A public policy major at Duke University, Gary Breece beelined to DC after college to work for a Washington DC TV News Bureau covering politics and public affairs. He produced segments for sixty-five local news stations nationwide interviewing congressmen and senators at the ripe age of 21. His affinity for photojournalism led him around the country allowing him to dig into the heart of the LA riots, capture the devastation of the Northridge Earth Quake and zealously cover the 1992 U.S. presidential election. His photographs of Bill Clinton were used by the Clinton administration during his presidency.
Breece found himself in Cuba in 1993 for the reopening of the Havana National Fine Arts Museum. Struck by a palpable and universal discontent found on Havana streets in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, Breece jumped on the opportunity to document an era that would become known as the Special Period. He left for Prague soon after, intimately covering street assemblies and the pervasive unrest brought on by a volatile transition. His work from this period has appeared in select galleries and shows around the world.
Days after 911, Breece left for New York to film “Why Us”, a documentary exploring the root causes of the attack through the eyes of experts like Rep. Lee Hamilton (vice-chair of the 911 Commission), Seymour Hersh, and Lord David Owen. This experience later spawned a career in advocacy and social impact-related film, documentary and commercial production.
In an effort to revisit his photographic roots in Fine Art photography and to research and explore the potential of the epic american montage in corporate and advocacy messaging, Breece began a documentary series he later coined “Off Route”, exploring a behind-the-scenes, back roads America by motorcycle. His photographic journey led to a cinematic-documentary style used in spots and short films for both corporate and nonprofit clients.
Committed to a career in video and film production, Breece spent years in LA where he launched Focus Productions. He directed, produced and distributed corporate videos and client sponsored documentaries for Fortune 500 companies including Nike, McDonald’s, Campbell’s Soup, Ralston Purina and Midas, working with talent such as Eric Clapton, Spike Lee, Michael Jordan, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Danny Glover, Charles Barkley, and Justin Timberlake.
Ready to explore a more advocacy-focused career, Breece moved to NYC to launch Public Address System in order to produce, direct and disseminate commercials, PSAs and short and long-form docs for cause-related and corporate social responsibility awareness campaigns. Public Address System credits include spots and short films for clients like Energizer, MasterCard, Whole Foods, The College Board, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Charity:Water, Live Earth and Dow among others.
