Early life and career

Carolyn Pfeiffer was born in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and grew up in Madison, North Carolina.
After attending Guilford College

Guilford College

Guilford College, founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of Friends , is an independent college whose stated mission is to: provide a transformative, practical and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker...

 she moved to Europe and began a career in motion pictures. She first worked in Rome as Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...

's assistant on films including Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

's 8 ½, Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...

's The Leopard

The Leopard (film)

The Leopard is a 1963 Italian film by director Luchino Visconti, based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel of the same name.-Cast:* Burt Lancaster as Prince Don Fabrizio Salina* Claudia Cardinale as Angelica Sedara / Bertiana...

and Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

’ The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is a series of comedy films featuring the bungling French police detective Jacques Clouseau that began in 1963 with the release of the film of the same name. The role was originated by, and is most closely associated with, Peter Sellers...

. She then moved to Paris and worked as an associate producer for Alain Delon

Alain Delon

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...

's production company. Within a year she joined Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...

 as his executive assistant and worked on many of his films including Doctor Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago

-Original creation:*Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, published in 1957**Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago, a fictional character and the main protagonist of the book Doctor Zhivago-Adaptations:There are several adaptations based on the Doctor Zhivago book:...

. Four years later Pfeiffer moved to London and started her own public relations company. Her numerous clients included Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

, Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

, François Truffaut

François Truffaut

François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

, Robert Altman

Robert Altman

Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...

, The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

’ company, Apple Corps. Ltd. and Paul McCartney and Wings.

Alive Films/Island Alive

Moving to Los Angeles, Pfeiffer formed Alive Films with Shep Gordon. They produced Roadie starring Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

 and Return Engagement

Return Engagement (1983 film)

Return Engagement is a 1983 documentary film directed by Alan Rudolph about the tour debate between Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy.-Cast:...

, a feature documentary on the Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary

Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...

/G. Gordon Liddy

G. Gordon Liddy

George Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in...

 debates (both directed by Alan Rudolph) before joining Chris Blackwell

Chris Blackwell

Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...

 to form Island Alive, a groundbreaking independent production/distribution company. Films produced and/or released during Pfeiffer's presidency include Choose Me

Choose Me

Choose Me is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Alan Rudolph. It was rated R by the MPAA. The film's tagline is In the middle of the night, when there's no one else...-Synopsis:...

, El Norte

El Norte

The Spanish phrase El Norte may refer to any of the following places or things:* El Norte , a 1983 motion picture directed by Gregory Nava.* El Norte , a Mexican daily newspaper, published in the state of Nuevo Léon....

, Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke....

, Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. The movie is notable for...

, Insignificance

Insignificance (film)

Insignificance is a 1985 motion picture drama/comedy directed by Nicolas Roeg, produced by Jeremy Thomas and Alexander Stuart, and adapted by Terry Johnson from his play of the same name. The film is set in 1954, with most of the action taking place in a hotel room in New York City...

, The Hit, A Private Function

A Private Function

A Private Function is a 1984 British comedy film starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith. The film was predominantly filmed in Ilkley and Ben Rhydding, West Yorkshire. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival....

and Kiss of the Spider Woman, which won the Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 as well as an Academy Award for William Hurt

William Hurt

William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...

.

Back as Co-Chair of Alive Films and continuing her long partnership with Gordon, Pfeiffer produced a series of films for the company: Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind

Trouble in Mind (film)

Trouble in Mind is a 1985 neo-noir film which follows an ex-cop just released from jail after serving time for a murder sentence as he returns to the mean streets of the fictional "Rain City"....

and The Moderns

The Moderns

The Moderns is a 1988 film by Alan Rudolph, which takes place in 1926 Paris during the period of the Lost Generation and at the height of modernist literature...

, Gregory Nava

Gregory Nava

Gregory Nava is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.-Education:...

's A Time of Destiny (film)

A Time of Destiny (film)

A Time of Destiny is an American drama film directed by Gregory Nava and written by Nava and Anna Thomas. The story is based on the opera La forza del destino by Verdi. The motion picture was executive produced by Shep Gordon and Carolyn Pfeiffer...

, Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...

's The Whales of August

The Whales of August

The Whales of August is a 1987 film starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The house...

, Mary Lambert's Grand Isle

Grand Isle

- Places :In the United States:* Grand Isle, Louisiana, a town in Jefferson Parish* Grand Isle, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana* Grand Isle, Maine* Grand Isle, Vermont, a town in Vermont* Grand Isle , an island in Vermont* Grand Isle County, Vermont...

and Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...

's Far North

Far North

Far North may refer to:* Far North , a part of Russia which lies beyond the Arctic Circle* Far North, Chile, one of the five natural regions of Chile according to CORFO...

and Silent Tongue

Silent Tongue

Silent Tongue is a Western written and directed by Sam Shepard. It was filmed in Spring 1992, but not released until 1994. It was filmed near Roswell, New Mexico and features Richard Harris, Sheila Tousey, Alan Bates, Dermot Mulroney and River Phoenix....

.

They also released a number of films including the French sensation, Betty Blue, an Academy Award nominee and Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...

's record-breaking Marlene

Marlene (1984 film)

Marlene, also known in Germany as Marlene Dietrich - Porträt eines Mythos is a 1984 documentary film made by Maximilian Schell about the legendary film star Marlene Dietrich...

, also an Academy Award nominee.

Jamaica

Between 1993 and 1999, Pfeiffer and her daughter Shannon lived in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 where she owned the master franchise for TCBY

TCBY

TCBY is an international franchise chain of frozen yogurt stores based in the United States. It is the largest U.S. retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt with live active cultures....

 for the island. They built four stores and an airport outlet and were awarded the TCBY's Award For Excellence in 1997. She also produced three Jamaican feature films. Two of them were vanguard movies shot digitally for Chris Blackwell

Chris Blackwell

Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...

's Palm Pictures

Palm Pictures

Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes innovative music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD format...

: Dancehall Queen

Dancehall Queen

Dancehall Queen is a 1997 independent Jamaican film starring Audrey Reid who plays Marcia, a street vendor struggling to raise two daughters.Detailed item informationDescriptionA street vendor discovers dancehalls and begins to live a double life....

and Third World Cop

Third World Cop

Third World Cop is a 1999 Jamaican action-crime film starring Paul Campbell, directed by Chris Browne and produced by Chris Blackwell of Island Jamaica Films.- Plot synopsis :...

. To date they are the highest grossing films released in the Caribbean.

Burnt Orange Productions

Pfeiffer returned to Los Angeles to become the founding President of The Los Angeles Film School, then Vice Chair of the American Film Institute Conservatory.

She was then invited to become founding President and CEO of Burnt Orange Productions part of the Film Initiative of the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. The mission of Burnt Orange was to produce films in HD using students as apprentices and interns working alongside professionals. In three years Burnt Orange produced The Quiet

The Quiet

The Quiet is a 2005 American drama and thriller film directed by Jamie Babbit, and starring Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert. It focuses on a mute teenage girl, Dot who goes to live with her godparents after her father dies, where she slowly learns the disturbing secrets of the family, primarily...

, acquired by Screen Gems

Screen Gems

Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....

 and released by Sony Classics, Adam Rifkin

Adam Rifkin

Adam Rifkin sometimes credited as Rif Coogan, is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. Rifkin is claimed to belong to a rare breed of film directors that transited from public-access television cable TV to Hollywood.His eclectic career ranges from broad family comedies to cult...

's Homo Erectus, being distributed by National Lampoon in 2008, The Cassidy Kids, distributed by B-Side and aired on IFC

Independent Film Channel

The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...

 in 2008 and Elvis and Annabelle to be released in 2009.

Pfeiffer now resides in Marfa, Texas

Marfa, Texas

Marfa is a town in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. Located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, it is also the county seat of Presidio County. The population was 1,981 at the 2010 census....

 where she continues her work as a producer. She is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

, the former President of IFP West and was recently awarded the Pioneer Award by the Lone Star International Film Festival in Fort Worth for her "trailblazing work in independent cinema".