Graduate Film Program

Charles Blackwell

Certificates received from RCA Institute TV Studio School in TV production, directing, studio operations; NET/TV Film Training Program in writing, editing, cinematography, and sound; and New York Institute of Photography in commercial photography. Sound mixer and recordist with extensive experience in film, television, and documentary. President of Silver Pyramid Productions since 1992. Extensive work as a freelance sound recordist, camera assistant, and photographer. Has taught at Roxbury Community College, Theatre of Universal Images, and NET-TV Training School of New York. cb21@nyu.edu

Bobby Bukowski

Born in New York City, Bobby attended SUNY at Stony Brook, securing a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry. En route to medical school, he set his gaze upon more artistic endeavors. He left the United States for extensive travel in Europe and Asia. This adventure led to job as an assistant to a photographer in Paris. Soon after, he was enlisted to archive a Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage, led by the Dalai Lama, to the sacred Buddhist sites along the Ganges River. This marked the first time he had a moving camera in his hand.

Inspired by this event he returned home to New York and applied to the Graduate Film program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his Master of Fine Arts. He financed his schooling by working as a bike messenger. Armed with a still camera, he honed his sense of composition and lighting: “Everything I saw in the streets, became a potential study in cinematography: The way the light bounced off the windows of a glass skyscraper, the cities ambient light roiling under dense low fog, the diverse pageant of faces along the avenues.”

Bukowski continues to champion independent films and the endeavors of first-time directors. “I find it stimulating to collaborate with minds that are innocent of habit. Their approach is unencumbered by experience and as a result, they discover unique ways to handle common situations. They hold their art in high regard and allow me to see my craft with new eyes.” His credits include the forthcoming ‘The Messenger’ and ‘Phoebe in Wonderland’,  ‘Lying’, ‘The Dying Gaul’, ‘Saved!’, ‘Crime and Punishment in Suburbia’, ‘Arlington Road’, ‘The Minus Man’, ‘Household Saints’, ‘Ethan Frome’, ‘Shakes the Clown’, ‘Dogfight’, Showtime’s ‘Weeds’, and ‘If These Walls Could Talk.’ bobbybukowski@mac.com

Michael Burke

Michael Burke’s first feature film, The Mudge Boy, was produced by Showtime Independent Films and starred Emile Hirsch. It premiered in the Dramatic Competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, won the Outfest 2003 Grand Jury Award, and was released theatrically to critical acclaim by Strand Releasing in May 2004.  

In 2000, Burke was selected for the Sundance Institute Writer’s and Filmmaker’s Labs, where he directed Jake Gyllenhaal and collaborated with Sally Field, Robert Redford, and Paul Thomas Anderson. Burke’s work at the labs attracted the attention of Stanley Tucci who signed on to produce The Mudge Boy.

Burke’s graduate thesis film, Fishbelly White, received a Special Jury Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, won the 1999 NYU First Prize Wasserman Award, and took top honors at numerous festivals worldwide. Fishbelly White was distributed for television to 25 territories throughout the world and its screenplay was published in Scenario magazine.

Other awards include the 2001 Richard Vague Production Grant and the American winner of the 2000 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award.

Current projects include a feature film in development with independent producers Alison Benson and Dolly Hall and Executive Producer Martin Scorsese and a TV series in development with Sarah Jessica Parker and HBO. Burke just recently completed the screenplay Right Angle for Camelot Pictures (Garden State) and is attached to direct the film. Burke received a Master of Fine Arts degree in film from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is a member of The Writers Guild of America. michael.burke@nyu.edu

Pennie du Pont

Pennie du Pont has cast such films as ROXANNE, THE KARATE KID, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, and ARIZONA DREAM for directors Fred Schepisi, John Avildsen, Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica. She also did the west coast casting on STAR 80 for director, Bob Fosse and ANNIE for John Huston.  After attending The Yale Drama School Pennie worked in theater in New York, both on and off Broadway, and studied with Uta Hagen.  She was a founder of the City Center Young Peoples Theater and produced THE SHRINKING BRIDE off Broadway, introducing Danny de Vito. Pennie began casting films when Ray Stark hired her to do a search for "Annie".  She did five other films for Stark; then went to work for Daniel Melnick's IndiProd casting such films as ROXANNE and QUICKSILVER.  She worked for Columbia and Tri Star until returning to New York. 

