Community Highlights: Meet Kyle Geller of LBVM

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Geller.

Hi Kyle, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a Long Beach local, and I started as an artist and clothing designer before I ever picked up a camera. In high school, I learned screen printing in graphic-design class and launched a clothing brand called EVICTED, printing shirts for classmates. That was my first experience turning an idea into something other people could participate in.

In 2003, while in Minnesota trying to reset my life. I picked up a Sony Handycam and found filmmaking. From there, I spent the next two decades making music videos, short films, a variety show, live events, and around 100 episodes of The Longhaul Podcast. I taught myself by doing nearly every job.

For years, my goal was to direct a feature, but I kept waiting for money or permission that never came. In 2025, my wife Linze and I stopped waiting and made SORRY through El Primo Brand. I wrote, directed, shot, and edited it, filming in five days on an iPhone with almost no budget and barely any crew.

Completing SORRY changed the scale of the goal. In April 2026, I founded LBVM, a Long Beach 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Through Pound Video Magazine and our free No Mercy events, we create professional media and real opportunities for local filmmakers, musicians, artists, and small businesses.

Today, I’m building toward a permanent Long Beach media home and local streaming platform. Looking back, everything has been a version of the same idea: if nobody opens the door, build your own, then hold it open for others.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, not even close. The biggest struggle has always been trying to create professional work without professional resources. I did not have a built-in path into film, a connected mentor, or someone waiting to finance my ideas. I taught myself most of the work and spent years waiting for permission that I eventually realized was never coming.

There were serious personal obstacles too. I survived two strokes and a heart procedure, watched a feature stall four days into production, and lost my close friend and longtime collaborator Mike Garcia. Mike had already made two features simply because he needed to make them. Losing him forced me to stop acting like I had unlimited time. That shift led directly to making SORRY with what I had.

LBVM has brought a different version of that same fight. We launched with a $1,000 local arts microgrant and a lot of personal investment, then released our first Pound Video Magazine episode and produced three No Mercy events within five months. The work is moving much faster than the funding. Grants, sponsorships, and partnerships take time, while artists and small businesses need support now.

I’m also raising two young children and working to keep my family afloat, so time and money are not abstract challenges. The hardest part is carrying production, editing, fundraising, outreach, and nonprofit administration without lowering the quality or letting my family pay too high a price.

But that is also why LBVM exists. I know exactly what it feels like to have the work inside you without the money, access, or platform to get it seen.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about LBVM?
LBVM is a Long Beach 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization built to give local creators professional visibility, direct access, and an actual place for their work to be seen.

Our flagship production is Pound Video Magazine, a 30-minute video series featuring filmmakers, musicians, artists, and small businesses throughout Long Beach. Each episode combines original LBVM-produced profiles with videos submitted by the community. Anyone who makes videos is welcome to submit, whether they call themselves a filmmaker or not. The work simply has to be connected to Long Beach in some way, shape, or form. Submissions can be sent to lbvideomagazine@gmail.com.

We build every original feature as a real piece of filmmaking, then release it as a polished, standalone video that the subject can continue using and sharing. We create media with the community, not simply about it.

We also produce No Mercy, a free live film and music series open to anyone with something to show. Creators can bring a short film, music video, commercial, trailer, skate video, or literally, any other completed video under five minutes. Projects are selected at random, 60 seconds hits the screen, and the audience votes “Mercy” or “No Mercy.” The panelists are not judges. They are working film and media professionals who watch the work, speak directly with its creator, and provide honest feedback and conversation.

That direct access is a huge part of what sets us apart. Filmmakers submit to festivals hoping an industry professional will see their work or speak with them. At No Mercy, the only price of admission for that opportunity is bringing a project. The event is free for both creators and the audience.

I’m proud that LBVM feels like Long Beach. It is polished without being corporate, serious about the craft without gatekeeping, and a little punk in its refusal to wait for permission. Every No Mercy contestant receives a one-of-one event shirt printed in my garage, while the winner and panelists receive custom LBVM karate gis.

Since launching in April 2026, we have released our first video-magazine issue (Issue #2 releasing in early October) produced three No Mercy events, earned coverage from the Long Beach Post, and shared our mission with Don Juan DeSparko on all things DOPE at KLBP 99.1 FM, Long Beach Public Radio.

Long term, we are building toward workshops, a permanent production home, and a Long Beach-focused distribution platform. LBVM is not simply documenting the creative community. We are building infrastructure for it.

What does success mean to you?
I’m a big believer in goals, and I think if you’re actively chasing yours, or constantly trying to better yourself in any capacity, that is success. At the end of the day, if you can look around and be content with where you’re standing, you’re successful. You can be content and still be hungry for more.

The word itself is hard for me because it is easy to get caught up in it and turn success into a constantly moving yardstick, using it to measure yourself against everybody else. Then nothing ever feels like enough, and that is never good for anyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://LBVM.org
• Instagram: @LBVMtv
• Youtube: @LBVMtv
• Other: @NoMercyDojoLB