Duane Graves

Award-winning director Duane Graves has produced a remarkably diverse body of work spanning multiple genres including documentary, slapstick comedy, drive-in period horror, spaghetti Western, and pitch black Jonathan Swift re-imaginings. Known for crafting movies that hearken back to bygone eras in cinema, Graves both edits and co-directs many of his original films with actor and filmmaking partner Justin Meeks, and also served as cinematographer for many of their early outings. Born in 1975 in San Antonio, Texas, Graves attended Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he met film school peer and future collaborator Meeks before graduating in 1999. Graves continued his motion picture studies at The University of Texas at Austin film school before eventually partnering with Meeks, forming Greeks Films in 2000. In 2001, Graves premiered his own award-winning documentary Up Syndrome (2000) at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City. An intimate, playful portrait of his childhood friend born with Down Syndrome, Up Syndrome (2000) took home numerous awards at festivals across the globe, including the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002, and the Grand Prize at the 2006 Movies Askew Film Festival hosted by director Kevin Smith in Hollywood. Critically-acclaimed for its refreshingly unsentimental approach to an often serious subject, it is available in the USA on Prime. Graves then co-wrote/co-directed his debut narrative feature with Meeks, The Wild Man of the Navidad (2008), a 70's drive-in style horror yarn based on the real life journals of Dale S. Rogers and starring Meeks. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and, following a later stop at Austin's Fantastic Fest, was released internationally by IFC Films in 2009. It was recently named the best Bigfoot movie ever made by AICN and was streaming on Shudder. Graves' sophomore effort, the 80's-influenced urban cannibal horror Butcher Boys (2012), was written and produced by Kim Henkel, co-creator of the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) with Tobe Hooper, and loosely based on Jonathan Swift's satirical essay A Modest Proposal. Graves and Meeks met Henkel while studying in his screenwriting and film production courses at A&M in the late 90's. Featuring the largest cast of Chainsaw franchise alumni ever assembled, Butcher Boys debuted at the 2012 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal - one of the largest genre fests in the world. It was recently named by Blumhouse.com as one of "10 Amazing Horror Movies You Might Have Missed," and was released to North American audiences by Phase 4/Entertainment One in 2013. In 2013, Graves co-wrote/co-directed the 60's-inspired spaghetti Western Kill or Be Killed (2015), also starring partner Meeks and featuring genre icons Michael Berryman, Pepe Serna, Edwin Neal, and Luce Rains. The indie Western was shot across 600 miles of rugged Texas locations, and premiered in competition at the 2015 Dallas International Film Festival before being picked up by RLJE Films for wide release in March, 2016. Graves resides in Austin, Texas.