Chris Metzler's film career has been a winding journey, beginning with a degree in business and cinema from the University of Southern California. He started his career in agency work, only to find himself coordinating post-production for low-budget American films in Belgium, where they were screened late at night.
As his filmmaking career took off, Metzler found himself crisscrossing the country, fueled by caffeinated beverages, and working in the Nashville country and Christian music video industries. Eventually, he made the leap to commercial LA rock n' roll, a move that led to him winning a Billboard Magazine Music Video Award.
However, Metzler's true passion lay in documentary filmmaking. He began working on independent documentaries, and his feature-length directorial debut, "Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea", narrated by John Waters, won over 37 awards for Best Documentary and was named one of Booklist's Top 10 Environmental Films. The film was released theatrically in the United States and broadcast nationally on the Sundance Channel and public television's America ReFramed.
With the success of "Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea", Metzler went on to explore other sub-cultural documentary subjects, including rogue economists, lucha libre wrestlers, ganja-preneurs, and evangelical Christian surfers. His additional feature documentaries include the Emmy-nominated "Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone", about the legendary Black ska-punk band, and "Rodents of Unusual Size", about the giant swamp rat invasion of Louisiana, which aired on PBS' Independent Lens.
As a producer/director, Metzler has worked on a wide range of projects, including documentaries, commercials, corporate, and music videos. He has directed numerous documentaries for KCET's Artbound, including the Emmy-nominated hour-long doc "The State of Creativity" and "Heath Ceramics: The Making of a California Classic".
