Greg Pritikin is an independent

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Biography

According to his official

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

, Pritikin inherited a love of film from his father, who had an extensive collection of 16mm prints. Pritikin watched them religiously before starting to make his own 8mm films at the age of eight.

Movie career

His first three feature films, '' Totally Confused'', '' Dummy'' and '' Surviving Eden'', all comedies, deal with, in the writer/director’s words, "small triumphs by small people." Pritikin entered the world of independent filmmaking in 1998 with his first feature, '' Totally Confused''. The film was co-written and co-directed with childhood friend, Gary Rosen. Soon after, Pritikin wrote and directed his second film, ''Dummy'', a comedy about a young man struggling to overcome his shyness with the help of a ventriloquist dummy. The film starred

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, Illeana Douglas, Jared Harris, Vera Farmiga, Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter. '' Surviving Eden'', his third feature, is a satire about reality TV starring Michael Panes, Peter Dinklage,

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, Savannah Haske and

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing comedy films such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978), The Blues Brothers (f ...

. Though he claims he never watched a music video in his life, Pritikin has directed several of them, including one for

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

. He was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for ''Dummy'' and Best Screenplay for ''Surviving Eden'' at the Milan International Film Festival. Pritikin directed the 2011

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

'' Monster of the House''.

Filmography as director

* '' Totally Confused'' (1998) * '' Dummy'' (2002) * '' Surviving Eden'' (2004) * '' Monster of the House'' (2011) * '' The Last Laugh'' (2019)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pritikin, Greg Film directors from Illinois American male screenwriters Living people Screenwriters from Chicago Year of birth missing (living people)