Today we’d like to introduce you to Bessy Adut.
Hi Bessy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My story has just started yet! However, I had previous many chapters or possibly volumes of books or sequels of movies of my life. I feel like I am currently at a decent chapter of my life. Everything is not perfect; however, I am quite content.
I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Many people I have known went there love my country. My homeland is very rich in history, arts, literature, and culture and I am proud of that. Istanbul is also a very beautiful city surrounded with the sea. We have so many famous historical sightseeing and spots such as the Bosphorus Bridge, Blue Mosque, Ayasofya, Princes’ Islands, and many more summer vacation spots all over the country. What brought me here was my passion for telling stories, traveling, and making movies. Back home, I studied fine arts and followed with a BA in Film & Television. I made amateur then more professional films. I always wrote, directed, and produced my films as well as sometimes doing some cameo acting in them.
It was my dream to come here to continue my film studies, and that was a dream come true with the Fulbright Scholarship, I was able to come here and earn my Master of Fine Arts degree at California Institute of the Arts in Film Directing. I did a lot of research on film schools, and that was a conscious decision that I wanted to be at a place with collaboration of many arts and artists in co-existence together. I was very impressed that the school was founded by Walt Disney and Alumni such as Tim Burton were proven talent in the world. There weren’t as many award-winning female film directors around while I was growing up and choosing this as a profession must have to do with my ambitious personality that likes a good challenge. However, Sophia Copolla is also one of the Alumni from CalArts.
Of course, when I was making my short films and working on film sets, I was dreaming after getting my degree in film, which is pretty much equivalent to having a doctorate or Phd as I was told by NYU, Tisch when I was considering to pursue my education, I decided that was not necessary. I worked below the line in roles such as Assistant Director, Production Coordinator, and Script Supervisor on many film productions. Most recent one being Academy Award-winning Director/Producer Bryan Fogel’s Icarus sequel and The Dissident that was premiered at Sundance right before the Pandemic in 2021. Before that, I worked in many narrative and documentary film productions as an associate producer as well as writing my screenplays on the side. In terms of writing, I went to the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program and joined the Cinestory Writer’s retreat. I am watching in awe what is happening in Hollywood currently with the writers and actors strike. It’s almost like stranger than fiction Ai in fact took jobs of many background actors and writers that I know of right in front of my eyes. And I sadly believe, at the end of the day, all jobs and careers will be affected by these changes so I am not really sure how much my education, skills, and experience will be worth in the new world but I keep pursuing it.
I have a saying “Heroes have double lives” which is true for most superheroes and it’s also a comforting thing to say to myself and many people like me who have to have a day job to survive in LA as they pursue their dream careers. I believe I found a good balance lately after many tears and years of trial and error. I do have day jobs where I help people, and I do enjoy doing that, take pride in that. I do believe what goes around comes around so I try to do as many good deeds as possible as part of my job. I do write movie reviews in a magazine. I have been working part-time at a movie theater, I worked in a call center. I did many other odd jobs in the past. While I am juggling and job hopping, I continue to pursue my filmmaking career and currently working on making my 1st directorial feature film debut. It is taking a while, but I try to keep making progress with baby steps. We recently managed to put together a 5-minute and a 30-minute proof of concept shorts together in hopes it will help us get the funding we need eventually to get better equipment than our DSLR cameras get a qualified film crew, and travel to Antarctica to travel our movie “Searching for Goodness” every person who helps me along this journey all my professional friends make me find goodness day by day and I am truly grateful for it. Filmmaking is not something you can do on your own. It’s definitely a team effort and having the right kind of teammates sharing your life philosophy, spirit, and excitement is so very important. I continue to follow my dream against all the obstacles as they say “If you love a rose, you gotta put up with its thorns.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Haha, absolutely not. It has not been a smooth road at all. And struggles are countless. Where do I begin? Well, most recently I found out James Cameron used to be a truck driver at some point, who knew that? I think maybe that’s the hidden power of all the humanistic messages in his movies. I am not a truck driver but certainly have been a working-class woman since I graduated from college. In fact, I was even working three work & study jobs in the financial aid office, as a Teaching Assistant, and in the library while trying to hold onto my scholarship, keep my grades high, and manage to graduate on time at my grad years. Afterwards, that’s pretty much has been the story of my life. Now, I am Jewish. And I know there is an urban legend, a myth that all Jews are rich in Hollywood. If that’s the case, I sure must be sticking out like a sore thumb. I do like the Jewish traditions and family gatherings I always did. And I do believe in God, have faith, I do pray or present my gratitude often, however the only thing that convinces me that I am in fact really Jewish is the characters I can easily identify in Larry David’s Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. There has been many instances I could really relate to the characters. I do offend people quite often and hardly ever intentionally. So I hope I manage to not offend anyone during my interview, but it’s going to be hard.
