Filmmaking (MFA)

Visiting Filmmakers

Related Programs
Filmmaking (MFA)
Home
Graduate Programs
Filmmaking (MFA)
Visiting Filmmakers
The Filmmaking MFA strives to invite a diverse range of internationally recognized filmmakers to visit the program.

Distinguished filmmakers lead workshops and seminars that connect their films and filmmaking to social, creative, or cultural issues . Participants explore impacts of film and media; to learn emerging practices in filmmaking; and to build local and national professional networks.  Filmmaking MFA students have the opportunity to do individual critiques and directly engage with these filmmakers. See the list of all our current and previous Visiting Filmmakers.

Visiting Filmmakers

Anahí Berneri, Director and Writer, Alanis

Anahí Berneri is a film and theatre director and scriptwriter. Her 2005 feature debut, A Year Without Love, earned her the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Mar del Plata International Festival. Her second feature film, Encarnacion (2007) won the FIPRESCI Prize in competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Anahí is a teacher and tutor at the National School of Film Experimentation and Production at the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts, INCAA. In 2015, the Argentine Film Directors Association (DAC) honored her work as a director. Alanis is her fifth feature film.

Elissa Blount Moorhead, Director, Jay-Z: 4:44

Elissa Blount Moorhead, artist, curator, mother, and producer, has created public art, books, exhibitions, and cultural programs for the last 25 years. She is currently a creative partner at TNEG film studios, which creates films and time based-installations.

Garrett Bradley, Director, Time, Queen Sugar, Naomi Osaka

Garrett Bradley is an American artist, educator, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Bradley’s work spans narrative, documentary, and experimental modes of filmmaking to address themes such as race, class, familial relationships, social justice, and sociopolitical histories within the United States. Bradley’s short documentary film Alone (2018), was the first of an ongoing series which focused on American incarceration from a distinctly Black southern, feminist perspective. In 2020, she presented her debut documentary feature length film, Time, which earned her an Oscar Nomination and a 2020 Peabody Award. Bradley's debut feature earned her the Best Director Award in the US Documentary Competition category at the Sundance Film Festival, making her the first Black woman in the history of the festival to win the award. Bradley is cofounder of Creative Council, an artist-led afterschool program aimed at developing strong college portfolios and applications for students attending public high schools in New Orleans. Creative Council is supported by the New Orleans Video Access Center. Bradley received her BA in Religion from Smith College and her MFA from UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television. Her publication, Devotion, is the first in a series of research-led publications on artists by MIT Press and Lisson Gallery. Bradley lives and works in New Orleans.

Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas, Directors, Pahokee

Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan direct, produce and edit film and video art projects. Their short documentary The Send-Off premiered at Sundance in 2016 and won jury awards at SXSW, AFI Fest and the San Francisco International Film festival. Their follow-up short The Rabbit Hunt world-premiered at Sundance in 2017 before competing at the Berlinale, and has won nineteen awards including Best Short Documentary at six Academy-qualifying events. Their new film Roadside Attraction is premiering at TIFF. The duo were named among Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2016. Their new feature film, Pahokee, premiered at Sundance in 2019.

Larry “Whaddup” Caudle, Director, More Than Hype

Larry “Whaddup” Caudle is a creative entrepreneur and CEO of The BR8EAK Media based in Baltimore, MD. For the past 25 years, he has been active in choreography, marketing, branding, sales strategy, community service, financial management, road management, and creative direction in the city of Baltimore and beyond. Having worked with Rod Lee, Tim Trees, K-Swift, King Los, Prodigy formerly of Mindless Behavior, Damond Blue, Paula Campbell, Rye Rye, Young Leek, and more. Larry continues to push boundaries in media and entertainment in Baltimore and beyond.

