Writer/Director Christopher Lepkowski came from a fiction background and is self-taught in screenwriting. In the past years he's been hired to create a number of feature film stories and outlines, and has written over a dozen speculative screenplays. In 2007, his original script RED TEAM, based on the true story of a “white hat” hacker investigating the largest cyberespionage attacks on record, was a quarterfinalist in the American Zoetrope screenplay competition (Head Judge, Francis Ford Coppola).

“Despite the fact that I considered myself pretty solid on film structure and story, I didn't have much experience in film realization. So I decided to make a few short films... I know professionals in editing, sound, and cinematography, but I did all the technical roles myself anyway. On the one hand, it meant I saved money and made the short for about five hundred dollars. On the other hand, it was a lot of work... A seasoned editor could have done what I did in less than a tenth of the time... A more experienced videographer would have had less uncertainty when it came to color... But the upshot was that it was incredibly educational (especially since I'd been schooled in fiction, not filmmaking). And so just directing and editing this one short, while not necessarily altering the way I write for the screen, it's definitely given me a lot of new ideas... especially with regard to what sort of character behaviors are just inherently interesting to watch.

“So anyway, the point is that TEXAS 1960 represents, simultaneously, my first-time, solo efforts in directing, editing, videography, and sound. I'm really grateful to the cast and crew, who did all this work as a favor to the project. The professional actors were great, which of course didn't surprise me at all, but even the non-actor members of the cast really came through.”

In addition to screenwriting, Christopher continues to write fiction and is at work on a novel. His writings have appeared in various publications, and he is a cofounder and editor at small publisher Narrow Books. He plans to shoot another short film, RUNNER, for completion in 2010.