| Robert Buchar rbuchar@colum.edu
M.F.A. from Film Academy of Fine Arts in Cinematography, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Shot more than 20 films and worked extensively in motion pictures before
defecting to the U.S. in 1980. Has since photographed several films and
documentaries in the U.S. and Europe. His documentary feature film Velvet
Hangover was screened in Film festivals around the world. In 2004
he published book Czech New Wave Filmmakers in Interviews, and
is currently working on his film The Great Deception/A Battle of Wits,
a documentary about the collapse of communism in Europe. Mr. Buchar is
the senior cinematography faculty and the principal author of the Cinematography
Concentration.
Cari Callis ccallis@colum.edu Screenwriting
Area Coordinator
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.
.
Michael Caplan mpcaplan@colum.edu Associate
Chair (Below-the-Line)
M.F.A., Northwestern University. Independent filmmaker, director
and producer.
He is currently completing his second feature length documentary,
which focuses on a renown magician and his influence on magic performance
world-wide. His previous documentary, Stones
from the Soil,
played on national PBS in 2005 through 2007. In addition,
he has produced three independent feature films, which have been
distributed internationally, and has directed several award-winning dramatic
shorts. He has also taught production at Northwestern University
and lectured on story-telling at the University of Chicago.
Judd Chesler jchesler@colum.edu Director
of the Graduate Program
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 on sabbatical for the 2007-08 academic year.
Ric Coken rcoken@colum.edu
Emmy award-winner specializing in soundtrack design for film
and video, focusing on feature film and television productions. He
has also served as chairman of CAVEAT (Chicago Audio, Video Engineers
Technicians). Under his supervision, the organization created nationally
accepted standards of audio for the visual medium. A former board member
of SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), he is
active in NAB, IATSE, AES, SMPTE, NARAS, NATAS, ITVA and IFP. With
34 years of experience contributing to over 150 feature films, 1,000
television shows and owning and operating an eleven room studio complex.
Kevin Cooper kcooper@colum.edu Producing
Area Coordinator.
BFA in Film and Video Production from New York University, Tisch
School of the Arts;MFA Producer’s Program in Film/Video at the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Since September 2004 he has held the
position of Adjunct Professor at the American InterContinental University.
Dan Dinello ddinello@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.
Ron Falzone rfalzone@colum.edu Directing
Area Coordinator
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.
Ron Fleischer rfleischer@colum.edu
BA, Columbia College Chicago; He runs his own company RonToon, Inc.
after working in the animation industry for almost 20 years. His
last position was as a technical director at StarToons in Homewood
where he directed several episodes of Taz-Mania, Pinky
and the Brain, and Animaniacs (which won the Daytime Emmy
Award 1995-1996). . He also recently worked in Los Angeles as Technical
Director on the Powerpuff Girls feature film and as a
Timing Director on Liberty Kids, a daily show on PBS which
premiered on Labor Day, 2002. Ron teaches History of Animation, Work-In
-Progress, Digital Animation Techniques and Animation Production
Studio. His current film, Lemmings, has won numerous awards
internationally.
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.
He is the Distinguished College Teacher for the 2006-2007
academic year.
Karla Rae Fuller kfuller@colum.edu History & Aesthetics
Course Coordinator
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.
Ted Hardin thardin@colum.edu Assessment
Coordinator
M.F.A., Ohio State University. Worked with a variety of artists at
the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio and the Banff Centre for the
Arts in Canada as director of photography, editor, lighting director,
and assistant director. Has collaborated with the alternative media
collective Paper Tiger Television in New York, and researched and shot
projects for German Television on "Dark Near-Death Experiences." Heavily
influenced by his studies of German Expressionism, his own work has
shown at the American Film Institute and several art centers in the
U.S. and Canada.
Peter Hartel phartel@colum.edu
B.A., Columbia College. A post-production producer and editor specializes
in visual effects, animation, and computer generated imaging projects
for television, commercials, corporate, public relations and multi-media
distribution. Experienced as an optical camera operator and as a computerized
motion control camera operator, as well as supervising and producing
high-end post-production editorial and compositing, Professor Hartel
has experienced on the Media 100 non-linear editor, and has studied
the Flint and Flame compositing systems.
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.
Vanessa Newell vnewell@colum.edu Post-Production
Area Coordinator
MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California,
School of Cinema-Television, and a BFA in Fine Arts from San Jose State
University in San Jose, California. Since Fall 2004 she has held the
position of Visiting Professor of Film and Video at the University
of Tampa.
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.
He is on sabbatical for the 2007-08 academic year.
Michael Rabiger (Emeritus) mrabiger@aol.com
Author, educator and filmmaker, he has directed and produced over
20 BBC documentaries, edited numerous television documentaries and
was assistant editor for over a dozen features and Pinewood and Shepperton
Studios, England. Writer of many reviews, essays and articles on film
and literature, he has taught documentary filmmaking in several countries
abroad. His Directing the Documentary and Directing: Film
Techniques and Aesthetics are used by schools and professional
filmmakers worldwide. Developing Story Ideas is his latest book.
Jim Rohn jrohn@colum.edu
B.A., Northern Illinois University. Teaches computer & traditional
animation production, storyboarding and concept development. He was
involved in all aspects of art and design for 10 years in the video
game industry (Midway Games, Sega Midwest). He also wrote and illustrated
his own line of graphic novels (Fantagraphics, DC Comics) and painted
cover illustrations for Dark Horse Comics. He is also a senior instructor
at The Screenwriter’s Group- a screenwriting workshop in Chicago.
Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa msaeedvafa@colum.edu Critical
Studies and Documentary Area Coordinator
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.
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 the photographer
for Soups of France, Chronicle Books, 2002. He
is a commercial pilot.
Jeff Spitz jspitz@colum.edu
Jeff Spitz is the Director and Co-Producer of the official Sundance
Film Festival 2000 selection
The Return of Navajo Boy, a multiple award winning film that reunited
a Navajo family, triggered a federal investigation into uranium houses
on the Navajo Reservation and resulted in a $100,000 payment from the
US Dept. of Justice to a former uranium miner featured in the film.
Spitz has served in the hybrid capacity of writer-director-producer
for several independent documentaries which have aired on PBS and cable,
including the national primetime special, "From the Bottom Up." Spitz's
credits include
"America's Libraries Change Lives," narrated by Whoopi Goldberg
and "The Roosevelt Experiment: an integrated college in a segregated
city" - an Emmy Award-winning documentary that aired on ABC-TV.
A graduate of UCLA Spitz earned his MA in English Language and Literature
from the University of Chicago.
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.
Wenhwa Ts'ao wtsao@colum.edu Acting
Director of the Graduate Program
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.
Barry Young byoung@colum.edu Director
of the Animation Program
M.F.A., Northwestern University. Animated many commercials and educational
films, one of which has been screened at the Smithsonian Institution.
Has lectured on western animation at the Beijing Film Academy.
New Faculty Fall 2007
Vaun Monroe joins the department as a the tenure
track faculty member. Vaun earned an MFA in Film and Media Arts
from Temple University and a BA in African-American Literature from
Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has more than
six years’ experience as a screenwriter, producer, director,
and academic and has recently been commissioned to write and direct
a documentary for the Arena Players, the nation’s longest continually
running African-American community theater. Vaun comes to us
from Morgan State University in Baltimore, where he was an Assistant
Professor of Scriptwriting.
Dan Rybicky knows many of you already, having served
the college for five years as an adjunct faculty member before earning
the tenure track position this fall. He has more than twelve
years of experience in screenwriting, producing, and directing. Dan
earned an MFA degree in Dramatic Writing from New York University,
Tisch School of the Arts, and a BA, with honors, in English Literature
and Film Production from Vassar College. His screenplays have
won honors at Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program/Screenwriter’s
lab in both 2002 and 2003, and a current draft of a screenplay is being
made into a feature film by director/producer, Andrea Sperling.
Gary Sherman will be serving a one-year appointment
in the department. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in
Visual Design and a Bachelor of Science degree in Photography from
the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Gary
has more than thirty years’ experience in the film and television
industries as a writer, director, and producer on commercial projects
for Columbia/TriStar Pictures, ABC-TV/ABC Productions, Lifetime TV/FOX
Television Studios, Showtime/MGM Television and the Sci-Fi Channel.
Artists-in-Residence
Ninoos Bethishou nbethishou@colum.edu Lighting
Course Coordinator
Seventeen years experience in producing, directing and cinematography.
Has extensive experience working on features, educational and corporate
films, as well as documentaries and television spots.
Tom Fraterrigo tfraterrigo@colum.edu Screenwriting
I Course Coordinator
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..
Susan Mroz smroz@colum.edu Development
& Preproduction Course Coordinator
M.F.A., Columbia College. An award-winning filmmaker and former Program
Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, she has appeared
in theater productions with Rococo Rodeo in Chicago and at Quincy University.
Professor Mroz teaches in the Directing, Screenwriting, Aesthetics
and Production areas, and recently directed the staged reading of Ron
Falzone's feature script, Rosie and the Fine Art of Politics.
Sharon Zurek szurek@colum.edu Editing
Course Coordinator
B.A., Columbia College. Sharon has won funding and a variety of awards
for her independent and professional work as a producer, director and
editor. As the owner of Black
Cat Productions in Chicago, she has edited several independent
feature films, including "DEE DEE RUTHERFORD", "DIRTY
WORK"
(formerly, "SOUTHSIDE"), "RUNAWAY DIVAS", "STRAY
DOGS", "CONSTRUCTING MULLIGAN'S STEW", "THE CHAMELEON"
and the successful short film, "FLYING". She is a board
member with Chicago Filmmakers and as a volunteer for Reeling: The
Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival.
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