Peter Collins Campbell, Director, DimLand, Variations on a Theme

Peter Collins Campbell lives in Brooklyn, where he makes films. He was born in Chicago. After years of directing short films and music videos, including work for Noname, Saba, and Chance the Rapper, Campbell made his feature film directorial debut with the independent feature DimLand (2021). His work has been featured in film festivals around the world, and won awards at Chattanooga Film Festival, Lighthouse Film Festival, Woods Hole Film Festival, and many others.

Morgan Cooper, Writer, Director and Cinematographer, Bel Air, Black Boy Joy, U Shoot Videos?

Morgan Cooper is an independent filmmaker from Kansas City who received recognition for his viral trailer of a modern-day, reimagined Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was because of this trailer that he was attached as an executive producer, director, and co-writer for Peacock's Bel-Air series, which was inspired by his trailer. Cooper's previous credits include On Sight, The Sexy Accident: I'm Going to Love Your New Boyfriend, PSA: Recess Smoke Break, and NFL Undiscovered.

Josephine Decker, Director, Madeline's Madeline

Josephine Decker is part of Time Warner's 150 incubator, Sundance Institute's New Frontier Lab, and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Decker was said to be ushering in a “new grammar of narrative” by The New Yorker. Her first two narrative features were listed #2 and #10 on The New Yorker’s Top Ten List of 2014 and played about a hundred festivals around the world. Decker helped to produce documentaries for A&E and Discovery before moving into indie film with her feature documentary, Bi the Way. Her third narrative feature, starring Molly Parker and Miranda July, had its World Premiere at Sundance 2018 and its International Premiere at the Berlinale Forum 2018. Interested in melding unconventional movement and narrative, she loves to teach and work through collaboration with existing communities. In her work, she has collaborated closely with the New York City Department of Sanitation, the East European Folklife Center, Pig Iron Theatre Company, the Center for Employment Opportunities, which supports men and women recently released from prison, and New York City after school programs.

Jude Dry, Writer and Director, Monsieur le Butch

Jude Dry is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. As a filmmaker, Jude directed, wrote, and starred in Monsieur Le Butch, which premiered at SXSW 2022. The film made its online premiere on the Criterion Channel. Their work has screened at venues such as the Hammer Museum, BAM, The Castro Theatre, Alamo Drafthouse, and many more. Monsieur Le Butch was Jude's debut short film, and received Best New England Short at the Provincetown International Film Festival, a Special Mention from juries at Newfest and Frameline, and Audience Awards from Newfest, Frameline, Encounters, and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. It has played over thirty film festivals worldwide. Jude was previously Associate Editor of film at IndieWire, where they carved out a niche as a leading voice in queer film criticism and LGBTQ+ representation in media. As an actor, Jude has performed in multiple Off-Broadway productions in New York, including at Atlantic Theater Company, the Daryl Roth Theatre, and Soho Rep. As a comedian, Jude studied at UCB Chelsea and The People’s Improv Theater and performed at Ars Nova, Pete’s Candy Store, and Dixon Place. As a singer and songwriter, Jude fronted the pop punk band Sally Cyborg, the party band Firehouse, and produced electronic music as Ladyfingaz. Jude is currently in post-production on a short film called Homolita, and is in development on their first feature.

Luchina Fisher, Director, The Dads, Team Dream, Mama Gloria

LUCHINA FISHER (she/her) is an Emmy® Award-winning director, producer and writer whose work is at the intersection of race, gender and identity. Her latest film, the short documentary The Dads, about five fathers of trans kids on a weekend fishing trip, received the 2024 Daytime Emmy® for Outstanding Short Form Program and GLAAD’s Special Recognition Award. The film premiered at SXSW in 2023 and was acquired by Netflix. Her feature directorial debut Mama Gloria, about a Black transgender elder activist, was a 2022 GLAAD Media Award nominee and broadcast on PBS. Her current feature Locked Out, about the barriers to Black homeownership, won Best Documentary Feature at the American Black Film Festival. Her short documentary Team Dream, executive produced by Queen Latifah, was a finalist for The Wrap’s Shortlist and has won numerous festival jury awards. Fisher’s latest project, about Black queer representation in music, was awarded the PitchBLACK Film Forum’s top prize. Fisher is also the director of two scripted short films and has written and produced several nationally broadcast documentaries. Her work has been supported by Black Public Media, the Field Foundation, Sisters in Cinema, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, the Queen Collective, Women Make Movies, Athena Film Festival Doc Pitch, Firelight Media and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Fisher also teaches documentary filmmaking at Yale University.

