Meet brothers Julien and Justen Turner, young entrepreneurs in the film industry who do short narrative films, just at the ages of 25 and 21, respectively. Starting close to us, they have their business in Columbus, Ohio. Their inspiration started at an early age, where their parents had VHS cameras. They had the opportunity to use their mom’s old MacBook to play around with iMovie, where they got to play with special effects. They practiced their work first in the Midwest (Illionois), instead of the big cities like Hollywood.
Some of their inspiration flows from Tyler Perry, who made Atlanta a big film city. That’s their goal for Ohio. They don’t plan to move out of Ohio as they build their film industry. Another of their inspirations was The Karate Kid, where they got to see a black kid in a blockbuster film, and with a big afro, which inspired Justen to grow out his hair, which was the reason for the name of their film business.
Though young, their success has been noticed by many. They’ve been featured on platforms like Good Morning America, The New York Times, CNN, and MTV. They’ve also partnered with some big names, like Beats by Dre, Nike, Amazon, Air Jordan, and Adobe. They also received awards such as the Forbes Under 30, Webbys for the Best Video Campaign in Advertising and Best Video campaign for their Nike x Social Status campaign, as well as the gold award for New Director of the Year at 2023’s The Shots Americas Awards.
Their goal is to show their own journey and experience through their filmmaking life, by putting in some type of commentary in their work. At such young ages, they’ve been blessed with many opportunities, but due to their age, they’ve also been limited in what they can do. As they grow their business, they hope to bring longer-film narratives to the area. While they continue to pursue this career, they also want to be an outlet for others in the industry, by supporting other Midwest filmmakers.
