About JamesWorks Entertainment

We are proud of our mission, values, history, leadership, and the future direction of the company.

On the set of JamesWorks Entertainment's THE CAR WASH
On the set of JamesWorks Entertainment's THE CAR WASH

 

Our Mission

The mission of JamesWorks Entertainment is to create socially-conscious films that engage our audiences through new media to action in their personal lives, communities, and around the globe.

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Our Values

There are seven guiding principles that inform every decision that is made about producing any creative content at JamesWorks, the values upon which we have built our company:

  1. All creative endeavors first must enlighten, educate and entertain. We place equal importance on each of these facets.
  2. We seek to reach untapped audiences around the world in every story we tell.
  3. We must utilize a diverse spectrum of experience in filmmaking to keep ideas fresh.
  4. We will be at the forefront of cutting-edge social networking platforms to pursue discussion with our prospective audience in all stages of production.
  5. We will advance the ideals of independent filmmaking through supporting up-and-coming artists with our time, talents and resources.
  6. With every project, we remember our social responsibility to a global audience.
  7. As we are socially responsible, we also must be charitably responsible to those less fortunate, supporting projects and initiatives that advance the needs of the Third World.
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Our History

JamesWorks Entertainment, LLC was established in 2005 by Co-Chairman James Kicklighter at the age of 16 to be an independent film and television production company. Since this time, JamesWorks has expanded to have successful web development and marketing/public relations divisions. With satisfied clients across the country, the reach of the company continues to expand each year. Though strong today, the origins of JamesWorks are unique.

Beginning at the age of 14, Kicklighter was able to convince his family and thousands of individuals through newspapers and television stations that he was a writer and producer of major motion pictures and television shows; despite evidence online to the contrary. Stemming from the unexpected death of his father, the imaginary world he created to cope with tragedy evolved into reality, as Kicklighter honed the skills he claimed to have. Through the establishment of the company, he was able to move from a purported producer to a legitimate one, first with the feature Western documentary That Guy: the Legacy of Dub Taylor.

Since this time, JamesWorks Entertainment has gone on to shoot multiple award-winning films around the world, with a creative team spanning all parts of the country.

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Our Leadership

James Kicklighter

James Kicklighter, Co-Chairman

James Kicklighter is the Co-Chairman of JamesWorks Entertainment, recently featured in the Examiner.com "CEOs Under 25" series, and was a screener for the 2009 International Documentary Association's Distinguished Feature Award. He earned his B.S. in Public Relations from Georgia Southern University.

A film director and producer, his titles include The Car Wash with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's Edith Ivey, Land of Higher Peace, which recently finished principle photography in Ethiopia, Theater of the Mind, created with Georgia Southern University for the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas, and Di Passaggio, winner of The Accolade Award of Merit alongside ABC News, USA Today, and Discovery Kids.

He served as the Program Director for the 2010 National Student Leadership Conference on Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of California at Berkeley.

Kasey

Kasey Ray-Stokes, Director of Development

Kasey Ray-Stokes discovered her love for telling stories at a young age and fostered that love through her adolescence by writing angsty journal entries and filming her annual family Christmas pageants. Now that she is an adult, she focuses on telling stories to a broader audience through her position as Director of Development at JamesWorks Entertainment, writing creative nonfiction, and producing documentaries.

Kasey is the executive producer for two documentaries, Land of Higher Peace and That Guy: the Legacy of Dub Taylor. When she is not working on films, she is furiously pushing through her last year of her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction at Converse College while changing diapers and singing the theme song to Thomas the Tank Engine.

Kasey's micro-nonfiction piece, "Hearth," was recently published as a part of a collection of flash writing in the 6S Love Book. She resides in Savannah, Georgia with her husband, Mark, and their son, Benjamin.

 

Mark Ezra Stokes

Mark Ezra Stokes, Director of Creative Media

Mark Ezra Stokes is a Writer/Editor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has an M.A. in Screenwriting and Film Studies and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting, both from Hollins University in Roanoke, Va. On occasion, he serves as a film critic for Hollywood Jesus, and he's an award-winning journalist. He's written, produced and directed several films, and he's currently in post-production with Land of Higher Peace, his documentary shot in Ethiopia about the plight of AIDS orphans.

Since the trip to Ethiopia, Mark has been actively working with Ethiopia-centric charity organizations to provide a thriving network of socially-conscious entities. These entities will come together in June 2010 to establish an annual conference in Savannah, GA, which will include workshops, panels and mixers all aimed at providing better services to the people of Ethiopia.

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Our Future

Coming soon!

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