TUESDAYS from 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Location: University Hall, Rm 1010 (unless otherwise noted)
Co-sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Coordinator: Roberta Friedman 973-655-7282; film@montclair.edu
Montclair Film Forum, sponsored by the Filmmaking Program in the School of Communication and Media of the College of the Arts, is a weekly program at Montclair State University featuring contemporary filmmakers who come to speak about their work and profession. Open to both University students and the general public, audience members are invited to ask questions and hear personalized inside-stories from some of the most innovative filmmakers working in the field today.
Open to All – Admission Free
January 28, 2014 – Seth Kramer – Producer, Writer and Director
Seth Kramer is a producer, writer and director. He is co-founder of Ironbound Films, which has unleashed such documentary features as Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, The New Recruits, and The Linguists. In 2003, Seth was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming for Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans. Seth’s other recent work includes Moment in Time, a short documentary which premiered as the centerpiece to ESPN’s Olympic coverage; and a 50-ft video wall for the new Intrepid Sear, Air & Space Museum.
February 4, 2014 – Cari Ann Shim Sham- Filmmaker, Choreographer and Video Artist – co-sponsored with Peak Performances
Cari Ann Shim Sham* is an award-winning, Los Angeles based filmmaker, choreographer and video artist. Starting off her career as a dancer and choreographer, Cari Ann found her way into film as the Artistic Director of Dance Company, Bitch Co. Her films include Two Seconds After Laughter, One Day on Earth, Are you for real?and SAND. Most recently, she created the video art for the live dance theater productions of Stardust and RUTH Doesn’t Live Here Any More.
February 11, 2014 – Lexi Alexander- Director, Writer, Producer, Actress
Lexi Alexander is a German-born film director. She is a former World Point Fighting and Karate Champion who, after retiring from professional fighting the age 19, found her way into film through a role in Mortal Kombat: Live Tour. While working as a stunt woman she began directing award-winning films including Johnny Flynton and Green Street Hooligans. Other films include the cult classic Punisher: War Zone and the spiritual movie Lifted. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
February 18, 2014 – Bill Odenkirk- Writer and Producer
Bill Odenkirk has been a writer and co-executive producer at The Simpsons for eleven years. Prior to this he wrote on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show With Bob and David and then on the animated series Futurama. It was at Futurama that he won his first Emmy. Bill went on to write five episodes of that show including a personal favorite piece of his own work : “The Farnsworth Parabox.” While at The Simpsons Bill has won two more Emmys and written nine episodes. He expects to write more episodes for The Simpsons because despite 25 years on the air and over 500 episodes broadcast the audience has not surrendered.
February 25, 2014 – Pamela T. Turner – Animation Artist and Historian
Pamela Turner is an animation artist and historian. Her animation considers little things that are often overlooked. She is the official biographer of the late Adam Beckett, an animator in the mid-1970s whose innovative process led to his role as head of animation of the first Star Wars movie. Pamela currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Society for Animation Studies, is a member of the iotaCenter Board of Directors, and Chair of the Kinetic Imaging department at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The films selected for this screening illustrate the spirit of innovation that bridged – and bridges – experimental animation and visual effects. Illusion and effect are the earliest and most native aspects of animation. Pre-dating film, drawn images were projected from magic lanterns or sent spinning in a zoetrope. The advent of film extended the possibilities of visual illusions making it possible for men to fly to the moon (in George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon), long before Neil Armstrong’s historical walk there. The urge to create new images and experiences – or to recreate inner experiences – necessitated innovation; the animators often had to build or engineer new devices or processes. This program includes the work of John Whitney, Sr., Jordan Belson, Adam Beckett, Dennis Pies (Sky-David), Larry Cuba and others who continue the innovative spirit of these pioneers.
March 4, 2014 – Allen Berliner – Filmmaker
Alan Berliner’s uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers. Berliner’s experimental documentary films, First Cousin Once Removed (2013), Wide Awake (2006), The Sweetest Sound (2001), Nobody’s Business (1996), Intimate Stranger (1991), and The Family Album(1986), have been broadcast all over the world, and received awards, prizes, and retrospectives at many major international film festivals. The San Francisco International Film Festival called Berliner, “America’s foremost cinematic essayist.”
