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Adepero Oduye stars as "Alike" in Focus Features release, PARIAH, directed by Dee Rees. Photo: © 2011 Focus Features.

Pariah (2011)

Opened: 12/28/2011 Limited

Trailer: Click for trailer

Websites: Home, Facebook

Genre: Drama

Rated: R for sexual content and language.

Synopsis

A world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the contemporary drama Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees' awardwinning 2007 short film Pariah. Spike Lee is among the feature's executive producers. At Sundance, cinematographer Bradford Young was honored with the [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award.

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry, and is a good student at her local high school.

Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents' marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike's development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague's daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with.

Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity -- sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.

A Focus Features, Northstar Pictures, and Sundial Pictures presentation in association with aid+abet, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and MBK Entertainment. A Dee Rees Film. Pariah. Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Aasha Davis, Charles Parnell, Sahra Mellesse, and Kim Wayans. Casting, Eyde Belasco, CSA. Edited by Mako Kamitsuna. Production Design by Inbal Weinberg. Cinematography by Bradford Young. Produced by Nekisa Cooper. Written and Directed by Dee Rees. A Focus Features Release.

About the Cast

Adepero Oduye (Alike)

Adepero hails from Brooklyn, New York City by way of Nigeria. She is a graduate of Cornell University; and has studied acting with Wynn Handman, Austin Pendleton, and Susan Batson. Her name is pronounced "Addeh- pair-o Oh-due-yay."

Her theatre credits include Danai Gurira's play Eclipsed, at the Yale Repertory Theatre; The Bluest Eye, at the Hartford Stage and Long Wharf Theatres; and Fela!, in the AEA workshop, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones.

Ms. Oduye first starred for writer/director Dee Rees as Alike in the awardwinning short film Pariah. Among the other shorts that she has starred in are Gabriele Zamparini's Water; Russell Costanzo's The Tested; and Nadiah Hamzah's Sub Rosa.

She has made guest appearances on such television programs as Louie and two Law & Order series.

Ms. Oduye credits the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn (CFL) for helping her find her voice as an actor; in 2011, CFL honored her at its Celebrating Community event.

Pernell Walker (Laura)

Pernell hails from the South Bronx and thanks God for allowing her to work with such passionate, profound filmmakers and theater artists. She holds a MFA in acting from The Actors Studio Drama School as well as a BA in Theater from City College.

In 2010, Ms. Walker enjoyed a sold-out run in Classical Theater of Harlem's workshop production of Radha Blank's SEED, directed by Niegel Smith, starring in the role of Rashawn. She reprised the role for the 2010 Hip-Hop Theater Festival staging of the show, and will do so again in the fall of 2011 in her off-Broadway debut.

Her other notable stage work includes Sistas on Fire, with the Act-Now Foundation; the educational tour of Singin wid a Sword in Ma Hand, with Green Gurl Productions; and A Time in South Africa, which was a 2009 semi-finalist in the Strawberry One Act Play Festival.

Ms. Walker originated the role of Laura in writer/director Dee Rees' awardwinning short film Pariah. Her other films include Kiandra Park's Riot; Karen Odyniec's So Over You; and Rod Gaile's Earl's Post-Prison Playdate.

Aasha Davis (Bina)

Aasha is known to audiences for a number of television series and commercials appearances.

Most notably, she was a series regular on the groundbreaking South of Nowhere; and had guest-starring arcs on Friday Night Lights and Grey's Anatomy.

Ms. Davis' other television appearances include roles on ER, The Shield, Gilmore Girls, Boston Public, and House, M.D.

Charles Parnell (Arthur)

Charles was born and raised in Chicago and later moved to New York to pursue his acting career.

After taking a few classes, he came to Richard Pinter (for acting) and Jacklyn Maddux (for voice and speech) of the Neighborhood Playhouse, and studied with each of them for two years. He then joined Manhattan's Jean Cocteau Repertory classical theatre and was a member for 2 years. At Cocteau, he performed in productions of Joe Orton's Loot, George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, and Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Mr. Parnell has since appeared in numerous regional, off-Broadway, and off-off Broadway shows; these include J.T. Rogers' The Overwhelming, directed by Max Stafford-Clark for the Roundabout Theater Company and Ariel Dorfman's Speak Truth to Power, based on the Kerry Kennedy book and staged by Terry Kinney at the Culture Project.

On television, he played Derek Frye for over two years on the daytime drama All My Children; has guest-starred on such shows as Fringe, Law & Order, Bones, and Crash; and was the voice of Jefferson Twilight on the cult hit animated series The Venture Bros. His voiceover work has also encompassed many documentaries and commercials.

