Faculty and Staff

Dan Gurskis
Professor, Film Department Chairperson
B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.F.A., Brandeis University

Member, Writer's Guild of America; Emmy-Award Winner; Cable Ace Nominee; Shubert Fellow; MacDowell Colony Fellow

Screenwriter, playwright, producer, director with over 40 credits in feature films, telefilms, episodic television, and the theater. Has worked for Columbia, Paramount, RKO, HBO, ABC, Showtime, Cinemax, and the USA Network.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 203 WEB, dgurskis@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Web site: http://www.screenwriting.cc/

Paula Massood
Associate Professor, Deputy Chairperson
B.A., (Communications) University of New Hampshire; M.A., Ph.D., (Cinema Studies) New York University

Member, American Studies Association; Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation; Member and Executive Council, Society for Cinema Studies; Editor, Professional Notes, Cinema Journal

Areas of professional interest and publication include African American film, Film and the City, Third World Cinema, Global Cinema, and Nonfiction Film. Author of Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film, and articles in Cinema Journal, African American Review, Cineaste, and Literature/Film Quarterly.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 211 WEB, pmassood@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Elisabeth Weis
Professor, Deputy Chairperson
B.A., (English) Cornell University; Ph.D. (Film) Columbia University

Executive Director, National Society of Film Critics

Areas of professional interest include sound aesthetics, comedy and American film. Her publications include The Silent Scream: Alfred Hitchcock's Sound Track, and the anthology Film Sound: Theory and Practice (co-edited with John Belton). As Executive Director of the National Society of Film Critics since 1974, she also edited two of its anthologies Movie Comedy (with Stuart Byron) and The Movie Star. She has published articles and reviews in such venues as The Village Voice, The New York Times, American Film, Film Comment, Cineaste, and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 209 WEB, lweis@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Virginia Brooks
Professor Emerita
B.A., M.A., (Psychology) Cornell University; M.F.A., (Directing), Ph.D., (Film) Columbia University

Freelance filmmaker and videographer in the field of dance; editor for the Balanchine Foundation Video Archives; author and co-author of numerous research papers and chapters on perception and motion pictures; author of articles on the art and craft of filming dance for Ballett International, Ballet Review, Iris, Dance Magazine, and Dance Research Journal. Director of documentary films on dance including School of American Ballet and the award-winning Charles Weidman: On His Own, co-directed with J. Mendelsohn.

Contact: vlbrooks@aol.com

John Beatty
Professor Emeritus (Anthropology/Film)
B.A., Brooklyn College; M.A., University of Oklahoma; Ph.D., City University of New York

Author of numerous books and articles on anthropology, language, and communication. Articles have appeared in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Cross Cultural Topics in Psychology, Anthropologist, and Dance Research Journal. Film and videos include Iroquois Social Dances Parts I & II, with Nick Manning, Japanese Graveyard Rituals in Chiba, Japan, Scottish Highland Dances, Custer Revisited, and Hojoo Jutsu - The Ancient Art of Restraint.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 231 WEB, Profbeatty@hotmail.com
Web site: http://www.johnbeatty.name/

Annette Danto
Professor
B.A., magna cum laude, McGill University; M.S., Columbia University; M.F.A., (TSOA Graduate Program in Filmmaking) New York University

Current President of the India Fulbright Alumni Association and panelist for the Fulbright Scholar Review Board.  Member: New York Women in Film & Television, Film & Television Union - I.A.T.S.E. Local 52.

Fulbright Research Scholar to India (2002-03), recipient of a Leonard and Claire Tow Fellowship (2003), and Fulbright Senior Specialist Award (2004).  Visiting Research Scholar at the Gandhigram Rural University in India, and has received grants from the Ted Turner Foundation (2001), and the Gates Foundation (2004, 2005) to direct films in West Africa for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (2001-02), and in India for Pathfinder International (2004-05).  Has directed over 18 films and videos, both narrative and documentary, many of which have screened internationally and are being used as part of widespread campaigns in South Asia and Africa addressing such issues as family health, reproductive rights, and economic development in rural regions.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 217 WEB, adanto@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Website: CUNY Matters: Enhancing Life in Rural India, Film Scholar Comes Full Circle

Website: Study Abroad India

Lindley P. Hanlon
Professor
B.A., Smith College; M.A., Columbia University; M.A., Ph.D., New York University

Note: Prof. Hanlon is on leave during the Fall 2005 semester.

