Charlie Birns is a filmmaker whose work spans experimental, narrative, and documentary forms. He began his career in production on Law & Order and went on to work closely with theater and film directors including Sam Gold and Jodie Foster.
He has directed several experimental short films, including MILL/LADY (Lincoln Center) and WEASEL (Anthology Film Archives). As a producer, his projects have premiered at Cannes, Sitges, and SXSW. His narrative feature debut HUMAN AFFAIRS (2018), starring Kerry Condon and shot by Sean Price Williams, premiered at Slamdance and went on to win multiple Grand Jury Prizes, with the Maryland Film Festival calling it “a work of emphatic beauty.”
After relocating from New York to Los Angeles in 2018, Birns pursued graduate studies at UCLA, where his engagement with spiritual traditions and consciousness studies—including Zen, Vedanta, and Jungian analysis—informed his evolving practice. His latest film, THE WHOLE WORLD IS A LIE, marks his first documentary feature.