Faculty

Robert Buchar rbuchar@colum.edu
M.F.A. from Film Academy of Fine Arts in Cinematography, Prague, Czechoslovakia. Shot more than 20 films and worked extensively in motion pictures before defecting to the U.S. in 1980. Has since photographed several films and documentaries in the U.S. and Europe. His documentary feature film Velvet Hangover was screened in Film festivals around the world. In 2004 he published book Czech New Wave Filmmakers in Interviews, and is currently working on his film The Great Deception/A Battle of Wits, a documentary about the collapse of communism in Europe. Mr. Buchar is the senior cinematography faculty and the principal author of the Cinematography Concentration.

Cari Callis ccallis@colum.edu   
Screenwriting Area Coordinator
B.A., Columbia College, M.A., University of Illinois at Chicago. Screenwriter, poet, novelist and editor for Another Chicago Magazine (ACM), an NEA funded literary magazine. Has worked on various film productions as a crew member and as a creative consultant. Published in Columbia Poetry Review, Chicago Arts and Communication, Wire and 58.

Michael Caplan mpcaplan@colum.edu   
Associate Chair (Below-the-Line)
M.F.A., Northwestern University. Independent filmmaker, director and producer.  He is currently completing his second feature length documentary, which focuses on a renown magician and his influence on magic performance world-wide. His previous documentary, Stones from the Soil, played on national PBS in 2005 through 2007. In addition, he has produced three independent feature films, which have been distributed internationally, and has directed several award-winning dramatic shorts. He has also taught production at Northwestern University and lectured on story-telling at the University of Chicago.

Judd Chesler jchesler@colum.edu  
Ph.D., Northwestern University. Taught Cinema Studies at Purdue University and later worked in the Chicago film industry as a writer-producer. Recently produced video component of mixed-media performance Turn Her White With Stones with Jan Erkert Dancers.

Kevin Cooper kcooper@colum.edu    
Producing Area Coordinator
BFA in Film and Video Production from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts;MFA Producer’s Program in Film/Video at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Since September 2004 he has held the position of Adjunct Professor at the American InterContinental University.

Dan Dinello ddinello@colum.edu
M.F.A., University of Wisconsin. Award-winning independent filmmaker/producer (The Ramones & Me, Shock Asylum, Wheels of Fury,); television director (Comedy Central’s Strangers with Candy); journalist/pop culture critic The Chicago Tribune and webmaster (Shockproductions.com). His first book, Technophobia! Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology, was published in January 2006.

Ron Falzone rfalzone@colum.edu    
Directing Area Coordinator
B.A.,Columbia College; MFA, Northwestern University.   An award-winning screenwriter and director in theatre and film, he has been responsible for over 70 mainstage theatre productions from Boston to New York to Chicago. The co-host of “Talk Cinema” screening series, he is an eight-time Artist in Residence at The Ragdale Foundation and a Year 2000 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Screenwriting. Ron is currently the coordinator of the Directing concentration and as founder of the Visiting Director Program, he has been responsible for bringing such directors as Harold Ramis, Todd Solondz, Volker Schlondorff, Margarethe von Trotta and Ousmane Sembene for programs in the department.

Ron Fleischer rfleischer@colum.edu
BA, Columbia College Chicago; He runs his own company RonToon, Inc. after working in the animation industry for almost 20 years. His last position was as a technical director at StarToons in Homewood where he directed several episodes of Taz-Mania, Pinky and the Brain, and Animaniacs (which won the Daytime Emmy Award 1995-1996). . He also recently worked in Los Angeles as Technical Director on the Powerpuff Girls feature film and as a Timing Director on Liberty Kids, a daily show on PBS which premiered on Labor Day, 2002. Ron teaches History of Animation, Work-In -Progress, Digital Animation Techniques and Animation Production Studio. His current film, Lemmings, has won numerous awards internationally.

Chap Freeman cfreeman@colum.edu
M.F.A., University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. Named Columbia College Chicago's first Distinguished College Teacher.  Has directed films in dramatic, documentary, educational and industrial formats. Documentaries on social ecology and children's prisons. Dramatic screenplays on transcendental science fiction and the midlife crisis in gay men. Research on Westerns, film noir, and the French New Wave. Taught the Visions Project, 1994-2000, a documentary training program for European students sponsored by Groupement Europeen des Ecoles de Cinema et de Television. Film and Video Department representative to CILECT, the world organization of film schools.

He was the Distinguished College Teacher for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Karla Rae Fuller kfuller@colum.edu 
Ph.D., Northwestern University, M.F.A., Columbia University. Taught history and screenwriting at Northwestern University, Dominican University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Worked as a story editor for Vestron, Inc. Has lectured on African-American, Asian and gender representation in Hollywood films. Research interests include ethnic representation in Hollywood films, film acting/performance, and Japanese cinema. 

Ted Hardin thardin@colum.edu  
M.F.A., Ohio State University. Worked with a variety of artists at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada as director of photography, editor, lighting director, and assistant director. Has collaborated with the alternative media collective Paper Tiger Television in New York, and researched and shot projects for German Television on "Dark Near-Death Experiences." Heavily influenced by his studies of German Expressionism, his own work has shown at the American Film Institute and several art centers in the U.S. and Canada.

