Atlanta Film Executive Steve Mensch Memorialized
Mensch was an active member of the board of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, where he served as a judge for the film competition and, in 2021, as festival chair.
Steve Mensch, who managed the Tyler Perry Studio in Southwest Atlanta and who was a well-known and well-liked figure in the motion picture business in America, died last month. One of his passions was flying and he was killed when the single-engine plane he owed went down near Homosassa Springs, Fla. He was 62.
Mensch was an active member of the board of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, where he served as a judge for the film competition and, in 2021, as festival chair. The newly published 25th anniversary AJFF program guide has a page memorializing the film executive and it’s also part of the organization’s website.
The page is headlined, “An Industry Trail Blazer, A True Friend To All.”
“True to his name, Steve was mensch in every sense—kind, humble, and generous. Whether through his mentorship, his service to AJFF, or his contributions to broader Atlanta community, Steve gave generously of his time, expertise and heart.”
Matthew Bernstein, Emory University film and media professor, served as an officer of the board while Mensch was active in the organization.
“He had this wonderful, laconic sense of humor.” Bernstein remembers. “He did countless quiet acts of kindness connecting people and institutions. The Atlanta production community has lost one of its golden stars and will never shine as brightly again.”
Mensch served as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Film, Music and Digital Entertainment in Georgia and was an effective ambassador for the film production community here as chair of the Georgia Screen Entertainment Coalition.
With his considerable influence, Georgia’s TV and motion picture and production community has grown considerably in recent decades, Last year, it ranked first in film production in America by Business Facilities Magazine. Film and television production was a $2.6 billion business during the last fiscal year in Georgia, fueled in large part by the generous tax credits productions earn.
When the AJT interviewed Mensch for a story about the growth of Georgia as a production center, he likened it to a stool with three legs.
“We’ve got studio infrastructure like our sound stages which can be up to 39,000 square feet each. We’ve got a trained established crew base under strong union leadership and got support from government legislation. Without any one of these three the level of work would be untenable.”
For 10 years, he managed the studios at Turner Broadcasting in Midtown, before spending a year in China and returning in 2015 to manage Third Rail Studios, one of the first of the new crop of large sound stages that could accommodate huge, complex Hollywood motion picture sets.
In 2016, Mensch was hired by Tyler Perry to rebuild the U.S. Army’s old Ft. McPherson in Atlanta into a modern production center. Mensch transformed the historic 330-acre site, which Perry had purchased for $30 million, into one of the largest production facilities in the country. It features 40 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, 12 large sound stages, 200 acres of green space and a substantial backlot of outdoor stage sets.
A memorial service was held at the end of December at the Tara Theatre, a place that Mensch loved and supported. Mayor Andre Dickens, Tyler Perry and Charles Rivkin, president of Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association, were among those who attended.
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