James M. Russell

Two weeks after taking the photograph that would win him the prestigious Canadian Press Photographer of the Year Award in 1992, James left photojournalism. With five completed screenplays in hand, he set off for Los Angeles where he attended classes at UCLA's film school and networked. The year after James attended UCLA Film Program, he was chosen over dozens of applicants to study at the Canadian Film Centre where he wrote, produced, and directed his first short, The Red Car. Between 1992 and 1997, James worked as a film industry story consultant, while finding the time to complete nine feature length screenplays, two television dramas and the screenplay for You've Got The Key, a searing drama produced by Rhino Productions. In '97 James wrote, produced and directed The Painter, a hard-hitting social drama shot on location in Los Angeles. Early in 2001, James produced four, thirty-minute films, shot with twenty actors and a combined crew of thirty-seven. James has written and published three novels. The first, Blue Father Bloody Son, was optioned for film and television in 2007 by NS Productions (Los Angeles). His fourth novel, The Girl Who Swam Around the World, a story for young adults, is due to be published in late 2010. James's first feature film, Happy Father's Day, a script based on his novel Blue Father Bloody Son, a drama, and Buffalo Blacque, a western are both in development. In 2018, James incorporated MANKS STUDIOS.