Mr. Parnell's previous feature credits include Eric Schaeffer's Mind the Gap; Fred Durst's The Education of Charlie Banks; Terry Kinney's Diminished Capacity; and Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned.

Sahra Mellesse (Sharonda)

Sahra is a Bronx, New York native.

Her first acting role of note was as Sharonda in writer/director Dee Rees' award-winning short film Pariah. She is a series regular on the animated Speed Racer: The Next Generation for the Nicktoons Network, and is currently reprising her voice work for the second season of the Speed Racer series.

She has appeared in guest-starring roles on Law & Order: SVU and Cold Case.

Having studied screenwriting at UCLA, Ms. Mellesse has written a television series pilot in which she plans to star.

Kim Wayans (Audrey)

Kim was born and raised in Manhattan, and moved to Los Angeles after graduating from college.

She performed stand-up comedy and in small parts on television, including a recurring role on NBC's A Different World, before getting her big break on the groundbreaking sketch comedy In Living Color. The Fox Network program was created by her brother Keenen Ivory Wayans and featured her brothers Damon, Shawn, and Marlon. Ms. Wayans became known to audiences for her music video parodies, and for original characters she created such as the popular Benita Butrell ("But I ain't one to gossip, so you didn't hear that from me...").

She next starred opposite LL Cool J on the NBC series In the House; and appeared in such movies as Keenen Ivory Wayans' A Low Down Dirty Shame; Paris Barclay's Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood; and Jesse Vaughan's Juwanna Mann. Ms. Wayans then moved behind the camera to produce, write, and direct episodes of the ABC series My Wife and Kids.

In October 2007, she took to the stage for an acclaimed and extended Los Angeles run of her self-penned one-woman show A Handsome Woman Retreats (...a seriously funny journey to inner peace), which explored her experiences from the projects of NYC through the jungles of Hollywood. She subsequently performed the show as part of the 2008 Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival; and as a headlining feature at The Cleveland Playhouse's FusionFest 2008. In June 2008, she was thrilled to bring her show to her hometown of New York City as part of the soloNOVA Arts Festival at P.S. 122.

With her husband, Kevin Knotts, Ms. Wayans is the author of the series of children's books that follow the daily challenges and triumphs of Amy Hodgepodge, a young girl of mixed race. The character of Amy presents a relatable face and gives a much-needed voice to the growing population of mixed race children worldwide. The books in the Penguin Group-published series have been All Mixed Up!, Happy Birthday to Me, Lost and Found, Playing Games, The Secret's Out, and Digging Up Trouble.

About the Filmmakers

DEE REES (Writer/Director) is an alumna of New York University's graduate film program and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow. She has written and directed several short films, including Orange Bow (centering on a teenage boy) and Pariah. The latter, completed in 2007, screened at over 40 festivals worldwide (including Sundance) and garnered 25 Best Short awards. Additionally, Pariah was a finalist for the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Award. Ms. Rees was also selected as a 2008 Tribeca Institute/Renew Media Arts Fellow for her work; was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" for 2008; and was nominated for a USA Fellowship in 2009. Pariah has now been expanded into Pariah, which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was honored with the Festival's [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award (Bradford Young).

The Nashville native's most recent short film, Colonial Gods, aired on the BBC in the fall of 2009. The short chronicles a complicated friendship between a Somali man and a Nigerian man, set against the backdrop of gentrification in the small immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales known as Tiger Bay.

Also prior to making Pariah, Ms. Rees directed a documentary feature, Eventual Salvation. The film, which she also edited, received a 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund Grant and premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2009. It follows her grandmother's return to Liberia on to help rebuild a community following the country's civil war.

She previously worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee's epic documentary When the Levees Broke and feature Inside Man; and earned a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University.

BRADFORD YOUNG (Cinematography) graduated from Howard University, where he studied under the tutelage of filmmaker Haile Gerima.

For filmmaker Dee Rees, he has been cinematographer on the short films Pariah and Colonial Gods; the documentary feature Eventual Salvation; and the feature Pariah. Mr. Young's work on the latter earned him the 2011 Sundance Film Festival's [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award.

He had earlier been cited as one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" for 2009, reflecting his work on Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned and Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza's Entre nos. Mr. Young was recently cinematographer on another independent feature, Andrew Dosunmu's Restless City, and he is currently prepping to shoot Sebastian Silva's Second Child.

He has also been the director of photography on television commercials and music videos, including for Seu Jorge.

