Harper Philbin
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
This Oak Park, Illinois, native started making films in the 1970s with
his parents' Super-8 camera. After graduating with a bachelor's degree
in film from the University of Iowa in 1979, he spent three years in
Chicago, two in New York City, and six in Los Angeles working as a
video editor and camera operator. He continued to write and direct
independent films on the side, including _The Law of
Nature (1986)_ a documentary about Yosemite
National Park rangers that aired nationally on PBS in 1986. He moved
back to Chicago in 1990 and began teaching as an adjunct professor at
Columbia College before returning to school to earn a master of fine
arts degree in film production at Southern Illinois University. Since
1997, he's been an associate professor of film at Grand Valley State
University in Michigan where he runs the school's annual Summer Film
Project that brings students, faculty and industry professionals
together to collaborate on a movie. After making ten award-winning
narrative shorts, Philbin produced and directed his first
feature-length film,
To Live and Die in Dixie (2008), which went on to win two Best Feature awards.
