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John C Aliano B.A., University of California, San Diego; M.F.A., Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles |
Mr. Aliano has been teaching at CCSF since 2001.
He believes it is important to try and reach out to all students with diverse backgrounds and learning abilities. People incorporate information in different ways and teachers should be attuned to helping students in the way in which they learn best.
Mr. Aliano is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, and California Film Institute. He has 20 years experience as a cinematographer and videographer. Mr. Aliano is an award winning producer and director whose short films have screened at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. He won a 2006 Emmy Award for Location Lighting.
Mr. Aliano is co-partner of Bay Area Demo Reels, a company that creates demonstration reels for actors and artists. In his leisure time, he enjoys hiking, filming time-lapse imagery throughout the United States and traveling.
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Caroline M Blair B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A., San Francisco State University; A.F.I., Producing Fellow |
Ms. Blair has been teaching at CCSF for the past sixteen years.
Her educational goal is to provide students with the best possible instruction and mentorship so that they may discover their true potential as filmmakers while enjoying the challenging process.
Ms. Blair is currently serving as faculty advisor to the Motion Arts Student Club sponsored by CCSF student services and is a faculty advisor for film student internships with Bay Area film organizations. She is a member of the Film Arts Foundation and is a frequent juror and panelist for Bay Area film festivals, including the San Francisco International Film Festival, Film Arts Festival and Mill Valley International Film Festival. She is also a Bay Area Script Consultant and Editing Consultant, as well as a Member of Who's Who Among America Teachers - 2000.
In her leisure time, Ms. Blair enjoys screenwriting, yoga and hanging out with her giant poodle.
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Denise N Bostrom B.A., Bennington College |
Professor Bostrom has been teaching at CCSF for the past 4 years..
Professor Bostrom's goals for her students are to learn to think critically, deductively and independently. "I want them to get in the habit of honoring their creative impulse and to give themselves time and permission to write their stories. By the end of the screenwriting course, I'd like for students to be able to understand when to work creatively and when to work critically."
During each semester, she interjects her own philosophy on learning and living which is to:
• Always read more than one source of information
• Invest in a good dictionary, thesaurus, and library card
• Travel to a new location each year
• Try something new and learn something new each year
• Volunteer in your community
• Join a book club
• Form a writing group
As a producer of documentaries, commercials and educational films, Professor Bostrom's work has been broadcast on:PBS, WNET, WCBS, KCET, and KQED. Her films have won awards in various U.S. (American Film Festival, The Women's Chair, NY Film Festival, National Educational Festival, Pacific Film Archives) and foreign festivals (NYONS, CBC Festival, Channel 4 Festival). They are distributed to educational institutions and community organizations worldwide.
She has written assorted articles on films, filmmaking and film technique as well as human-interest stories and profiles of various community leaders. Her work has appeared in the SF Chronicle, Piedmont Post, Cue Magazine, Release Print, and Salon.com.
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David Lawrence Brown B.A., Claremont McKenna College; M.A., San Francisco State University |
Mr. Brown has been teaching at CCSF for the past six years.
He teaches "Documentary Filmmaking" (and, occasionally "History of Documentary") guided by the philosophy that social issue documentary is a very important part of a robust democracy and an important tool in education and progressive social change. His goals are to educate, inspire and empower his students to not only understand the craft of documentary-making, but to feel more passionately committed about making documentaries that matter, films that can move audiences and contribute to greater compassion, tolerance and social justice.
Mr. Brown has programmed 2-3 documentary screenings each semester for the CCSF Concert and Lecture Series. Many of the screenings have been subjects of articles in the school newspaper.
He has written numerous articles on filmmaking that have been published in a variety of media journals and newsmagazines, including "Release Print" for Film Arts Foundation and "Video Networks" for Bay Area Video Coalition. Mr. Brown is a member of the Film Arts Foundation, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, the International Documentary Association and the Bay Area Video Coalition.
In his leisure time, he enjoys photography, music, hiking, film-going, art, and dance.
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Deborah Ann Brubaker Ms. Brubaker is a seasoned producer in the world of "indie" feature films and "godmother" of the San Francisco independent world. Her latest production success, "Dopamine" (Producer), was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival 2003. She has also produced/line produced many other feature narratives such as "Swing" directed by Martin Guigui, "Teknolust", directed by Lynn Hershman Leesom, "Bartleby", by Jonathan Parker (released in March 2002) "Cherish", directed by Finn Taylor (released in June 2002) and most recently has wrapped Jonathan Parker's latest movie, "The Californians". |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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John A Carlson |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Donelle M Ciraulo Chair, Cinema Department |
Ms. Ciraulo has been teaching at CCSF since 2000.
Her films have screened at festivals such as "Telluride", "South by Southwest", and "The Hamptons", and broadcast on the Independent Film Channel.
Currently she is working on a script about a young woman writer at the turn of last century.