During my art school and film school years, my hardship was my father. It’s quite ironic because I thought choosing a profession following his footsteps, he owned a video production company, and he was into music and arts, I would have more of his support. However, I literally had to put on a fight each year for my tuition. He eventually did help out, and I am thankful but has never been easy. I had to work really hard and earn scholarships each year ever since I started studying college. I had to always go the extra mile. I loved studying film & television so I didn’t mind helping other film students with their film projects too. My dad was also very overprotective of his only child. And my mom was also not a typical single mother, she was a bridge champion. She did won many bridge tournaments. I believe they both affected in some ways by making this decision. Seeing my mom’s trophies and awards made me want to become a winner career woman like her. And my dad, I’ve been holding his video camera in my hands at age 10-11 and could never fully get his validation. I don’t think it’s ever going to happen until I become self-made and officially rich I will continue to be a dreamer in my dad’s eyes. And they both came to the conclusion that I chose the wrong profession. I should have had either celebrity or rich parents to support me in this endeavor. They both were convinced that I should probably give up. I have not. I don’t intend to quit on my dreams, no matter how challenging it has been. Yes, the biggest challenge truly has been the finances. Turkey’s economy comparison to the United States, the gap only got bigger and bigger in the years. So, no my family is in no position to support my films aside from a heartfelt ‘good job’ and applause which still means a lot to me. I hope to make them proud. After all, I left them behind, along with many close childhood friends, and family behind chasing my dreams. I still hope I am not chasing a rainbow. And somewhere over the rainbow, there is really a place where dreams come true.
After film school, there is life, yes. It is a hard one. Right after getting my MFA degree from CalArts, while I was dreaming of being hired to make movies like Tim Burton or such idols, I was actually working for a while at Six Flags and a personal assistant to an actress. I don’t know if it has to do with me being an immigrant and not coming from a privileged background but no matter how many times I have applied to jobs at studios such as Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Sony etc. I haven’t gotten any opportunities. With Disney, I once had an interview many years ago after hundreds of job applications. Due to my Fulbright Scholarship, I had to go back home for a few years I did work in the film industry back home. I worked in commercials, documentaries, a late-night tv show, and independent movies. However aside from making my own short films, I was never offered a chance to direct over there too.
I got hired once by Hayrettin Sever. That’s how I made my way back to Los Angeles about 10 years ago along with some good friends I made in film school. I never forget one of my twin friends telling me ‘instead of struggling over there come struggle here in Hollywood” and that’s exactly what I did. I helped produce, coordinate a documentary series for television TRT Documentary and TRT World as well as hosting some of the episodes for “Mysteries of Cinema’ and directing “Inside the Lens’ coordinating and co-producing ‘Other Stories’ being filmed all over the world. We did a few good projects together. We worked on a digital magazine as well. They were all good experiences, and I am very thankful to this gentle producer to this day.
It was nice for a while when I was married to a doctor, which didn’t work out, to have the support of a spouse. That was truly great to have some supportive partner but that ran its course. I’ve been a single lady on her own, making it work for over five years now. I am not against marriage but hoping that if I do get married again to know the person much better and longer for an ever lasting one. During that time I had opened my own company “Queen Bee Film Hive, LLC” and had it open for about 5 years as well doing many small independent productions and events. I still wanna bring my company back as “Queen Bee’s Agency” working more on the talent management side of things as well as production down the road. I have gotten under a lot of debt in the last few years along with student loans. Honestly, that is truly one of my big challenges.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I would like to thank many good people who helped me on my journey. But I also would like to mention the Bad and the Ugly in terms of my Obstacles/Challenges as I promised them that I would on my next interview so here it comes:
VYRE NETWORK was the last company I worked in the entertainment industry. It started all nicely where I worked in their projects and upon our agreement as a production coordinator/project manager. I was getting paid on a payroll a good few months. Later on, I was told that they were having some financial issues due to being a start-up company. I tried to make things work and kept working with them. My payments started to get delayed but I have been patient with them. I’ve been understanding. However, I told them that I would be going to visit my family after five long years and asked them to please pay me what they owed by then. That was my birthday month: March 2023. They owed me for four months back then. Some of it I got paid, but the rest, against all the promises I was made, I have not been paid which affected my family vacation I could hardly get and my relationships with family. I couldn’t even treat my family to a “Memorial” for my lost grandmother and many other losses we had in the family within last few years. I really was wishing to do that. I couldn’t go to my cousin’s wedding this year. All this happened heartlessly after the big earthquakes happened in Turkey. I wanted to help more family and friends, but I couldn’t. After all my efforts and tons of emails, I had no other choice but to get a lawyer who is a family friend father of my very good friends. They saw what was done to me was wrong and tried to help. I’ve heard and read on Glassdoor this has been done to other employees as well, I wasn’t the only one. I went to small claims court and I won. I do have a judge’s order in my hand which they were informed they still owe me legally $5000 and they still have not paid me. It cost me more time, emotional distress, and money than it’s worth. I do feel like a fool admittedly for trusting their word and continuing to work with them for all those extra months. Most of my friends told me they would have quit one month they weren’t paid, but I tend to think everyone is like me. Do as they say. I would like to thank them for adding to my struggles along the way. I don’t know what else to do other than a shout-out in press. If I do get paid this money that I am owed and they never appealed to so far to this day, I even offered them to make a payment plan if they can’t pay all at once but they got quiet last I talked to them was celebrating their ‘free labor day’ and I am going to let the world when and whether I get paid this amount or not by Vyre Network that I was promised for ten months now.