March 11, 2014 – Spring Break
March 18, 2014 – Michael Slovis – Director and Director of Photography
Michael Slovis is as director of photography known for his work on the television series Breaking Bad, for which he won two Emmy nominations. He started his career on the independent movie, Party girl and went on to work on films and television shows including ED, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigators for which he won the 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography.
March 25, 2014 – Maxi Cohen – Filmmaker
Maxi Cohen is an award-winning artist and filmmaker based in New York City. Her films, photographs and multimedia installations have been exhibited internationally and are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Her films include the documentary features Joe and Maxi and South Central Los Angeles: Inside Voices. She is currently working on the film and photographic projects Ladies Rooms Around the World, A Movement in Water and Fighting for Wind.
April 1, 2014 – Grahame Weinbren – Media Artist and Filmmaker
Grahame Weinbren is known as a pioneer of interactive cinema. His installations
have been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries since 1985, including the Guggenheim Museum, the Centre Pompidou, and NTT-ICC Tokyo. His documentaries and experimental films include George, Umbrellas and Letters are widely screened, recently at the 2011 Montreal Festival of Films on Art. Weinbren has published and lectured for three decades on cinema, interactivity, and new media. He is the senior editor of the Millennium Film Journal and teaches in the graduate faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York.
April 8, 2014 -Rob Kuhn – Filmmaker
Birth of the Living Dead is Rob’s first feature-length documentary as a Director. He Co-Directed/Edited two broadcast documentaries, Enemies of War (PBS, 2001) and This is a Game, Ladies (PBS, 2003, Audience Award – AFI Silverdoc Festival). His many editing credits include Moyers and Company (2011 – Present), the dramatic television series Sleeper Cell (Showtime, Golden Globe nomination, 2005), and Adam Clayton Powell (Academy Award nomination, 1990). Rob Wrote and Directed the short comedy, King’s Day Out, (1993 Sundance Film Festival). This year he received an individual artist grant from the New York State Council of the Arts. Rob lives in Brooklyn with his wife and producing partner, Esther Cassidy.
April 15, 2014 – Jordan Levinson & Calvin Theobald – Two Alumni return to show their film
Two time Emmy Award winner Jordan Levinson and Calvin Theobald are 2008 graduates of Montclair State University’s film department. Shortly after college, they began filming their first feature documentary “King of Chinatown”. The movie follows video game champion Justin Wong on his quest to dominate the Fighting Game Community with the release of “Street Fighter IV”. After premiering to a packed New York City theater in 2010, they signed a distribution deal in 2011 making “King of Chinatown” available on iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Xbox Live, and Sony Playstation Network. They were also the first filmmakers to be inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Today Calvin and Jordan continue to travel, shooting their web series “GAM3R”.
April 22, 2014 – Skip Lievsay – Sound Designer, Mixer
Skip Lievsay is a New York-based supervising sound editor, re-recording mixer and sound designer for film and television. Lievsay has worked with filmmakers and directors including the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme and Robert Altman. In January 2007, he received two Academy Award nominations—for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing—for his work on Joel and Ethan Coen‘s No Country for Old Men In 2011, he was nominated in the same categories for the film True Grit. His most recent film credits include The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Inside Llewyn Daivs and Gravity.
April 29, 2014 – Kevin Dreyfuss- Writer, Producer
Kevin Dreyfuss is an advertising Creative Director at Deutsch, Inc. by day, writer/producer of heavy metal-themed horror-comedy movies by night. Since starting his filmmaking career lo many moons ago as a student at the University of Michigan, Kevin has split his time between Madison Avenue and Hollywood, recently co-writing and co-producing the Peter Dinklage-starrer KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM, which, after a long and involved production history, made it onto big screens and on-demand in February.
Kevin lives in Montclair, with his wife, Christie, who thankfully has not killed his three sons, Max (9), Leo (7) and Luke (5).