She serves on the Board of Directors of Women's Audio Mission and San Francisco Cinematheque, and is a member of Film Arts Foundation.
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Anna L Geyer |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Matthew J Jacobs |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Wendy M Levy |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Trina Ann Lopez B.F.A., University of Arizona; M.F.A., San Francisco State University |
Ms. Lopez has been in the Film department since Fall 2003. She coordinates the operations of the Film Production Department Equipment Issue Room and the student Lab Aides who staff it. Her aim is to assure that students and instructors have access to film and video cameras, editing facilities, and related equipment.
She has taught at the University of Arizona, and has been a teaching assistant for several Cinema courses at San Francisco State University.
Ms. Lopez's first 16mm sound film, "La Llorona", addresses the cultural relevance of the story of 'The Weeping Woman', whose ghost haunts the riverbanks of the American Southwest, Mexico, and beyond. It pays respect to the tales, textures, spirits and elegance of her native land, the Sonoran Desert.
Her latest film, "A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries", takes a revealing look at why one of the world's liveliest cities has almost no graveyards, and how they were systematically erased from the urban landscape. Recollections of San Francisco residents and revelations of modern-day situations offer a surprising and often eerie look into the fate of the city's cemeteries.
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Toney Wesley Merritt B.A., Syracuse University; M.F.A., The San Francisco Art Institute |
Toney W. Merritt, an independent filmmaker for over 30 years, currently teaches "Introduction to Digital Editing," Film 56 (Final Cut Pro) and the "Film Production Workshop," Film 124 A/B at City College San Francisco, where he has been an instructor for 10 years.
He also teaches "Writing for Visual Media" as part of the Digital Video Intensive Program for San Francisco State's College of Extended Learning, Media Studies Program, in addition to "Video Production."
His recent work includes the digitally shot and posted "Rest Stop: What Goes Around....". He is currently editing a documentary, "The Life and Work of Art Carpenter", for the California Contemporary Crafts Association. Toney currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Film Arts Foundation and has served on the Board of Directors of Canyon Cinema Coop. He has served as a panelist for film festivals (Golden Gate Awards) and grant organizations (Rockefeller and Jerome Foundations).
Toney has also been and is currently a mentor for several emerging filmmakers.
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Daniel Barnett Olmsted B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz |
Mr. Olmsted has been teaching at CCSF for the past nine years.
His goal is to inspire students with the artistic possibilities of film, while preparing them to find work in the field.
He is a Film Arts Foundation seminar leader.
In his leisure time, Mr. Olmsted enjoys musical groups.
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Douglas Punsalan |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Kenneth P Rosenthal |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Ira M Rothstein B.A., Indiana University, Bloomington; B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A., San Francisco State University |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Michael J Shannon B.A., Columbia University; Graduate Film Program, San Francisco State University |
Mr. Shannon has been an independent filmmaker since starting Film School at San Francisco State University in 1967. In 1972 he won First Prize Award in the Berkeley Independent Film Festival in the Experimental Category for his film "Lucky 4's", which was the first independent short ever produced using bipak printing techniques on the J-K Optical Printer System. Between 1982 and 1987, starting with "Poltergeist" and "ET" and finishing with "Howard the Duck", Mr. Shannon worked on every ILM special effects show. In 1996 Mr. Shannon started producing short movies on Hi8 and DV for his project "SF TimeCap 2000", an interactive video timecapsule on DVD. This project is unique in that it contains over 19 hours of professional quality "Street Documentaries" on a myriad of SF events, protests, cultural and sub-cultural themes. There are over 200 separate, discrete movies contained in this DVD ranging in length between 1 and 40 minutes. These movies were edited over a one year period by a team of nine editors trained in the CCSF Film Program.
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Lise K Swenson |
Biography is unavailable at this time.
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Lidia A Szajko B.A., Oberlin College; M.F.A., San Francisco State University |
Lidia Szajko has been teaching at CCSF since 1999, and became Chair of the Film Production Department in 2003. She is an independent filmmaker whose work has screened on public television and at festivals around the globe. Her films, which explore social and human rights issues, and the experiences of people living in translation, have won awards such as the Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Isabella Liddell Art Award for Most Promising Woman Filmmaker at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the Award of Merit at Superfest XVIII, An International Media Festival on Disabilities in Berkeley
She serves on the San Francisco Film Commission and is dedicated to the vibrant world of filmmaking, for which she is preparing her students.
Ms Szajko believes in the transcendent nature of film as an art form, and as a tool for social change. She is committed to creating a rigorous learning environment in which students learn mastery over their craft, while challenging and supporting them to be true to their personal vision.
Her latest project, the feature documentary, "Girl Trouble" has just been released and premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2004.
Ms. Szajko's other interests include: things Hungarian, alternative narratives, gardening, bi-lingual issues, feminism, the great outdoors, music, and movement of all sorts.