Faculty

Pico 'Claude' Berkowitch

(Belgium) -Directing, Editing and Acting- Since 1978 he has instructed and consulted in Burma, France, Egypt, China, Ghana, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, United States, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and Lebanon. His documentary The Lucky Stars of Texas City, shot in Belgium, won the 1997 International Ethnographic Film Festival of Paris. From 1990-1993 Pico was on staff at the International Film and Television Workshops in Maine. He was the Assistant Director on Rapa Nui, produced by Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Reynolds.

Alan Berliner

Independent filmmaker - has the uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose, and popular appeal in compelling film essays, making him one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. He has been the recipient of three Emmy Awards, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association, and was honored with a "Storyteller Award" from the 2001 Taos Talking Picture Film Festival.

Lawrence Blume

Writer, Director and Editor- has written and directed for feature films and theater. The Hollywood reporter named him one of the "Ten Rising Stars of Comedy" for his first feature film Martin & Orloff. He has also worked on such films as Men In Black, Addicted to Love, The Blackout, Irish in America, Gloria, Afterglow, and Woodstock. He is the co-founder of PostWorks, one of New York's largest postproduction companies.

Jay Craven

Artistic Director of Kingdom County Productions- has made award-winning feature films, including Where the Rivers Flow North (with Rip Torn, Tantoo Carninal, Michael J. Fox); A Stranger in the Kingdom (with David Landsbury, Ernie Hudson, Martin Sheen) and The Year that Trembled (with Marin Hinkle, Jonathan Brandis, Fred Willard, Martin Mull, Henry Gibson). Craven also directs KCP's Fledgling Films Program for teen filmmakers; and is the recipient of awards including The Producers Guild of America's 1995 NOVA Award for Most Promising New Producer of the Year.

Kate Dawson

A 14-year veteran of television news, Dawson has worked as a field producer, line producer, and writer for ABC, WCBS and Fox News in New York as well as numerous local markets.

Alex De la Iglesia

Director - He has directed six uproarious films that demonstrate his love of various forms of "pulp" genre cinema. His films include Crimen Perfecto (Perfect Crime), 800 Balas (800 Bullets), La Comunidad (Common Wealth), Muertos de Risa (Dying of Laughter), Perdita Durango (Dance With the Devil), El Dia de la Bestia (The Day of the Beast), and Accion Mutante (Mutant Action).

Othmar Dickbauer

technical advisor- a native Austrian, spent a year in South America, visiting a variety of environmental and social projects all over Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, and Venezuela. Came to New York in the summer of 1995 as a trained "precision metallurgy engineer." His entry to film was with Panavision. After working with film and cinema technology he focused on the new 24P HD Format for his latter two out of six years with Panavision, also teaching HD 24P to industry members and Film schools graduate programs like NYU.

Chris Eyre

(Cheyenne and Arapaho) -director - was the recipient of numerous awards including, a Rockefeller Film Fellowship (1995), the Haig Manoogian Award (1995), the Martin Schorses' Post Production Award (1995), a Warner Brother's Post Production Award (1995) and Best Film of 1995 in the Graduate Film Program. Eyre was invited to participate as a fellow in the Sundance Institutes Directing Workshop. His first feature, Smoke Signals, was collaboration with Sherman Alexie work shopped at the Sundance Institute. In 1996 he received the NHK/Sundance Cinema 100 Award.

Gary (Cayuga) Farmer

notable Native American actor, composer, and filmmaker- who has appeared in several feature films as wells as television series. He was a regular on the CBC show The Rez as Chief Tom and had several guest appearances on shows such as Miami Vice, E.N.G., and The West Wing.

Larissa FastHorse

(Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Lakota) -writer- started her LA career in the Native American film community as a spokesperson at film festivals and panels. In 2000 was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, speaking on the power of film for Indigenous peoples. She then worked in feature film and television development for Universal Pictures and then as creative executive for Latham Entertainment at Paramount. At that time she produced a short film that screened at festivals globally.