Celebrity Volunteers
In addition to our regular staff and rotating faculty, we have asked a variety of seasoned professionals who are passionate about their craft to volunteer a few days in their disciplines. Here is a list of the people who have agreed to join us when their schedules permit:
Banks, Russell
Russell Banks is the award-winning author of fifteen works of fiction, ten novels and five collections of stories. His titles include The Book of Jamaica, Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, Cloudsplitter and The Darling. Two of his novles, Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, have been made into critically-acclaimed films. The Sweet Hereafter, directed by Atom Egoyan and released in 1997, was winner of the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival, and drew Academy Award Nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay Adaptation. Affliction, directed by Paul Achrader and released the following year, earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (James Coburn) and a Nomination for Best Actor (Nick Nolte). Currently Rule of the Bone, Continental Drift and The Book of Jamaica are being adapted to film, with Banks working on the screenplay for Rule of the Bone and Drift.
Hart, James V.
James V. Hart (J.V.), an award winning who’s writing/producing credits include; HOOK, based on an idea by Hart’s then 6 year old Son, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND, CONTACT, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK: THE REAL STORY, TUCK EVERLASTING. Other writing credits include SAHARA, LARA CROFT-TOMB RAIDER II, THE LAST MIMZY and AUGUST RUSH. Hart’s first novel is CAPT. HOOK – ADVENTURES OF A NOTORIOUS YOUTH, about the early days of James Hook at Eton before his adventures with Peter Pan. Hart participates regularly in the screenwriting workshops at Sundance Film Lab in Utah, and eQuinoxe in France, Canada and Morocco, and the Hartley-Merrill Screenwriter workshops in California. Hart also teaches screenwriting at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts in New York City. He considers his family his best story department. “Go with Gravity” is his primary mantra for the writing life.
Henry, Buck
Buck Henry is a writer/actor who often makes appearances in the films that he has written. He has penned the screenplay to such films and television series as The Graduate, To Die For, Town & Country, and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." He has appeared in many films and television series such as Grumpy Old Men and Saturday Night Live.
Maysles, Albert
Albert Maysles is a world-renowned documentaian, whose work has spanned almost five decades. He has worked not only as the director for several documentaries, but also the cinematographer. Among his most notable films are Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Horowitz Plays Mozart, and When We Were Kings. Currently he is producing and directing the new film The Jew on Trial.
Nelson, Stanley
Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson's well-known works include three powerful episodes for The American Experience~ Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple (2007), The Murder of Emmett Till (2003) and Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2001).
Wexler, Haskell
Cinematographer- He will teach a documentary workshop and is best known for his cinematography on In the Heat of the Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Secret of Roan Inish (among other Sayles films). His career has spanned nearly 5 decades of feature and documentary work. Haskell "would like to concentrate on community projects utilizing video tools… before or concurrent to learning craft we must have a serious interest in what we communicate as responsible artists."
