Panel – #GLCFF2023

Greg Batiansila is a writer, director and producer who has worked in and around filmmaking for over twenty years. His work as an overachieving production assistant led to work as an overachieving location scout, which allowed him lots of time on commercial sets.

Greg’s father, the son of a Filipino from tiny Bantayan Island in the province of Cebu, Philippines, grew up in housing projects in the shadow of Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans. Greg’s mother fled American aggression in World War II and ultimately escaped communist East Germany to West Germany before immigrating to the United States.

Even when he wasn’t on sets, Greg was writing. He wrote plays, short stories, a book on spec. He wrote articles, movie reviews, and scripts, feature scripts, shorts, spec scripts for a publishing house, radio commercials, tv ads.

Greg found himself back on sets, this time as a principle at an ad agency. He wrote and directed videos of all kinds for clients of all sorts, from GE Healthcare to AirStrip to Fiserv to the highest-rated political ad in the Wisconsin in 2010. Whether it was a parody of “The Office,” animated product videos, talking head videos…product videos shot on location all around the United States, Greg wrote, produced and worked on all of them.

Through that time, he was able to work with some brilliant cinematographers, animators, and behind-the-scenes experts, all of whom helped him gain confidence for his foray into independent narrative storytelling. The Lost Key was shot with cameras and lenses borrowed from Greg’s friends.

In 2010, Greg’s youngest daughter passed away just days before her second birthday. On the day of her funeral, his father died. Those events spurred him to strive earnestly to tell stories and work tirelessly to create beauty in a world that needs it.

Working with a tight-knit clique of actors, he created, wrote and produced three seasons of a web series entitled “Leaving Eden” that gathered around 50,000 views a drama selection at ITVFest, amongst other critical praise.

The show featured original music from independent artists all over the world. Music is a critical part of Greg’s storytelling.

Greg had 2 shorts films as official selections in our Great Lakes Christian Film Festival in 2016 and 2017. In 2016 “Runner” was Nominated Best Short Film [over 20 minutes] and in 2017 “The Lost Keys” was Nominated Best Comedy. He was also on our Producer/Director Panel Discussion in our 2017 Workshops. Greg’s project “The Shepherd” is the 3rd installment in the “Lost” parables.