With eight people present in the audience at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City in 2015, Douglas Taurel started his journey for the now usually sold-out show weeks prior: The American Soldier. Of what he shared as an accidental entry into the theater to impress a girl at the high school, Douglas instead fell obsessively in love with the art of writing, producing, directing, and acting. Listen about all this and his other projects in episode 21 of Movie Making with Ranelle Golden.
The podcast is a cross-functional collaboration between a media agency exclusively committed to the independent filmmaking space and award-winning director Ranelle Golden. Samera Entertainment has pioneered in promoting digital space for emerging indie artists through its website, which releases regular newsletters featuring all the latest news and interviews about filmmakers and actors. With the likes of the legendary Douglas Taurel as guests, the podcast is exponentially gaining popularity among content-driven, limited-budget cinema audiences.
About his proclivity for writing personal stories about Veterans who served in war and their families, Douglas shared about being a mile away from the Twin Towers at the time of the greatest calamity to hit the country in the 21st century. The writer feels inclined to tell stories up close and personal that often go unnoticed in the shadow of a more significant cause. The first season of his series about an American soldier Landing Home is available on all leading digital platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, VUDU, and Hulu. The season went on to win Drama at the GI Film Festival and Wings of Honor Festival, an exclusive film festival for military genre films. The artist confirmed the series’s second season, a much-awaited news that left the listeners ecstatic. ‘It is in the writing stage,’ Douglas shared.
In an intriguing conversation about the hurdles run into by actors and filmmakers without influential connections or established platforms to rely on, Douglas complied with the narrative of his contemporaries. Highlighting it as a frequent challenge, he emphasized the importance of networking early in his career. From limited budgets, finding shoot locations, acquiring the necessary equipment, and assembling the perfect combination of talented cast and crew, he added that everything comes at a hassle. Citing his opinion with his own experience, he was inspired to write his solo show,The American Soldier, immediately after the tragic events of 9/11. However, it wasn’t until around 2010 or 2011 that he had created something with potential. After much perseverance, he got his first show in 2015. The show was nominated for the International Amnesty Award for Theatre Excellence.
‘Everyone said no, we’re not really interested in it, and so I couldn’t find a festival, so then in 2015, this festival called One-on-One Festival, and it was 20 minutes, and the producer said, you know, I had someone drop out of the festival, can you jump in, and I said YEAH! shared Douglas about how he landed his first show.
His other notable projects include recently The Gabby Petito Story, in which he played Joe Petito and starred opposite Thora Birch, the award-winning Sundance film The Kindergarten Teacher, and The Cobbler with Adam Sandler. He advises the new generation of filmmakers and actors to sit down with the experienced lot and learn about the dos and don’ts of the entertainment industry. With accessibility and mediums like social media and digital platforms, he believes content-driven projects now have a much wider audience and can be recognized globally. View his complete profile on Douglas Taurel – IMDb.
The podcast ended with its usual five-for-five questions, in which Douglas was asked candid questions. Do you want to know the questions and how he responded? Head over to YouTube to watch the episode. Like and subscribe for lots of more episodes coming your way. Visit Samera Entertainment to check out their latest issue.