Biografia
The genesis of Dennis' filmmaking career began in 1971 with a Nikon F camera that his brother Gary gave him and the intimate portrait that he shot of his family's Christmas. Gary turned those images into a short piece that aired on KERA's Newsroom with Jim Lehrer. Hooked, Dennis closed his foreign car repair shop to work with documentary filmmaker Jim Murray and learn the basics of filmmaking. A native Texan, Dennis' professional film career began in 1972 working on videos and multi-image presentations (continuing throughout the decade) for local and national corporate and non-profit clients including: Shell Oil, City of Dallas-Support of the Arts, Texas Instruments, American Heart Association, Adopt-A Monument-Dallas, as well as producing a series of educational videos for Holt, Rinehart & Winston (interviewed Charlton Heston, Ray Bradbury). He managed a company specializing in state of the art multi-image entertainment projects including the original "Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame". During the 1980's - 1990's, the heyday of production in Dallas, Dennis quickly moved up the ranks. As a Unit Manager, Producer, Line Producer or Production Executive, Dennis has overseen numerous commercially successful and award-winning feature and television productions including: Warner Bros. Local Hero, Horton Foote's Academy Award winning, The Trip to Bountiful, Universal Pictures' blockbuster The Fast and the Furious and the acclaimed TV pilot, Dexter for Showtime. As VP of Production for HBO, the unprecedented Emmy reign of HBO began. While at HBO, Dennis oversaw 27 films that won 51 major awards including 18 Emmy's for films such as And the Band Played On and The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Throughout his impressive and distinguished career Dennis has sought to improve and contribute to his chosen art form by actively supporting and advocating for the moving image industry. Whether in Los Angeles advocating for his projects to shoot in Texas, acting as a liaison for other producers looking to shoot in Texas, or accommodating Texas filmmakers with LA contacts, Dennis has always believed in giving back to the state and people who contributed to the success of his career. Within Texas, Dennis has donated his time and experience on boards and commissions and has supported the Texas Independent Film community through participation in organizations such as the Dallas Producers Association, Texas Association of Film Tape Professionals, Texas Motion Picture Alliance, SWAMP, and volunteerism as a juror, panelist and advisor to many of the area's filmmakers and film festivals. He served as Director of the Lone Star Film Festival for several years and is currently the Founding and Senior Consultant of the environmental film festival, EarthxFilm. Dennis has also served as a resource advisor for the Sundance Institute, a moderator and/or panelist at The Actors Studio in NYC, the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, The Austin Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival and Dallas International Film Festival, to name a few. As the film industry changed and incentives began to be a force in production in the late 1980's, Dennis took up the baton of incentive legislation. It was clear to him that incentives are the linchpin to a healthy, active film community and he has fought for them - early on with ECO-USA, that he co-founded, then with the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild - to bring films back to the USA, and then back to the heart of the film industry, California and then back to Texas. Dennis has made giving back to the film community - and to the Texas film community, in particular - a major priority. As an educator, Dennis has served as adjunct Professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts; guest lecturer and mentor at SMU, UT Arlington, the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2009 Dennis was proud to be able to pass his experience on to new generations of filmmakers as creator and Chair of the Associate of Applied Arts Degree Program in Motion Picture Production at KD Conservatory in Dallas. In February 2019, upon his retirement Dennis was honored with the title of Chair Emeritus. In retirement, along with consulting with KD Conservatory, Dennis has taken on the role of Co-Founder and Senior Consultant at EarthxFilm, Consulting Producer at M3Films, continues as a Producer on the documentary film Pure Ecstasy: The Starck Club about the iconic Starck Club an¬d the 1980's, as well as a Producer on the documentary Remaining Human on Norbert Wiener and the ethical history of AI.
