Faculty and Staff
Berkowitch, Pico 'Claude'
(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. Over the years he has written, directed and edited for features, documentaries and commercials for film and television. In 1995 he founded the Acting Workshop in Paris, where he still teaches. Currently, Pico is working in Paris directing David Mamet's play "The Shawl."
Berliner, Alan
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. Berliner's experimental documentary films, The Sweetest Sound (2001), Nobody's Business (1996), Intimate Strangers (1991), and The Family Album (1986), have been broadcast all over the world, and received awards and prizes at many major international film festivals, such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
Blume, Lawrence
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. In addition he has worked as a consultant to Avid Technology and has taught at Main Film/TV workshops, NYU film school and Hampshire College.
Craven, Jay
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. Jay most recently completed production on a Vermont PBS series Windy Acres, and just finished the KCP production of Disappearances, starring Kris Kristoferson.
De la Iglesia, Alex
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). Alex belongs to the "unofficial" new generation of Spanish filmmakers which includes Guillermo del Torro, Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu, Alfonso Cuaron, and Robert Rodriguez.
Dickbauer, Othmar
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. He got into freelancing by late 2002, working on several feature films, high-end-commercials, industrials, shorts, and music videos. He has worked in any format since then and has a passion for good documentary work.
Eyre, Chris
(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. Eyre produced, The Doe Boy. THe second film that he directed was Skins. Over the past three years, Eyre has completed an additional five films as a director and/or producer.
Farmer, Gary (Cayuga)
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. His work in feature films includes roles in Powwow Highway, Smoke Signals, and the role of Nobody in Dead Man for which he won the Best Actor awards in 1997 from both the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco and First Americans in the Arts in Los Angeles. In addition to acting, he is the founding director of Aboriginal Voices Radio which broadcasts from Toronto. He has also composed music for the harmonica for the film Heater and has served as the director for the independent film The Gift and the television series Forever Knight. Gary is Executive Producer of Buffalo Tracks, the first Aboriginal variety television show on the Aboriginal People's Television Network, (APTN).
FastHorse, Larissa
(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. Larissa has written two screenplays while also serving as a panelist and nominator for The Film and Video Fellowships (formerly Rockefeller). Her second script, Lazarus Rises, received a Sundance Institute Native Program Fellowship and grant sponsored by the Ford Foundation New Works Program. In 2004 Larissa was commissioned to write a play for The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, 2003 Tony Award winner for Best Regional Theatre Company. Larissa’s original short story, Meeting Mom, can currently be heard nation wide through affiliates of Public Radio International.
Galán, Hector
Independent documentary filmmaker- Galán has produced numerous award-winning documentaries including eleven episodes for PBS' Frontline , two programs for the American Experience, and numerous specials for the PBS national broadcast schedule including the acclaimed series Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Struggle. His music documentaries include Conjunto/Tejano music, Songs of the Homeland and Accordian Dreams. Galán's six episode award-winning series Visiones: Latino Art & Culture was broadcast on PBS in 2004. Currently, Galan is in postproduction on a music documentary feature, Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads.
- http://www.galaninc.com/
