HOLLYWOOD: What we see on screen, how it happens–and more often does not

Terrell Tannen reads from and shares his new memoir: Tell the Story: A Hollywood Odyssey (2024). As a highly paid screenwriter, Terrell Tannen lived the classic Hollywood lifestyle: the Porsche, oversized house, dinners, and parties. By most measures, he could be called wildly successful. Yet . . . script after script, written for the bona fide elites of the movie business, floundered for all the usual and unusual Hollywood reasons.

Tell the Story: A Hollywood Odyssey offers a window into what it feels like to constantly flirt with fame. At times resembling a darkly comic film, it’s a very American tale, illustrative of the driving forces of hope and ambition in a place-Hollywood-where these desires burn like an inextinguishable neon sign, imploring and taunting at the same time. It also reminds us that, for all our dreams and ambitions, life has a way of writing its own script.

Tannen has written and directed the feature films A Minor Miracle and Shadows on the Storm. He has also written screenplays for Honor Bound, Gospel Hill, Dalton: Code of Vengeance and Returning to Earth, winner of Best Short Film at the Oakland, Florence, Rome and Istanbul International Film Festivals.

Host or Publisher DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF)