“Trust a Black woman.”
If that lesson isn’t already hardwired into the culture, it’s certainly been cemented for brothers Julien and Justen Turner. The filmmaking siblings credit their mother, Dr. Cynthia Turner, a college administrator, with pushing them to stop waiting for permission and bet on themselves.
They followed that advice. And the result? FreeLANCE, their new episodic comedy series, premiered as part of the 2026 Sundance Episodic Pilot Showcase.
Rooted in the absurd, chaotic reality of building a creative life from the ground up, FreeLANCE follows a young filmmaker as he documents his journey to make his first film with a group of inexperienced hustlers who take odd jobs to pay their bills.
Of course, mom Turner is an executive producer, and storylines are based on the brothers’ actual gig-economy experiences.
“The pilot is about 70 percent pulled directly from our real experiences,” Julien told EBONY, noting that the rest comes from stories shared by friends and fellow filmmakers, plus improvisation by the cast that made everything feel even more lived-in.
But back to that 70 percent. It includes one of their most unhinged early freelance jobs. “The craziest thing we pulled straight from real life was agreeing to show a wedding recap at the reception,” Justen recalled. “We actually took that job early on as freelancers.”
What followed was pure madness as they edited the piece while driving from the ceremony to the reception, with real arguments breaking out in the van, and no time to export the final video. “We ended up literally screen-sharing straight out of the Premiere Pro timeline,” he said. “That was the only way the recap was going to happen.”
Now, with their Sundance debut behind them, the brothers are taking a moment to look back on the journey, from scrappy gigs and sibling tension to trusting their instincts — and their mother — that building something undeniable was always the right move.
EBONY: How was it to see your project up on the screen with people watching what you’ve put together?
Julien: Surreal, one of those real “pinch me” moments. It still doesn’t feel completely real. But what made it especially different this time is that it’s a comedy, so you get the audience’s response immediately. You hear people laughing from the beginning to the end. Laughing at the beats you planned, but also at the little moments you didn’t even expect to land. As a filmmaker, that’s the dream: connection. Seeing people react in real time confirmed that we did.
How do you keep your sibling rivalry at bay when working together?
Justen: It’s funny, our dynamic doesn’t really feel like rivalry anymore. It’s more like we’re a tag-team, not competing, but covering each other. Over time, we’ve learned how to lean into each other’s strengths and make that our advantage. Having two directors isn’t just two opinions; it’s two different instincts that can push the work further.
Now, early on? The sibling friction was definitely louder. But the difference with brothers is you can’t storm off forever; you still have to sit at the same dinner table. And if we didn’t work it out, our mom was going to work it out for us.
What’s the story #FreeLANCE wants us to take away?
Julien: At its core, FreeLance is about what so many people are living through right now: trying to build a creative life inside an ever-changing landscape. One that’s oversaturated, unpredictable, and constantly shifting under your feet.
Justen: We wanted to bring levity to those lessons: the wins, the mistakes, the weird gigs, the moments where you feel behind, and the moments where you surprise yourself. Hopefully, it encourages someone to take the first step: to take the risk, embrace the awkward learning curve, and keep going. Because the deeper takeaway is that you often have more than you think where you’re at, especially if you build community and stop trying to do it alone.
What role did your mother serve in bringing FreeLance to life?
Julien: Our mom served as an executive producer, which makes this something like the 20-somethingth project we’ve done together as a family. When things slowed down for us in mid-2025, she was the one pushing us to bet on ourselves, to take what we’d earned and reinvest it into something we believed in, instead of waiting for permission.
She’s been saying from the beginning that FreeLance was the one that would blow up, and for a while… we didn’t fully believe her. But in January, we had a real fork-in-the-road moment: Spend money chasing the room, or put that money into making something undeniable. She helped us choose the second option.
So, there are two lessons we walked away with: always trust your mom, and honestly, always trust a Black woman.