Though based in New York, she works on both coasts, most recently casting several international pictures including BYE BYE AMERICA,  which filmed in New York, Poland and Berlin.  Also THE ICELANDIC SAGAS for Michael Chapman in Iceland,  MICHAEL KAEL IN KATANGO for Canal+  in Paris and A SOLDIER'S SWEETHEART for Paramount, New Zealand.  Pennie is the producer of UTA HAGEN’S ACTING CLASS  a DVD of the legendary actor’s classes.  During the academic year 2008-2009 Pennie will teach Actor’s Craft on the Singapore campus. pdup@verizon.net

Jon Hammond

Jon was born and bred in London. He began his film career 20 years ago as an Assistant, then Dubbing Editor at the BBC’s Ealing and Lime Grove studios.

He subsequently attended The National Film and Television School’s Editing course, graduating in 1994. Then worked as Associate Editor on the feature films: The Revenger’s Comedies (Dir. Malcolm Mowbray), Gabriel & Me (Dir. Udayan Prasad), and Get Real (Dir. Simon Shore), winner of the audience prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

He has also edited shorts, corporates and a variety of Documentaries and Dramas, for British TV. Including episodes for long running series; The Bill, Casualty and a children’s comedy, Barking. Jon has previously worked in Singapore in 2002, editing a documentary about the Chinese actress/director Joan Chen, for Discovery Channel Asia. Most recently he worked on the feature film, Far North, (Dir. Asif Kapadia).

Jon has taught editing at a variety of film schools around the world, including, the NFTS, LFS and LFA in the UK, the IFS in Köln, Germany and the EICTV in San Antonio, Cuba. jonhammond@btinternet.com

David K. Irving, Chair

David Irving is a film director, writer and producer, and an Associate Professor in film production at New York University. He graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Denison University and an MFA in Film from California Institute of the Arts.  David was recently the Chairman of the Undergraduate Film and Television Department at NYU.

David Irving's feature directing credits include "Night of the Cyclone"  (with Kris Kristofferson and Marisa Berenson),  "C.H.U.D. II"  (with Robert Vaughn and Gerrit Graham), "The Emperor's New Clothes"  (with Sid Caesar and Robert Morse), "Sleeping Beauty"  (with Morgan Fairchild, Tawnee Welch and Sylvia Miles), "Rumpelstiltskin" (with Amy Irving and Billy Barty),  and "Goodbye Cruel World"  (with Dick Shawn and Cynthia Sykes).

David Irving has also written and directed the following documentaries: "Romare Bearden: Visual Jazz" (hosted by Wynton Marsalis),   “Betye and Alison Saar: Conjure Women of the Arts”, "Jacob Lawrence: The Glory Of Expression" (hosted by Ossie Davis), "Dr. Lorraine Hale: Alive with Love", "Robert Colescott: The One-Two Punch".

David Irving co-authored an award winning film production textbook titled "Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video" for Focal Press which is currently into its third edition. david.irving@nyu.edu

Anthony Jannelli

A partial list of feature credits as First Unit Camera Operator includes Philadelphia, Silence of the Lambs and Something Wild (Jonathan Demme), New York Stories (Martin Scorsese), and Billy Bathgate (Robert Benton), as well as Independence Day, Ghostbusters II, Three Men and a Baby, and Big.

His first feature as a director of photography, Longtime Companion, won the 1991 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

He shot additional photography for the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold (J. Demme) and joined a team of world famous cinematographers on Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones documentary, Shine A Light. He served as director of photography on the feature documentary A Decade Under the Influence (Richard LaGravenese) shown at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and the Robyn Hitchcock concert film Storefront Hitchcock (J. Demme).  Additional documentary work includes Cousin Bobby (J. Demme) and Made in Milan (Scorsese-- a documentary on Georgio Armani).

Second Unit feature work as cinematographer include Eight Millimeter (Joel Schumacher), Beautiful Girls (Ted Demme), Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster), Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest), Wolf (Mike Nichols), Spider-Man (Sam Raimi), Maid in Manhattan (Wayne Wang), The Manchurian Candidate (J. Demme), and Angels in America (Mike Nichols).

Tony has filmed music videos featuring Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin,  and Laurie Anderson, as well as scores of television commercials.

A Member of the International Cinematographers Guild and the Directors Guild of America, he has been an instructor at the Sundance Filmmakers Workshop and the Maine Photographic Workshops for Film and Television.

Tony’s love of teaching was inspired by his longtime mentor and friend, Nestor Almendros.

Gaurav Kripalani

Gaurav Kripalani was born in India, schooled in Singapore, received degrees in Theatre and in Political Science in California, worked briefly for a lobbying firm in Washington, DC and then returned to Singapore in 1996.

Gaurav acted for a short time on stage, television and film, but has now been the Artistic Director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) for the past ten years. Gaurav has helped SRT grow into one of the leading English language theatre producers and presenters in Asia.  In addition to its repertoire of original works like the musical Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress, the company has produced a number of critically acclaimed plays that include Into the Woods, Rent, M. Butterfly, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, They’re Playing our Song, Barefoot in the Park, Honk! and ART.

SRT was the first Singaporean theatre company on Broadway in 1998 as Associate Producer of Golden Child, which went from Singapore to New York and earned three Tony Award nominations. Last year, SRT presented the first stop of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s world tour of King Lear and The Seagull, both directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and starring Sir Ian McKellen.

Gaurav enjoys searching for new ways to grow SRT and the arts scene in Singapore. gaurav@srt.com.sg

Katherine Lindberg

Katherine Lindberg was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She received her M.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts, Maurice Kanbar School of Film & Television at New York University where she was honored with both the Award for Excellence in Writing and the Award for Excellence in Directing.
 
Upon completion of her first graduate year at Tisch, Katherine was awarded the inaugural Martin Scorsese Young Filmmaker Fellowship. In addition to a substantial cash award, Katherine was invited to meet Mr. Scorsese, thus beginning a mentor/student relationship that continues to this day.
 
Katherine sold her first feature length script to Disney/Touchstone while finishing her fourth student short, La Desconocida, financed in part with money earned working as a roofer for The Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington.
 
Lindberg’s academic awards also include: Maurice Kanbar Screenwriting Award; Time-Warner Fellowship; NYU First Run Festival Honors in Writing, Directing, Cinematography and Sound Design; Martin Scorsese Post Production Award; Founders Day Scholar.
 
Katherine’s first feature film, Rain, was produced by Martin Scorsese and premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. Rain had its U.S. premiere at Sundance and also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, Seattle International Festival, Motovun (Croatia) International Festival, Moscow International Film Festival and the Stockholm International Film Festival where it received the award for Best Cinematography.
 
Currently, Katherine is in development with Sarah Jessica Parker/HBO on the T.V. series Auction House and Marc Rosen (Rosen Obst) on Tether. Her horror/slasher script High Pond is out for financing, and she is working with Scorsese to secure cast/financing for Weightless (a teen comedy) and INVITED (a ghost story). Scorsese is attached as executive producer on both projects. kql1276@nyu.edu

Jennifer Ruff

Taking a back door into filmmaking through poetry and experimental film, Jennifer Ruff has been an assistant editor for a number of projects including Y Tu Mama Tambien, Business of Strangers, and High Art. For the past six years Jennifer has been an editor and online editor at Post 391, a post-production house and production company which has incubated filmmakers like Harmony Korine and Kim Pierce. In addition to editing other filmmaker’s projects, Jennifer shoots and edits her own super 8 shorts which exhibit in galleries in New York to San Francisco. jlr12@nyu.edu

Barbara Schock

Barbara Schock is an independent filmmaker/director raised in South Dakota.  She attended the University of California at San Diego with a major in literature and a minor in visual arts.  Her foremost influence was the painter/film critic Manny Farber who taught a legendary film class at UCSD called “A Hard Look at the Movies.”

Barbara moved to Los Angeles and produced two independent features:  California Without End and From Hollywood to Deadwood (Island Pictures).  She sold both of these films at the Independent Feature Film Market in New York.  Barbara has worked as an assistant for producers and directors on several features, including assisting David Fincher on location in London on Alien 3 and producer Michael Nozik on Michael Apted’s Thunderheart.  She ran a screenplay development and production company in Manhattan for the director Joan Micklin Silver.  

In 1995, Barbara attended the American Film Institute, where she directed several successful short pieces, including her thesis film, My Mother Dreams the Satan’s Disciples in New York written by Rex Pickett (Sideways), for which she won the 2000 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, the Director’s Guild of America Ida Lupino Award, and the Kodak Award for Excellence in Student Filmmaking, among many other awards.

