Chris Hilleke is a Birmingham, Alabama-based filmmaker with nearly two decades of experience creating motion pictures in various capacities. As a die-hard independent, he wears multiple hats, including writing, editing, scoring, and directing, but it's his exceptional cinematography skills that have allowed him to sustain a career and secure funding for his own projects.
Throughout his career, Hilleke has traveled the world, capturing a diverse range of content, from corporate videos and commercials to reality TV and focus groups, as well as short and feature-length narrative and documentary films.
Some of his most notable feature-length cinematography credits include the thriller A Horrible Way to Die, directed by Adam Wingard, the sex comedy Autoerotic, directed by Joe Swanberg, and the HBO documentary Gideon's Army, directed by Dawn Porter, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Editing Award for US Documentaries.
Hilleke has worked with numerous corporate clients, including Converse, Under Armour, John Deere, HBO, and Mercedes-Benz, and his work has been featured on various platforms, such as IFC, TLC, Food Network, HGTV, Netflix, Anchor Bay, and HBO.
Driven by a desire to connect with others in a creative and meaningful way, Hilleke began making films to share his stories and eventually spend his time producing his own projects. With each passing year, he edges closer to realizing his dream.
In addition to his work as a cinematographer, Hilleke has produced a number of his own award-winning narrative and documentary short films, including the 2009 Sidewalk Film Festival's Audience Choice Award Winner Some of What I Know About Tommy, which explores the life of a man struggling with Paranoid Schizophrenia in his hometown of Birmingham's Five Points South neighborhood.
