Christopher Renz is an American film director, writer, producer and activist. Since 2012, he has collaborated with Gerard Bush via the directing/screenwriting duo Bush Renz, whose work includes the 2020 feature film Antebellum, the upcoming HBO Max TV Series Inkwell, and the documentary All Deliberate Speed.[1]
Bush Renz were named “Hollywood’s new power directing duo” by The Hollywood Reporter,[2] and also appeared on the Out100 2020 list of the most influential LGBTQ+ people in America.[3]
Bush Renz collaborated with Harry Belafonte in 2016 to produce a PSA about police brutality entitled “Against the Wall”.[4] The work starred Michael B. Jordan, Michael K. Williams, and Danny Glover. In 2017, they wrote and directed a short film for the song “Kill Jay Z”, from Jay Z’s album 4:44,[5] followed by a music short for Maxwell (“The Glass House”) and music videos for Khalid and Normani.
In 2020, Bush Renz released their first feature-length work, the high-concept horror thriller film Antebellum. Starring Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, and Gabourey Sidibe, Antebellum follows a 21st Century African-American woman who mysteriously finds herself in a Southern slave plantation. In an NPR interview, Renz said of the film, “we feel that horror is a great way in for general audiences who may not . . . normally receive a message like this. So we kind of want to hide the medicine inside this - what seems to be a horror film so that you walk away a different person.”[6]
Antebellum received a polarized response upon release. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote, "An artful and provocative movie about the enduring horror of America's original sin, Antebellum can't follow through on its own concept."[7] Conversely, Out called Antebellum one of the year's most innovative films,[8] while Peter Debruge of Variety called the film a “wickedly effective horror-movie metaphor for white supremacy’s enduring grip on American society,” and included it on his list of the ten best films of 2020.[9]
Projects in development include an HBO Max TV drama series entitled Inkwell,[10] and a second feature film called Rapture.[11]
In June 2020, amidst the protest movement following the murder of George Floyd, Renz and Bush took the reins of Lionsgate's Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds, posting an image of a Confederate monument overlaid with Black Lives Matter protest art. Subsequent posts included short videos of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Nina Simone discussing racism, and a biographic-themed post on the killing of Breonna Taylor. “We want to educate,” said Renz, remarking on the Taylor post. “So many people are speaking about [these issues] on social media, but a large percentage of the population doesn’t know who [Taylor] is, so we thought it was important to highlight that.”[12]
Renz was born and raised in Connecticut. He now lives in Malibu, California with Bush. The two are partners both in life and making art.[2]