Professor

ALISON MAREK (MFA, New York University) is an award-winning writer and director who’s combined words and images professionally since she was in her late teens. Her short films have played in festivals around the world and aired on cable TV. Her writing and directing have won grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Showtime Networks, Inc.,

Professor

Holding an MFA in Directing / Production from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Dallas King is an award-winning director, producer and experienced film instructor. Dallas has directed, written, and produced, and completed two feature films, KISS KISS, a hyper-stylized action thriller that premiered in Los Angeles and is available on every major platform including Amazon

Professor

Henryk Cymerman was born in Poland and immigrated to New York in his mid-teens. He moved to Jerusalem to study sculpture at Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Henryk discovered his interest in film through his exploration of mixed media art which prompted him to pursue his Masters in film at Tisch School of the Arts.

Professor

Robert Jones has been teaching and making award-winning films for over 50 years. He has an MFA in Film Producing from UCLA, as well as an MS in Film Production and a BA from Boston University. He has taught film at Loyola Marymount University and California State University Northridge, in Los Angeles, and at the University of

Professor

Ryan Daniel McKinney is an award-winning director and producer based out of Los Angeles, CA. His narrative films have screened at festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Kansas City, Orlando and Melbourne. He has directed numerous music videos in multiple genres and languages, as well as fashion lifestyle and brand videos and product commercials. Ryan

Professor

Raphael Raphael (Ph.D., University of Oregon; MFA, Plymouth University; Master’s, Teachers College, Columbia University) is a film and media scholar who also lectures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His work frequently looks at making connections between genre, culture and disability. His most recent book, Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque (2017),

Billy Budd Vermillion earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. His dissertation examines the influence of Marxist humanist thought and the legacy of Socialist Realism on art films produced in East-Central Europe between 1956 and 1981. He has also published articles on silent romantic comedy and on the nature documentary “Microcosmos.” He has taught at the University

Professor

Graduating from UCLA with a BA (Political Science with a specialization in American Politics),
she followed that up with becoming a member of the inaugural class of the Certification in
Screenwriting Program, UCLA. Later, she obtained her MFA (specialization in Screenwriting)
from the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television, and Digital Media where she was<br

Professor Emeritus & Founding Dean

Dr. David Desser has taught at the University of Southern California (USC), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Kansai University in Japan, Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Illinois where he is Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies. He received his Ph.D. from USC in the