Caytha Jentis is an American writer, producer, director and filmmaker. Jentis' feature films include ''
Bad Parents'', ''
And Then Came Love
''And Then Came Love'' is a 2007 romantic comedy film directed by Richard Schenkman. It premiered at the Urban Film Series Festival in Washington, D.C. in June 2007, with a limited theatrical release in Ridgewood, New Jersey beginning in that sam ...
'' and the
coming out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
film ''
The One'', her directorial debut. She is the creator and director of ''The Other F Word'', a
comedy web series streaming on
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...
, starring
Steve Guttenberg and
Judy Gold. Her production and management company, Fox Meadow Films, produced all three of her feature films and the web series ''The Other F Word''.
She also wrote and produced the short film ''Dream House'' in 2010. Jentis was selected as one of
Good Housekeeping's 50 over 50 in 2016.
Early life
Jentis graduated from
Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1984 with a degree in film and television.
After graduating from Syracuse, Jentis moved to
Los Angeles where she worked as a literary agent and in
development; her first screenplay was for an ABC movie that never aired.
While in California, Jentis had the first of two children while attending
UCLA, where she completed her
master's degree in 1996.
She then moved back to the east coast, moving to
Ridgewood, New Jersey where she lived for 20 years.
Films
Jentis wrote and produced her first indie feature ''And Then Came Love'' in 2007, which stars
Vanessa Williams,
Ben Vereen and
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...
(in her final film appearance).
The movie was filmed at her
alma mater, Syracuse University, where the chancellor's suite in Lubin House was converted into the apartment where Williams’ character lived.
Jentis gave university students the opportunity to be interns, assisting with pre-production and post-production activities.
Her directorial debut was in 2011 with the coming-out film ''The One'', starring
Jon Prescott,
Margaret Anne Florence
Margaret Anne Florence is an actress, singer, and model based in New York City. Margaret Anne has been featured in major motion pictures, television, independent films, and on the New York stage. She frequently appears in national and internati ...
and Ian Novick, Jentis also produced and wrote the script for the movie.
The film is a romantic
dramedy about a man who plans to marry a woman, when a month before his wedding, he falls in love with a man from his past.
Jentis said she wrote the screenplay "after spending several nights with friends discussing true love”, and it was the fastest script she had ever written.
Bad Parents, released in 2012, is based on her award-winning play ''It’s All About the Kids'', and was produced, written and directed by Jentis. The film stars
Janeane Garofalo,
Cheri Oteri and
Kristen Johnston, and was inspired by Jentis' personal experiences as a
soccer mom.
The film was shot entirely in
New Jersey and used several kids from local soccer teams in the area where Jentis once lived as talent for the feature.
Jentis said making the film "was cathartic to go through," and it's "absurd behavior, but it's stuff that's not far from the truth".
The movie won Best Feature Film in 2013 at the
Hoboken International Film Festival.
;Short films
In 2010 Jentis wrote and produced ''Dream House'', a short directed by
Darien Sills-Evans, that explores the dark side of the suburban dream.
Web series
Jentis is the creator and director of ''The Other F Word'', a
comedy web series that premiered in September 2016 on
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...
.
The series is set in
New York City, where Jentis now resides, and stars
Steve Guttenberg,
Judy Gold,
Michael Boatman,
Gilbert Gottfried and
Reiko Aylesworth.
The show is produced by her company, Fox Meadow Films, and follows four women aged 40 and 50-something, who are dealing with starting over after their kids are grown. The episodes are extremely short, with none running longer than 20 minutes.
According to Jentis, the "F" in the show stands for being in your forties, fifty, friendship, fearless, family and fun.
Jentis also went out of her way to include many commercial products in the series that were developed by women entrepreneurs.
Season 1 was a top-ranked show on Amazon for over 4 months,
season 2 premiered in September 2017.
See also
*
List of female film and television directors
*
List of LGBT-related films directed by women
Notes
References
External links
The Other F Word(official site)
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jentis, Caytha
American women film directors
American women screenwriters
Film directors from New York City
Writers from New York City
Film producers from New York (state)
Living people
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni
Syracuse University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Web series producers
Screenwriters from New York (state)
American women film producers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women