Home Filmmaker Forum Play Clips Speaker Bios Event Details

Sign up coming soon

Single day plus full weekend passes will be available.
Film Independent members receive discounted rates—join today!

 

 

Preston Holmes:

PRODUCER, WAIST DEEP

Exclamation mark

Preston Holmes is an industry veteran with 30 years experience as a producer, production manager and assistant director on feature films, television movies and documentaries. His production experience runs the gamut from studio features to lower budgeted independent productions shot on locations ranging from Harlem and South Central to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. After attending Princeton University, Preston left school to enroll in the prestigious Director's Guild East's Assistant Director Training Program, then gained admission to the Guild as an Assistant Director. Moving from commercial production to features in New York, first as an assistant director and then as production manager, Preston eventually joined Spike Lee's production team and helped turn out such hits as Do The Right Thing, Mo Betta Blues and Jungle Fever. He has since gone on to produce or co-produce films with some of today's most outstanding African-American filmmakers: Juice with Ernest Dickerson; Malcolm X and Crooklyn with Spike Lee; and New Jack City, Posse, and Panther with Mario Van Peebles. In 1992 Preston relocated to Los Angeles to head up Def Pictures for Russell Simmons and Stan Lathan and Polygram Pictures. While at Def, Preston developed and served as Executive Producer for the films Gridlock'd and Def Jam's How to be a Player. In 2000, Preston also produced the award winning television movie Boycott, starring Jeffrey Wright and directed by Clark Johnson for HBO Films with whom Holmes is currently developing a film on the life of African-American movie pioneer Oscar Micheaux. Preston also produced the Academy Award nominated documentary Tupac Ressurection for MTV Films and Amaru Entertainment, which was released theatrically in 2004. Also in 2004, Preston produced Sucker Free City, a movie for Showtime, and She Hate Me, a feature film for Sony Classics, which were both directed by Spike Lee. Also in the summer of 2004 Preston was Associate Producer on Hustle & Flow, an independent feature produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, shot on location in Memphis, TN. He most recently served as Executive Producer on the Focus Features film Something New starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker and Illegal Tender written and directed by Franc Reyes and produced by John Singleton; and as roducer of the film Waist Deep with Tyrese Gibson and Meagan Goode, also for Focus Features.

 

Panelists:

The current list of 2006 Filmmaker Forum speakers:

Panelists subject to change without prior notice.

© Film Independent. All rights reserved.