The following is a true story, as told by production team duo Your Mother:
We delivered our final assets for a project and per our agreement, we expected payment. But the agency wouldn’t pay us. They withheld payment with excuses, breaching our contract.
After 30 days passed, we realized they may never pay us. We began asking for advice and were shocked to learn how often this happens to freelancers (and particularly to female freelancers).
Sound familiar? Contracts get broken, people don't pay us, and life happens. We're here to pick you up from the ashes by giving you the advice you need to protect yourself and take charge of your contracts.
Mark your calendars: Sign in to your FREE THE WORK profile and head to the Community page of this website at 4pm PST on Tuesday November 19 for our first live AMA ("Ask Me Anything") event with Your Mother and attorney Peter Kaufman of Kaufman Abdel-Aal LLP.
This is a one-time, special event that's available to everyone with a FTW profile. Just a little preview of what kind of events are available with a paid FTW membership!
This is your chance to vent, air out your grievances, and bond with other members through our collective struggles. A lawyer will also be present to give you advice, so get a list of questions ready!
Tannaz Hazemi
Tannaz was born in Iran and raised in Sweden. Then via Chicago, Milan, Paris and New York she made it to LA in one piece.
Her work history includes modeling, publishing a book with MTV in Italy, writing pop-culture articles, and hosting shows for Tele+ and VH1 . For several years she wrote fiction before discovering screenwriting and directing. Today her short films have screened at over 50 festivals and won praise from her Father, as well as winning a daunting slew of screenplay awards.
In 2018 she made the annual list of 10 filmmakers in the Alice Initiative. She has been accepted to the Fox Filmmakers Lab, the Universal Pictures Director’s Intensive, and the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, where she won the Nancy Malone Award.
Brace yourself for her first feature.
Kelly Fulton
Kelly was born in Johannesburg, South Africa but became an adult on the streets of New York.
After graduating from The University of Cape Town with a major in screenwriting, she studied acting and directing at New York Film Academy. She was a music producer at Q Department, then a creative director at VICE, where she oversaw creative for brand partnerships. She is currently Executive Creative Director at media platform BESE.
She wrote, directed and acted in a short film that premiered at the Rhode Island Film Festival in 2018. In 2012 she pretended to be a werewolf in a church for an immersive theatre company in Harlem that never took off. Right now she is writing a feature.
Ali Steele
Ali Steele is an LA based producer from Atlanta, Georgia but she has also lived in NC, TX, NYC and the UK. When she's not on a plane heading to her next shoot, actualizing a budget, or running around on set with her vintage fanny pack she can be found cooking, biking, posting dank memes, or sipping a glass of wine with friends… but most likely rewatching Rick & Morty episodes.
She has produced for Viceland, NBC, Westbrook, R29, Facebook Watch, and Stept Studios with well-known talent like Will Smith, Ranveer Singh, Karan Johar, Motley Crue, Pusha T, Big Boi, Robin Thicke, Dave Gahan, Miguel, Gwen Stefani, Mana and more. Former clients include: Fox, Apple, LiveNation, Nike, Delta Airlines, Wynn, Polaris & MeUndies.
Without a doubt the highlight of her entire career was being pulled down and trampled by a herd of puppies while filming. She's currently wrapping her first true crime doc series.