NEKISA COOPER (Producer) is a 2008 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow. She also represented the IFP at the 2009 Cinemart/Rotterdam Producing Lab.

For Dee Rees, she has produced the multi-award-winning short film Pariah; the documentary feature Eventual Salvation; the short films Orange Bow (as coproducer) and Colonial Gods; and now Pariah.

Ms. Cooper is currently in post-production on the feature documentary La muneca fea, a Creative Promise Award winner from the 2009 Tribeca All Access Program and 2010 Elizabeth Pena Fellowship Award Winner through Film Independent. The film focuses on a group of elderly sex workers who live together in Mexico City as a community in Casa Xochiquetzal, a refuge named after the Aztec goddess of beauty and love.

Before she became a producer, Ms. Cooper had a successful career working in brand management for such companies as Colgate-Palmolive, L'Oreal, and General Electric; and held assistant coaching positions for women's basketball on the Division I, Division III, and high school levels. She earned a BA in government with a minor in Japanese studies from The College of William & Mary; and an MBA in marketing from Clark Atlanta University.

INBAL WEINBERG (Production Designer) is an Israeli-born production designer who came to the attention of the American independent film scene with her striking work on Academy Award-nominated writer/director Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, starring Melissa Leo.

Ms. Weinberg's talent for creating authentic and realistic spaces that illuminate the inner worlds of characters has since been on view in Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine, starring Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling; Max Winkler's Ceremony, starring Michael Angarano and Uma Thurman; Jesse Peretz' Our Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd; and Liza Johnson's Return, starring Linda Cardellini and Michael Shannon, which world-premiered at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival.

Her first feature as production designer was Hal Hartley's The Girl from Monday, starring Bill Sage and Sabrina Lloyd; this followed her work as art director on such films as Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson, starring Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling.

MAKO KAMITSUNA (Editor) was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Hiroshima, Japan.

In her early years, she wanted to become an astronaut. In her teenage years, Ms. Kamitsuna recognized her natural talent to manipulate images as a communication tool and realized that becoming a filmmaker might be a more pragmatic aspiration than dreaming of the boundless space above. She gave up pursuing astronomy at UC Berkeley; went on to earn a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University; and later attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film M.F.A. program.

Her notable credits as film editor include Kevin Jordan's Brooklyn Lobster, starring Danny Aiello and Jane Curtin; and Elizabeth Holder's documentary I Want So Much to Live, about the revolutionary birth of the world's first biologic, antibody-based "targeted therapy" for breast cancer.

She has also edited award-winning documentaries on the French Revolution (for the History Channel), the Taliban (for National Geographic), anti-nuclear war, malaria, and immigration. In 2009, she was selected to become a fellow at Film Independent's Project: Involve, collaborating on short films.

Ms. Kamitsuna has edited, written and directed two short films; Betty Anderson, starring Tamlyn Tomita, and the recently completed Katya, starring Chulpan Khamatova and Olek Krupa.

In 2011, she became one of eight women invited to participate in the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women; and will be writing and directing She, Who Excels in Solitude, a short film based on Mercury 13.

ENIOLA DAWODU (Costume Designer) is based in New York City and has a penchant for all things cultured and charismatic, with an aesthetic concentration on film.

Ms. Dawodu was recently assistant costume designer on Andrew Dosunmu's Restless City, which, like Pariah, was a world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and assisted in the costume departments on Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress and Dito Montiel's The Son of No One.

SPIKE LEE (Executive Producer) is an award-winning producer, writer, director, and actor with over three decades of experience in the film industry. Mr. Lee's highly acclaimed work often takes a critical look at race relations, political issues, and urban crime and violence. His debut feature She's Gotta Have It was a huge critical success; his next film, Do the Right Thing, examined all of the above concerns and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

His subsequent films, including Malcolm X, Mo' Better Blues, Summer of Sam, and She Hate Me continued to encourage social and political dialogues. 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

In 2006, Mr. Lee directed and produced a four-hour documentary for television, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That same year, he found boxoffice success with the crime caper Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. His most recent narrative feature, Miracle at St. Anna, told the story of four African-American soldiers trapped in an Italian village during World War II, bringing the often overlooked experiences of black infantrymen -- known as buffalo soldiers -- to the big screen.

His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, is located in his childhood neighborhood of Fort Greene in Brooklyn, NYC.

JEFF ROBINSON, JEANINE McLEAN (Executive Producers) are, respectively, President and General Manager/Vice President of Operations of MBK Entertainment, which Mr. Robinson founded in 1993.

