Eli Grier Hayes (November 6, 1993 – May 23, 2020) was an independent experimental filmmaker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Eli began writing screenplays upon entering high school and directed his first short films, "The Life That Follows" and "Nobody", during his senior year. While enrolled at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York—where he received his bachelor's degree in abnormal psychology, with a minor in creative writing—he founded Hazel Eye Productions. Eli has since directed, produced, and edited over twenty-five feature-length films and approximately fifty short films. His work has screened at over seventy festivals on six continents, including the ECRÃ Festival, where he screened "Histoire(s) du Temp(s)" in 2019. In 2017, he graduated from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a master's degree in film and creative media, and became a project manager at The Nashville Film Institute. In 2019, Eli moved back to his hometown of Milwaukee, where he was working on several different projects, both short and feature-length, before passing away on May 23, 2020 at the age of 26.