BRAD FEINSTEIN

Founder and CEO of Romulus Entertainment

Brad Feinstein is the founder and CEO of Romulus Entertainment, one of the largest independent production companies on the East Coast. Brad has financed and produced prestigious films like Academy Award winning Fences (2016), starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson’s The Banker (2020), Jungleland (2019) with Charlie Hunnam and Jack O’Connell, Halle Berry’s directorial debut, Bruised (2020), and City of Lies (2018), starring Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker. Utilizing over twenty years of experience as an investment banker and financial advisor, Brad’s transition from corporate finance has allowed him to fund and produce more than seventeen notable creative projects.

Launched in 2016, Romulus Entertainment provides filmmakers with the resources and the freedom to help bring their distinctive visions to life. “We aspire to tell stories that expose, inspire, and challenge the complexities of life, not merely to entertain, but to provoke an everlasting effect on those that experience them.” Brad is motivated to create transcendent, thoughtprovoking films that drive social commentary.

INSPIRING CHILDREN

MENTAL TRAINING

Over the last 21 years, the No Quit Tennis Academy has been developing nationally-ranked tennis players out of one of the most underserved areas in Las Vegas. Although Nevada’s public educational system is ranked 49th out of 50 states, graduating players have attended every Ivy League school, plus Stanford, USC, Oxford, Cambridge and more. They do this without state-of-the-art facilities - in fact, most of the lessons take place in a public park.

How do they do this? One major piece is mental training, and their partnership with a mental health nonprofit called the Inspiring Children Foundation, co-founded by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Jewel.

“What we set out to do, because there was a huge need, was to teach children not only how to hit a tennis ball, but how to master their relationship with themselves, their diet, sleep, friends, parents, and emotions. We give them a psychology for life” says academy founder and Foundation co-founder Ryan Wolfington.

Unsurprisingly, this formula creates champions on the tennis court. Players from No Quit have won over 300 sectional titles, 4 NCAA titles, and many professional titles. 8 of their players have been ranked #1 in the U.S. But if you ask them, their true victory has nothing to do with tennis. Just as players’ mental progress leads to excellence on the tennis court, their efforts on the court lead to tremendous emotional and mental growth. 19-year-old player Cole Brashear knows this well: “When you're put in a competitive setting, where it's just you and one person across from you, all of your emotions come out in the most obvious way possible. So as a sensitive little boy, I felt extremely pressured in those instances. Eventually, I quit the sport when I was 15 years old.”

After quitting the sport, Cole tried to take his own life multiple times. Luckily, his coach noticed him struggling, and recommended he join the Inspiring Children Foundation’s annual mental health retreat.

“I didn't think it was okay to cry as a male. But [the Foundation’s] attitude was that I should take a hard look at what I was going through, and talk about it. I should try and acknowledge it, because that's really the best way to deal with it. So I did, and I started playing tennis again. I started learning how to love competition. I started learning how to love anxiety. I started learning how to love battling.”

Although it doesn’t reflect the old school mentality of “toughness”, players like Cole develop a certain grittiness through their healing journeys. They learn how to become successful, as well as happy, healthy whole humans.

“Without tennis” says Cole, “I would not be half the person that I am.”

The Inspiring Children Foundation is holding an online fundraiser to make mental health tools more accessible. To participate, please go to NotAloneChallenge.org .