Justin Foreman ‘21 (Filmmaking MFA). Director and Cinematographer, Time + Temperature

Justin Foreman received his BA in film and media studies from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, during which time he interned for Ken Burns’ Florentine Films and National Public Radio. He worked for his alma mater for four years as a digital media specialist, fueling his passion for teaching and media production. In addition to documentary and experimental filmmaking, he loves his cats, coffee, and cooking.

Amir George, Director, Decadent Asylum, Moments of Intentions, Black Chains

Amir George is an award winning filmmaker based in Chicago. As an artist, George creates spiritual stories, juxtaposing sound and image into an experience of non-linear perception. George’s films have screened at institutions and film festivals including Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Anthology Film Archives, Glasgow School of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival and Camden International Film Festival, among others.

Julia Golonka ‘15 (BFA Film & Video) Director and Cinematographer, Don’t Put Her Down

Julia Golonka is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker based in Baltimore. She has worked on several feature-length documentaries, including Anatomy of Wings and It’s Not Who I Am. Her work has been featured online by Rolling Stone, Relix, and Bluegrass Today. She received her BFA in Film & Video from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is an adjunct professor in the Electronic Media and Film program at Towson University.

Sky Hopkina, Writer and Director, małni–towards the ocean, towards the shore

Born in 1984, in Ferndale, Washington, Sky Hopinka is a descendant of the Pechanga band of Luiseno Native Americans, and has made an interest in Indigenous languages and cultural heritage a main part of his work. His pursuit of the documentary genre was developed during his college years at Portland State University, where he taught such languages as Chinuk Wa after graduating. In 2013, the future director enrolled in a graduate program for experimental Cinema at the University of Wisconsin in Mikwaukee, with James Benning becoming one of his influences.

Edson Jean, Writer and Director, Ludi, Rap Sh!t

Edson Jean was born in West Palm Beach Florida and raised in Delray Beach, Florida. Upon graduating High school, he moved to Miami to study theatre at New World School of the Arts, where he received his Bachelors in Fine Arts degree. Edson went on to write, direct and star in The Adventures of Edson Jean (2012), which scored an ABFF/HBO official selection.

Nikyatu Jusu, Writer and Director, Nanny, Suicide by Sunlight, The Fly

Nikyatu Jusu is an independent writer, director, and tenured Professor in Film & Video at George Mason University. Her short films have screened at festivals nationally and internationally, marking her Sundance short film debut and foray into filmmaking representation (CAA & M88) with her provocative Black vampire film Suicide By Sunlight [2019]. Nanny, Jusu’s feature film debut, made her the second black woman director and Nanny the first horror film to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic). A meteoric year for Nanny included wins such as: Sundance Film Festival’s Vanguard Award, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Breakout Filmmaker of the year and a myriad of additional awards culminating in the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Someone to Watch Award. Nanny is immortalized with a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release within the Criterion Collection. Jusu is currently in development on her follow up feature film. Monsters are her happy place.

Austin Lewis, Writer, Director, and Producer, Wildman, Shanidar, People don’t die in the Comics Anymore

Austin Lewis is a Richmond-based producer, director and editor. He completed his B.A. in Drama and in Art and Art History from Washington College and his Filmmaking M.F.A. through Maryland Institute College of Art, with Wildman as his thesis film. His previous credits include producing, writing, and directing People Don’t Die in the Comics Anymore, and producing and co-directing the currently-in-post feature film Shanidar. Austin runs his own video production company, Remember Tommy Productions, with clients including the Modlin Center for the Arts, VCU Health and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Moon Molson, Writer and Director, Pop Foul, The Bravest, The Boldest, Crazy Beats Strong Every Time

