Director Biography

A native of Holdenville, Oklahoma, Brent Simonds holds BA, MA, & EdD degrees and is a professor and the mass media program coordinator in the School of Communication at Illinois State University. He teaches documentary storytelling and other film/video related courses.

His interests include visual communication, media ecology, and digital filmmaking (training, education, & documentary). He has won Telly, Aurora, and EMPixx Awards and his productions have also been recognized by the Broadcast Education Association, the National Broadcasting Society, and the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. He has also screened and won awards at a variety of independent film festivals.

Before his academic career, Brent spent several years as a producer/director at local television stations (NBC & Fox Affiliates, Independents) and production companies where he created hundreds of commercials and scores of talk, coaches, and travel shows. He has produced more than 70 training and educational documentaries for the United States Postal Service, Prentice Hall, Houghton-Mifflin Co., St. Martin’s Press, and Top Hat Dynamic Courseware. Two grant-funded educational films are currently being distributed by "Films for the Humanities & Sciences."

In 2018 he received the “University Outstanding Creative Activity Award” from Illinois State University.

Meeting Verlon

I first met Verlon Thompson in 2012 when he attended an acoustic jam that my friend Jack Secord hosts at Lake Bloomington in central Illinois each year. Jack became friends with Verlon when he was a student in a songwriting class that Verlon & Guy Clark taught at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in southeast Ohio. The awesome tune "The Guitar" was born in that class. (video below courtesy of Genuine Human Productions)