MBK (standing for My Brother's Keeper) Entertainment is a multimedia company nurturing a new generation of artists. The roster encompasses singers, songwriters, composers, and instrumentalists; most of them are still in their teens. The many facets of MBK include a record label and music production division which embraces all genres of music, an international marketing company, a glam agency, publishing company, and a film division.

MBK is based on the concepts and artistry that ushered in such great labels as Motown, Stax, and Philadelphia International; true roots soul, live R&B, and breakthrough songs are the foundation of MBK. The company also takes a methodical approach to talent development, making sure that the artist is prepared for presentation and empowered for creativity. MBK endeavors to bring something fresh and new to the consumer with every artist it represents and this is evident in its roster that includes Alicia Keys, Tyrese, Elle Varner, Gabi Wilson, FAME, Allen Stone, Daisha, Anthony Hall, and Livre.

SAM MARTIN (Executive Producer) is the president of aid+abet, a film and television production company based in California.

The dual goals of aid+abet are; creating high-quality series and longform television, and independent features. On the feature side, aid+abet sources, develops and produces features, with a concentration on genre films. The company is financed through private equity.

Upcoming projects for Ms. Martin include a seven-part miniseries based on Taylor Branch's Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which she will executive-produce for HBO with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films. Other television projects in development include the event miniseries Succession, for USA Network.

Previously, Ms. Martin was vice president of HBO Films and was responsible for overseeing the development and production of 16 unique original movies for the premium channel. These included Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, directed by Yves Simoneau, which was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards and won 6 including Outstanding Made for Television Movie; the 2007 Sundance Film Festival's closing-night film, Nelson George's Life Support, starring Queen Latifah; Lackawanna Blues, directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted by Ruben Santiago-Hudson from his acclaimed one-man show, which received the 2005 Humanitas Prize and earned actress S. Epatha Merkerson a Golden Globe Award; Raoul Peck's Sometimes in April..., starring Idris Elba, which was invited to the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival; the NAACP Image Award-winning Boycott, directed by Clark Johnson and starring Jeffrey Wright; Jim McKay's Everyday People, the ensemble cast of which received a Gotham Award nomination; and Katja von Garnier's Iron Jawed Angels, for which Anjelica Huston won a Golden Globe Award.

A native of New York City, Ms. Martin attended The Brearley School and Columbia College, Columbia University. She has sat on the board of Women in Film.

MARY JANE SKALSKI (Executive Producer) is an independent film producer based in New York City. In 2003, she was cited as one of Variety's "10 Producers to Watch."

Her projects have consistently garnered critical acclaim and commercial success; the most recent, released in March 2011 following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, was Tom McCarthy's Win Win. For the latter writer/director, she was also producer of The Visitor, for which lead actor Richard Jenkins earned an Academy Award nomination, and The Station Agent. In its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, the latter received the Audience Award, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and a special award for actress Patricia Clarkson. Among other honors, the ensemble cast was subsequently nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Awards' top prize, and the filmmakers including Ms. Skalski shared the Independent Spirit Awards' John Cassavetes Award.

She began her career with producers Ted Hope, James Schamus, and Anthony Bregman at the NYC-based independent production company Good Machine. There, she worked on the breakthrough films of Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet), Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen), and Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking). Her first projects as producer included Bart Freundlich's The Myth of Fingerprints, starring Julianne Moore; and John O'Hagan's documentary Wonderland, which won a CableACE Award and received Directors Guild of America and Gotham Award nominations.

Ms. Skalski has since developed and produced features for television and the worldwide theatrical marketplace. In addition to the three films with Thomas McCarthy, these have included Gregg Araki's acclaimed Mysterious Skin, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which won Best Director and Best Actor honors at the Seattle International Film Festival; Adam Salky's Dare, starring Emmy Rossum; and Peter Callahan's Against the Current, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Dallas International Film Festival.

In 2004, Ms. Skalski received the Independent Spirit Producers Award. Since 1997, she has served as an adjunct in the Graduate Film Program at Columbia University.

SUSAN LEWIS (Executive Producer) is Head of Development for film and television at AK Worldwide, the production company of Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter and actress Alicia Keys.

For seven years, she served as Vice President of Development for MTV Films in Los Angeles. Her career began in management and production, as a Story Editor for the multi-tiered 3 Arts Entertainment. Ms. Lewis holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

ANN BRADLEY (Executive Producer), a San Francisco native, graduated with BA and MS degrees from California State University Los Angeles. She later created and produced the Lesbian Writers Series at A Different Light Books in Los Angeles.

After a 20-year career as a publicist for arts, education, and civil liberties organizations, she now devotes herself to animal rights and the environment.

