Film & Video Department - Graduate Program

Faculty

Cari Callis ccallis@colum.edu
B.A., Columbia College, M.A., University of Illinois at Chicago. Screenwriter, poet, novelist and editor for Another Chicago Magazine (ACM), an NEA funded literary magazine. Has worked on various film productions as a crew member and as a creative consultant. Published in Columbia Poetry Review, Chicago Arts and Communication, Wire and 58.

She is the Screenwriting Area Coordinator.

Michael Caplan mpcaplan@colum.edu
M.F.A., Northwestern University. Independent filmmaker, director and producer. His most recent documentary played on national PBS in 2005. He has produced three independent feature films, which have been distributed internationally and directed several award-winning dramatic shorts. Has taught production at Northwestern University and lectured on story-telling at the University of Chicago.

He is the Post-Production Area Coordinator.

Judd Chesler jchesler@colum.edu
Ph.D., Northwestern University. Taught Cinema Studies at Purdue University and later worked in the Chicago film industry as a writer-producer. Recently produced video component of mixed-media performance “Turn Her White With Stones” with Jan Erkert Dancers.

He is Director of the Graduate Program.

Dan Dinello ddinello@popmail.colum.edu
M.F.A., University of Wisconsin. Award-winning independent filmmaker/producer (The Ramones & Me, Shock Asylum, Wheels of Fury,); television director (Comedy Central’s Strangers with Candy); journalist/pop culture critic The Chicago Tribune and webmaster (Shockproductions.com). His first book, Technophobia! Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology, was published in January 2006.

He is on sabbatical during the fall 2006 semester.

Ron Falzone rfalzone@colum.edu
B.A.,Columbia College; MFA, Northwestern University. An award-winning screenwriter and director in theatre and film, he has been responsible for over 70 mainstage theatre productions from Boston to New York to Chicago. The co-host of “Talk Cinema” screening series, he is an eight-time Artist in Residence at The Ragdale Foundation and a Year 2000 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Screenwriting. Ron is currently the coordinator of the Directing concentration and as founder of the Visiting Director Program, he has been responsible for bringing such directors as Harold Ramis, Todd Solondz, Volker Schlondorff, Margarethe von Trotta and Ousmane Sembene for programs in the department.

He is the Directing Area Coordinator.

Tom Fraterrigo tfraterrigo@colum.edu
M.F.A., Columbia College. Writer and director who has worked on both film and stage productions. Currently in post production on a short film, collaborating on three feature screenplays, and directing a short documentary for City at Peace. His historical, feature screenplay, Huffman Prairie won a Gold Remi Award at the 2006 Houston Worldfest International Film Festival.

He is Screenwriting I Course Coordinator.

Chap Freeman cfreeman@colum.edu
M.F.A., University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Named Columbia College Chicago's first Distinguished College Teacher. Has directed films in dramatic, documentary, educational and industrial formats. Documentaries on social ecology and children's prisons. Dramatic screenplays on transcendental science fiction and the midlife crisis in gay men. Research on Westerns, film noir, and the French New Wave. Taught the Visions Project, 1994-2000, a documentary training program for European students sponsored by Groupement Europeen des Ecoles de Cinema et de Television. Film and Video Department representative to CILECT, the world organization of film schools.

Paula Froehle pfroehle@colum.edu Associate Chair (Below-the-Line)
M.F.A. The Art Institute of Chicago. Independent filmmaker recently funded by the Kodak Faculty Scholars program to complete her tenth short film entitled Lizard Christmas. Up On the Rope, (2005) her most recent film, was funded by the IFP Midwest¹s Short Film Production Grant (valued at $100,000) and involved working with the infamous tightrope family, The Flying Wallendas. Her films have screened and won awards internationally. Has shot and co-directed over twenty music videos for Atavistic Chicago, the company she co-owns.

Karla Rae Fuller kfuller@colum.edu
Ph.D., Northwestern University, M.F.A., Columbia University. Taught history and screenwriting at Northwestern University, Dominican University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Worked as a story editor for Vestron, Inc. Has lectured on African-American, Asian and gender representation in Hollywood films. Research interests include ethnic representation in Hollywood films, film acting/performance, and Japanese cinema.

She is the History & Aesthetics Course Coordinator.

Lisa Gottlieb lgottlieb@colum.edu
M.F.A., Antioch University. Lisa is a filmmaker, screenwriter and educator. She has directed three award winning feature films: Just One of the Guys, Cadillac Ranch, and Across the Moon. She has directed a number of TV episodes, including "Dream On" and "Boy Meets World.” While a student at Columbia College, Chicago, Lisa wrote, produced and directed the multi- award winning short film, "Murder in a Mist.” As a writer, she has created an episodic series for the internet, pilots for television and numerous feature scripts. She has written two novels and is working on her fourth feature, to be made in Chicago on digital video. For seven years, Lisa taught filmmaking and directing at the USC School of Cinema. She has guest taught at the International School of Cinema in Cuba, Hamburg University Film School in Germany and has chaired the Film/Video Department of the California State Summer School of the Arts.

She is the Production I Course Coordinator.

Paul Hettel phettel@colum.edu
B.A., Xavier University, Columbia College. Filmmaker, screenwriter and Professor Film and Video at Columbia since 1981. Writer and director of numerous short films and two feature films: Terminal Moraine, filmed on location in Italy and his most recent Sound of Yellow, filmed in Lodz, Poland. His areas of specialization are: Production, Editing, Screenwriting and Italian Cinema.

Russell Porter rporter@colum.edu
Documentary writer, director and producer with over 100 screen credits including several award winners. Film teacher at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, 1994-2000; founder/coordinator of the Melbourne Documentary Group; extensive film teaching experience in Australia, Spain, Latin America (CCC Mexico City, EICTV Cuba, UFF and USP Brazil, UBA Argentina, etc). Writer (2001) of “Infinity Express,” a new laser Planetarium show at National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa msaeedvafa@colum.edu
M.F.A., University of Illinois at Chicago. She taught at the School of Television and Cinema in Iran and edited and produced short documentaries and television series. She has made several short films, documentaries, and industrials in the United States and England. Her films Ruins Within, Saless, Far From Home and A Tajik Woman have been shown in many festivals. She is the winner of the 11th AFI/Sony first prize and a jury grand prize at the 20th Annual Festival of Illinois Film & Video Artists in 1995 for her film "A Tajik Woman.” She has been the Artistic Consultant of the Festival of Films from Iran, at the Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago since 1989. Mehrnaz has written and lectured extensively on Iranian cinema. Her book on Abbas Kiarostami co-written with Jonathan Rosenbaum was published by the University of Illinois Press in March 2003.

She is the Critical Studies Area Coordinator.

Bruce Sheridan bsheridan@colum.edu Chair of the Film & Video Department.
B.A. and B.A. Honors (Philosophy) with 1st Class Honors, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Over 20 years as Director, Producer and Writer of drama, documentary, music and commercial projects for cinema and television. Co-Director of the Morrison Grieve Industry Talent Development Initiative for the New Zealand Film Commission and Consultant Producer at South Pacific Pictures. 1999 recipient of New Zealand’s Best Drama Award for the tele-feature Lawless. In 2005/6: Director of a feature documentary on the Bn’ei Benashe and Creative Producer for short films Up on A Rope (dir: Paula Froehle) and Kubuku Rides (dir: Terry Kinney), a partnership with Steppenwolf Films.

Don Smith dsmith@colum.edu Associate Chair (The Core, Critical Studies and Documentary)
M.F.A., Columbia College. . Co-founder and coordinator of Semester in LA. Independent filmmaker, producer and editor. He is the producer of the international co-production, feature film Threads (Khait Errouh) which was written and directed by Hakim Belabbes and was an official selection of the Venice Biennale. He also is the postproduction supervisor for Peter Hunt Thompson's epic documentary, Moviemento. He was the Director of Photography for Birgit Rathsmann's documentary Grit and Polish which examines the Hong Kong film industry. His current projects include development for Finding Farris, a palestinian-american comedy and he is in production on a year in the life of an Indiana high school girls' basketball team. He is a commercial pilot.

Josef Steiff jsteiff@colum.edu Associate Chair (Above-the-Line)
M.F.A., Ohio University. Taught history and film production at Ohio University and taught video at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. As a former licensed social worker who has presented regionally and ntionally on psychological issues such as adolescent depression and suicide, sexual oreintation and HIV/AIDS, creates work reflecting the ways in which people struggle to make sense out of random, impersonal events. Has worked extensively in film and video production as a producer for independent features, line-producer for Korean television and crew on sevewral short and feature-length documentaries, including an Academy Award nominee. He has also produced and directed sound installations and performance art, as well as several award-winning narrative, documentary and experimental films.

Chris Swider cswider@pcolum.edu
MFA in Directing from the Polish National Film School and BA from Columbia College. He teaches directing classes and production workshop classes, as well advising graduate students on their thesis films. Working in the film business in Chicago, he has been an editor, cameraman, writer, and production manager. He has directed narrative short subject films and documentary films, and he produced, wrote, and directed an independent feature film, Selling Short.

Currently Chris Swider works as a producer for Bulletproof Film in Chicago where he co-produced “Unauthorized and Proud of It” a seventy-five minute documentary about comic book publisher and first amendment advocate Todd Loren that was directed by Ilko Davidov. Mr. Swider is now completing Children in Exile a sixty-minute documentary about children and teenagers in the Soviet labor camps that he wrote, directed, and co-produced, and he is beginning work on a companion work, Women in Exile about the fate of women in Soviet labor camps.

Chris Swider also continues to work as a screenwriter. 18th Hole a feature length comedy screenplay written with Tom Fraterrigo, was awarded a Bronze Remi at the Worldfest Houston Film Festival.

He is on sabbatical during the fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters.

Wenhwa Ts'ao wtsao@colum.edu
M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work ranges from short experimental films to documentaries and narrative features. Wenhwa exhibits her work extensively in Film Festivals. Past festival credits include The Mill Valley Film Festival, The San Francisco Asian American Film Festival and Women in the Director's Chair. She has received many awards, grants and fellowships from regional and national arts organizations as a creative artist/filmmaker.

She is on sabbatical during the fall 2006 semester.

More Information

If you have any general questions regarding these materials, please contact the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Film & Video at (312) 344-6731 between 10:00a.m. and 5:00p.m. Monday through Friday, or gradfilm@colum.edu

Tours of the facilities may be arranged through the Graduate Coordinator. Please call 312-344-6731.

The Graduate School may be contacted at Columbia College Chicago, Graduate School Office, 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Suite 200, Chicago IL. 60605-1996. Phone: (312) 344-7260; e-mail: gradsch@colum.edu; or online at http://www.colum.edu/graduate/index.html

top

film department faculty facilities the graduate school