Peter Hartel phartel@colum.edu
B.A., Columbia College. A post-production producer and editor specializes in visual effects, animation, and computer generated imaging projects for television, commercials, corporate, public relations and multi-media distribution. Experienced as an optical camera operator and as a computerized motion control camera operator, as well as supervising and producing high-end post-production editorial and compositing, Professor Hartel has experienced on the Media 100 non-linear editor, and has studied the Flint and Flame compositing systems.

Paul Hettel phettel@colum.edu
B.A., Xavier University, Columbia College. Filmmaker, screenwriter and Professor Film and Video at Columbia since 1981. Writer and director of numerous short films and two feature films: Terminal Moraine, filmed on location in Italy and his most recent Sound of Yellow, filmed in Lodz, Poland. His areas of specialization are: Production, Editing, Screenwriting and Italian Cinema.

Vaun Monroe vmonroe@colum.edu
MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and a BA in African-American Literature from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has more than six years’ experience as a screenwriter, producer, director, and academic and has recently been commissioned to write and direct a documentary for the Arena Players, the nation’s longest continually running African-American community theater. Vaun comes to us from Morgan State University in Baltimore, where he was an Assistant Professor of Scriptwriting.

Russell Porter rporter@colum.edu
Documentary writer, director and producer with over 100 screen credits including several award winners. Film teacher at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, 1994-2000; founder/coordinator of the Melbourne Documentary Group; extensive film teaching experience in Australia, Spain, Latin America (CCC Mexico City, EICTV Cuba, UFF and USP Brazil, UBA Argentina, etc). Writer (2001) of “Infinity Express,” a new laser Planetarium show at National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

Michael Rabiger (Emeritus) mrabiger@aol.com
Author, educator and filmmaker, he has directed and produced over 20 BBC documentaries, edited numerous television documentaries and was assistant editor for over a dozen features and Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, England. Writer of many reviews, essays and articles on film and literature, he has taught documentary filmmaking in several countries abroad. His Directing the Documentary and Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics are used by schools and professional filmmakers worldwide. Developing Story Ideas is his latest book.

Jim Rohn jrohn@colum.edu
B.A., Northern Illinois University. Teaches computer & traditional animation production, storyboarding and concept development. He was involved in all aspects of art and design for 10 years in the video game industry (Midway Games, Sega Midwest). He also wrote and illustrated his own line of graphic novels (Fantagraphics, DC Comics) and painted cover illustrations for Dark Horse Comics. He is also a senior instructor at The Screenwriter’s Group- a screenwriting workshop in Chicago.

Dan Rybicky drybicky@colum.edu
MFA degree in Dramatic Writing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and a BA, with honors, in English Literature and Film Production from Vassar College.  He has more than twelve years of experience in screenwriting, producing, and directing. Dan earned an  His screenplays have won honors at Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program/Screenwriter’s lab in both 2002 and 2003, and a current draft of a screenplay is being made into a feature film by director/producer, Andrea Sperling.

Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa msaeedvafa@colum.edu  
M.F.A., University of Illinois at Chicago. She taught at the School of Television and Cinema in Iran and edited and produced short documentaries and television series. She has made several short films, documentaries, and industrials in the United States and England. Her films Ruins Within, Saless, Far From Home and A Tajik Woman have been shown in many festivals. She is the winner of the 11th AFI/Sony first prize and a jury grand prize at the 20th Annual Festival of Illinois Film & Video Artists in 1995 for her film "A Tajik Woman.” She has been the Artistic Consultant of the Festival of Films from Iran, at the Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago since 1989. Mehrnaz has written and lectured extensively on Iranian cinema. Her book on Abbas Kiarostami co-written with Jonathan Rosenbaum was published by the University of Illinois Press in March 2003. 

Bruce Sheridan bsheridan@colum.edu     
Chair of the Film & Video Department
B.A. and B.A. Honors (Philosophy) with 1st Class Honors, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Over 20 years as Director, Producer and Writer of drama, documentary, music and commercial projects for cinema and television. Co-Director of the Morrison Grieve Industry Talent Development Initiative for the New Zealand Film Commission and Consultant Producer at South Pacific Pictures. 1999 recipient of New Zealand’s Best Drama Award for the tele-feature Lawless. In 2005/6: Director of a feature documentary on the Bn’ei Benashe and Creative Producer for short films Up on A Rope (dir: Paula Froehle) and Kubuku Rides (dir: Terry Kinney), a partnership with Steppenwolf Films.

Don Smith dsmith@colum.edu    
Associate Chair (The Core, Critical Studies and Documentary)
M.F.A., Columbia College. Co-founder and coordinator of Semester in LA. Independent filmmaker, producer and editor. He is the producer of the international co-production, feature film Threads (Khait Errouh) which was written and directed by Hakim Belabbes and was an official selection of the Venice Biennale. He also is the postproduction supervisor for Peter Hunt Thompson's epic documentary, Moviemento. He was the Director of Photography for Birgit Rathsmann's documentary Grit and Polish which examines the Hong Kong film industry.  His current projects include development for Finding Farris, a palestinian-american comedy and he is in production on a year in the life of an Indiana high school girls' basketball team. He is the photographer for Soups of France, Chronicle Books, 2002.  He is a commercial pilot.

