It was 104 degrees when Kara Durrett and Jesse Burgum, the duo behind production finance company Pinky Promise, first met. They filmed “Honk for Jesus” in the loft of a church in Decatur, Georgia. “Save Your Soul” was the first film to be financed by Burgum, with Durette serving as an independent producer.
“There was a lot of focus on where they were going to sit in relation to the monitor. Kara was looking for fans and AC people. I was like, ‘Okay, this girl is the real deal,'” Burgum recalled. The film subsequently screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was sold to Focus Features. Durette and Bergham would go on to form a partnership that included Andrea Arnold’s Cannes film Bird, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut (the upcoming Presented by Sony) and Gia Coppola starring Pamela Anderson. the last showgirlpremiering at TIFF on September 6.
Before arriving in Canada, Pinky Promise met THR Talking to Arnaud about independent financing and the state of dance at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kara, how did Jesse approach you on the set of Honk for Jesus?
Carla Durrett Most financiers come and just bring their friends or try to pretend they know a lot. Jesse would come over and be like, “I don’t know, I’ve never been on a set before.” By the end of the movie, Jesse was like, “Hey, I’m actually going to go out and make films for women and POC filmmakers, LGBT filmmakers.” The filmmakers raised a large sum of money and I wanted to start a company. Do you want to get on board? I remember thinking I’d seen a lot of financiers say that. I really underestimated her. I left, I went, I made another movie, I was in the swamp. Throughout the entire process, Jess was building, fundraising, and recruiting, and she kept calling me to keep me updated. In 18 months, she raised $26.5 million. That’s when we started a production partnership and thought, “How do we find these filmmakers who aren’t making movies, and how do we make these movies?” We will always fund the Andrea Arnolds of the world. Hereby. We always take a chance on movies like this because we don’t know who else is going to keep making them in such bad times. Then we always produce something new and exciting [projects].
Jesse, your family has a business and investment background. [Burgum’s father is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a tech developer and investor.] How does this impact the business behind Pinky Promise?
Jesse Burgum I always say that Pink Promises is the result of what happened to the actress when she was growing up in a family full of business people, because it’s really the intersection of those things. There’s a lot of stuff you pick up at the dinner table that I don’t think you necessarily know based on my resume or my schooling (classical acting degree). So I did learn a lot from them, and through relationships and past experiences with them, I did gain an email address. But then it was like, “Well, good luck to you.” [I started] Email people coldly.
Durette When we first started four or five years ago, there was a rumor in the industry for five seconds that people would think it was Jesse’s dad’s money or Jesse’s family’s money. Her father is not an investor in the company. The money was raised entirely from outside her family, and Jess spent several months developing a business plan and building a practical structure and a model that made sense. In the beginning, as a friend, I used to act very protective, like, “How dare you suspect she did something.” Now, seeing other people realize that they completely underestimated a woman who went out on her own to raise so much money, it’s so inspiring to me. It’s actually pretty funny to me.
How do you decide which projects to finance and which ones you want to produce?
Burgum Because we are really a venture capital firm in terms of financing; we have a very rigorous selection process, and we use the traditional approach that any venture capitalist would use to invest in a new startup. We have due diligence forms. We have a process called the “Four Ps”, which are the four factors that determine whether a Pinky Promise will do something. Progress because we are a mission-based company. Profit, because we’re not a non-profit – we want to make money and keep it going for as long as possible. Prestige: We want to create work that will hold its own in the zeitgeist. And then there’s the partner: You’re basically married to someone for several years. If there’s one thing we’re completely uncompromising on, it’s the character of the people we work with because life is too short.
Durette We went to Cannes and we had a party birdAndrea’s film. There were 300 people, and they were all standing outside the building looking at us. [on the dance floor] — Three Pinky Promise girls are dancing like no one is watching. Then Andrea came in wearing a full jumpsuit. The four of us danced for an hour. It’s one thing to make a movie these days and another to distribute it. How are you navigating the current distribution landscape?
Durette Jesse and I made the decision about a year ago. We’d like to know more about distribution. We wanted to know more about their side of the landscape. We’ve decided now that for every movie we work on, the best thing for the movie is actually to figure out how to get them seen in the first place. Last year, we almost reversed course. It’s no longer a question of, “How are we going to make a movie?” Now it’s “How do we get this movie seen by an audience?” Once we know that, the next question is “How do we make this movie?” Even if that means having an initial conversation with a distributor, asking: ” Are there ways we can share the risk? Are there ways we can better prepare the marketing materials that would make it feel greater to you when we make that movie? And when it came to attaching Scully, we both took it to Sony and Samsung first to not just pay for it, but to actually plan for distribution as well. [Sony] Classics are popping up, and now we’re creating them with Wayfair [Justin Baldoni’s company, which worked with Sony on It Ends With Us] as a financier.
You guys talk about Pinky Promise’s agility, which has helped you ride the waves in Hollywood over the past few years. What are your thoughts on Zoom?
Durette I would say Jesse’s super strength is recruiting and growing. This is where I believe her family’s business background is in her blood. Because I’m the kind of person who says “Buy!” every six months. purchase! purchase! I just want to keep growing up. Jesse would say, “Let’s talk about what we need in six months, and then if we still need it, we’ll hire.”
Burgum Any ambitious company must have a plan for what it can do now. I’m not the first person to say this, and I won’t be the last, but with startups and this industry, you have to have a higher tolerance for uncertainty. Therefore, you must also pick those who are feeling down to be with you through thick and thin. We are now in a time where we need to think about what we can do and what we want to achieve. We don’t want to start a distribution company, but we definitely want to be part of the solution to the problem, which is that we’re seeing a glut of product right now and there’s a ton of beautiful movies that aren’t available. There are far fewer people who can bring these movies to audiences. The industry is clearly ripe for disruption. Entertainment is an industry rooted in tradition, which can be great, but maybe we don’t change that quickly, especially when people are already so caught up in tradition [other] Industrial disruptions like the streaming economy change overnight. A lot of the conversation around the issues the industry is facing right now is around “How do we get back to the good old days?” I think that’s a very dangerous way of thinking because it wasn’t perfect back then either.