Molson’s short films Pop Foul (2007), Crazy Beats Strong Every Time (2011), and The Bravest, the Boldest (2014), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, screened at over 250 international film festivals, and have since received more than 100 awards worldwide, including the Grand Jury Prizes at Palm Springs, South by Southwest (SXSW), and the Student Academy Awards. He has attended the 2008 Sundance Screenwriters & Directors Labs, the 2008 Film Independent (FIND) Directors Labs, the 2015 Warner Brothers Television Directors' Workshop, and 2016 FOX Global Directors Initiative as a Fox Director Fellow. Molson was named a 2017 Pew Foundation Fellow, a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Film-Video, and was one of Filmmaker Magazine's “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in Summer 2007. He has received grants from The Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Sundance Institute. Molson’s films tell epic stories through the lives of contemporary characters using, in his words, “the language of the streets." Molson’s work examines urban masculinity, legacies of trauma, and family dynamics as he strives to “strike a balance between gritty realism, vernacular lyricism, stark humor, and the surrealism of dreams and hallucinations.” Molson has taught as an assistant professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 2015. He has previously taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the New York Film Academy. He received his A.B. in English literature, film studies and philosophy from Dartmouth College and his M.F.A. in film from Columbia University.

Jenny Murray, Director, ¡Las Sandinistas!

Jenny Murray is a filmmaker from Chicago. ¡Las Sandinistas!, her first feature documentary film, premiered in competition at SXSW 2018, where it won a SXSW "Special Jury Recognition" Award. Jenny graduated from Columbia University in New York where she studied Philosophy, Photography, and Latin American Film and Literature. After working as a licensed Associate on Watermill Trading’s stock trading desk in New York, she directed two short films and multiple social satire comedy videos, which have been featured on Twitter by television critic Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker and screened at Anthology Film Archives in New York City.

Jamie Nash, Writer, Director, and Producer, Last Night at Terrace Lanes, V/H/S 2, Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer

Jamie optioned his first screenplay in 2004 to Haxan Films. That script then turned into his first produced film, the horror-feature Altered. It also started a decade-long collaboration with Eduardo Sanchez, co-director of famed found-footage flick The Blair Witch Project. Since then, Jamie has gone on to write and help produce several more horror films, ones about bigfoot, aliens, zombies, demons and clownpires (a vampire clown… it’s a thing.) His horror credits include Exists, V/H/S/2, Lovely Molly, Seventh Moon and The Night Watchmen. He also directed Last Night at Terrace Lanes and the Fun With Furklee segment for the anthology film A Comedy of Horrors and the web series Paraabnormal. He is a producer on the upcoming horror feature Satanic Hispanics. Jamie's worked with some of the top fright masters in the business including Blumhouse Entertainment, Rogue Pictures, Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures and Lionsgate. ​Horror isn’t Jamie’s only genre. He's made a career penning Family fare as well. Jamie grew up in the 80’s and gorged on classic films like ET, Goonies, and Back to the Future. He likes to craft similar stories. Films that blend comedy with adventure & fantasy, which can entertain the whole family. He wrote Santa Hunters for Nickelodeon and co-wrote their movie Tiny Christmas, and a few years before that, Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer, with Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick. Two more family movies -- The Detourist and For Sale By Superhero -- were optioned and developed by Amazon Studios. His script for the animated film Santa.com is now in production. When Jamie’s not busy writing spec screenplays and TV pilots, he works as a screenwriting consultant. He wrote the bestselling book Save The Cat! Writes for TV and the Save The Cat! Beat Sheet Workbook. ​He's also written graphic novels, theme park experiences, novels and much more.

Najma Nuriddin, Director and Producer, Not in My Neighbourhood, You’re Muslim?