Has written on film theory, French film, film and the other arts in journals including Millennium, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Has lectured on contemporary American independent cinema in Japan, the Netherlands and Russia. Author of Fragments: Bresson's Film Style.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 215 WEB, lhanlon@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Foster Hirsch
Professor
B.A., Stanford University; M.F.A., M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University

Host, American Film Institute Tributes; Host, National Arts Club Tributes

Author of 15 books on film and theater, including Acting: Hollywood Style, A Method to their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio, Love, Sex, Death, and the Meaning of Life: The Films of Woody Allen, and the most recently published Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir and Kurt Weill on Stage: From Berlin to Broadway.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 213 WEB

William Hornsby
Associate Professor
B.A., Richmond College-CUNY; M.F.A., Columbia University

Faculty Advisor, Student Film Society

Director/cameraman, cinematographer, gaffer, lighting director, production manager, and producer on several dozen commercials, public service announcements, music videos, documentaries, shorts, and feature-length films.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 221 WEB, whornsby@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Jay Kim
Technical Supervisor
B.A., (Film Production) Brooklyn College-CUNY; B.S., (Broadcasting/Journalism) Chung-Ang University, Korea; M.A., (Media) New School University

Member, Steadicam Operators Association, SMPTE; Co-Director, Computer Labs

Assist equipment supervisor in all equipment-related operations. Maintain and supervise operations of all NLE workstations including AVID and Media 100. Provides technical assistance in all aspects of production and post-production including film, video and digital media. Schedules and conducts technical and digital workshops. Freelance cameraman, gaffer, grip for numerous music videos, shorts, documentaries and televisions. Expert in Macintosh system and NLE workstations. Steadicam operator and owner.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 241 WEB, jkim@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Web site: http://www.jsteadi.com/

Vinit Parmar
Assistant Professor
B.A., SUNY Buffalo; J.D. New York Law School

Production credits include A.C., electric/grip, sound recordist and editor for numerous independent productions. His interests are in environmental and human rights.
Contact: (718) 951-5664, 227 WEB, vparmar@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Website: Brooklyn College-College Now Video Production Workshops

Peggy Scott
Administrative Assistant
Can answer and advise on most questions about Brooklyn College procedures. Please see her for forms for late/add registration and permission/overtally entries.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 201 WEB, peggys@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Robert Tutak
Associate Professor
M.F.A., (Directing for Film and Television) Lodz Film School, Poland

Fulbright Foundation Grant in Film recipient

Writer/director. His credits include writing and directing five short fiction films and eleven documentaries as well as writing, directing, and producing Nobody's Perfect, a digital feature currently in post-production (DVCAM-to-35mm); writer/director of Match, a made-for-TV MOW (movie of the week), PTV, Poland (16mm); and, writer/director of sixteen live-action shorts and documentaries (35mm, 16mm, and video). His work has been exhibited internationally in Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, UK, among others, as well as in the U.S. Recent U.S. exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1999), the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles (2000), the Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA (2001), the Santa Fe Cinematheque (2001), and the Cleveland Cinematheque (2001).

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 219 WEB, rtutak@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Web site: http://www.tutakfilms.com/

Mark Voelpel
Assistant Professor
B.A., Harvard University; M.F.A., (TSOA, Film & Television) New York University

Former Director and Visual Effects Supervisor of R/Greenberg Associates; Former Director of commercials at Black Logic. Accomplished cinematographer, videographer, and lecturer.

Contact: (718) 951-5664, 225 WEB, mvoelpel@brooklyn.cuny.edu

2007-2008 Faculty and Staff

Pamela Grace, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Studies), gracepamela@earthlink.net

Susan Korda, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Production), SusanKorda@hotmail.com

Rebecca MacDonald, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Studies)

Leslie McCleave, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Production & Screenwriting)

Vinicius Navarro, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Studies)

Vicente Rodriguez-Ortega, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Studies), vro200@nyu.edu

Dorothy Rompalske, Substitute Assistant Professor (Screenwriting), darnyc@aol.com

Amresh Sinha, Adjunct Assistant Professor (Film Studies), as257@nyu.edu

Matthew Moore, Program Coordinator, MMoore@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Malene Schjoenning, College Assistant (Main Office)

Andre Morton, College Assistant (Equipment Room and Editing Labs)

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