Justin Burquist

Burquist grew up in El Centro^[1] and Imperial County, California.^[2] He got involved in filmmaking at a young age after his brother brought home a video camera from school.^[1] He graduated from Holtville High School in 2001, attended Imperial Valley College^[2] and graduated from San Diego State University Imperial Valley Campus in Calexico^[3] before moving to Kensington, San Diego.^[2][4]

Burquist started his career making short films and music videos,^[2] directing videos like Glitter Star by Dynamite Doll.^[5] He helped pitch the idea for the Imperial Valley Film Festival which began in 2010,^[2] and his work is often submitted there.^[6]

In 2013, Burquist started production on the second season of the web series Proxy titled Proxy 2: The Mortido. He cited Brian De Palma and Andrei Tarkovsky as influences.^[7] In 2019, Burquist completed a music video he had been working on for more than five years.^[8] In 2024, he was the director of photography on a dystopian film called Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea which screened at the 13th Oceanside International Film Festival.^[1]

Touch short film

Main article: Touch (2022 film)

Burquist's short film Touch screened at Monster Fest in 2022, opening for the premiere of The Cost by Matthew Holmes.^[9] In 2023, it screened at Berlin Short Film Festival,^[10] Oceanside International Film Festival,^[11] and the San Diego Comic-Con Independent Film Festival,^[2] where Burquist was a panelist with actors Eva Ceja and Randy Davison.^[12] It was released on Klipist^[13] and received positive reviews.^[14][15][16]

Burquist currently resides in San Diego, California.^[17][18]

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released