Recent Projects
"For a Moment" stars Kathryn Lawrey and John Skelley. View Film
"Rotations of the Earth" stars Carolyn Pool and Peter Moore. Premiered at the 2011 SoCal Film Festival and Carolyn Pool won Best Actress in a Short Film.
"Dreamer" stars Tracey Maloney and Robert O. Berdahl. Premiered at the 2010 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.
"Rotations of the Earth" stars Carolyn Pool and Peter Moore. Premiered at the 2011 SoCal Film Festival and Carolyn Pool won Best Actress in a Short Film.
"Dreamer" stars Tracey Maloney and Robert O. Berdahl. Premiered at the 2010 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.
"Why Love?", a feature length screenplay, was a semi-finalist in the
2011 Tulsa International Film Festival.
Recently finished "Wake", a collaborative dance video with Eiko & Koma. View Film 2011 Tulsa International Film Festival.
Biography
James Byrne wrote and directed “Ninety Nine Pages” (2005) and “Great Lakes” (2002), low budget feature films that gained a following at independent films festivals and established his reputation as an influential screenwriter and director in the Twin Cities indie film scene.
"Dreamer", a new short film, premiered at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival in 2010. Most recently "Rotations of the Earth" was an Official Selection for the 2011 SoCal Film Festival where its star Carolyn Pool won Best Actress in a Short Film.
Currently he is collaborating with Eiko and Koma on an original dance video based on Eiko & Koma's living installation "Naked".
Before his success in film, he was best known as a video artist with an international exhibition record, and for
collaborative video works with performance artist Laurie Anderson, and choreographers Eiko and Koma, Trisha Brown, Susan Rethorst, Wendy Perron, Dana Reitz, and Wendy Morris.
His screenplay, “Great Lakes”, won the 1996 Minnesota Independent Film Fund Award and was produced in 2000. It premiered at the 2002 Telluride IndieFest. In 2003 “Great Lakes” won Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Female Lead at Minneapolis’s Smmash Film Festival. “Ninety Nine Pages” premiered at the 2005 Ellensburg Film Festival.
“Under the Sink” (1998 screenplay) earned a McKnight Foundation Artists Fellowship for Screenwriting and a Barry Morrow Screenwriting Fellowship. “The Forgetting Man” secured a Top Ten Semi-Finalist spot in the 2005 Monterey Screenplay Competition. More recently, “Eggshells”, placed as a Finalist in the 2007 McKnight Foundation Artists Fellowship for Screenwriting.
Byrne received a B.A. degree from the University of Minnesota, followed by an M.F.A. in video art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He did additional graduate study at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, and studied acting and directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School. James lives in St. Paul and heads the screenwriting program at Metropolitan State University.
His newest short film, "For a Moment", stars Kathryn Lawrey and John Skelley, and will be released soon.
"Dreamer", a new short film, premiered at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival in 2010. Most recently "Rotations of the Earth" was an Official Selection for the 2011 SoCal Film Festival where its star Carolyn Pool won Best Actress in a Short Film.
Currently he is collaborating with Eiko and Koma on an original dance video based on Eiko & Koma's living installation "Naked".
Before his success in film, he was best known as a video artist with an international exhibition record, and for
collaborative video works with performance artist Laurie Anderson, and choreographers Eiko and Koma, Trisha Brown, Susan Rethorst, Wendy Perron, Dana Reitz, and Wendy Morris.
His screenplay, “Great Lakes”, won the 1996 Minnesota Independent Film Fund Award and was produced in 2000. It premiered at the 2002 Telluride IndieFest. In 2003 “Great Lakes” won Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Female Lead at Minneapolis’s Smmash Film Festival. “Ninety Nine Pages” premiered at the 2005 Ellensburg Film Festival.
“Under the Sink” (1998 screenplay) earned a McKnight Foundation Artists Fellowship for Screenwriting and a Barry Morrow Screenwriting Fellowship. “The Forgetting Man” secured a Top Ten Semi-Finalist spot in the 2005 Monterey Screenplay Competition. More recently, “Eggshells”, placed as a Finalist in the 2007 McKnight Foundation Artists Fellowship for Screenwriting.
Byrne received a B.A. degree from the University of Minnesota, followed by an M.F.A. in video art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He did additional graduate study at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, and studied acting and directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School. James lives in St. Paul and heads the screenwriting program at Metropolitan State University.
His newest short film, "For a Moment", stars Kathryn Lawrey and John Skelley, and will be released soon.
