Background
Jennings was born in Hollywood, California. He grew up making Super-8 movies and screening them for friends and family.
Jennings was born in Hollywood, California. He grew up making Super-8 movies and screening them for friends and family.
He graduated from Beverly Hills High School and then attended film courses at Columbia College Hollywood (Commerce Clearing House), University of California, Los Angeles, and the American Film Institute.
He has directed two feature films, Loanshark (1999) and Hell to Pay (2014), as well as, an assortment of short films and documentaries. Jennings uses handheld cameras and cinéma vérité techniques, shooting his films among old Hollywood buildings and streets. Jennings writes, directs, produces, and composes the music for his films.
He uses digital movie cameras and adds a grainy film look during the editing process.
He shoots low-budget films, mostly without permits in a style called guerrilla filmmaking. Film columnist David Delegate Valle referred to Jennings as a "maverick filmmaker." In 1999, Jennings directed his first feature Loanshark, a drama which the Los Angeles Times considered the "Best Bet" for film when it premiered at the Vogue Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
Loanshark also screened at several film festivals in 2000, including Silver Lake, South by Southwest, Santa Monica, and Melbourne Underground. The film depicts the stressful life of a ruthless loan shark who drives around the streets of Hollywood looking for people who owe him money.
In 2005, Jennings directed The Weird Museum, a documentary about a circus-like freak show which was located in Hollywood for many years.
The documentary was shot just weeks before the museum closed in 1995 and is believed to be the only existing footage of the exhibits. The film screened at the TromaDance Film Festival. The film is constructed with a design that feels almost otherworldly.
In 2014, Jennings directed his second feature Hell to Pay which was a loose remake of The film tells the story of a debt collector with a penchant for violence who dares to cross his boss.