Kyle Henry is an independent fiction and documentary director focusing on individuals and communities transformed by crisis. He also has a concurrent expertise in film editing. His feature fiction directing debut Room premiered at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals and was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards. His feature documentary University Inc., about the corporatization of higher education, and American Cowboy, about a gay rodeo champ, received wide festival play after SXSW festival premieres, with the former touring colleges and universities throughout North America as part of The McCollege Tour, supported in part by filmmakers Michael Moore and Richard Linklater. His short film Fourplay: Tampa premiered at Cannes Directors' Fortnight and Sundance. His Fourplay feature anthology premiered at Frameline, then toured internationally to over thirty engagements, receiving US distribution via TLA Releasing. His partially devised fiction feature Rogers Park, premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival, then toured theatrically throughout North America, garnering a New York Times Critics' Pick as well as a 100% Fresh rating on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. His most recent non-fiction feature Time Passages premiered at the Cinequest Int'l Film Festival and will tour theatrical, academic and community screenings, followed by educational release via New Day Films in Spring 2025.
Henry is also the editor of the Sundance/Tribeca/SXSW award-winning feature fiction narrative Manito and ten documentary features including: Audience of One, Light from the East, the PBS/ITVS-funded Troop 1500 and Letters from the Other Side, and Showtime's Trinidad. He edited the Emmy Award winning Where the Soldiers Come From for which he was also a Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab Fellow. He has given guest talks at many institutions about the art and practice of editing.
Henry has also created content and worked as a consultant for numerous corporate partners, non-profits, and independent film projects, and enjoys mentoring young filmmakers and producers via programs like Full Spectrum Features Producers Lab and Chicago Int’l Film Festival’s Industry Exchange Lab. He is also known for his self-producing and distribution efforts, on which he has extensively conducted workshops and written about in publications like Filmmaker Magazine.
Education
- MFA, Film Production, University of Texas, Austin
- BA and BFA, Art History and History, Rice University
Recent Awards and Honors
- 2018 University Film & Video Association - Best Fiction Feature Film for Rogers Park
- Best Editing – 2011 SXSW Film Festival for Where Soldiers Come From
- Young Critics Prize – 2011 Janela Int'l Film Festival
- Jury High Commendation – 2011 Iris Prize Film Festival for Fourplay: San Francisco
- Best Narrative short – 2011 NewFest Film Festival for Fourplay: San Francisco
- 2010 Sundance Institute Doc Story and Edit Lab Fellow
Courses
- RTVF 372: Editing
- RTVF 370: Producing
- RTVF 379: Topics in Production: Finishing
- RTVF 379: Fractured/Anti/Alternative Narratives
- RTVF 390: Topics in Directing: The Director Prepares
- RTVF 464: Advanced Media Writing: Visual Story Structure
- RTVF 552: Narrative Techniques
- RTVF 556: MFA Thesis 3