thing that I try to tell kids. What I was really excited about was that me and Chelsea shot this video encouraging all of our fans or people that saw the video to post either a quick testimonial saying what they wanted to do in their community to help stop bullying as well as take an un-selfie, holding a paper writing out a quote or something they wanted to tell the world about bullying.

Is this video on YouTube?

Yes, it is. It’s on my channel. It’s on youtube.com/UBDreams. It’s also on my website: UnbreakableDreams.com. I have a social good page where we put up all the different anti-bullying videos, as well as I’m trying to put up every un-selfie that they send in. And then I’m actually working with, this is a really cool thing; we’re working with Bully the movie now. I reached out to them and told them the story and how much they had inspired me and our idea, and we got on a conference call with them and now we’re doing a big campaign with them. They’re actually constantly posting every day on Instagram un-selfie anti-bullying pictures and stories that kids are sending in, and then I’m going to take all those images and we’re going to make a really powerful video with everybody’s images and stories that we hope will make a big impact.

Outside of the movie, Center Stage, what would you consider being the biggest influences in your life, people or movies?

I would say celebrity-wise…I constantly am watching interviews and features on different celebrities because I just think why I am an actress is because I think why I’m in the business of storytelling is I believe so much in the power of storytelling to inspire and change lives. And, for some reason, I’m kind of obsessed with Sandra Bullock and I just think she’s amazing. A lot of times before I go to bed at night, I’ll always look up different interviews or stories about different celebrities that I look up to. I've watched a ton of Sandra Bullock videos.

Who else do you look up to outside of Sandra Bullock?

I have to say I feel super blessed and super grateful to come from an amazing family. I constantly look up to my parents. My dad’s actually a brain surgeon and he actually just came out with a book. He practices at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

My mom had five kids and she was an amazing mother and always supported us. I think when I told them I wanted to come out to L.A., it was hard for them at first and they weren’t really that into it, but after I proved myself they’ve just been the biggest fans and biggest supporters of my career. Me and my Dad actually have done some different series for his hospital when my films come out. I used to watch him go do surgeries in the hospital and I think that’s really what gave me so much of my, I guess compassion and humanitarian side because I used to go to the hospital all the time and I would spend the night there and watch him do surgeries and I just felt so blessed to be able to be healthy and to be able to do all the things I could do. I just wanted to help people.

I hear you.

So I would definitely say the one person who has made a huge impact in my life is—I mean, my fellow actors or actresses that I really look to a lot are Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep. There’s a couple like Reese Witherspoon, Rachel McAdams, and Angelina Jolie I really look up to and I try to make my career a mix of all of those, because I could fall into this like ‘the sexy girl,’ but I really want to show people all different sides, that you can be silly, you can be funny, you can be weird and nerdy, and you can also have a real badass side to you and be powerful and strong as a woman.

There is this man, Jeff Hoffman. He actually was one of the creators of Priceline and he has done so much with his life and he’s been a big inspiration to me and somewhat has turned into kind of like family. I met him at an event I did at United Nations with this company called Impact and it was the top 100 entrepreneurs in this country and I got invited to go. And he does these motivational speeches around the world and he also is really into film and music. So it was just such a perfect meeting for me because I do all those things: motivational speaking, acting, music, anything to inspire, basically. I had met him and connected and he just gave me the biggest hug, and right away I hear one of his speeches and it touched me so much to stay inspired and keep going after my dreams. It gets really hard sometimes when, like I said I go on auditions constantly, and you just can’t ever—I guess I would tell myself and other people that your big break could be tomorrow and if you give up now, you’ll never know.

So just to never give up. And the thing I've found that helps me so much is to constantly be watching other people that are doing it and look at their stories. So listening to Jeff Hoffman talk, and then he came up to me after, and he was just like, “I want you to know, I believe in you 1000% and I want to do everything I can to help you make your dreams and goals a reality and I believe in the positive impact you can have on the world.” It’s people like that that really change the course of people’s lives and, as much as he has changed mine, I really want to be that for any fan or any young person I can and that’s why I constantly, along with my acting/singing/dancing career, doing videos and Instagram posts and workshops for people, so that they can feel like somebody believes in them and that they can go after big dreams and accomplish them.

Thanks Rachele! It has been a pleasure getting to know you better.

Thank you.

