Larry Estes began his corporate career acquiring rights to movies for a new thing called "home video." In 1984 he became Senior Vice President of Feature Film Acquisitions at RCA/Columbia Pictures. From 1987-93 he developed and operated an arm of Columbia TriStar Home Video's acquisition program, specializing in quality independent feature film development and financing. His films at CTHV include Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies and videotape, Allison Anders' GAS FOOD LODGING, Carl Franklin's ONE FALSE MOVE (co-starring and co-written by Billy Bob Thornton), John Sayles' CITY OF HOPE and PASSION FISH, Neal Jimenez & Michael Steinberg's THE WATERDANCE, Mike Binder's CROSSING THE BRIDGE, Bob Goldthwait's SHAKES THE CLOWN, John Turturro's MAC, Stacy Cochran's MY NEW GUN, Keva Rosenfeld's TWENTY BUCKS (produced by Karen Murphy) and Anthony Drazan's ZEBRAHEAD. He was responsible for supervision of more than 60 movies during his time there.
In 1992 Estes accepted the Independent Feature Project/West "Findie" award and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Entertainment Business by both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere Magazines.
Before joining Seattle's ShadowCatcher Entertainment in 1998, he produced COLDBLOODED, SANTA FE, and MATING HABITS OF THE EARTHBOUND HUMAN. At ShadowCatcher he was an Executive Producer of THE BOOK OF STARS and GETTING TO KNOW YOU, and produced the landmark Native American film SMOKE SIGNALS. After returning to indie production in 2001, he produced Sherman Alexie's debut as writer-director, THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING, and served as Executive Producer of local indie documentary phenom THE HEART OF THE GAME.
In 1999 in an internationally televised ceremony, he accepted The Christopher Award for producing SMOKE SIGNALS. He is currently producing Alexie's documentary feature LEARNING TO DROWN and teaching film producing at the University of Arizona's School of Media Arts.