Barbara is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Academy’s Short Film and Feature Animation Branch.  Her Filmmaker magazine article on script development, ‘The Write Stuff,” was used as the centerpiece for a Writer’s Guild Foundation Seminar in 1999.  Barbara recently taught film graduate studies at Chapman University where she oversaw the development and production of many short films.  This summer she will be teaching a Short Film workshop at the Maine International Film and Video Workshops.  She lives in Hollywood where she is raising her daughter and continuing to write and develop her own projects. barbaraschock@mac.com

Matt Siegel

Matt Siegel began his eclectic career shooting fashion and industrial photography for the clothing giant Esprit de Corp. His initial film work garnered the prestigious Kodak Cinematography Award, which included study at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, Hungary. Since that time, he has been lighting and composing images for feature films, commercials, documentaries, episodic television programs, and music videos. This work reflects a diverse range from big studio Warner Bros. Pictures and high-end automaker AUDI AG to run and gun documentary filming with Discovery Network and ABC Wide World of Sports.

Commercials
The controversial Sprite "Extreme" spot earned a CLIO award, advertising’s highest honor, while his highly stylized work for NCAA/NIKE Woman’s Basketball has been recognized with a JOEY and a TELE award.

Television
After a playful round of stop motion photography for the WB network series "Phantom Investigators,” he made a tour of duty as Camera Operator and 2nd Unit DP on the WB series "Everwood," on the CBS drama "Joan of Arcadia," and on the Jerry Bruckheimer series "Just Legal." Matt traveled the country for the ABC prime-time special on women’s sports entitled "Game For Anything."  Other network programs include "Bridges, Skyscrapers, and Tunnels" for the Discovery Channel and "Hervic In Cloudland" for the Nickelodeon Network.

Feature Films
Theatrical features include "Mexican Werewolf in Texas," "Raising Genius," "Simon," and "Crime Partners." His latest features "Miss Wannamaker County" and "Magic" (2008) are currently in post-production.

He has also had success in the short film genre with Ripple and TallGIRL, which screened at Cannes and Sundance respectively. Other short format work has been screened at the Chicago, LA, Slamdance, and Toronto Film Festivals.

Technical Business
As the United States' representative to the European DOP Seminar, Matt became involved with product development for Eastman-Kodak. His role has evolved, now performing demonstrations and teaching workshops around the world for Kodak and the VISION3 film stocks.

He has also spent over ten years as an instructor for Aaton, ARRI, and Panavision cameras and as a consultant and teacher for Mole-Richardson and Kino Flo lighting systems.

Branching away from film and into high definition image acquisition, Matt has been active in R&D with SONY Entertainment's Lab24p and with the SONY/Panavision F-900R/24p and Genesis camera systems. mjsiegel@nyu.edu

Carlos Siguion–Reyna

Carlos received the M.F.A. in film from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He trained in Judith Weston’s workshops on Directing Actors and on Script Analysis and Rehearsal Techniques.

His NYU thesis film Patas Lang (Fair Exchange) placed fourth in the narrative category of the 1989 Nissan FOCUS Awards. Twelve films and nine international awards followed, including:

• Azucena (Dog Food)—Grand Jury Award, 2001 San Diego Asian Film Festival
• Kahapon May Dalawang Bata (Yesterday Children)—Second Runner-up, People's Choice Awards, 1999 Toronto International Film Festival; Best Foreign Film, 2000 Newport Beach International Film Festival
• Ang Lalaki sa Buhay ni Selya (The Man in Her Life)—Special Jury Prize, Teddy Bear Awards, 1998 Berlin International Film Festival; Best Asian Film, 1998 Newport Beach International Film Festival
• Aangkinin Ko ang Bukas (Tomorrow Will Be Mine)—Best Movie for Television, 1996 Singapore International Film Festival
• Tatlo…Magkasalo (Three)
• Inagaw Mo ang Lahat sa Akin (Harvest Home)
• Hihintayin Kita sa Langit (I Will Wait for You in Heaven)
  

Each year from 1994 to 2000, he had at least one film exhibiting at the Toronto International Film Festival. His works have also screened in Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, the Directors Guild of America Theater, and the international film festivals of Berlin, Tokyo, Chicago, Seattle, Sydney, Hawaii, Palm Springs, Paris, Valladolid, Shanghai, London Human Rights Watch, and Dublin.