STEFAN NOWICKI, BENJAMIN WEBER, JOEY CAREY (Executive Producers) are partners in Sundial Pictures, a New York City-based independent film production company dedicated to supporting independent documentary and narrative feature films. Sundial works to guide filmmakers at all stages of the filmmaking process, from development to funding to distribution.

As an investor, Sundial aims to provide financial backing in a profitable and responsible way. The goal is to unite filmmakers with production companies, film investors, and philanthropists to help create powerful and affecting motion pictures and bring these films to as wide an audience as possible. Sundial provides the resources and supervision to help filmmakers bring their visions to reality.

Sundial's productions have included writer/director Elgin James' Little Birds, starring Juno Temple, Kay Panabaker, Kate Bosworth, and Leslie Mann, which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; Libby Spears' Playground; Tom Donahue and Paul Hasegawa-Overacker's Guest of Cindy Sherman; Marc Nathanson's Small Town, Big Dreams: Lake Placid's Olympic Story; and J.J. Beck and Joey Carey's Greasy Rider.

Currently in production or post-production are Juan Carlos Saizabitoria and Kelley Whitis' In the Nest; Doug Karr's Art Machine, starring Joseph Cross and Jessica Szohr; and Brian Brightly's Liars All, starring Matt Lanter, Torrance Coombs, Gillian Zinser, with Alice Evans and Sara Paxton.

JULIE PARKER BENELLO, JUDITH HELFAND, WENDY ETTINGER (Executive Producers) launched and co-founded Chicken & Egg Pictures in July 2005.

Chicken & Egg Pictures is a hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the craft of storytelling as they are about the social justice, environmental, and human rights issues that they explore on film. The company matches strategically timed financial support with rigorous, respectful, and dynamic mentorship as well as creative collaboration and community-building. Its filmmakers' diverse voices represent a range of lived experience and realities that have the power to change the world as we know it. Past Chicken & Egg movies have included Eventual Salvation, with the Pariah team of writer/director Dee Rees and producer Nekisa Cooper; Mai Iskander's Directors Guild of America-nominated documentary feature Garbage Dreams; Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers' Lioness; Elizabeth Canner's Orgasm Inc; Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert's Semper Fi: Always Faithful; Jennifer Redfearn's Oscar-nominated documentary short Sun Come Up; and Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth's Academy Award-winning documentary short Freeheld.

Julie Parker Benello has produced documentaries on health and environmental issues, beginning with the hourlong documentary Prostate Cancer: A Journey of Hope, which aired nationally on PBS in June 1999, and also including Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold's award-winning HBO documentary feature Blue Vinyl. Prior to becoming an independent producer, she was an archival researcher for the Cronkite Remembers documentary series and a production executive with Non Fiction Films.

Judith Helfand co-directed the documentary The Uprising of '34 with George Stoney; and the award-winning HBO documentary feature Blue Vinyl and the documentary feature Everything's Cool with Daniel B. Gold. She directed herself in the Peabody Award-winning A Healthy Baby Girl, a 5-years-in-themaking video diary about her experience with DES-related cancer. In November 2007, she was awarded a United States Artist Fellowship Grant as one of "America's finest living artists," to nurture, support, and strengthen her work. She is currently working on Cooked, a story about heat, poverty, and the politics of disaster.

Wendy Ettinger's first documentary feature as producer, The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, was nominated for an Academy Award among other honors. She reteamed with the filmmakers on Moon over Broadway and The War Room Returns; her other documentary producing credits include Douglas Keeve's Hotel Gramercy Park, which received a Jury Citation at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her first narrative feature as producer was the award-winning Eye of God, directed by Tim Blake Nelson. Her directorial debut, Baby I'm Yours, aired on the Oxygen Network.

DOUGLAS A. EISENBERG, MATTHEW J. SIMON (Executive Producers) are the co-founders and co-managing partners of Simon, Eisenberg & Baum, LLP; theirs is a law firm that specializes in sophisticated entertainment, corporate, and real estate transactions as well as complex litigation and trusts & estates matters. It is one of the fastest-growing and well-respected law firms in the country with offices in New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Florida, and Switzerland.

They are also the co-founders of 1 Go, LLC, a full-service entertainment & branding company with an emphasis on supporting talented independent filmmakers and recording artists. 1 Go provides counsel and support to writers, directors, producers, actors, artists, athletes, and celebrities with respect to all facets of the entertainment industry.

Messrs. Eisenberg and Simon have many years of experience handling complex negotiations in the entertainment, emerging technology, and new media worlds. Their niche is creating lucrative strategic opportunities for their clients and business partners.