THE FILMMAKERS
The team behind Jesus Land
SAILA KARIAT
WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Saila, a filmmaker, writer, and entrepreneur pursued a career as an electrical engineer and builder while dreaming of filmmaking and writing. After obtaining her Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Saila worked as an engineer, manager, and marketeer at IBM and at a start-up. She also founded a residential construction company, Mukti Properties. She pursued her education in film in parallel, obtaining a degree in Film from San Jose State University, where she was valedictorian of the class of 2008.
Saila wrote, directed and co-produced The Valley, the story of an entrepreneur who seeks answers after the suicide of his daughter. The Valley was in twenty film festivals and won best feature film in four festivals, notably being invited to the Mumbai Film Festival. Her other feature screenplays include Gods and Demons, a drama about an idealistic woman doctor, Love in the Time of Corona, a romantic comedy about an unlikely couple, Release, a drama about a middle-aged divorcee who deals with her loneliness and alcoholism after her only daughter goes away to college, Gray, a drama about a black man and white woman trapped together through a tense and dangerous ordeal and Jesus Land, an adaptation of the Julia Scheeres memoir of the same name.
Saila is a very hands-on filmmaker and has been involved with all aspects of production. She raised all the funds for The Valley through private investors. Having worked as a manager at a large firm as well as run her own small business for eight years, she has excellent skills in management and operations. She was involved in all aspects of pre-production, production and post production; she worked on location scouting, procuring locations, insurance and title clearance, casting, managing crew, budgeting, production management, SAG bureaucracy, all responsibilities of directing including creating a shot list, working with actors, editing, working with sound engineers, music, working with title designers, bookkeeping, tax preparation etc. As an independent producer, she has worn just about every hat possible.
Saila lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the proud parent of two amazing grown daughters – one an artist and the other a musician.
JEFFREY ALLARD
PRODUCER
Jeffrey Allard is president and founder of Indie Entertainment, a San Francisco Bay Area film production company formed in 2002.
Jeff has produced over 20 films which in total have grossed over $250 Million in world-wide sales. Jeff is most well-known for Executive Producing THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003 & 2006) alongside Michael Bay (Transformers), and for the critically acclaimed family comedy, PING PONG SUMMER which starred Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before its theatrical release.
Jeff is currently in post-production on THIRSTY starring Sung Kang (Fast & Furious) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and CONSUMED starring Devon Sawa (Casper, Final Destination) both of which will be released worldwide in 2023. He also produced THE ALTERNATE which is released worldwide in 2022. Recently, Jeff produced a half dozen feature films which include THE NIGHT starring Shahab Hosseini (The Salesman, Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) which IFC acquired for theatrical release in 2021 and became the first US production to play theatrically in Iran since the revolution. The other recent releases include STARS FELL ON ALABAMA (James Maslow) released in 2021 by Samuel Goldwyn Meyer, STAR LIGHT (Scout Taylor-Compton), DON’T LEAVE HOME (Anna Margaret Hollyman), FOR THE LOVE OF GEORGE (Rosanna Arquette), and the award winning documentary, THE PUSH.
Some of Jeff’s previous productions include INTERWOVEN starring Oscar winner Mo'Nique (Precious), THE NIGHT WATCHMEN starring James Remar (Dexter, Warriors) and A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SNUFF (Directed by the Butcher Bros). Other notable productions include HOLY GHOST PEOPLE starring Emma Greenwell (Shameless) which premiered at SXSW 2013 and was released in select theaters in 2014, and THE VIOLENT KIND, which he produced with producers Malek Akkad (Halloween) and Andy Gould (Grindhouse), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.
Prior to founding his production company, Indie Entertainment, in 2002, Jeff served as Chief Operating Officer of Bay View Capital’s commercial leasing operations ($5 billion NYSE listed company acquired by US Bank Corp) and held executive positions in the corporate finance industry for over 18 years. Jeff holds a BA from UC Berkeley.
BERNARD STEWART
PRODUCER
Bernard is a member of the original team that started SportsCenter and ESPN, working as coordinating editor/producer. HIs responsibilities over the years with ESPN expanded to include an executive role responsible for the development and management of long-term strategies for ESPN’s International family of networks. From 1999 to 2013 he was the most senior executive in Asia, Oceania, the Pacific and the Caribbean for ESPN.
As an Emmy nominated producer, he has created or developed over 30 original series and multi-platform program concepts for network and syndication distribution and directed high profile rights negotiations for premier world events including The FIFA World Cup, The Olympics, and The UEFA Champions League.
After a lengthy career with the Walt Disney Company and ESPN, Bernard became Founder and Group CEO of BWC - Bart World Communications, an entertainment, content development, and production company.
BWC represents over 30 years of global experience in, Television, Entertainment and has a very active list of projects that include several films under development or in production. The company’s most recent entertainment project is advisor in the development of entertainment experiences for Neonopolis a $100 million entertainment complex in the Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience.
Bernard is recognized as a featured international industry speaker with appearances that include Renmin University, The Peoples Republic of China; International Trade Specialist for the United States at The Bahamas Copyright Stakeholder Summit; the Jamaica Sports Business Summit on Global Brand building, and a featured speaker and Advisor to the Jamaica International Film Festival.
He is author of the business management and life coaching book, “Fifty50 - A Guide to a Successful Work Life Balance”.