Najma Nuriddin is an award-winning filmmaker with over 10+ years of experience as a filmmaker and educator. Her work is centered in telling socially and culturally relevant stories that focus on humanity and history. After receiving her M.F.A. in film at Howard University, Najma has lived, worked, and traveled to various parts of the world, including Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Her films have screened nationally and internationally and received multiple awards. Most recently, Najma was awarded research and development funds for her upcoming feature-length documentary film You're Muslim? from the Southern Documentary Fund. The Alliance for a Healthier World also awarded Najma the launchpad grant to develop her multimedia project that addresses period poverty. Currently based in Baltimore, Maryland, Najma is a filmmaker in residence at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches courses and is developing a digital archive based on the documentary film, Not in My Neighbourhood.

Alison O’Daniel, Writer and Director, The Tuba Thieves

California based artist Alison O'Daniel was born in 1979 and at age three was diagnosed with 60% binaural loss of hearing; her later work would focus on sound as a topic, an image, and an organizing principle. She studied at the University of California in Irvine and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio in 2003, more recently she has been involved with the California College of the Arts in the Bay Area. Her current projects involve gallery installations,and activist engagement with the deaf and hard of hearing communities.

Darol Olu Kae, Writer and Director, i ran from it and was still in it, Keeping Time

Darol Olu Kae is a filmmaker from and based in Los Angeles. Kae’s artistic practice disrupts conventional narrative structures of storytelling through its dynamic treatment of sound and image. His highly collaborative, research-based approach to filmmaking grounds itself in the nuance of black expressive modalities in America and challenges the medium to render the full complexity of black being visible in cinematic terms. Kae’s film work has screened at festivals and institutions worldwide including BlackStar Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Locarno Film Festival, MoCA Los Angeles, SXSW and Sundance Film Festival. He was awarded the Pardino d’oro for Best International Short Film in 2020 at the Locarno Film Festival for his film i ran from it and was still in it. And in 2021, i ran from it… earned Special Jury Recognition for Poetry at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Most recently, Kae was named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. Kae is currently writing his feature film debut Without a Song.

Ted Passon, Director, Writer, and Producer, Worn Stories

Ted Passon is an award-winning director, writer, producer, and video artist. He created and directed the critically acclaimed docuseries Philly D.A., along with co-director Yoni Brook and producer Nicole Salazar. The series had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and had its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, becoming the first docuseries to ever screen there. It was named “One of the best TV shows of 2021” by TIME, The NY Times, Variety, The LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post, Vulture, Vogue, Slate, The Ringer, and Indiewire. The series won a PEABODY AWARD, a GOTHAM AWARD for “Best Breakthrough Nonfiction Series”, the DUPONT-COLUMBIA AWARD for “journalistic excellence”, The SUNDANCE PRODUCER’S AWARD FOR NONFICTION, and the HOT DOCS AUDIENCE AWARD. It was also nominated for “Best Nonfiction Series” by The Independent Spirit Awards, Cinema Eye Honors, and the IDA Awards. Ted also directed multiple episodes of the Netflix series Worn Stories, which he also participated in developing. The docuseries —adapted from Emily Spivack’s New York Times best-selling book of the same name— explores the stories we carry around with us in our clothing. The series was executive produced by Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black, GLOW) and Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), and has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After its premiere it became the #5 most watched show in the US on Netflix. Ted is a 2018 Sundance Catalyst Fellow and a 2016 Sundance Lab Creative Summit Fellow. He is also the recipient of the Pew Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship Grant and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant. He has been the recipient of grants from the Ford Foundation, the International Documentary Association, Wyncote Foundation, and Vital Projects. Ted has written and directed over eight original children’s television series for Disney and Comcast. As a commercial director he worked with clients such as: NIKE, Google, NBC, Guinness, GAP, Urban Outfitters, Ford, Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Pilsner Urquell Beer, and others. His commercials have won both gold and silver Addy Awards. As a member of the Space 1026 art collective his video installations have been shown in galleries around the US and abroad. He collaborated with musician Tender Forever on live music and interactive video performances for the Whitney Museum, French Institute Alliance Francais, and the TBA Festival. Ted was a 2016 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He has directed or produced projects for musical artists such as: St. Vincent, Blood Orange, Kurt Vile, The National, Dr. Dog, Dan Deacon, Spank Rock, The Darkness, Kimya Dawson, Plastic Little, and others. He is a co-founder of All Ages Productions, a full-service film and video production company and a board member of the Blackstar Film Festival. He is currently repped by CAA.

