Midwest Movie Maker

Amy Stoch as Bill (and Ted's) stepmom Missy in 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' You don’t have to look far to find Cleveland’s connection to Bill & Ted Face the Music - and the two Bill & Ted adventures that came before it. Chances are, she’s making burnt grilled cheese for the excellent adventurers. Amy Stoch , who plays Bill’s (and Ted’s) stepmom, Missy, was born and raised in Cleveland and always wanted to be an actor. Actress and educator Amy Stoch “I came home in second grade from a career day, walked in the door and promptly told my mother I wanted to be a movie star,” Stoch told the Champaign, Ill News-Gazette in 2013 .  “It never wavered. All through grade, high school and college and the advanced degrees — it's been theater and film.”  She went on to get her undergraduate degree at Ashland University before earning her masters from California State University and her PhD in Theatre History, Theory and Criticism from the University of Illinoi...

Filmmaker Eric Swinderman We’re more than five long months into (ugh, do I say it?) our post-COVID-19 new normal (there, I did it), and, for the most part, we are all still in quarantine.  While it’s true we’re all getting out a bit more and taking on versions of normal things, things certainly aren’t normal. Everything requires a little more thought and thoughtfulness, along with whole bunch of new skills. So while we’re not stuck at home, we are staying at home. And we’re still talking to filmmakers about what they’re doing during the pandemic. Today we chat with Eric Swinderman, best known for his films Made in Cleveland and The Enormity of Life . MMM: How would you describe being a filmmaker locked down at home without a crew? Eric Swinderman (ES): As someone who considers myself a writer first, the change hasn’t been that drastic as I was working on an episodic series for streaming. So while I probably haven’t been writing as much during the lockdown as I could be, due to th...