From documentaries to feature films, James Suttles has always strived to explore & contribute to the art of story telling through motion pictures as a Director of Photography, Producer & Director.

Not unlike many artists in his field, James discovered a love of filmmaking at an early age.Spending all of his free time in the forest & fields surrounding his childhood home in North Carolina, making short films based on stories such as Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” and W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”, he never realized then, how influential those early years would become.Growing up in a single father household, due to the passing of his mother at an early age, he found that he was inspired by the stories of the everyday person who through simple means, fought for a better life.

This inspiration ultimately led him to producing his first feature length film, the award winning documentary “Three Cultures of Appalachia” which told the story of three very different women, (an African American, European immigrant and a Cherokee Indian), who grew up in the Appalachian mountains.Through their lives, the film discovered that even though their differences were great, their values and beliefs were surprisingly similar.

Since that point, he has yet to look back.  He just recently wrapped production as producer and director on the film “Seven Days Till Midnight″ along with serving as the director of photography on the feature films “Shifting Gears” and “Dead Thirsty”.  He also served as Director of Photography on the Academy Award nominated feature film “Alone Yet Not Alone”,  along with “Touched by Grace”, “For the Glory” and the film “Red Dirt Rising” (that he served as Producer, Co-Director, DP and editor). Some of his other recent projects and clients have included Huffington Post, Intel, GE, Harley Davidson, Simon and Schuster, Readers Digest, Time, Inc., ACC, and various music videos.

Since 2015, James has served as a Cinematography faculty member at the University of North Carolina, School of the Arts with an emphasis on digital cinematography and post workflow integration in production.