Bradley Paul, Writer and Producer, Better Call Saul, Heels, Animal Kingdom, Lodge 49

Bradley Ormond Paul (born 1972, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American poet and screenwriter. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Smartish Pace, Fence, Pleiades, Iowa Review, and many other journals. He has written for AMC's Lodge 49, TNT's Animal Kingdom, AMC's Better Call Saul and CBS's Hawaii Five-0. He recently served as a producer on the Starz show Heels. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the artist and writer Karri Paul.

Jeff Reichert, Director, Gerrymandering, To Be Queen, Remote Area Medical, This Time Next Year, Kombit

Jeff Reichert is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn. His films as a director include the feature documentaries Gerrymandering (Tribeca Film Festival 2010), Remote Area Medical (Full Frame 2013), This Time Next Year (Tribeca Film Festival 2014), and the fiction-documentary hybrid Feast of the Epiphany (BAM Cinema Fest 2018), and the shorts Kombit (Sundance 2014), Nobody Loves Me (Camden 2017), American Carnage (Field of Vision 2017) and To Be Queen (Tribeca 2019). He also produced Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s American Factory for which he won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His work has been awarded the Film Independent Spirit Award, Gotham Award and Cinema Eye Honor (all for Best Documentary) amongst other honors. He is also the co–founder and editor of the online film journal Reverse Shot (est. 2003), now a publication of Museum of the Moving Image, and has written for numerous publications including Film Comment, Filmmaker, Huffington Post, and Indiewire.

Fabiola Rodriguez, Producer Ludi

Fabiola Rodriguez is an independent producer based in Miami, Florida, with experience in both broadcast television and film. She has produced projects such as the HBO-acquired psychological drama, Huracán, and the narrative feature film, Ludi, which premiered as the Opening Night film at the Miami Film Festival in 2021. "Ludi" screened at various festivals, including in competition at SXSW. The film was selected for the Gotham/IFP Narrative Lab and U.S. in Progress Wroclaw, and Rodriguez was a fellow in the New Orleans Film Society's Southern Producers Lab. Most recently, she was chosen as a producer in the 2023 cohort of the Find Your People Program (FYPP), a leadership and technical training program led by ColorCreative, the management and production company founded by Issa Rae and Deniese Davis. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa.

RaMell Ross, Director, Hale County This Morning, This Evening

RaMell Ross is an artist, filmmaker and writer based in RI and Al. His work has appeared in places like the NY Times, Aperture, Harper’s Magazine,TIME, Oxford American, and the Walker Arts Center. He has been awarded an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship and a Rhode Island Foundation MacColl Johnson artist fellowship. His feature documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and has screened at MoMA and Lincoln Center. RaMell double majored in English and Sociology at Georgetown University and teaches in Brown University’s Visual Art Department. Variety called Ross a top 10 Documentarian to Watch in 2018.

Jane Schoenbrun, Director, I Saw the TV Glow, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Jane (they/she) is a non-binary American filmmaker, writer, and curator committed to making and supporting personal, art-driven cinema.

