Conversation with Hero, Candace Bowen

Candace Bowen

and Terri Marie






Conversation with Hero, Candace Bowen
VP Women in Film, Membership
by Terri Marie
© 2005


Candace Bowen has a refreshing, open charming style with a reputation for getting things done. As second in command in the most prestigious film and TV organization for women (and men) in the world, Candace has proven her ability to inspire, educate and provide enormous opportunities for those willing and ready to step up to the plate.

We had a great talk until Sundance, her dog, needed her more than I did.

HELPING OTHERS

Candace seems to have a life theme of giving. “I grew up a Baptist,” she said.
“I went to bible school where there were always stories that children could understand. I remember the story about someone crying because they had no shoes.
But then someone else had no feet. You have to know you’ve been fortunate. Some have less than you. It becomes not so much trying to be successful but helping those who are less fortunate.”
That decision to help others changed her destiny.

She learned early on how to cooperate with others.

“Growing up I played Double Dutch, Hop Scotch, jump rope and jacks, always played a lot of jacks. I still have them in a bowl. I also like the hula-hoop. Each time you did it you got better, that’s for sure. Coming from the inner city that’s all you did in the neighborhood. There was always something that was challenging, collaboration with a team, wanting to succeed.”

VOLUNTEER

Her first foray into volunteering did not earn Candace the respect or encouragement by her friends. Instead, they made fun of her. Thank goodness that didn’t stop her. “I remember my first volunteer job as a candy striper. I was working the special ward. When I was walking to the bus in my uniform my friends laughed at me, yelling, ‘How much are they paying you, Candace? How much are they paying you?’
They teased me about working and not getting paid.”
Luckily she had a sensible mother who said,
“Yes, but you are getting paid in such a big way.”

“It was true,” Candace said. “I had firemen who had been in accidents on the job and had broken their leg or their neck. I’d get there first thing in the morning, get them their mail and read them the paper.” She was an important element to their day. “They were so happy waiting for me to get there. I was needed. I wasn’t the nurse. I wasn’t the doctor, but I was doing things that were just as important. I lifted spirits.”

LESSONS IN THE KITCHEN

Another strong women influenced Candace, her grandma

“Grandma would be cooking and I’d ask her how she knew exactly how much to put in. She said, ‘You just know. A pidgin of this, a pinch of that.’ That’s how you do things in life. You try a pidgin of this or that until you get the flavor right.”

“My grandma couldn’twrite very easily. It was hard for her. So I wrote her letters for her. I answered the letters for her too. Then I started elaborating on those letters and that’s how I became a writer.”

This led to her become an award-winning Producer, In 1991, she produced the critically acclaimed play "Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery" at the West Coast Ensemble, which earned her not only the Dramalogue Award for best play, but two of the play's four NAACP theatre image awards that year. She is also a producer. Her company, Earlybird Productions created many projects dealing with minority and women's issues. Coming from an entertainment family, it was no surprise that she had roles in Starsky & Hutch, Different Strokes, Baretta, Escape from Alcatraz. Her mother was a singer and classical pianist and her brother, Jeffrey Bowen, a Producer at Motown Records

LESSONS AROUND THE DINING ROOM TABLE

Candace Has the Gift of Vision, Born of Gratefulness

It takes a visionary to see something that’s not there and bring it to life. She was always that visionary, able to see things. Perhaps she was influenced by the ministers who gathered around the family’s dinner table. “Children back then were seen and not heard. We were the listeners. If you did talk about something, you had everybody’s ear so it better be good. It was our Golden Rule. There were always so many people doing without, that you felt blessed to have what you have. What was on your plate, you ate. We were always thankful.”

YOU GET TESTED

Candace thinks we’re always being tested and doesn’t like it when people don’t practice what they preach. “When there’s no one out there to see, are you going to take that last dollar in your pocket or purse and give it to another? Some people will come right out of church and walk right past someone who needs help. They’ll look the other way.”


How did she get to be a leader in Women In Film?

“I wanted to do something for the organization. I came to a crossroads in my career. As I grew out of being an ingenue as an actress, I started to get offered roles as prostitues and the like. I asked myself, ‘Do I take the roles and swallow it, or take charge and have more control instead of waiting for an agent?’ An actor has to be a big optimist. If I was to tell the agent I was not going out for the role, I was going against grain. When I joined WIF, they said, ‘Hey it’s alright to tell the agent you’re not going to do that.’ I wanted to do something for this organization. They supported the best in me”

Partially relying on luck and her determination to give back, a vision came to her for the Malibu breakfast. “I put all these elements into it and it became a reality,” she said. “I remember when I started this breakfast and was trying to promote it. I’d go to Women in Film and give out flyers. They’d say, ‘Oh, you don’t expect me to drive all the way to Malibu?’ I’d say, ‘No. But I do expect Malibu to wake up.’”

