Eric Byler | |
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 | |
| Born | January 15, 1972 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer, screenwriter, political activist |
Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist.
Eric Byler | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | January 15, 1972 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer, screenwriter, political activist |
Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist.
Byler identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. [1] He grew up in Virginia, Hawaii (where he attended Moanalua High School), and California. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1994, majoring in film. He recently returned to the United States from Australia.
Byler's senior thesis film, Kenji's Faith, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, went on to win six film festival awards, and was a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards.
His first feature film, Charlotte Sometimes was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, including the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500,000, and a Best Supporting Actress award for Jacqueline Kim. The film was called "fascinating and illuminating" by film critic Roger Ebert, and won the Audience Award at South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), the Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival, and the Best Dramatic Feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film was distributed theatrically by Visionbox Media and Small Planet Pictures before being released on DVD.
Byler's second feature was the Charlotte Sometimes quasi-sequel, TRE which won the Special Jury Award at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. TRE was distributed in theaters and on DVD (May 6, 2008) by Cinema Libre Studio.
His third feature, Americanese , was an adaptation of Shawn Wong's seminal Asian American novel, "American Knees." It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW, in addition to a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast, which includes Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Joan Chen and Kelly Hu. It was acquired by IFC First Take.
He also directed the PBS / ITVS Television pilot, My Life Disoriented which starred Karin Anna Cheung.
His fourth feature film, 9500 Liberty (co-directed with Annabel Park), was a documentary about immigration and politics. "9500 Liberty" won the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award at the 2010 Phoenix Film Festival, the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Charlotte Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 St. Louis International Film Festival. [2]
Byler and Park are currently in post-production on a second documentary feature film Story of America: Journey Into the Divide about voting rights, politics, and race relations. [3]
Byler is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
In the fall of 2006, Byler volunteered in the Virginia U.S. Senate election. In response to incumbent Senator George Allen's use of the term "Macaca" on the campaign trail, referring to an Indian American student from the University of Virginia, Byler and others formed "Real Virginians for Webb", a group that campaigned for Allen's Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, among the state's Asian and Pacific Islander voters. The Democratic National Committee said that outreach efforts to these voters played a major role in Webb's victory, which he won by less than 9,000 votes. [9]
In 2007, Byler volunteered and created YouTube videos for the "121 Coalition", a national grassroots organization that advocated passage of House Resolution 121, urging the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize for military rape camps (comfort women) during World War II. The resolution passed on July 30, 2007.
During the 2008 presidential primaries, Byler volunteered as co-director (along with Warren Fu) of a music video of a song written and performed by artist Andres Useche, entitled "Si Se Puede Cambiar", in support of Barack Obama. The video was released on YouTube on February 22, 2008, and was viewed more than half a million times. [10] [11] [12] [13]
In February 2010, Byler and his partner Annabel Park co-founded the Coffee Party USA. [14] Byler directed and edited the "How we Started" video for Coffee Party USA, [15] the "National Kick-off" video, [16] and other videos that appear on the Coffee Party YouTube channel. [17] Coffee Party USA is coalition that began with a fan page on Facebook. [18] [19]
Byler also is a content producer for the interactive documentary "2010 Okinawa" exploring the controversy over U.S. bases in Okinawa. [20] In 2013, Byler and Park teamed up on the web series Story of America (StoryofAmerica.org) which helped to launch both the Moral Monday movement and the "Walking Mayor" Adam O'Neal and the fight for rural healthcare (SaveourHospital.org). In 2015, Byler and comedian Will Rice launched the satirical news channel, One Percent News (OnePercentNews.com) based in Washington, DC.
Michel Gondry is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers of the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which he also directed.
Michael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, music producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores. His collaborations with musicians around the world have made him "one of the most sought-after producers in the music industry." Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Brook lives in Los Angeles. He is the creator of the Infinite Guitar.
Thomas A. DiCillo is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and musician.
Charlotte Sometimes is a 2002 drama film written, directed, and produced by Eric Byler. The title is taken from the song Charlotte Sometimes by The Cure, which in turn is based on the book Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer.
The Slanted Screen is a 2006 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Jeff Adachi which examines the stereotypical portrayals and absence of East Asian males in the cinema of the United States. The film analyzes Hollywood from the silent era to the 21st century.
Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.
Pinny Grylls is a British documentary filmmaker. She is known for co-directing Grand Theft Hamlet, a 2024 feature documentary shot exclusively inside a video game, with Sam Crane. The film won the Best Documentary Jury Prize at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.
Americanese is a 2006 American romantic drama film directed by Eric Byler and starring Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Kelly Hu, Ben Shenkman, Autumn Reeser, and Joan Chen. It is based on the novel American Knees by Shawn Wong, concerning the relationships of a man and woman of East Asian descent in the United States.
Lisa Onodera is an American independent film producer, of such noted films as Picture Bride, The Debut and Americanese. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended UCLA where she received a degree from the School of Motion Picture and Television.
Su Friedrich is an American avant-garde film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She has been a leading figure in avant-garde filmmaking and a pivotal force in the establishment of Queer Cinema.
Angelina Maccarone is a German film director and writer.
Rodrigo Dorfman is a film director, producer, cinematographer, multimedia artist, film critic and commentator living in Durham, North Carolina. He has worked with P.O.V., HBO, Salma Hayek's Ventanazul and the BBC among others.
Annabel Park is an American documentary filmmaker, political activist and community volunteer.
Jason Kliot is an American independent film producer based in New York. Kliot emerged with the American indie wave of the 1990s, producing alongside his wife and business partner Joana Vicente. In 1995 Kliot and Vicente associate produced Todd Solondz's feature debut, Welcome to the Dollhouse, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Kliot and Vicente have since worked with directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Brian De Palma, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Jim Jarmusch, and Alex Gibney.
9500 Liberty is a 2009 documentary film about the struggle over immigration in Prince William County, Virginia. It was directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler.
The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) is an annual film festival founded in 1999 and held on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The festival presents American and international narrative features, documentaries and short films for five days in June of each year.
Kimberly-Rose Wolter is an American actress, writer, producer and co-founder of VS Theatre company in Los Angeles, California.
Kurt Kuenne is an American filmmaker and composer. He has directed a number of short and feature films, including Rent-a-Person, the YouTube film Validation, described as "a romantic epic in miniature", and the documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.
Connie Field is an American film director known for her work in documentaries.
Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, second or third directoral works are admitted. There are three competition sections: International Feature Film, International Documentary Film and 'Focus: Switzerland, Germany and Austria' which focuses on these three production countries. Several industry events take place in the framework of the festival, such as the ZFF Academy or the international Zurich Summit, which have rendered the film festival an international platform for the film industry.
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