Read Rachele's Fitness Blog here, and to learn more about Rachele visit her website here.

Details: Written by Super User; Published: 04 April 2014; Hits: 13395

Tanna Frederick: Her Story
The Plot Of One of Henry Jaglom's Movies?

By Shirley Craig

The plot of this movie might be familiar - a struggling young actress from middle America who can't seem to get a break happens to meet a well-connected industry vet who envisions her as a future sensation, and a movie star is born. While that was the story told anew in Henry Jaglom's feature, the acclaimed Hollywood Dreams, it also happens to be pretty close to the real-life story of the film's dynamic and engaging leading lady. But actress Tanna Frederick, who drew raves for her tour-de-force as aspiring starlet Margie Chisek, is quick to point out that although they have similar stories, she's far from the chaotic and sometimes naive Margie.

Audiences who have seen Hollywood Dreams and Queen of the Lot might be forgiven for making that mistake, as Frederick's uncanny rendering of an ambitious and charming starlet who can barely restrain her fragile emotional state, is a compelling portrait of an actress in the tradition of Bette Davis' performances in All About Eve and Dangerous; and Gloria Swanson's painfully deluded Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.

queenofthelotposter Indeed, many critics have harkened back to an earlier era of screen star, noting that Frederick's screen presence recalls a "young Bette Davis on crack" and compares favorably to legends like Lucille Ball, Judy Garland and Fanny Brice. "Hollywood Dreams is driven by Ms. Frederick's no-boundaries commitment to her broken character," wrote the New York Times, "a performance that is startling as it is touching."

"Bette Davis is my inspiration right now," confesses Tanna, who, like Margie, is a devoted cinephile. "I don't feel that I can possibly compare to her, but I admire the way she was always in the moment, and the way that theatre and her life and her art were inseparable." "Comedy is based on pain; most great comic performers have great pain and live in a huge amount of denial."

"There's an early tragedy that translates into a masking, and there's a strange truthfulness to that. I wanted people to have sympathy for Margie, but be a little confused as to whether they loved her or hated her."

Hollywood Dreams, earned Tanna Best Actress at World Fest Houston, Montana International Film Festival, Fargo Film Festival and the Wild Rose Film Festival. The film took Best Picture honors at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival and Best Comedy at World Fest Houston. She was named Method Fest’s “Performer to Watch” and has also received the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival’s “Maverick” Award.

Frederick’s relationship with Jaglom was extended to Irene in Time in which Frederick was reunited with Hollywood Dreams co-stars David Proval, Zack Norman and Karen Black, Queen of the Lot opposite Noah Wyle (the film picked up Hollywood Dreams Maggie Chase character three years later, where Chase, now an action-movie star, is under house arrest for multiple DUIs) and Just 45 Minutes From Broadway.

She has also wrapped production on two other features –The M Word with Corey Feldman and Michael Imperioli and The Farm, the first production under her latest venture, Project Cornlight that aims to develop Iowa-based films and other projects showcasing Iowa.

Frederick, a proud Iowan, knew she wanted to be a performer since childhood. "Iowa is really an amazing place for theatre. Maybe because people don't have as much to do, they spend a lot of time expressing themselves. I started doing local and children's theatre in fourth grade, and was basically doing five shows a year for most of my life."

When she went to college at the University of Iowa, she double majored in theatre and political science/international relations. Despite the daunting academic challenges of two disparate courses of study, Frederick thrived, particularly enjoying working with younger playwrights on new works. "With the playwriting program and the Writer's Workshop, I did a lot of new work. I'm so grateful for that, because when I came to California, I had a very open mind about strange, independent and unusual projects."

There were plenty of independent projects for Frederick to work in after her graduation as class valedictorian and the move to Hollywood, but like many young performers, regular paying work and success seemed far away. That's when Frederick learned from a friend that independent director Henry Jaglom had a history of responding to fan letters. Even though she'd never seen his films, Frederick wrote to Jaglom asking for an audition. The director responded by casting her in his play, A Safe Place. Her work so impressed him, that soon she was starring in Always - But Not Forever, Jaglom's theatrical revision of his earlier screen work, and preparing her to star in Hollywood Dreams. "We created a really wonderful balance," says Frederick of Jaglom, who has made a career out of casual but pointed observations about the intricacies of human relationships against the backdrop of show business. "He has this objectivity about Hollywood, having been there so long, and the film played on my subjectivity of that experience. He provided the framework in which Margie could live - he's known all of these characters as people, and I just put myself in the reality of the moment."

