Backroad Pictures
Main | "Backroad Motel" | "Have Love, Will Travel" | "Goodbye" | "Pretty" | "5150" | About the Filmmakers | Other | Contact

About the Filmmakers

KAYLA TABISH - PRODUCER
Kayla has always been committed to breathing life into projects
that illuminate aspects of life and characters with whom
audiences might not be familiar and would otherwise ignore.

To that end, she recently helped produce the critically acclaimed
"Loren Cass", 
an independent feature that had its U.S. Premiere at the
CineVegas Film Festival,
and international premiere at the
Locarno Switzerland Film Festival. 
"Loren Cass" went on to screen in 20+ festival cities around the world,
received an IFP Gotham Award nomination and
opened theatrically in New York City and Los Angeles
to incredible reviews
from the New York Times, Variety, and the Village Voice
among many others.
For reviews and other information please visit

However, it was at CineVegas where Kayla met filmmaker Dan Peterson
whose "Have Love, Will Travel" was also premiering.
During a chance conversation, he described in detail a film he
was developing called "Pretty". 
Kayla immediately fell in love with the story and,
on the spot, volunteered to produce it with him.
In the interim, they produced
the short film,
"goodbye"
and are currently producing the webseries
"5150".
 
 
 
DAN PETERSON - WRITER  DIRECTOR  PRODUCER
An Air Force veteran, Dan utilized the G.I. bill to attend
Columbia College film school. 
His credits include writer of various television shows such as
"Party of Five" and "The Untouchables"
 
 
Dan's independent film, "Backroad Motel",
an anthology featuring fictional characters
inhabiting a dingy motel room somewhere along Route 66,
caught the attention of Jonathan Taplin, producer of,
among other films, Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets".
So impressed by Dan's film, Taplin transformed "Backroad Motel"
into one of the first internet series or "webisodes"
 
In between writing and filmmaking gigs
Dan spent random periods of time as
Quentin Tarantino's personal script typist
and once sat in a room for a week alone with
Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Director David Dobkin
prior to principal photography and transcribed their notes
as they discussed the script for "Wedding Crashers".
 
During those years, Dan also spent a brief
period working part-time as
driver/bodyguard for "Private Dancers".
However, that experience inspired him to write, produce and direct,
"Have Love, Will Travel"
a starkly honest and unflinching journey into
a dark underground world rarely seen by most people.
 
It was "Have Love, Will Travel" that
Sundance Film Festival Programmers, Trevor Groth & Mike Plant
invited to world premiere at their own CineVegas Film Festival.
 
Dan's current producing partnership with Kayla Tabish
has resulted in the semi-controversial, yet powerful, short film,
the currently in-production webseries
"5150",
and development of the intense teenage romance/dramatic feature film,