On another ugly incident. I also first-hand experienced a #metoo incident. I don’t wish to get into too much detail, but I had a ‘boss’ who was hitting on me as well as many other women workers I have witnessed at “Great Expectations Films” this was a company I got hired supposedly to find investors for a movie. We ended up doing some credit business, well we all needed money and was offered commission, bonuses so we helped with this business. However, this ‘gentleman’ kept asking for advances. One day, I asked for a raise offering to do Executive Assistant work as well as help with sales. My ‘boss’ asked me to join at his place at night to ‘discuss’ my raise. I was out at a movie with a good lawyer friend of mine who works at Universal Music, he saw the text and told me this was textbook sexual harassment along with being touched without my consent while being hugged and so forth. I was lucky enough to have a pro bono lawyer to help me with the case. The night I refused to go to this gentleman’s place, the next day I was let go of my job. I sent all my proof and evidence to my lawyer. His lawyer and my lawyer came to an agreement; there has been a settlement with very low terms, this is not as big of a case as Weinstein because from hearing the scary tales thankfully, I was wise enough to stay away and got away with just very subtle verbal form. And yet once again, legally found right and a legal agreement is signed this gentlemen owes my lawyers 16K, which I will be getting less than half of that with all the hard expenses and their percentage still haven’t gotten paid. I plan on starting a petition on both of these instances because both cases don’t seem to care much for the law. I am curious to see if using my freedom of speech will call for the action justice is asking for.
However, I have heard the steps to paradise go through hell. And I continue climbing up the steps, and I will continue to speak up and shout out whether it is being done to me or to others these sort of unfair treatments to workers. I am for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and human rights. For the strike, I am with my writer friends actor friends. There has to be a fair deal done. No matter how advanced Ai is, they will still need humans. There has to be co-existence. Otherwise, I recommend one movie to watch to studio executives by visionary Stanley Kubrick “2001: Space Odyssey” that famous scene might ring a bell: “Hal….open the doors, Hal?” 🙂
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a filmmaker who specializes in film directing in formal film education. I always admired so-called ‘auters’ and would like to become one. That’s why I always wrote, directed, produced my own films and will continue to do so. I used to want to be an actress before moving behind the camera so I do like hosting and doing cameo appearances in my films as well. Currently, I am working on a documentary film project development and early stages of production, “Searching for Goodness” but I have other narrative screenplays I would like to bring to fruition, such as my tv show idea, “daydreamers’ which I am currently collaborating with a young writer Will and looking forward to his take on it. I have other original screenplays I have written, such as “Astral projection girl”, “The Turk”, “Love Puzzle” and Stella’s novel about reincarnation adaptation.
My goal is first to travel make my first feature film and documentary series in the style of Morgan Freeman’s Story of God. Afterward, I hope to make my other film and television projects come to life.
My side dreams are opening my agency, Queen B’s Agents to help other diverse filmmakers and talent with their project’s pitches and sales. And I would like to open the “Color Bar” where Daydreamers takes place to make it a live event venue where people can watch the show as well as enjoy the restaurant/bar.
