http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/your-money/filmmaking-as-an-alternative-investment.html

FOR most people, investing has not been fun these last few years. At best, it has been stressful. Bucks Investing With Your Heart, as Well as Your Head

Have you ever followed your passion with an investment? How did that work out? Can you offer advice to others tempted to do this?

Paul Sullivan writes about strategies that the wealthy use to manage their money and their overall well-being.

But there are investments that have nothing to do with stocks or bonds or real estate that may be at least enjoyable if not always moneymaking. I’ve come up with about a half-dozen, and over the next few weeks, I plan to explore some of them, including investments as different as horses and restaurants. My goal is to see how people do this successfully — or whether they have a broader definition of success than just making money.

This week, I’m going to look at films, given that the influential Tribeca Film Festival is under way; it runs through Sunday.

Investing in a movie seems a risky proposition. Movie studios lose tens of millions of dollars on films almost every week. But for some amateurs, being part of the film festival circuit, let alone making it to a big Hollywood premiere, can be glamorous. For a serious investor, with more at stake, there are many ways to make money in films that have little to do with box-office success.

Dennis Wallestad, chief financial officer of the Treasury services division of JPMorgan Chase, said he wanted to back a promising filmmaker after spending over a decade as a benefactor to David M. Lenz, an artist who gained wide acclaim in 2006 when he won a competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

He met the filmmaker Nate Taylor because their wives knew each other. On the surface, they seem nothing alike. “I’m a C.P.A. from Milwaukee and as white bread as they come,” Mr. Wallestad said. “He’s a goth with a mohawk.”

Yet after many meetings, Mr. Wallestad put up $300,000 to make the film “Forgetting the Girl.” He also ran all aspects of the film’s finances and whittled away waste as he does in his day job. “I wanted to help someone else,” Mr. Wallestad said. “My covenant with Nate is, You do the art and I’ll take care of the business.”

Earlier this month, “Forgetting The Girl” won the audience award at the SoHo International Film Festival, and Mr. Wallestad said that had attracted interest from two dozen distributors

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