Young Hollywood in Conversation
Featuring Actor, Writer, Producer Datari Turner
Over the past several years, Turner has produced a diverse range of films including LA Film Fest’s Project Involve Screening film LUV, DYSFUNCTIONAL FRIENDS, VIDEO GIRL, the all-white cast films ANOTHER HAPPY DAY (starring Demi Moore), CHERRY (starring James Franco) and IT’S A DISASTER.
Join as LA Film Fest Director Stephanie Allain talks with him about his views on Hollywood in 2012, Artistic Integrity and how he went from in demand fashion model to actor, and then took control behind the camera.
Stephanie Allain is a film producer and former studio executive who has been an advocate for visionary filmmakers for more than two decades. As a Columbia Pictures executive, she was instrumental in the making of John Singleton’s Boyz n The Hood, which garnered him two Academy Award® nominations and set the bar for contemporary urban dramas. She spent a decade at the studio launching the careers of first-time filmmakers including Singleton, Robert Rodriguez and Darnell Martin. Several of the films she supervised, including El Mariachi and I Like It Like That, garnered awards at the Cannes, Telluride and Sundance film festivals. During her tenure at Columbia Pictures, she rose through the ranks to become Senior Vice President of Production–the highest creative production position for an African-American for over a decade.
From 1996-2000, Allain served as President of Jim Henson Pictures, where she produced Muppets From Space, Elmo In Grouchland and Caroline Thompson’s Buddy. In 2000, she headed production at 3 Arts Entertainment, producing Biker Boyz and Good Boy! In 2004, she formed her own production company, Homegrown Pictures, and produced Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow, which won the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, an Academy Award® for Best Original Song and earned a Film Independent Spirit Award and Academy Award® Best Actor nomination for Terrence Howard.
In 2005, she produced Sanaa Hamri’s directorial debut, Something New, for Focus Features, with the film earning two nominations for the NAACP Awards. She also produced Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. In 2008, Allain traveled to her native New Orleans to produce Hurricane Season, starring Forest Whitaker and Taraji P. Henson, for The Weinstein Company. Most recently, she produced Tina Gordon Chism’s directorial debut, We The Peeples, starring Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington, which will be released by Lionsgate in 2013.
Allain is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America. She recently sat on the Board of Film Independent and currently serves on the Board of Women In Film. She has chaired the Spirit Awards Nominating Committee, juried numerous festivals and has taught at USC’s Peter Stark Program and the Entertainment Studies Division of UCLA. She lives in Los Angeles with her composer husband, Stephen Bray, and their fast emptying nest.
