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P.J. Palmer | DIRECTOR
ABOUT
I’m a director drawn to stories that hold tension in stillness, and truth in contradiction.
I make films where emotional visibility and moral complexity take center stage and where what goes unsaid often speaks the loudest.
CREDIT
Writer & Director: P.J. Palmer
SELECTED WORK
NORTH STAR
Short Film
written & directed by P.J. Palmer
A rural rancher and his ailing husband, struggling against poverty and isolation, make a heartbreaking decision in order to preserve the dignity of their marriage.
Starring: Colman Domingo, Kevin Bacon,
Laura Innes & Malcolm Gets
WINNER: Best Director - Cordillera Film Festival
WINNER: Best Professional Short - SCAD Savannah
WINNER: Best Screenplay - LA Int’l Screenplay Competition
WINNER: Best Short Film - Oscar Qualifying Out On Film
WINNER: Best Narrative Short - Sidewalk Film Festival
WINNER: Best LGBTQIA+ Film - HollyShorts
passcode: Twenty2
CRAWFISH: WE THE INVISIBLE
Hybrid Play/ Film - in production
film directed by P.J. Palmer
Told through a poetic, vérité lens, this genre-bending project has a beating heart pulled from real life.
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Executive Producers: Andrew Carlberg, Neal Baer
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New Music: Fiona Apple
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In production, filmed on location and performances from the stage.
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Pilot episode of the CROSSFADE series prototype.
SELECTED WORK
Crawfish, living under a freeway overpass in the East Bay, uses poetry, spoken word and percussion to share his stories of life on the streets, systemic racism, and climate change, and how they affect his attempt to make it in the world.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE BONES
Feature Film - in development
director attached: P.J. Palmer
When Cole McGee discovers a human skeleton beneath his father’s porch, it unearths a decades-old mystery that has haunted another family across town, a Black family still waiting for answers. As Cole and RJ, the missing man’s son, uncover the truth, what begins as redemption becomes a reckoning.
A tense, emotionally driven mystery about race, silence, and moral inheritance. Biography of the Bones is a character-first Southern Gothic story in the tradition of Mystic River, Prisoners, and Three Billboards.
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Lead Producer: Edoardo Bussi (former MGM/Amazon)
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Writers: Stella Ruggiero & Heidi Dugan
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Black List “Top List” (Score: 9), Nicholl & PAGE Quarterfinalist
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Budget: ~$10M | Targeting 2026 Festival Premiere
SELECTED WORK
SON OF A PREACHER MAN
Feature Film or Limited Series
Script - written by: P.J. Palmer
A coming-of-age drama about a queer boy growing up inside a family that transforms from lawless to religious - and the cost of surviving both.
Why its personal:
I was raised inside a house of love, silence, and control, where queerness was hidden, and zealotry ruled. This story is how I survived it. And how I found my voice.
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Lead Producer: Andrew Carlberg (Skin, North Star)
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From the team behind North Star
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Based on true events | Oscar-caliber roles for two leads
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Structured as either a 90-minute feature or 8-part limited series
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Screenplay Blacklist rated: 9
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Season arc outlined
SELECTED WORK
ON CANNERY ROW
Limited Series
Pilot Script - written by: P.J. Palmer
Through the memory of a grieving John Steinbeck, On Cannery Row traces the bond between two men whose friendship defied convention and shaped a generation of thought. A meditation on grief, legacy, and the kind of connection men rarely speak of, but deeply need.
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Themes: male friendship, creative legacy, grief
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Based on Steinbeck’s About Ed Ricketts
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Status: Pilot written, full outline + deck complete
Intellectual Properties of John Steinbeck are owned solely by the Estate of Elaine A. Steinbeck.
SELECTED WORK
SELECTED WORK
CROSSFADE
Anthology Series (Theater + Film Hybrid)
in development
Created by: P.J. Palmer
Raw. Theatrical. Political. Poetic. Current.
A cinematic anthology series blending filmed theater and location-based storytelling, CROSSFADE presents intimate, genre-pushing plays from underrepresented voices, performed on stage and reimagined as cinema.
Think Theatre of the Oppressed meets High Maintenance filtered through a socially conscious lens.
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A new format for a new era rooted in craft, collaboration, and artistic courage
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Prototype episode in production (Crawfish: We the Invisible)
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Fiona Apple contributing new music for pilot
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Gloria Reuben and Angela Lewis confirmed
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Neal Baer & Andrew Carlberg attached to Pilot as Executive Producers
SELECTED WORK
ON THE LINE
Limited Series or Feature Film
(based on a true story)
Created by: P.J. Palmer
Gritty. Intimate. Reflective.
Based on the true story of Ron Woods, a Chrysler electrician outed by a local newspaper who took on a corporate giant in a fight for his job, his safety, and his identity.
This is a deeply human, high-stakes legal and identity story of moral courage from a working-class everyman who refused to stay silent, On the Line asks what it really costs to do the right thing.
Erin Brockovich meets Philadelphia, with the emotional tone of Milk and the intimacy of Fellow Travelers—a blue-collar man confronts corporate and cultural forces to protect his truth.
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Life rights secured with Ron Woods
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Inspired by James B. Stewart’s New Yorker article, “Coming Out at Chrysler”
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Development in progress
IN MOTION. IN COLLABORATION.
"P.J. Palmer is a filmmaker of rare emotional clarity.
His work is intimate, resonant, and necessary."
- Colman Domingo (Rustin, Sing Sing, North Star)
My work lives in the quiet before the break. Emotionally precise, morally complex, and deeply human.
I’m already building stories at scale, with collaborators who trust both the work and the vision behind it.
Let’s build something lasting together.
This isn’t a portfolio. It’s a living ecosystem, with traction, urgency, and intention.
