Editor's Note: This is the fourth part in a five-part series profiling several Dartmouth alumni in entertainment and the Dartmouth Alumni in Entertainment and Media Association.
Although Zola Mashariki '94, senior vice president of production at Fox Searchlight Pictures, attended Harvard Law School after graduating from Dartmouth and worked in corporate law for three years, she had no qualms about moving on to a lowly internship position at Fox Searchlight.
Mashariki was "always interested in film," but she was unsure how to "penetrate" the film industry from a background that did not include film studies.
"I didn't really know my job existed, because like a lot of people who think of Hollywood, I thought all the jobs were either for directors, actors or writers," Mashariki said.
Mashariki transitioned from corporate law to her production internship at Fox Searchlight by attending the Peter Stark Producing Program, a master of fine arts program at the University of Southern California.
"Film was still calling me and I knew if I stayed longer at the [law] firm, it would be impossible to get out, because once you do things like buy a house and start a family it is just harder to give up that income," Mashariki said.
Over the last 11 years, Mashariki has risen to her current position and has worked on a number of feature films, including Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go" (2010), Sanaa Hamri's "Just Wright" (2010), George Tillman Jr.'s "Notorious" (2009) and Tamara Jenkins' "The Savages" (2007).
"I didn't know a lot about film but [former president of Fox Searchlight Peter Rice] said he wanted me to join his staff, saying I would either sink or swim, so I spent my first year trying to figure it out, and I still am," Mashariki said.
Mashariki has spoken on several Dartmouth Alumni in Entertainment and Media Association panels, as her path is a good example for undergraduates who want to enter the corporate side of the film industry.
While at the College, Mashariki, a sociology major and theater minor, won the Eleanor Frost and Rush & Loring Dodd Annual Playwriting Festival and was a member of Casque and Gauntlet senior society. She was the artistic director of Black Underground Theatre Arts Association, a position previously held by Mashariki's close friend and mentor Shonda Rhimes '91, creator of popular ABC series "Grey's Anatomy," Mashariki said.
"It is not until you get into the real world that you realize the resources that Dartmouth gives you," Mashariki said.
As a creative executive at Fox Searchlight, Mashariki works on a "slate of about 15 productions to oversee," unlike a producer who may work exclusively on one product, according to Mashariki. Mashariki's involvement in any given project ranges from forming and pitching the idea for the film to overseeing the filming to managing post-production.
Fox Searchlight, a division of Fox Filmed Entertainment, works very much like an independent production company it functions inside a major studio with access to all the studio's resources, but does not need to produce box office hits that must "appeal to all audiences," Mashariki said.
Mashariki is presently in post-production on "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," a film that follows those in a home for the elderly in Bangalore that is directed by John Madden and stars Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nye and Tom Wilkinson. Mashariki spent last week talking with filmmakers in the United Kingdom on the progress of the film's post-production. Her day-to-day work also includes meeting with writers she would like to buy projects from, speaking with producers and directors over lunch and conducting daily staff meetings to discuss all possible projects with Fox Searchlight lawyers and creative executives, according to Mashariki.
"Every day is different," Mashariki said. "That is the beauty of filmmaking."
Next week, Mashariki will head to the Cannes International Film Festival where she will attend film screenings in the hopes of finding "new acquisitions or filmmakers with new voices," Mashariki said.
Two recent projects Mashariki has been particularly passionate about are the novel adaptation "Never Let Me Go" starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic "Notorious" starring Jamal Woolard and Angela Bassett. A reality of the entertainment industry, however, is that films that producers are passionate about do not necessarily flourish in mainstream opinion.
"Never Let Me Go' was such a special film I was in love with [Kazuo Ishiguro's] book but it was a film that didn't connect in the marketplace," Mashariki said. "It is heartbreaking and you can't sugarcoat it."
For Mashariki, the beauty of filmmaking lies in its inherently dynamic and collaborative nature.
"By the time you put it through the process it is not yours anymore," Mashariki said. "You want other people to own it in that way."