In the Philippines, he has received ten Best Director awards from principal film industry, press, and critics' organizations, and was selected one of The Outstanding Young Filipinos (TOYF) in the field of Arts/Cinema (1995).

He has directed commercials for IBM, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, Swift’s, and documentaries including:

• At All Costs—on government fraud in the 2004 Philippine presidential elections
• Bahay na Pula (Red House)—on justice for Filipinas forced into “comfort women” status during WWII
• Payatas: Point Counterpoint—dance video on domestic violence, screened at Global Dance 2002: World Dance Alliance Festival (Dusseldorf, Germany)
  

Siguion-Reyna has taught film direction at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, the Directors’ Guild of the Philippines, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the Mowelfund Film Institute.

He served three terms as president of the Directors' Guild of the Philippines, and is currently vice-president for external affairs of Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Pelikulang Pilipino (United Cinema Workers of the Philippines). He took a principal role in writing the law creating the Film Development Council of the Philippines. He is also an outspoken proponent of free expression in media and the arts. csreyna@pldtdsl.net

Emlyn Williams

Emlyn Williams worked as a film editor in London before returning to his native Wales, where he developed a career spanning twenty-five years as a screenwriter and director.  He has been involved in numerous BAFTA award-winning drama productions for both S4C (Channel Four Wales) and the BBC in his capacity as a writer and director, as well as teaching screenwriting and filmmaking at film schools in both the UK and the USA.

His latest feature film as writer/director, Do Not Go Gentle, won BAFTA awards for Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Film, and was selected as the official British entry for Best Foreign Language Feature at the 2001 Academy Awards in Los Angeles.  Do Not Go Gentle was also recipient of the FIPA D’OR Gold Award for Best Film in France, as well as the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film in Las Palmas, Spain, and was well-received at international film festivals throughout France, Spain, Germany, Russia and the USA. emlynwilliams@hotmail.com

Malcolm Young

Malcolm started his professional life as a musician in Melbourne, Australia playing in a variety of bands as well as small orchestras for musical theatre. Later he turned to still photography with a particular focus on the performing arts, live theatre performances and, for various magazines including Rolling Stone, live bands and musicians, including such legendary performers as Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee and Ravi Shankar.

Moving to the film and television industries in 1975 he spent his early years writing, producing, directing, shooting and editing television commercials, lifestyle program segments, short drama, medical and educational films and documentaries. He also worked extensively in series drama with some of the major Australian Television Networks.

After traveling the World for more than a year Malcolm arrived in Hollywood in the late 80’s. There he worked at The Post Group where he was involved in innovative computer graphic design work for many of the majors including Warner Brothers, Fox, Universal and Disney.

In the late 90’s, as Head of Television for TVSN, he established a complete new broadcast studio and uplink facility in Shanghai, China. Later he worked as Head of Creative Development for Hong Kong based Typhoon Entertainment creating and producing light entertainment formats in the Chinese language for Star TV’s China network.

As Executive in Charge of Production for the Hong Kong and Singapore based Bang Productions Malcolm was responsible for many long form documentaries and biopics including profiles of Jackie Chan and Joan Chen, as well as a range of short form work. Clients included Discovery, National Geographic, Celestial Pictures and CNN. Television documentary ‘The Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China’ won best documentary at the Asian Television Awards in 2004 and ‘Long Journey, Short Reunion’ received an honorable mention.

In 2006 Malcolm spearheaded the successful turn around of failing television production and broadcast facility TVTS in Hanover, Germany and in 2007 headed up the production team to shoot action drama ‘Deep Gold’, with principal photography being centered around Cebu, The Philippines.

Throughout his professional career Malcolm has taken a keen interest in teaching and has been privileged to have taught film production at Metro Screen, The New South Wales University of Technology and The Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney, Australia and the International Academy of Film and Television in Cebu, The Philippines. He is proud to have been invited to join the faculty of the NYU’s Tisch Asia campus in Singapore.

Malcolm Young runs his own production company, Firefly Films (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Firefly engages in a range of genres but it’s primary focus is narrative drama. Currently there are three feature films fully developed and ready to shoot once funding arrangements have been  finalized. malcolm@attglobal.net