Jeff Spitz jspitz@colum.edu     
MA, University of Chicago.  Director and Co-Producer of the official Sundance Film Festival 2000 selection The Return of Navajo Boy, a multiple award winning film that reunited a Navajo family, triggered a federal investigation into uranium houses on the Navajo Reservation and resulted in a $100,000 payment from the US Dept. of Justice to a former uranium miner featured in the film.

He has served in the hybrid capacity of writer-director-producer for several independent documentaries which have aired on PBS and cable, including the national primetime special, "From the Bottom Up." Spitz's credits include "America's Libraries Change Lives," narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and "The Roosevelt Experiment: an integrated college in a segregated city" - an Emmy Award-winning documentary that aired on ABC-TV.

Josef Steiff jsteiff@colum.edu     
Associate Chair (Above-the-Line)
M.F.A., Ohio University. Taught history and film production at Ohio University and taught video at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. As a former licensed social worker who has presented regionally and ntionally on psychological issues such as adolescent depression and suicide, sexual oreintation and HIV/AIDS, creates work reflecting the ways in which people struggle to make sense out of random, impersonal events. Has worked extensively in film and video production as a producer for independent features, line-producer for Korean television and crew on sevewral short and feature-length documentaries, including an Academy Award nominee. He has also produced and directed sound installations and performance art, as well as several award-winning narrative, documentary and experimental films.

Chris Swider cswider@pcolum.edu
MFA in Directing from the Polish National Film School and BA from Columbia College. He teaches directing classes and production workshop classes, as well advising graduate students on their thesis films.   Working in the film business in Chicago, he has been an editor, cameraman, writer, and production manager. He has directed narrative short subject films and documentary films, and he produced, wrote, and directed an independent feature film, Selling Short.

Currently Chris Swider works as a producer for Bulletproof Film in Chicago where he co-produced “Unauthorized and Proud of It” a seventy-five minute documentary about comic book publisher and first amendment advocate Todd Loren that was directed by Ilko Davidov. Mr. Swider is now completing “Children in Exile” a sixty-minute documentary about children and teenagers in the Soviet labor camps that he wrote, directed, and co-produced, and he is beginning work on a companion work, Women in Exile about the fate of women in Soviet labor camps.

Chris Swider also continues to work as a screenwriter.  18th Hole a feature length comedy screenplay written with Tom Fraterrigo, was awarded a Bronze Remi at the Worldfest Houston Film Festival.

Wenhwa Ts'ao wtsao@colum.edu
Director of the Graduate Program
M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work ranges from short experimental films to documentaries and narrative features. Wenhwa exhibits her work extensively in Film Festivals. Past festival credits include The Mill Valley Film Festival, The San Francisco Asian American Film Festival and Women in the Director's Chair. She has received many awards, grants and fellowships from regional and national arts organizations as a creative artist/filmmaker.

Barry Young byoung@colum.edu    
Director of the Animation Program
M.F.A., Northwestern University. Animated many commercials and educational films, one of which has been screened at the Smithsonian Institution. Has lectured on western animation at the Beijing Film Academy.

Artists-in-Residence

Ninoos Bethishou nbethishou@colum.edu
Seventeen years experience in producing, directing and cinematography. Has extensive experience working on features, educational and corporate films, as well as documentaries and television spots.

Tom Fraterrigo tfraterrigo@colum.edu
M.F.A., Columbia College. Writer and director who has worked on both film and stage productions. Currently in post production on a short film, collaborating on three feature screenplays, and directing a short documentary for City at Peace. His historical, feature screenplay, Huffman Prairie won a Gold Remi Award at the 2006 Houston Worldfest International Film Festival..

Susan Mroz smroz@colum.edu 
Development & Preproduction Course Coordinator
M.F.A., Columbia College. An award-winning filmmaker and former Program Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, she has appeared in theater productions with Rococo Rodeo in Chicago and at Quincy University. Professor Mroz teaches in the Directing, Screenwriting, Aesthetics and Production areas, and recently directed the staged reading of Ron Falzone's feature script, Rosie and the Fine Art of Politics.

Sharon Zurek szurek@colum.edu
Postproduction Area Coordinator
B.A., Columbia College. Sharon has won funding and a variety of awards for her independent and professional work as a producer, director and editor. As the owner of Black Cat Productions in Chicago, she has edited several independent feature films, including "DEE DEE RUTHERFORD", "DIRTY WORK" (formerly, "SOUTHSIDE"), "RUNAWAY DIVAS", "STRAY DOGS", "CONSTRUCTING MULLIGAN'S STEW", "THE CHAMELEON" and the successful short film, "FLYING". She is also a board member with IFP/Chicago and Chicago Filmmakers, as well as, actively involved as a volunteer for Reeling: The Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival.