Ramin Bahrani, 2012 Director-in-Residence, is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert listed Bahrani’s film Chop Shop as the 6th best film of the 2000s and hailed Bahrani as “the director of the decade.”[1] Bahrani was the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, and was the subject of several international retrospectives … Read More »
Guy Maddin is a Canadian filmmaker with numerous shorts and 11 feature films to his credit, including the Emmy Award-winning ballet film Dracula — Pages From A Virgin’s Diary (2002); The Saddest Music in the World (2003); My Winnipeg (2007); and US National Society of Film Critics Best Experimental Film Prize-winners Archangel (1990) and The Heart of … Read More »
Haile Gerima is an Ethiopian film director, screenwriter, writer, producer, and philosopher. He has been a professor of film at Howard University in Washington, DC, since 1975. After the award-winning Ashes & Embers (1982) and the documentaries Wilmington 10—U.S.A 10,000 (1978) and After Winter: Sterling Brown (1985), Gerima filmed his epic, Sankofa (1993). This … Read More »
Jim Stark, 2009 Director-in-Residence, is a seminal independent film producer, whose career spans over thirty years. He produced Jim Jarmush’s Down by Law, Coffee and Cigarettes, Mystery Train and Night on Earth; Alexandre Rockwell’s In the Soup, which launched Steve Buscemi’s career; Greg Araki’s The … Read More »
Cynthia Wade, 2008 Director-in-Residence who taught cinematography in the graduate certificate program in Documentary Media Studies, was nominated for her second Academy Award with her film Mondays at Racine. She previously won the same category, Best Documentary (short subject) in 2008 for Freeheld. With over 20 years of filmmaking … Read More »
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. Recognized worldwide as a groundbreaking … Read More »
American actor, writer, director, and producer John Cameron Mitchell is best known for the long-running off-Broadway rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (starring himself as Hedwig and co-written with composer Stephen Trask) that became a Golden Globe®-nominated film in 2001. He has also earned three Obies and … Read More »
John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter, author, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Aside from filmmaking, John is also an accomplished writer, photographer and visual artist. He has published multiple collections … Read More »
2003 Directors-in-Residence, Hegedus and Pennebaker’s films are done in the Direct Cinema style. “Voice-of-God” narration is avoided, as are formal “Talking Head” interviews. A mobile hand-held camera and diegetic sound are also characteristic. Usually Direct Cinema films show us the “back stage”, be it of the Rolling … Read More »
The MA in Media Studies gives students experience in creative media making, critical analysis, and entrepreneurialism. The Media Management MS offers the practical experience you need to succeed in today's media industries. The Documentary Studies Certificate program provides an opportunity to study documentary filmmaking in a small, tightly focused program. The Media Management Certificate Program provides a strong foundation of management principles and leadership skills to find work in the ever-changing global media landscape.