Bobby Sheehan, Director, Bowery Boy

The co-founder of Working Pictures with Sara Sheehan, Bobby Sheehan is an established director, writer, producer, and cinematographer with more than 100 hours of film, television, and digital content credits. These include veteran documentary projects Quest, The Mad Man and Mercy, Love & Grace, as well as feature documentary projects Seed and Mortal. Bobby’s television credits include The Talent Collector (AMC), Repo Men (Discovery/TLC), Jeff Koons: Beyond Heaven (Ovation TV), Mr. Prince (Ovation TV), and others. Bobby also directed Arias With a Twist: The Docufantasy, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was also shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. He is a co-founder of The Backbone Network, a free streaming platform for veterans to share their stories and bridge the gap between veterans and civilians. Bobby is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch Film School and started his creative career as a photographer and filmmaker during the explosive art scene of the 1980s in the Lower Eastside of New York. As a rock-and-roll photographer, he captured iconic New York punk bands like the Ramones, Television, and Johnny Thunders, as well as legends such as The Rolling Stones, Johnny Lydon (Rotten), Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and others. Bobby has directed more than 300 television commercials for clients, including Adidas, American Express, Budweiser, Burger King, Exxon/Mobil, General Electric, Hyundai, Merck, Motorola, Nabisco, Pepsi, and Pfizer. Bobby has also created public service announcement campaigns for non-profit organizations, including the American Cancer Society, The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, American Red Cross, Special Olympics, and Health Canada. Currently, he creates films for several organizations, including RxArt, The Vision of Children, The New York Zen Center, Force Blue, and The National Veterans Foundation, of which he is a Board Member. Bobby’s additional television credits include Cayman Went (Cayman Islands’ Board of Tourism), Listen to The World (Ovation TV), View Finder (Ovation TV), and Motor City Rising(Ovation TV). Bobby is currently producing The United States vs. Andre Norman, a documentary about disrupting the pipeline that leads communities in poverty to prison and Bowery Boy: A Native New Yorker. The autobiographical journey tells the unique story of a poor kid’s tumultuous ascent from poverty to a life of abundance.

Sara Sheehan, Executive Producer and Director, Bowery Boy

Sara Sheehan has served as the executive producer and managing partner of Working Pictures since 1993, producing numerous films and television programs, public service announcements, and commercials. She served as executive producer of the critically acclaimed feature Seed (IFC Films) and narrative feature Cayman Went (Cayman Islands’ Board of Tourism), and Arias With a Twist: The Docufantasy, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was also shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. Sara served as producer and executive producer for Working Pictures’ veteran documentary projects, including Quest, The Mad Man and Mercy, Love & Grace. Sara’s television credits include the film We’ll Take Manhattan, an episode of BBC’s Dr. Who, and Connections. Sara also co-founded The Backbone Network, a free streaming platform for veterans to share their stories and bridge the gap between veterans and civilians. A graduate of Wellesley College, Sara began her career in advertising before moving to publishing, where she worked as a contributing editor on numerous consumer and trade magazines. As a representative of these publications, Sara appeared on-camera for segments on Good Morning America and the Today Show; she also produced segments for Oprah. Sara’s directing career began with a series of short-form documentary pieces on healthcare for designer Donna Karan’s philanthropic foundation, Urban Zen, for which she also served as executive producer. Sara made her feature debut with Mr. Prince (Ovation TV), a documentary about the legendary Broadway director and producer Hal Prince. Additional producing credits include the documentary film Privileged (President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities) and the short film I Thee Wed (United Nations), as well as a series of short films in conjunction with 92nd St Y. Sara previously served as President of the Board of The Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck, New York. She was instrumental in developing the theater’s sold-out film series, which brought artists and filmmakers like Frank Oz, Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar, Kevin Costner, Guillermo Del Toro, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to pre-screen their films. Sara currently serves as a board member for The National Veterans Foundation. Currently, Sara is directing, producing, and hosting Wake Up, an online documentary series and transformational endeavor. Working Pictures has several projects currently in development that Sara is executive producing, including The United States vs. Andre Norman, a documentary about disrupting the pipeline that leads communities in poverty to prison; Team Atlas, a project about a team of veterans who are fighting for the sustainability of Earth and its environment; and Peace Doctor, a look at the disease of violence and how to foster peace and love.

