The New Pomonok / 'Maintenance Phase'
Pomonok Entertainment is something that's lived in Teresa's brain since she was 15 years old, a banner she's been using "officially" since 2018, and a fully-incorporated LLC since 2022.
Our mission has evolved over time, but the core remains: we want to create entertaining, thoughtful, inclusive content across multiple mediums while also living our values through the way we do business. If you've been around these parts a while, you know that a big part of our mission has to do with being in service to the unhoused community in Los Angeles (and anywhere else we're active), but Pomonok is also about operating ethically as a company.
We want to be an example to others in the entertainment industry of how it's possible to be successful creatively and financially while also taking care of our team, and being mindful of the effect our stories have on our wider culture. We want to leave the world better than we found it, and it's important to us that we can maintain a certain level of integrity in the creation and distribution of our work.
Pomonok is a work in progress, but we're working hard to be a little better today than we were yesterday. This often means that the progress is slow. After all, so many "instant" successes are instant because they are willing to cut corners, exploit, or engage in all sorts of things we're not. But Pomonok is in it for the long haul.
If you've had a looksee at our new subscription tiers (click the SUBSCRIBE button to the right for more info!), you'll see that we've got lots of creative projects in the works!
Here are the highlights:
Our new prose fiction project, Seventy-Nine, will start releasing as individual stories to our Pomonok Publishing subscribers starting JULY 16. This is a series of short stories by Teresa Jusino inspired by photographer Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" from 1979--the year Teresa was born.
Your favorite podcast about life, love, and growing up through the lens of the J.J. Abrams/Matt Reeves hit TV show 'Felicity' RETURNS! 'Finding Felicity' will be back with new episodes wherever you listen to podcasts starting SEPTEMBER 27 with a new co-host and a new format! And we'll be re-releasing the older episodes three times a week starting JULY 15. So, if you need to catch up, you'll have plenty of time! And if you want bonus episodes and input on future episodes, subscribe to the Pomonok Podcasts newsletter and find Felicity with us!
Pomonok is currently developing its first video game with a story by Teresa Jusino. ROBOT GIRL is an interactive fiction/visual novel experience that tells the story of a teenage girl who's always felt like a weirdo and who arrives at the conclusion that she must be a robot. A playable first chapter of the game should be complete by September, and we hope to release it on Steam shortly after that! If you want to be involved with alpha/beta testing, and be sent a download of each chapter of the game before it's released, subscribe to Pomonok Games!
Happy Birthday, Harold! is a short film written and directed by Teresa Jusino currently in pre-production. Harold tells the story of a very interesting object and how it came to be. We hope to get it into production in August/September and release it before the end of 2024. Keep up with this project through our Pomonok Pictures tier and guarantee your digital copy when it's finished!
Stay tuned for updates on these projects and more!
POMONOK APPROVED: PODCASTS
If you love informative, well-researched podcasts with charming hosts who are as funny as they are smart, Maintenance Phase should be in your rotation.
Hosted by author and activist Aubrey Gordon and journalist Michael Hobbes, this podcast does a great job of dissecting (and often debunking) the "wellness industry" while examining the racism, sexism, fatphobia, homophobia, and classism that permeates it.
Plus, Gordon and Hobbes are delightful queermos who are entertaining as hell to listen to.
Here are some of their best episodes to get you started (with summaries from the podcast):
**The Trouble With Calories - "Weight loss is as simple as "calories in, calories out," right? Or - gasp - could the reply guys be wrong?! This week, we dig in on the surprisingly complex science behind a seemingly simple calculation."
**RFK Jr. and the Rise of the Anti-Vaxx Movement - "A political candidate has some questions and we have some extremely obvious answers."
**The Body Mass Index - "The BMI is EVERYWHERE. But is it scientific or scientif-ish? While many Americans think of the body mass index as an objective measure of health, its history reveals a more complicated story."
**Is Being Fat Bad For You? - "For nearly four decades, Americans have heard a simple story about health, longevity, and obesity. This week, we learn it's a little more complicated."
Have a question or a comment for us? Email: teampomonok@gmail.com