IT TAKES OFF

“All of a sudden things start and you don’t know why. You’d been putting puzzle pieces together for so long and all of a sudden it clicks. It’s like playing tennis. The instructor gives you all these things to think about and you ask, ‘How do I learn all this?’ Then boom, all of a sudden you’ve got the rhythm. You’ve got to get your own rhythm. You don’t know exactly when you grasp it. It becomes part of the things that fit you. It becomes part of your wardrobe.”

Go ahead 15 years.

She’s on the board of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce. “Now we got it breakfasts all over the place. The Malibu breakfast has taken its rightful place in the community, along with local service clubs. It’s a great honor to be in that company, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis and the Opimist Club of Malibu. We had the first networking mixer for all the service clubs of Malibu. It was called the Power Breakfast and we honored Sheriff Lee Baca. I’m like the Pied Piper, bringing people together.”

“I always knew I could get a job quicker than if I went to an unemployment line. We need to be self-starters. It’s not so much about me anymore. Candace was a Barbezon graduate. “I like the fact that what they do for women, making a difference. When you see that you know it does make a difference,” she said. Women in Film thinks along the same lines, offerring opportunities. They offer many scholarships to budding filmmakers.

ARTIST OF GRATITUDE

Reminiscent of her little friends who teased her, her husband once said, “But you’re not getting paid.” Candace replied, “When you give something, and get a ‘Thank you so much,’ then yes, it is working. It feels good to do this.”

KEEP ON GOING

Candace has an ability to go into a problem and come up with the answer. Listening paid off. She tells stories using her imagination. “As an independent producer it all comes from the creative mind. I remember being devastated when one thing didn’t work. Now I know to have a Plan B and when you have that, it can’t devastate you. When one person leaves, there are ten to follow. I’d think I’d have a sponsor, then right before signing the contract, I’d get a call, ‘I’m sorry, we just don’t have the staff etc, and can’t participate.’ I turn to the computer for a brand new sponsor right then and there. I put energy in and wait for the magic to happen and it does.”

THE LIFE CHANGING TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA

“WIF sent me to South Africa to open a chapter there in 1998. I will never forget it. President Iris Grossman sent me as a representative from America. I attended the Crystal Awards and started the first networking breakfast down there in Johannesburg. People there have so much less than I do. I thought,
‘But by the grace of God, I could’ve been here.’ It was the luck of the draw.
So I’d dress down, take off my earrings. I didn’t want to be perceived as
the person who knew it all. They asked me, ‘Candace, you coming from the most wealthy country on the planet. You do something we don’t do. You volunteer.
Can you teach us?’”

Candace did teach them, launching the first annual Women in Film breakfast in Johannesburg, Africa. “Volunteers are the most powerful people on the planet. They change things. They do things you can’t pay people for. I got a letter thanking me so much for what I did. The voice of communication opens up and things are changing. That makes a difference.”

“They asked me ‘What were you doing down there?’ I took hope. It wasn’t on a piece of paper. It was nothing I wrote down. That’s my journey. That’s my mission. When they ask what is my mission statement - that’s it. I give people hope.”

Whether in South Africa or Malibu she brings people that message of hope.

When she asked herself “I wonder why was I put on this earth?” she searched and found what became her answer. Her advice is sound for someone wondering what to do in life. “In time of doubt, volunteer,” Candace says. “It will come to you. In a crowd, you’ll get an inspiration. Every idea is universal. It is put out there for everyone. Be the person who takes an idea and moves it to the finish line. Then you find out there’s an audience, people who care about the same things you care about. It’s a support group, instead of ‘There’s me. There’s me. There’s me.’ Focusing on others is a gift. When you come to a crossroads in life and say
“Is it easier for me to do something for myself or to do it for others,
draw the line. Choose to help others.”

WHO ARE HER HEROES?

“I always wonder what kind of person a fireman is. Everyone can’t be a fireman. My heroes are the little guys that don’t make the newspapers but make the deadlines, make a difference and are very unselfish. They get the job done and they do it for all the right reasons, because they care. Those are my heroes.”

HER LIFE LESSONS

• Do the right thing when it is presented to you.
“That is the most important thing. Then you get to a new chapter of life that has a new title on it,” she says.

• Don’t restrict yourself.
“We get detoured into ‘lala’ land and forget what’s really valuable. What do you really want to do? When they ask me that question, I say, ‘Does it have to be one thing?’”

• Do a few things that have your name on it.
“And do them very well.”

• It’s all about networking.
“That’s how we get connected in life.”

• Don't worry about who’s doing it.
“When I’m doing it, it’ll be totally different. from someone else. That’s OK.”

• Make a difference in one person’s life.
“That’s where it all is.”

• Show Up
“A person who listens, follows through, shows up, that’s the person who’s going to make it. They say, 90% is just showing up.”

• You listen.

Listen to the voice of a woman who has been extremely successful and loves her role of serving, both in the community of Malibu and the greater world of helping women who want to make a difference in the land of film and television. Go Candace!

Live like a hero,

Terri Marie
White Wing Entertainment
Herobookonline.com
Terri Marie write a monthly column called Heroes Among Us and would love you to share your hero story at Heroesamongus.blogspot.com