2010 POINT SCHOLARS

Rhys Ernst

HBO Point Alumnus

Cal Arts

Film Arts and Video

Growing up in Chapel Hill, NC, Rhys dropped out of ninth grade, due to ostracizing and queer phobia, opting instead for a self-directed high school education. During these years, he pursued art and activism, working with NC Lambda Youth Network, Rainbow Youth Coalition, Youth Voice Radio, and Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. He studied photography at UNC, jazz at Berklee College of Music, art history in Spain, and received his GED at 16.

Rhys earned a BA from Hampshire College in 2004. During this time, his film, "The Drive North" earned international recognition, screened in over 30 film festivals, and won numerous awards (including Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival and a Princess Grace Award Honorarium). After graduating, Rhys moved to New York City to begin a career in film and television. He held numerous positions including producer/editor for MTV Networks, associate producer for “Masterclass” (HBO), associate producer for “Coming Out Stories” (LOGO), adjunct professor at Queens College, and was president of the jury at Izmir Short film festival (Turkey). For the last two years he has been pursuing an MFA in Film/ Video at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, where he recently led a campus-wide Trans Awareness Week and gender-neutral bathroom campaign. Rhys uses experimental narrative, animation, and video art as strategies to discuss transgender identity, representation and history. His goal is to bridge his artistic and professional backgrounds, to bring issues of transgressive representation to as wide an audience as possible.