Mynette Louie

Indie Producer on why Producers Make the Best mOms

Mynette Louie is an Emmy-nominated, multiple Spirit Award-winning producer.

A few of her movie credits include Heidi Ewing’s I Carry You with Me (Winner of Sundance 2020 NEXT Innovator & Audience Awards, New York Film Festival selection), Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ Gotham Award-nominated Swallow, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's Black Box, and Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation (SXSW Selection 2015).

Knowing no one in the film industry, Louie began her film career by producing three NYU Tisch graduate thesis films (all written and directed by women!), though she did not attend the school. She also worked at the Hawaii Film Office, where she authored the state’s production tax credit, oversaw the $7.3 million renovation of the state-owned film studio, and developed programs to foster local independent filmmaking.

Prior to producing films, she worked in marketing and business development at Sports Illustrated, Jupiter Research, and Time Magazine. A native New Yorker, Louie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University, where she studied Chinese literature and film.

Mynette is on the Board of Directors for Film Independent and serves as an advisor to the Sundance Institute, SXSW, Tribeca, and IFP. She was named one of Business Insider’s “12 Movie Producers at the Top of Their Game to Watch in 2020 and Beyond,” Ted Hope’s “21 Brave Thinkers of Truly Free Film,” and Indiewire’s “100 Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter.” Mynette won the 2013 Independent Spirit Piaget Producers Award and is a member of the executive and diversity committees of the Producers branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

On this episode, we give tips on starting a producing career later in life, discuss how partnerships equal longevity, and compare the distribution strategies for Swallow, Black Box, and I Carry You with Me.

Tune in!

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“Producing is such a tough, all-encompassing profession that you have to naturally be suited for. I’m a multi-tasker, I’m a workaholic, I don’t like to be bored… That was why I was so miserable at my corporate job.”

- Mynette Louie

Episode Transcript