If I do happen to get rich and famous as the American Dream promised once, I do wanna use a lot of those funds to help the elderly, homeless, children, animals, and all such good causes. I don’t need a Botox, I don’t want expensive Louis Vitone purses, I don’t want expensive cars. I would like to do anything I can to help good causes. I am getting late at the mothering game as well so I would like to compensate by helping as many children and animals as possible during and after my lifetime.
I would like to thank my collaborator and good friend Armin, who’s been helping me get my project off the ground with his help in co-producing, filming, and editing. He also referred me for this interview and very much appreciate it. I am also thankful to our mutual manager Matt for introducing us as well as to many of our interviewees for the documentary.
In terms of my work, I would like to thank Barry McDaniel who took my photos for this interview I haven’t gotten professional photos in a while. And I apologize I forgot to mention him on my last interview, but he is one of the very first good people who helped me with my Searching For Goodness project. He also video filmed several intro and promo videos I’ve done both for ‘searching for goodness’ as well as my ‘youtoo movement’ too. I think he is a ‘hidden gem’ as Sid called it from LA Voyage. I’ve known Barry for many years, and he is a very talented photographer, filmmaker as well as he also has a real estate career that is growing. I would like to thank him for his previous and continuous support with my project.
I would like to thank all my good friends that I can think of from home my childhood friends Alvi, Birkan, Meltem, Acelya, Eser, Tuana, Sinan, Sirli, my cousins Viki, Elcin, and Mert. Recently two good friends showing their support from home Metin Hara and Wilma Elles I would like to thank them very much these are all people who know me from my childhood.
I’d like to thank my friends who’ve been my friends since CalArts, ‘Shining Twins’ as our screenwriting teacher called them Janice & Jeanette has been lifelong good friends, Fabian Euresti as well as all people showing support to my career from CalArts such as Karolyn and Sarah much gratitude to you. Along with Faculty such as Abigail, Gary Mairs, and John Hawk showed their support to me. Sorry about whomever I’ve forgotten.
I also would like to thank my career/business friends such as Kelly Lansing, Raashema Rad, Tim Oliver, Aydin Buyurucu, Eli Franco, Colin Costello, Lusi & Moshe, Ilana and Robert, Michael, and I am sorry whomever I may be forgetting.
If I don’t have enough time to thank all of them when I get my Academy Award speech someday, you know how they start playing the loud music, I’d like to get this out of the way so I don’t run out of time. I hope to reach my childhood dream and win that Oscar or equivalent someday but all the love and friendship I earn along the way is most precious. I also do wanna make my mom and dad proud, give them a better comfortable life they deserve cause they both worked hard all their lives. And I’d like to thank all my followers, readers of my Shalom reviews, and thanks for your support with that to Ivo Molenas, my viewers, and everyone whomever shows support and mutual care for our world.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I had wonderful times at “Buyukada’ “Prince’s Islands’ in Turkey. We would go there in the summertime. It was pretty much like a day of the Barbie. Going and saying hi to friends, then hitting the beach. Biking and hiking in nature. Swimming. Eating ice cream. Hanging out, going out to dancing to disco with friends. Going to a haunted mansion in the middle of the night and getting scared with spooky noises. Open-air movie theaters. That youthful, innocent love and dates under the moonlight. Not sleeping all night but chatting with our friends like insomniacs from dusk till dawn to eat the first fresh warm patisseries. Making my first movies with my childhood best friend and her siblings. Playing games. Having fun. It was nice having my grandparents around to take care of me and feel the warmth of their love and not have to work to survive but just live. These are some of my favorite childhood memories.
It’s funny right after I wrote this part, I talked to a childhood friend of mine on what’s up after a very long time, he brought back my childhood memories as he seems to not aging at all; much love to my childhood friend Metin Hara from here along with Eser, Alvi, Niv, Melih, Jeffrey and all our childhood gang we had a feel of ‘body’ ‘it’ or ‘standby me’ children crew lol.
Pricing:
- $5000 music videos, promo videos producing/directing/writing with my partner
- $1000 day rate directing gigs
- $500 day rate assistant producing & promoting products
- $250 day rate assistant directing
- $150 day rate PA
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bessyadutofficial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sfgdoc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bessypage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bessyadut/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bessyadut
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtJoUBKp1G77xB_gKCbr3dg
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bessy-adut
- Other: https://sfgproposal.com
Image Credits
Model – Bessy Adut Professional Photographer – Barry McDaniel Hair & Make Up – Aveda in Pasadena: Idil and Nicole no thx to Sephora in Pasadena who left me with a half made make up as they ran out of time in 60 min no lipstick or eyeliner
