Director X

Director X
Director X
	Director X in October 2005
Born	Julien Christian Lutz; October 31, 1975 (age 49); Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other names	X; Little X; Mr. X;
Occupations	Music video director; film director; producer;
Years active	1998–present
Website	directorxfilms.com

Julien Christian Lutz (born October 31, 1975), known professionally as Director X, is a Canadian filmmaker, commercial director, music video director, and television director. Having directed more than 100 music videos, he is widely known as a prolific music video director in the industry. He has also directed feature films and television series.

Early life

Lutz was born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, mostly in and around Brampton, and is of mixed Trinidadian and Swiss descent.^[1]

Career

Early work

Lutz began his career working on several productions; he was a visual consultant on Hype Williams' 1998 film Belly.^[2] Lutz was slated to direct the horror feature Razorwire, though the film never moved into production.^[3]

Music videos

After working on several of his projects, Lutz became a protégé of Hype Williams.^[4] Since the late 1990s, Lutz has directed dozens of music videos for popular artists and been noted for his high-budget, visually distinctive music videos for popular hit singles, including videos for The Wanted, R. Kelly, Usher, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Korn, David Guetta, Nelly Furtado, Sean Paul, Justin Bieber, Drake, Nicki Minaj, T.I., Little Mix, Rihanna, Union J, Fifth Harmony, Miguel, One Direction, Zayn Malik and Iggy Azalea. In 2004, Lutz appeared in Mya Baker's documentary film Silence: In Search of Black Female Sexuality in America.^[5]

In 2015, Lutz founded his own production company, Popp Rok, in Toronto.^[6] In 2017, he appeared on episode 7 of America's Next Top Model Cycle 23, "X Marks The Spot", as the director for a Gypsy-Sports-themed music video.^{[citation needed]}

Feature films

Across the Line

In addition to music video directing, Lutz has directed three feature films and a television film; he made his feature directorial debut in 2015 with Across the Line. The film starred Stephan James and the storyline was inspired by the 1989 Cole Harbour District High School race riots.^[7]

Across the Line was set and shot in Nova Scotia. The first screening of Across the Line was 19 September 2015 at the Atlantic Film Festival where it won the award for "Best Atlantic Feature".^[8]^[7] The film opened for limited release in British Columbia and Ontario on 8 April 2016, with screenings in various Canadian cities throughout that month.^[9] The National Post assessed the film at 2.5/4 stars, noting the story's unwavering focus on racial themes was "to the detriment of the film's depth and realism" but noted that video producer Director X "makes the transition to feature film-making look easy". In 2017, the film was the subject of an episode of The Filmmakers, the CBC's web talk series on Canadian film.^[10]

Center Stage: On Pointe

In 2016, he directed the teen drama television film Center Stage: On Pointe. The film stars Nicole Muñoz, Barton Cowperthwaite, Maude Green, Chloe Lukasiak,^[11] Kenny Wormald and Peter Gallagher. It premiered on Lifetime on June 25, 2016.^[12]^[13] The official DVD was released in September 6, 2016.^[14]

The film is the third installment in the Center Stage film series, following the 2000 film Center Stage and its sequel, Center Stage: Turn It Up. Variety critic Sonia Saraiya found Center Stage: On Pointe wholly inferior to the original Center Stage, though she complimented Lutz's direction, noting "...though it is frustrating that the film feels like 15-odd low-budget music videos strung together, the dance in those segments, and the way it's filmed, are some of the best parts of the movie."^[15]

Superfly

In 2018, Lutz directed Superfly, a remake of the 1972 blaxploitation film of the same name.^[16] Superfly was released in the United States on June 13, 2018 and received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 73 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Superfly updates the blaxploitation original with a stylish remake that's short on social subtext, but still exciting and visually arresting enough to offer its own slickly staged action rewards."^[17] Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote: "Shot in a functional, slammed-together manner that's less sensually stylish than you'd expect from a music-video auteur, the film is a competent yet glossy and hermetic street-hustle drug thriller, less a new urban myth than a lavishly concocted episode. It holds your attention yet leaves you with nothing."^[18]