Clay Walker (born March 15, 1968) is an American filmmaker.

Early life and education

Walker was born in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

on March 15, 1968. He first attended college at

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

as an industrial design major and then transferred to

Laguardia Community College LaGuardia Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former congressman and New York City mayor ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

to study photography and journalism. From there he transferred to the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in television & film production.

Documentary Films

In 1992, Walker produced, directed, photographed and edited the PBS documentary '' Post No Bills'' on Los Angeles "guerrilla" satirical political poster artist

Robbie Conal Robert "Robbie" Conal (born 1944) is an American guerrilla poster artist noted for his gnarled, grotesque depictions of U.S. political figures of note. A former hippie, he is noted for distributing his poster art throughout a city overnight usi ...

. '' Post No Bills'' received
Silver Hugo
at the 1992

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

. '' Post No Bills'' was exhibited o
PBS from 1993 – 1996
and was the first completed broadcast-hour

ITVS ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly seri ...

-funded project in history. From 1995 to 1998 Walker followed the

Squirrel Nut Zippers Squirrel Nut Zippers is an American swing and jazz band formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by Jimbo Mathus, James "Jimbo" Mathus (vocals and guitar), Tom Maxwell (singer), Tom Maxwell (vocals and guitar), ...

and created various media pieces from the documentary Squirrel Nut Zippers: Musical Candy to the enhanced interactive presentations on the "

Hot (Squirrel Nut Zippers album) ''Hot'' is the second studio album by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, a retro swing band. Recorded as a follow-up to their acclaimed debut, ''The Inevitable'', the group continued their use of big band sounds and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Upon its release ...

" & "

Perennial Favorites ''Perennial Favorites'' is an album by the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers, released in 1998. The album peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200. It achieved gold status. Production The album was recorded at Ken Mosher's ...

" albums. Walker's interactive documentary on the

enhanced audio CD ''

'' was described b
CNN Interactive
as "Clay Walker's Sistine Chapel." Walker's 2007 film '' The Cole Nobody Knows'', the documentary film on the late jazz musician

Freddy Cole Lionel Frederick Cole (October 15, 1931 – June 27, 2020) was an American jazz singer and pianist whose recording career spanned almost 70 years. He was the brother of musicians Nat King Cole, Eddie Cole, and Ike Cole, father of Lionel Cole, a ...

, has been featured in ove
30 international film festivals
and awarded the

Cine Golden Eagle Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer t ...

Award.

Professional life

Walker operates the film production company Plan B Productions that specializes in both independent film work and corporate video marketing pieces. In 2006, Walker was name
"best local filmmaker"
by the readers of Atlanta's

Creative Loafing Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of a monthly arts and culture newspaper/magazine. The company publishes a 60,000 circulation monthly publication which is distributed to in-town locations and neighborhoods on the first Thursday of ...

newspaper.

Filmography as producer, director, cinematographer and editor

References

External links

Clay Walker website
*
LinkedIn profile

Walker's work on Vimeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Clay USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni American documentary filmmakers Living people 1968 births