New Year, New Visiting Filmmakers
In 2011 the Center for Social Media looks forward to welcoming a new line-up of visiting filmmakers. Joining us in January -- Skip Blumberg, veteran video producer/director responsible for the Emmy-winning "Pick Up Your Feet: the Double Dutch Show." Later, we'll host "Gasland" director Josh Fox director/producer of various hit Hollywood comedies, Tom Shadyac, Tel-Aviv based documentarian Yoav Shamir, and award-winning academic and filmmaker, Doe Mayer. We'll sit down with these artists to give you an inside look at their approaches to filmmaking in our Pull Focus interviews, so look out for updates!
Visiting Filmmaker Schedule
Thursday, January 20
Skip Blumberg
Skip Blumberg is a pioneer video producer and director, beginning when the video medium was first developing in the 1960s and ‘70s. With a lively and engaging style, he has produced and directed several hundred award-winning shows and shorts -- specializing in cultural documentaries and performance videos -- that appeared on PBS, National Geographic TV, Showtime, Disney Channel, USA Cable Network, TBS, Bravo, Nickelodeon, the Learning Channel, on international TV networks and on the internet. His best-known production, the triple Emmy-winning Pick Up Your Feet: the Double Dutch Show, is considered a documentary video classic. Currently he produces shorts for MyHero.com and Sesame Street, as well as developing independent projects.
Thursday, March 17
Josh Fox "The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND."
Josh Fox is the founder and artistic director of the International WOW Company. Josh has written/directed/produced two feature films and over twenty works for the stage which have premiered in New York, Asia and Europe. His narrative feature film debut MEMORIAL DAY (2008), is a jarring roller coaster ride from the beaches of girls-gone-wild spring break to the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib, premiered at CineVegas Film Festival and went on to have a successful limited run at IFC Center in New York. His recent work for the stage includes SURRENDER, an interactive war epic premiering in New York City, which was nominated for a 2009 Drama Desk Award and AUTO DA FE, which premiered in New York and will tour to Japan in 2011.
Wechsler Theater, American University
Gasland Film Screening + Q&A 5:30 – 8:00pm
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Thursday, March 24
Tom ShadyacA onetime actor/comedian and the youngest writer to work for comedy legend Bob Hope, Tom Shadyac’s writing/directing career was launched in 1994 with the Jim Carrey smash hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. In the years that followed, Shadyac would establish himself as one of the most prolific comedy directors in Hollywood while working with some of the biggest names in the business. Huge hits such as Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams,Accepted, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, have helped establish Shadyac as one of Hollywood’s most successful writer/director/producers.
A Virginia native, Shadyac has received four people’s choice awards, including three for best comedy (Liar, Liar,The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty) and one for best new Television Comedy, with 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. With Patch Adams, Shadyac earned his first Golden Globe nomination, also for best comedy.
Wechsler Theater, American University
I AM Film Screening + Q&A 2:10 – 5:30pm
Wechsler Theater, American University
Defamation Film Screening + Panel Discussion 5:30 – 8:00pm
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Thursday, April 7
Doe MayerDoe Mayer is professor and Mary Pickford Chair of Film & Television Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She holds a joint appointment with the Annenberg School for Communication. Mayer has been working in film and television for the past 30 years and has produced, directed and provided technical support for hundreds of productions in the United States and numerous developing countries. Much of this programming has been in the areas of family planning, basic education, health and nutrition promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention, population and women’s issues. In addition, Mayer has just been awarded the top USC University teaching honor for 2008-2009.
Film Screening + Q&A 5:30 – 8:00pm
Helping People Make Media That Matters
We investigate, showcase and set standards for socially engaged media-making. We organize conferences and convenings, publish research, create codes of best practices, and incubate media strategies. More...
