Phil Leirness

Phil Leirness has always been a storyteller. At the age of six, he was writing short stories. By the age of nine, he was acting in plays and musicals. By the time he graduated from high school, he was already a published film critic, a stand-up comic and a television host (in his native San Francisco Bay Area). After moving to Los Angeles, Leirness continued to perform stand-up comedy (at such venues as the Comedy Store on Hollywood's Sunset Strip). It was upon seeing the Wim Wenders masterpiece Wings of Desire (1987) in 1988 that he knew he had to become a filmmaker. While attending the UCLA Film School, Leirness co-produced (along with Channing Dungey), wrote, directed and starred in an award-winning thesis film, Through Nights That Never End (the film also starred Merrin Dungey, Suli McCullough and Leirness' mentor at the time, Alexander Payne, the future Oscar-winning director of Sideways (2004). Following film school, Leirness made several educational and training films before making his feature film debut as a writer-director with Til Death Do Us Part (1995). A low-budget romantic comedy focusing on a love triangle, the film was released internationally by Solomon International Enterprises. Leirness produced and directed an industrial film and several commercials before writing, producing, directing and acting in The Party Crashers (1998). A dark comedy about a Hollywood party held hostage, Daily Variety called the film "Slyly amusing" and described it as "good-looking, technically resourceful, attractively cast and assuredly paced." It played numerous film festivals around the world and was distributed internationally by Cinema Arts Entertainment. The film received a limited U.S. theatrical release in July of 2001 and was released on DVD/VHS through Pathfinder Pictures in October of 2002. An English-language remake of the erotic classic The Story of O (1975) was the third feature film to be directed by Leirness (who also co-wrote the screenplay). Although legal and MPAA ratings issues have thus far prevented its release in the U.S., The Story of O: Untold Pleasures (2002) has received major releases throughout the world. From summer of 2001 to summer of 2005, Leirness served as Head of Acquisitions and Development for Pasadena-based GOAL Productions and its feature film division, Shadowland. In this capacity, Leirness oversaw development and production of the PBS documentary The Great Year (2004), and directed almost forty behind-the-scenes documentary short subjects examining the making of various feature films. Two of these, a look at director Tim Blake Nelson's holocaust drama The Grey Zone (2001) and Grounded: The Making of Panic (2002), have won numerous awards. During this time, Leirness directed stage shows at the Acme Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles and for the prestigious CAPPIES program. Leirness also developed and directed the debut feature film from Shadowland, Spectres (2004). A science-fiction ghost story called one of the year's "most impressive independent movies" by Sci-Fi Online, the film focused on the estranged relationship between a workaholic mother and her suicidal teen-aged daughter. It played numerous festivals around the world, earning accolades and stellar reviews, including from the Cinequest Film Festival, which declared, "Phil Leirness' Spectres displays his unique talent for drawing complex characters balanced with stylish, entertaining cinema." The film became a Lifetime Movie Network exclusive in the U.S. (under the alternate title "Soul Survivor") and was released on DVD through Universal and Xenon Pictures. In August of 2005, Leirness continued his long-standing affiliation with Cinema Arts Entertainment, becoming the Managing Director of the international production and distribution company as well as its sister company Artedis S.A. (Paris). Leirness held this position until June of 2008, when he left to promote his new feature film. Karl Rove, I Love You (2007) has been described as "a political Blair Witch Project" by The Huffington Post and "a weird love letter to the most evil political figure of our time" by The Village Voice. Leirness co-directed (along with Dan Butler), co-executive produced (along with Julia Miranda), narrated, and served as director of photography on the film, which played to sold out audiences in New York City and Los Angeles, set attendance records in Vermont, and won awards in Indianapolis (the Indianapolis International Film Festival), Providence (the Rhode Island International Film Festival), and Spain (the Zinegoak Film Festival). Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme called Karl Rove, I Love You (2007) "an all-around, first-class ensemble act of collective imagination, brought to life in a totally original film, as 'indie', and often as funny, as it gets." The film will be released on DVD July 14 through Ariztical Entertainment. Now forty years old, Leirness is developing several feature film projects, including a feature documentary he will start shooting in August. He is also writing two books and along with actor-comic-inventor Dean Haglund, co-hosts the weekly podcast show "Chillpak Hollywood Hour" on the Farpoint Media Network. Although he deeply enjoys his beloved neighborhood of Los Feliz where he lives in Los Angeles, Phil Leirness spends much of his time traveling - embracing his madness, searching for ever-larger playgrounds, and finding new stories to tell and new venues in which to tell them.