Artist, designer, and furniture maker Brian Presnell discusses how his life experiences have impacted his career, community, and his passion for recycling.

Brian Presnell is well-known in the local community as a prolific connector who uses his artistic talents and passion for recycling to make a positive impact on the city of Indianapolis. In IMBPREZ, as he works to make his city better while combating business calamity and family tragedy, he is compelled to address the meaning of success both personally and professionally.

Through his company Indy Urban Hardwood, Brian supplies local wood and custom furniture to many businesses and craftsmen including Ash Blaeds. When our team first met Brian, we instantly knew he was a character. We were looking for a supplier of locally-sourced lumber to use as flooring in our new office, and we found that. But we also found someone we couldn’t wait to start following around with a camera because we knew he was going to tell some pretty amazing stories. Two years later, we have a one-hour documentary film that will make you laugh, cry, and everything in between. 

We consider it a privilege to have gotten to know Brian over the past two years and truly an honor to interview him and help capture part of the story that brought him to where he is today.  We really couldn’t have anticipated the events that would happen during that time we filmed this. But, despite the challenges and brutally hard moments that came up, Brian always gave us his time and trust. 

Glenn Johnson, the film’s Editor, rose to the challenge of organizing the structure of this story. He says “I didn't meet Brian until the film was almost complete. All I knew of him were the hours and hours of footage we had, but his character came though so clearly. As I sat and watched the events of the past two years unfold, I realized both an amazing and terrifying thing: everything out of Brian's mouth was interesting. Everything was loaded with emotion and specific details. He's a storyteller. Because of that, the challenge was having to somehow distill the story down to the essentials. I hope we've done that with IMBPREZ. I hope everyone who watches it sees how unique and inspiring Brian is - not just as a subject of a film, but as a human being."

IMBPREZ is streaming on Hoodox alongside many other great Hoosier films.

~ Additional Content ~

Six months after finishing production on “IMBPREZ,” we worked with Brian to create a piece centered around his experience confronting very impactful childhood trauma through art therapy. Some of the stories and themes that came to light in the feature documentary are further explored in a new short film. “Gun Control” is now available for mature audiences to watch on Hoodox as well.