James O'Brien (Director) Western Religion | Bio
A graduate of Providence College in 1992 with BA in English Literature and a Theatre minor, O’Brien first began making short films and documentaries at PC.
After a backpacking trip around Europe, he moved to Los Angeles in the fall of ‘92. His first film out west was “Bastard,” a B&W short about a schizophrenic hit man. American Cinemateque selected the film to open for Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu” at a DGA Herzog retrospective.
O’Brien followed this with his first feature, a 16mm color film, blown-up to 35mm, called “Venice Bound.” The film debuted at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA, before making it’s international premiere at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, calling O’Brien a “talent in the raw” and “Venice Bound” a movie that kept you “glued to the screen.”
Commissioned scripts followed in the mid-to-late nineties. During this time, James worked on set doing any number of jobs from set-painter and set construction to 2nd AD on low-budget features and music videos.
In the early years of 2000, O’Brien held the post of managing editor of “Comic News,” a Vermont based monthly magazine.
James moved back to Los Angeles in 2004. He plied his trade in the location business, doing signature work for a wide range of television shows, commercials, and studio features.
In the years that followed, O'Brien worked on two feature films concurrently:
“Wish You Were Here,” a cross country road movie and his second feature film. It debuted on iTunes in 2013.
“Hyperfutura,” a cult no budget sci-fi, and his third feature film. It debuted on iTunes and cable VOD in 2013.
During this period, O’Brien wrote the commissioned screenplay “The Backward Path,” about a detective investigating a case in hell, as well as penning the sci-fi TV series “Hardboiled” for Producer Jefery Levy.
Western Religion is O'Brien's fourth feature and his biggest, most expansive production to date. It is currently in post production.
“Bastard” – 14 minutes, black and white. Writer/Director. 1993.
“Venice Bound” – 90 minutes. Writer/Director/Producer. 1996. www.veniceboundmovie.com
“Wish You Were Here” – 85 minutes. Writer/Director/Producer. 2012.
“Hyperfutura” – 61 minutes, Writer/Director/Producer. 2013. www.hyperfutura.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0754536/
