Faculty

Sanchez, April

April Melody Sanchez is a freelance Director and Editor in Austin, TX. She has worked on various independent documentary and narrative films, as well as commercials and product videos for local businesses. Writing being one of April's passions, she has written several screenplays and in 2006 she was awarded a screenwriting fellowship for the Latino Writers Lab through NALIP. In 2007, April was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab with her script EL PASO DEL ALMA.

Owens, Nevie

After graduating from the University of Denver, Producer/Editor Nevie Owens returned to Austin, Texas to take advantage of the burgeoning film industry. From 1999-2008, she along with fellow filmmaker Buckner Cooke formed Red Frame Productions, a full-service digital video production company. Her work as a producer and editor has screened at SXSW and Slamdance. "Roberta Wells" can be found on the "2004 Best of Slamdance" DVD. Other creative work, a Willie Nelson music video "Big Boodie," aired nationally on CMT.

Maitland, Keith

After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in Creative Writing in 1998, Keith Maitland moved to NYC to participate in the Director's Guild of America Assistant Director Trainee Program. Upon completion of the 2-year program, Maitland became one of the youngest members of the Guild, working alongside directors including Woody Allen, Janusz Kaminski, and Joel Schumacher. Maitland's credits include assistant director work on several feature films and television shows, including 7 seasons with NBC's Law & Order.

Dawson, Kate

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.

Woolf, Aaron

Aaron Woolf is the director and producer of the critically acclaimed film, King Corn. He received a master's in film at the University of Iowa, but got the bulk of his education working in the field in Lima, Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York. In 2000, Woolf directed Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball, and the United States, a WNET-ITVS co-production that received a Rockie Award and aired nationally on PBS.

Stolaroff, Mark

Mark Stolaroff is an independent producer and a founding partner of Antic Pictures, an LA-based production company producing a slate of low budget, high quality digital features. Antic recently completed True Love, the third feature from acclaimed director Henry Barrial (Some Body). True Love was developed in the 2003 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and is now currently on the festival circuit. Stolaroff is in pre-production on Barrial's next script, Pig, which he intends to shoot in 2008 in an aggressively no-budget manner.

Phillips, Patrick

Patrick has produced several independent documentary shorts, including: Where There Is A Will… There Will Be A Living Wage, on the movement for a living wage at Texas A&M University and the struggle of the University’s lowest paid workers, and The Cost of War, which examines the human, personal, social and psychological costs of war through the perspective of soldiers, veterans and military families.

Sobel, Laura

Laura Sobel is a New York-based documentary television producer/writer. She has produced programs for A&E, the Biography Channel the History Channel, and VH1/MTV Networks. As a development writer, her credits include film treatments and series proposals for PBS, HBO, National Geographic, Bravo, Discovery-Times Television, HGTV, Outdoor Life Network and the Weather Channel. Most recently, Laura directed, produced, wrote Cereal: History in a Bowl, a pop culture pilot for the History Channel.

Held, Wolfgang

Director of Photography started his career in New York City in the early 1990s. His first theatrical feature in the US, Ripe. He has since photographed many feature films, including Rob Morrow's directorial debut Maze, Floating, a Phaedra release of 1999, for which Held was awarded the Best Cinematography prize at the 1999 New England Film Festival, and two films by director Gary Winick, The Tic Code starring Gregory Hines and Polly Draper and Sam The Man starring Fisher Stevens and Annabella Sciorra.

Zam, Michael

screenwriter, script doctor, and writing coach- For five years he ran NYU's adult creative writing department, where he created and developed the program's very successful screenplay certificate program. His screenplay, Lizzie Walker Slept Here, is currently being prepped for shooting next summer in Ireland.