Dan Parris is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Speak Up Productions (www.speakupproductions.com) He is excited to be launching his first major short film, Vision, into the festival circuit. Vision is the first short film to be awarded the reinstated Missouri Film Tax Credit. They wrapped filming in December of 2023 and now Outpost (an award winning division of Bruton Stroube) is handling all the post-production. The film is being composed by Grammy award winning artist Courtney (J.R.) Peebles.

Dan has also directed the feature-length documentaries Show Me Democracy, When the Saints and What Matters? His documentaries have been distributed nationwide, played at dozens of film festivals and screened at hundreds of universities and community venues. His films have played at SXSW EDU, Heartland Film Fest, Omaha film fest, DocUtah, St. Louis International Film Festival, Lower East Side Film Festival, BronzeLens, the Awareness Film Festival, to name a few. Dan lives in South City St. Louis with his wife and 4 kids where he also runs the company, Speak Up Studios (www.speakupstudios.com) focused on nonprofit films.