Christopher-Lee dos Santos

Christopher-lee dos Santos was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 2, 1986. He would remain in his home country, studying filmmaking at the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, until 2008; that year, his graduation student short film At Thy Call (2008) played at numerous film festivals, including the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and Winelands Film Festival. The film also went on to win numerous awards including best film, best cinematography and visual effects. Dos Santos got his first short feature film (56 minutes) debut at the age of 22 when his independent film Brothers in Arms: 1978, was aired on the national broadcasting network M-Net in South Africa in 2006. Dos Santos wrote, co produced and directed the film. He was still in film school at the time of it's completion. The film won awards at the Apollo film festival and KKNK (Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees) festival in Western Cape that same year. In 2011, at the age of 26, dos Santos directed Angel of the Skies, his first full-length independent feature film, which he also wrote. Angel of the Skies follows the exciting story of South African Air Force pilot, Earl Kirk, played by Nicholas van der Bijl, who volunteers to fly for the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He and his diverse commonwealth bomber crew find themselves behind enemy lines when their stricken aircraft crash lands in Nazi occupied Europe. Hunted down by SS soldiers, led by Stutze (David James, District 9), their undeniable defiance to return home to their families is challenged, and an honest story emerges to reveal the heart of friendship in the face of death. Angel of the Skies was a personal passion film for dos Santos which he saw completion of from beginning to end over 4 years. It is a film essentially completed in Chris' basement where he did all the visual effects and post production work (edit) by himself. The film secured international distribution through 27 territories and provided dos Santos a chance to show South African producers what he could do. His screenplay for a film Last Broken Darkness, a post apocalyptic film set in North America, seemed too bold a film to make, but after Angel of the Skies secured international sales, Last Broken Darkness was quickly green lit. Dos Santos is currently in post production of Last Broken Darkness, which will be released later in 2016. Chris is considered to be a passionate filmmaker who always has his eye on the ball. His peers often regarded him as "gutsy" and thought of him as an eccentric person who never gave up on his vision for a film he was working on. He's been praised for his ability to make feature films that look way more expensive than what their budgets would suggest, using his talents in both Camera work and Edit to help achieve the high production value