Fall 2013 Schedule

TUESDAYS from 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Location: University Hall, Rm 1010 (unless otherwise noted)

Co-sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Coordinator: Roberta Friedman  973-655-7282; film@montclair.edu

Montclair Film Forum, sponsored by the Filmmaking Program in the School of Communication and Media of the College of the Arts, is a weekly program at Montclair State University featuring contemporary filmmakers who come to speak about their work and profession. Open to both University students and the general public, audience members are invited to ask questions and hear personalized inside-stories from some of the most innovative filmmakers working in the field today.

Open to All – Admission Free


September 17, 2013 – Sam Pollard – Film and Television Editor

Sam Pollard is a film and television editor, as well as a documentary producer.  His work spans more than 30 years and includes If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, a Spike Lee directed follow up to When The Levees Broke. He also directed Another Name for Slavery.  As an editor, Pollard has worked on other Spike Lee features, including ClockersGirl 6, and Bamboozled.  As a documentary filmmaker, Pollard just completed the feature-length documentary Venus and Serena, the film that will be screened during this event.

Please note change in venue for this event, which, now, is scheduled to take place in Calcia 135.


September 24, 2013 – Mark Mann – Director, Writer and Producer

Mark Mann is a director, writer, and producer. His latest screenplay which he also directed, Generation Um…stars award winning actor Keanu Reeves. He has produced Patang (2011) and the short film Sangam (2004). His current project for which is he is editing, Erroneous Convictions is currently in post-production.


October 1, 2013 – Michael Pressman  – Director and Producer of Film and Television

Michael Pressman is a director and producer of film and television.  He is the director of over ten feature length films, including To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze.  A member of the DGA, Michael has also directed episodes for the television series Blue BloodsLaw and OrderWeeds, and Grey’s Anatomy.


October 8, 2013 – Georde Gittoes – Artist and Filmmaker

George Gittoes is an Australian artist and filmmaker who primarily creates works in geographical regions of conflict. He is known around the world for documenting the effects of war through film and visual art.  His latest film, Love City Jalalabad, documents his journey of using art as a cue for social change in the Taliban-controlled region.


October 15, 2013 – Liza Béar –  Experimental Filmmaker and Writer

Liza Béar is a New York-based writer, filmmaker and pioneer in alternate media. Her experimental films Oued Nefifik: A Foreign Movie, Earthglow and the feature Force of Circumstance have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Festival of the Other Avant-garde, Sao Paulo Biennial, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the ICA, London. She is the co-founder of the conceptual art magazine Avalanche, of the artists’ TV show Communications Update and the author of Beyond the Frame: Dialogues with World Filmmakers (Praeger, 2007).


October 22, 2013 – Tom Donahue – Editor and Documentary Director

Tom Donahue is an editor and documentary director with a body of work that contains the This American Life television show, Kimora: Life in the Fab LaneGrowing Up Gotti, and Real Sex.  His latest documentary, Casting By, featured on HBO, tells the story of Hollywood casting directors.


October 29, 2013   Jonah Green – Film Director

Jonah Green is the director of two feature films, Off the Record and Other People, which he also co-wrote. As a video producer and editor he has worked at New York Magazine and the Huffington Post.  Most recently he co-produced a series of readings of notable IMs and Gchats called The IM Readings.


November 5, 2013  Ian Olds – Film Director

Ian Olds is a director of both narrative and documentary films.  He directed Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, a feature-length documentary that follows the relationship between an Afghan interpreter and his client, American journalist Christian Parenti. The film won Best New Documentary Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival, First Prize of the Jury at Documenta Madrid, and the Special Jury Prize at Pesaro Film Festival.


November 12, 2013 –  Lynne Sachs – Filmmaker

Lynn Sachs is a filmmaker who makes films, videos, installations and web projects that explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics and layered sound design. Since 1994, her five essay films have taken her to Vietnam, Bosnia, Israel and Germany — sites affected by international war–where she tries to work in the space between a community’s collective memory and her own subjective perceptions.


November 19, 2013 – David Picker – Motion Picture Executive and Producer

David Picker is a motion picture executive and producer, working in the film industry for more than forty years. He has served as President and Chief Executive Officer for United Artists, Paramount, Lorimar and Columbia Pictures. He is currently an independent producer. Picker has been a member of the Writers Guild of America East, is currently a member the Producers Guild of America, and he is Chairman Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America East.


November 26, 2013 – Arthur Vincie – Writer, Director

Come see a free screening of the lo-fi sci-fi feature film “Found In Time,”featuring the work of THREE MSU teachers – writer/director Arthur Vincie, editor Daniel Loewenthal, and Cinematographer Ben Wolf.

“Found In Time” takes place in an alternate present-day NYC, where psychics with real powers sell their powers on the street. Our hero, Chris, is a collector – he compulsively picks up objects off the street that most of us would throw away. But everything he finds today will have a use for someone in the future. His gift comes with a big side effect – he lives his life out of order, experiencing the past, future and present as a jigsaw puzzle. When he commits a murder in his future, he realizes he has to change his present to prevent the murder from happening… But how can he do that if he’s not even sure *when* he is?


December 3, 2013 – Ken Bowser – Documentary, Film and Television Director

Ken Bowser is a director of documentaries, feature films and episodic television. He specializes in crafting stories about American culture and figures.  His work includes Phil Ochs: There But For FortuneEasy Riders, Raging Bulls: How The Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, and the Emmy nominated two hour network special, Live From New York, The First Five Years of Saturday Night Live, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of SNL.


December 10, 2013 – Jason Moore –   Actor and Director

Jason Moore is an actor and director who has worked as a commercial director for clients such as McDonalds and match.com.  His thesis film, Paradise, Nebraska, was a festival hit and has been featured on Showtime and the Sundance Channel. His work as a director has also been featured on channels such as Animal Planet, E!, The Discovery Channel, and the Style Network.