Graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering is not the typical pathway to becoming a successful filmmaker, but then again, there’s nothing typical about Florida A&M University graduate Will Packer. Despite the fact that his course of study was not directly related to what he would ultimately do for a living, Packer attributes a good deal of his success to his alma mater.
“Attending an HBCU set the foundation for me to be successful in my career,” says Packer, a proud recipient of FAMU’s highest honor, the Meritorious Achievement Award. “The nurturing environment and the unyielding push for excellence [at FAMU] provided me with the analytical skills that I have needed to navigate the business world. I go back and give back every chance I get.”
He befriended colleague and future business partner Rob Hardy while attending the Tallahassee-based university, and the rest, as they say, is filmmaking history. In 1994, while still in school, Hardy and Packer started making films. Later, when major studios turned down their projects, the pair marketed them independently.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Packer told a group of young men gathered in Atlanta for the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative in September, of his and Hardy’s tumultuous journey. “We just knew that we were dreaming in color.”
After graduation, they both turned down lucrative engineering jobs to move to Atlanta to launch their own production company, Rainforest Films. The company’s first theater-released motion picture, Trois, became the fastest million-dollar-grossing film distributed by African-Americans when it earned $1.2 million.
Since then, the duo has enjoyed success with a bevy of blockbusters, including Trois 2: Pandora’s Box, The Gospel, Stomp the Yard, This Christmas, Obsessed and Takers. Last April, Think Like A Man, the film adaptation of comedian Steve Harvey’s New York Times best-selling book, opened number one in the box office, grossing $33 million (ending The Hunger Games’ four-week reign in the top spot). Packer is also responsible for brokering a profitable partnership between Rainforest and Sony’s Screen Gems to produce and distribute urban films.
In 2011, he and Hardy marked another historic milestone when they joined forces with fellow businessmen to launch Bounce TV, the nation’s first-ever free broadcast television network marketed exclusively to Black audiences. Bounce targets African-Americans, primarily between the ages of 25 and 54, with 24-hour programming that includes movies, live sporting events, documentaries and inspirational faith-based programs.
