James Kicklighter

Kicklighter's hometown is in Bellville, Georgia.^[2][3] His father died from SARS when he was 12 years old.^[2][4] He graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in Public Relations.^[1][2]

He began his career at 18, as co-executive producer^[5] of That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor,^[6] interviewing actress Dixie Carter, rocker John Mellencamp, director David Zucker, and actor Buck Taylor.^[7][8]

During his studies at Georgia Southern University, he collaborated with another student to film a documentary about the Golden Age of Radio for the Broadcast Education Association.^[9][10] While directing the film that became Theater of the Mind, he met Edith Ivey, who starred in his short film, The Car Wash.^[11]

The Car Wash won the Audience Choice Award at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.^[12][13]

His short film Followed,^[14] based on the story by Will McIntosh, received an Audience Choice Award at the 2011 National Film Festival for Talented Youth,^[15] and was screened by Dragon Con, The Rome International Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival and Central Florida Festival, with international press coverage.^[16][17]

His 2012 film Final Acts was a finalist in the Macon Shorts Competition, part of the Gateway Macon Initiative. The film won Grand Prize.^[18]

His first feature film was the international crossover Desires of the Heart, which was produced by Jitenda Mishra^[19][20] and shot in Savannah, Georgia and Rajasthan, India in 2012.^[2][21][22] It was screened at film festivals in 2013 and 2014 including the Cannes Film Festival.^[23] The film was released in theaters across India in November 2015.^[24][25] It received award for Best Foreign Film at the La Femme Festival in Los Angeles.^[26][27][28]

In 2015, he released the documentary A Few Things About Cancer.^[29] The film won Best Short Documentary at the 2015 FirstGlance Los Angeles Film Festival.^[30]

His music video "Branches" for solo artist Shel Bee won Best Music Video at the 2016 Garden State Film Festival^[31]

After the 2016 Garden State Film Festival, Kicklighter directed the documentary Digital Edition, a profile on the future of journalism framed through The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.^{[32][33][26][34]} He was inspired to film the project after receiving an email from Bert Roughton, Jr., Senior Managing Editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.^[35]

He was the Virginia filmmaker for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.^[36][37][38] He filmed content for the campaign with public figures such as Michelle Kwan.^[38] He decided to direct the film The American Question after observing politics and voting during the campaign.^[2]

In 2017, he directed Angel of Anywhere, starring Briana Evigan, Ser'Darius Blain, David A. Gregory, and Axel Roldos.^[39][40] The project was a collaboration was a collaboration with director of photography Jonathan Pope.^[41][42]

He spoke about his start in filmmaking at the Directors Guild of America^[43] and the importance of networking ^[44] in March 2018.

Kicklighter directed the feature documentary The Sound of Identity, profiling Lucia Lucas's performance of Don Giovanni at the Tulsa Opera for 2021 release.^[45][35][46] It received a rating of 91% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.^[47]

Kicklighter is set to direct a biopic about athlete and coach Erk Russell,^[48][49][50] who revived the football program at Georgia Southern University.^[51]

Bag company JAMAH named The Kicklighter bag in his honor.^[52] He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.^[53]