Emily Spivack, Writer, Worn Stories

Emily Spivack is an artist and writer whose work draws from contemporary culture, clothing, history, and our relationship to everyday objects. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Worn Stories (2014) and its follow-up Worn in New York (2017), collections of stories about clothing and memory. In her column for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, The Story of a Thing, Emily interviewed cultural figures about objects in their homes. As artist-in-residence at Bard Graduate Center in 2019, Emily exhibited Why did the Jalapeno put on a Sweater?, a compendium of clothing-related jokes that references the classic joke-a-day desktop calendar. As artist-in-residence at MoMA from 2017-2018, Emily invited visitors to contribute to An archive of everything worn to MoMA from November 1, 2017, to January 28, 2018, a permanent part of MoMA’s Archives. Emily’s 2017 off-site installation for the Honolulu Museum of Art, Medium White Tee, was a fulfillment of President Barack Obama’s stated fantasy to run a T-shirt shack that sold only medium-sized white tees. She’s exhibited Sentimental Value, stories about clothes from eBay, made howtodresslike.com, an online archive of nearly 1,000 step-by-step instructions culled from wikiHow, analyzed scented t-shirts, documented wardrobe malfunctions from Craigslist, and highlighted sweat stains on clothes. She and her work have been featured in The New York Times, New York magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Vogue, and Art in America.

Sandi Tan, Director, Shirkers

Born in Singapore, Sandi published a cult zine called The Exploding Cat at 16 and at 22 became the film critic at The Straits Times, Singapore’s largest newspaper. Then she threw all that away to run off to film school at Columbia University. Her short films Moveable Feast and Gourmet Baby have played at over 100 film festivals including the New York Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand and at venues like MoMA, as well as broadcast internationally on RAI, SBS and ZDF/arte. She was a 2016 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow and a 2017 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow. She was named one of Variety’s “10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch” of 2018 and one of Indiewire’s “20 Rising Female Directors of 2018.”

Maceo Tendaji ‘18 (Filmmaking MFA) Director and Cinematographer, Paralysis

Maceo “Tendaji” Lester is a filmmaker based in Baltimore, MD. His work ranges from music videos, narrative film, documentaries, and wedding videography. Lester received his BA in Mass Communications at Virginia State University. Years later, he enrolled at the Maryland Institute College of Art where he received his MFA in Film. His love of music, sports, and African-American culture are very prevalent in his work. His work has screened and won awards at several film festivals across the nation and internationally. Lester aspires to tell authentic stories that will make a substantial impact in race/gender equity and help cultivate storytellers of the next generation.

Jimmie Thomas, Jr. ‘22 (Filmmaking MFA), Director, Black Icarus

Jimmie Thomas, Jr is a filmmaker and educator from Florida. He holds a BA in broadcast journalism from Florida A&M University and an MFA in filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His first film, The Curators of Hip Hop: A Story of Independence, was screened at the Pan African Film Festival and All Three Coast (A3C) Festival and later picked up by streaming platforms Amazon Prime and Kweli TV. Jimmie toured the documentary to over 30 colleges and universities in the United States, from Florida State University to the University of Hawaii. After the tour, he co-founded the Media Rhythm Institute (MRI), a media and entertainment education company for youth in Baltimore. Recently, he and his partners scaled MRI to MRI Studios, which was awarded the BOOST program from Baltimore Downtown Partnership, where they will service and educate artists on how to create and run a sustaining viable business.

Phillip Youmans, Writer and Director, Burning Cane

Phillip Youmans is an American filmmaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the first African-American director to win the Founders Prize at Tribeca Film Festival, which he received for his 2019 directorial debut, Burning Cane.

MaoMao Zhao ‘20 (Filmmaking MFA), Director and Cinematographer, Blank Canvas

Maomao is a documentary filmmaker from China. Her works explore personal stories and real-life situations through verité techniques of intimate engagement with her subjects. She graduated with a BFA in film production from the Central Academy of Drama where she developed skills in script writing, directing, photography, and editing, and in 2020, MaoMao completed an MFA in filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Search for anything and everything at MICA: