Justin Purser Joins Florida Surf Film Festival Short Documentary Jury

It’s our sincere pleasure to welcome Justin Purser to the short documentary jury.  Having taken the Viewers’ Choice – Feature award at the 2019 Florida Surf Film Festival for his six year long project And Two If By Sea about the competitive and complicated lives of twin brothers, CJ and Damien Hobgood, he has more than left a little skin on the pavement along the grueling and hard-earned road of documentary filmmaker.  We look forward to many more projects will his finely-crafted touch.

Born & raised in Florida, Justin started out at a very young age shooting surf films for international brands such as Quiksilver, Billabong, & Rusty with iconic professional surfers such as the Hobgood brothers and Kelly Slater. After moving to Los Angeles, he began working at Academy Award winning production companies A Band Apart and Anonymous Content where he was able to learn the directing process from the world’s top directors. He grew his role into writing music video treatments for directors on music videos such as Beyonce “Single Ladies”, Beyonce and Shakira “Beautiful Liar”, Pink “Nobody Knows”, etc. He went on to write Beyonce’s live performances for the 2011 Grammy Awards and her appearance on the final Oprah Winfrey show. Justin also co-produced The Shooter Series and Richard Brown (True Detective) where he directed interviews with Jay Z, Mark Wahlberg, and Outkast.

Justin was one of the original creators and directors of Maker Studios (acquired by Walt Disney Corp.) that pioneered the Multi Channel Network YouTube centric companies of today. He conceptualized and directed one of Maker’s first ever YouTube talent driven branded campaign (Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino Las Vegas) creating the model on how brands advertise utilizing YouTube & influencers. He is the only director to concept and direct a brand sponsored video (Cosmopolitan Magazine & Nivea) to take number one on the Ad Age Viral Charts with no Advertising Agency involvement beating out top brands such as Nike, Pepsi, & Toyota. He has also directed music videos for major record labels and companies such as Interscope, Warner Bros, Capitol, Apple Music, & Sony; for artists Eva Simmons, Corey Taylor, Jason Derulo, A Fine Frenzy, Bret Michaels, The Midi Mafia, Miggs starring Lindsay Lohan, Mickey Avalon, Taproot, along with a fun little PSA for To Write Love On Her Arms with Joaquin Phoenix, Miley Cyrus, & Liv Tyler.