NATCHEZ &8212; Jennifer Ogden&8217;s upbringing reads like one of the movies she might bring to life as an independent film producer in Hollywood.

Picture this: In the Natchez of the 1950s and &8217;60s, a girl and her two younger sisters are raised by a single mom who encourages the free-spirited girls to pursue all the creative outlets at their disposal.

Over the years, that ranges from taking up a variety of musical instruments to art to staging front-yard plays. And yes, it also includes writing.

&8220;And I remember we had an old, old refrigerator,&8221; Ogden said. &8220;She let us paint that refrigerator any way we wanted &8212; flower-power symbols, anything. It didn&8217;t look like anything you&8217;d have in your average house.

&8220;And we would make up plays in our carport. I would tell everyone what they needed to do. I was the boss at age 5.&8221;

No, it wasn&8217;t your average house. Ogden remembers it was the way her mother, Cindy Stringer, raised her and sisters Lucy and Matilda that accounts, in large part, for where she is today.

&8220;She is a strong, independent woman who gave us permission to explore ourselves creatively,&8221; Ogden said.

And where Ogden is today is very near the top of the box office heap &8212; executive producer of &8220;The Family Stone,&8221; one of the top-grossing films of the past few weeks.

&8220;The Family Stone&8221; &8212; with an ensemble cast including Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker and Craig T. Nelson &8212; is the story of an eldest son who brings his rather uptight, controlling girlfriend home for the holidays.

He does so with the intention of proposing to her. But, as the movie&8217;s Web site promises, &8220;before the holiday is over, relationships will unravel while new ones are formed, secrets will be revealed, and the family Stone will come together &8230; through its extraordinary capacity for love.&8221;

It was a script that instantly got Ogden&8217;s attention when it came across her desk about a year ago. The material, she said, made her laugh and cry.

That, and the chance to work with director Thomas Bezucha, whose films she admired, made her pick up the phone to say &8220;yes.&8221;

And she was saying &8220;yes&8221; to quite a lot. An executive producer is like the hub of a wheel, a central person who coordinates every aspect of a film, from budget to sound to wardrobe to union negotiations.

With the director and studio, Ogden said, &8220;I make sure the vision (for the movie) is realized. I have to see the big picture without losing sight of the details.&8221;

It&8217;s a role Ogden loves &8212;

being in the middle of things, organizing a bunch of components at once, working with the studio and director to make everything happen.

&8220;It&8217;s a collaborative, creative process,&8221; she said.

She got her start back home in Natchez in 1973, bluffing her way into a job in the production office of &8220;Huck Finn.&8221;

&8220;I told them I could type so many words per minute,&8221; Ogden said rather sheepishly.

From there, she held production office jobs while in acting school in New York and concluded she&8217;d rather be running things on that end than acting.

From there, she rose to become executive producer of such high-profile films as &8220;How Stella Got Her Groove Back,&8221; &8220;The Rich Man&8217;s Wife,&8221; &8220;Prelude to a Kiss&8221; and &8220;Family Business.&8221;

She&8217;s also proud of producing &8220;Tuesdays with Morrie,&8221; a 1999 TV film Oprah Winfrey&8217;s Harpo Productions made from the best-selling book.

And she should be &8212; she won an Emmy for that one.

But she&8217;s equally as proud of the way she conducts business. Her mother, Ogden said, was a Southern lady who taught her daughters that to love others was the heart of spirituality.

In the world of movies, Ogden shows that philosophy by striving to treat others with the respect she&8217;d want herself and to make the set as good a working environment as possible.

&8220;You treat others with respect,&8221; Ogden said. &8220;Whether it&8217;s a movie star or the 20th driver, everyone&8217;s bringing their talents to the table. Besides, this business is too hard not to have fun doing it.&8221;

What&8217;s next? Unbeknownst to Ogden, Stringer had started to write screenplays in her spare time in recent years &8212; her day job is at engineering firm Jordan, Kaiser and Sessions.

And eventually, Ogden would like to take one of those, &8220;The Cotton Gin Athletic Club,&8221; and make it into a movie shot on location in Natchez.

Ogden is also writing a nonfiction book about two major aspects of her life, movies and faith, and how they intertwine and complement each other.

Other than that, she&8217;s looking for the next right script to come across her desk.

When reminded that her own life, unconventional upbringing and all, might make a great movie, she throws her head back and laughs.

&8220;It would,&8221; Ogden said, sounding surprised. &8220;It really would.&8221;