Meanwhile, Frederick is looking forward to hosting the seventh annual Iowa Film Festival - an event she founded. "People were so thrilled to have that festival in their community," she says. "All kinds of people - lawyers, students, regular people - were inspired to try their hand at filmmaking, and this year the event has increased threefold." She was recently named the recipient of the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Alumni Award for 2012 and also received the 2012 CineCause Award at the Julien Dubuque Film Festival.

A devoted fitness advocate whose impressive Tae Kwon Do skills can be seen in Hollywood Dreams, Frederick is also spending as much time as she can at the beach where she admits to having a "serious mistress" - the surf. "I never expected to become addicted to surfing," she admits. "I guess when you grow up landlocked, you never think about things like that. I've been doing it for a few years now, and it's provided a great balance in my life. I like the aspect of constantly facing a new challenge, and the danger - I broke my nose surfing and have gotten pretty banged up. It's a humbling experience - you're up against this creature, and if you don't respect it, you drown." As a sign of her passion for the art of riding the wild surf, Frederick started "Project Save Our Surf," an annual event she co-hosts with legendary surfer Shaun Tomson, which has raised thousands of dollars for various ocean charities and clean water initiatives. Frederick also serves on the Board of Directors at Tumelo Home. Located in Johannesburg, South Africa, the charity provides full residential care and training to children with severe and profound mental disabilities.

To learn more about Tanna and Save Our Surf, check out her website here.

Details: Written by Amber Topping; Published: 04 April 2014; Hits: 22714

My Fitness Blog

By Rachele Brooke Smith

1. My workout regiment is always changing! I am a huge advocate of continually switching up training sessions (I call workouts training because it is not just a workout to me, it is a lifestyle…always training to be just a lil faster, stronger, peaceful and powerful) so that my body never gets used to the same thing. But with that being said I usually incorporate some sort of dance and yoga into all of my workouts, simply because it makes my body feel good and my spirit feel alive and happy. :) I also have changed my old beliefs that cardio is the be all and end all! It simply is not the case! Quick bursts of cardio mixed in with some sort of strength training is by far more beneficial and not to mention...fun! The more fun you make your "training sessions" the more you will want to keep doing it; not to mention the more healthy and happy you will become!

2. I eat as much veggies as I can possibly get my hands on! I really try and stick to the plain and simple whole organic natural foods as possible. I feel like I am always eating! I really want to help make a shift in the common misbelief that in order to be thin you have to eat less! I actually eat a ton of food, it’s just a ton of things like celery, snap peas, almonds, cashews, lean meats, spinach, kale, cucumbers, avocados, plant fusion protein powder, tomatoes, broccoli...

3. There are so many things that inspire me to be active and stay healthy. I think the main one is that I just always want to be the very best I can be...I think the way we view ourselves is one of the most important things in life! If you view yourself as a rockstar athlete then you will soon become one! Fitness and health just makes me feel great and energized, ready to take on any challenge that may come my way! I think of it more as fitness for my spirit more than anything else. Plus I always get the best ideas during my training sessions! I genuinely do love training and always find ways to make it new and fun so I will continually want to do it!

4. The biggest mistake people make when trying to get in shape, is think they can go kill themselves at the gym for an hour then go eat whatever they want and be sedentary throughout the rest of the day. I firmly believe "abs are made in the kitchen" meaning it’s really about 70% diet and 30% training (to see physical results). As a society we must shift our mindset from "working out" to being active throughout the day (long walks, hiking, biking...are so under rated) as well as viewing food as our fuel..." Would you ever put regular gas in a premium car?" Then why would you treat your body any different?

5. I honestly don’t think I could pick one thing that helps me stay in shape...it is all so connected mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But once again, I think changing from the mindset of "killing myself at the gym" to being active throughout the day is huge!!! I think always reminding myself that no matter what is going in my sometimes crazy days that, "my well being is the most important above all else" especially because too much stress tends to make us either hold onto fat and or crazy sugary foods! I constantly say "I can choose peace over this!)" and it help me see the bigger better picture!

To read my daily fit blog posts go to www.IamRacheleBrookeSmith.com "inspire fit blog" page and to read Reap's indepth interview click here.