Introduce Yourself : Greetings from Cleveland by Brian Jeffery Bowers

I’m a multihyphenate from Cleveland, Ohio, working on a bunch of different film projects. I’m in the middle of starting a new nonprofit organization called Cleveland Film Collective, that is dedicated to supporting artists in the greater Cleveland film community. Our long term goal is to open the Cleveland Film Center, a collaborative coworking space/resource center for the film community.

I’m the creator and Festival Director of Cleveland Horror Fest, an international horror film festival and screenwriting competition. We had our inaugural event this past October at Atlas Cinemas in Shaker Square, and are already planning a bigger and better event for 2022.

In production I work as a 1st AD, most recently on a serial killer LGBTQ+ film called LEVITICUS, and on a short film adaptation of “The Great Gatsby”. I also have several projects in preproduction to produce & direct and/or write that should be coming up over the next year.

As an actor, I’ve worked a ton in theatre, appearing on many of the professional and larger community theatre stages in Cleveland. I also recently appeared on film as Tom Buchannon in that same “Gatsby” short, as an ICE guard in the short “Separated”, and as Mitch in the feature WORKOUT PARTNERS. I was the web spokesperson for 212AreaCode.com for many years, and previously did a series of TV voiceovers for Kia.

Earlier in my career I was a talent agent at one of the largest SAG-AFTRA franchised agencies in our region, starting in the broadcast division and running the print division in our local office for the last part of my time there. I ran my own photography studio for years as well before I started working more in film.

I have a background in business and marketing, and have worked for several different theatres and cultural arts facilities in my area. My current day job is as Assistant Director of Operations for the 48 Hour Film Project, the world’s largest filmmaking competition. I also produced our Cleveland events from 2008-2019 until I retired from that part of my job to work on other film projects.

So, clearly I have too much free time on my hands