About

James Lee Phelan's work spans commercial campaigns, feature films, and documentaries. His feature film Tramontane(written and directed by Vatche Boulghourjian) was supported by the Sundance Lab and competed at the 55th Semaine de la Critique at Cannes. Phelan also shot the short film The Chair (written and directed by Grainger David), which was in competition for the Palm d'Or at Cannes and won Best Short at SXSW and LAFF.

His recent work includes filming the Hulu Original High Hopes (produced by Jimmy Kimmel), the PBS show No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson, and the YouTube Original Creators for Change with Michelle Obama. In commercials, Phelan has worked on campaigns for Yeti, Ranch Rider, Fruit of the Loom, Dell, and Kuiu.

His cinematography credits also include feature films such as Booger Red and Five Time Champion (directed by Berndt Mader), Mulberry Street (directed by Abel Ferrara), Go Down Death (directed by Aaron Schimberg), and A Rising Tide(directed by Ben Hickernell). Phelan also served as the cinematographer for the TNT Brazil television series Latitudes, starring Alice Braga and Daniel de Oliveira, and shot the Rooster Teeth series Day 5.

Phelan holds an MFA in Cinematography from NYU.