• Moving Image Studies

• James Gindin Visiting Artists Series

• Four TV Pilots Produced

“astonishing accomplishment”former LS&A Dean, Shirley Neuman

The Program in Film & Video Studies receivedthe LS&A 2002 Dean’s Award for OutstandingContributions to the Undergraduate Initiative!

Photo: U-M Photo Services

(both featured in this issue), enable us toenhance the Film & Video curriculum. TheAvery Cohn endowment has supportedneeded equipment purchases and theSidney J. Winer scholarship has provideddeserving students with financial supportso they can accept professional (but non-paying) internships.

Combined with the incredible energy ofour students, faculty, and staff, these giftshave made a tremendous difference in giv-ing practical expression to the creativespirit that makes Film & Video Studies sucha unique program. However, in these daysof cutbacks to state-supported higher edu-cation, gifts from a broad range of ouralumni and friends becomes more andmore important to sustaining our progress.We have included a donation card in thisnewsletter issue, I hope that you will con-sider a gift to Film & Video, no matter howsmall—or how large! Please be generous inhelping Film & Video move forward.

We appreciate your interest and welcomeyour comments on our newsletter and ourprogram. We hope that if you are in AnnArbor in the future, you will be sure andstop by Film & Video Studies and visit.

Sincerely,Gaylyn Studlar, Director

Key to Cover Photo

a model for demonstrating the broadergoal of enriching the liberal arts experi-ence of undergraduates.

In this effort, we are proud of the notableindividual accomplishments of faculty.Some have received high honors from theCollege for their teaching: for example,Terri Sarris received one of the five seniorlectureships awarded in the College in2001-02, and Frank Beaver is a past recipi-ent of the prestigious Thurnau professor-ship. But Film & Video Studies has uni-formly excellent teaching and a remark-able record of collaboration and innova-tion in teaching as well as in mentoringstudents. As one faculty member of theProgram remarked: “It’s quite striking howmuch energy goes into undergraduateteaching in Film & Video.” Several articlesin this newsletter speak to the many waysin which our faculty have expanded andrevitalized our curriculum.

However, excellent teaching will only takethe program so far. A generous gift fromRobert Shaye and the Four FriendsFoundation has made possible two invalu-able resources to building our program: theDonald Hall Collection, an extensive DVDand script library, and the James GindinVisiting Artists Series, which allows us tobring in professional screenwriters to workwith our student screenwriters. Individualwriting awards such as the Newman Prizefor Dramatic Writing and the UnitedTalent Agency Prize for Screenwritingprovide recognition to undergraduate filmwriters, and new this year UTA’s new prizefor television writing. Peter and BarbaraBenedek’s Artist-in-Residence gift andgifts-in-kind like the Salter Collection

Why does the cover show such a large andhappy contingent of Film & Video staff andfaculty? This picture was taken while wewere celebrating our program’s havingbeen honored with the 2002 annualDepartmental Award for Contributions tothe Undergraduate Initiative.

Dean Shirley Neuman offered much praiseand a $25,000 prize to Film & Video at anApril ceremony that also recognized theaccomplishments of Asian Languages andCultures.

What this prize suggests is how centrallyand seriously we take undergraduate edu-cation in Film & Video Studies. Our goalis to bring the arts and humanities togeth-er in a rigorous undergraduate studentexperience. This principle has defined ourongoing educational initiatives, such as oursuccessful screenwriting program, our col-laboration with the Departments ofEnglish and Theatre & Drama on theFestival of New Works, and our develop-ment of courses in digital studies and prac-tice. As the award also indicates, theProgram in Film & Video Studies provides

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

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FACULTY UPDATE

Dr. Gaylyn Studlar, director of Film & VideoStudies, was on sabbatical during Fall Term,2002. During her sabbatical, she worked on asocial history of women’s culture and Hollywoodfilm. Prof. Studlar is back in Film & Video inJanuary 2003.

images of the national past in British andGerman cinema between the 1960s andthe present. He has published widely inGerman history of the 19th and 20th cen-turies, including books on the GermanRight between Bismarck and the 1920s,and the idea of the Sonderweg in Germanhistory, as well as essays on a wide rangeof subjects. He is currently finishinganother book on liberalism, popular poli-tics, and the creation of the Germannational state between the 1860s and the1890s. He has also edited a Reader onNationalism and another one on SocialTheory. In addition to German history, histeaching interests include Europe since1945, nationalism, cultural studies, andhistoriography.

Back: 1) Giorgio Bertellini, 2) Stashu Kybartus,3) Frank Beaver,4) Christopher McNamara, 5) Philip Hallman, 6) Ed Dimendberg,7) Abé Markus Nornes, 8) Johannes von Moltke,9) Alan Young.

Middle: 10) Jim Burnstein, 11) Bambi Haggins, 12) Kristen Whissel,13) Gaylyn Studlar, 14) Frances Gateward, 15) Catherine Benamou,16) Terri Sarris, 17) Robert Rayher, 18) Hugh Cohen.

Front: 19) Connie Ejarque, 20) Sue Kirby, 21) Sarah Lloyd,22) Rachel Hollar, 23) Mary Lou Chlipala.

Not pictured: Terry Lawson and Elaine Loeser.Update: Rachel Hollar (Film & Video staff) resigned in August ‘02. Wewish Rachel all the best.

THANKS GEOFF!In fall 2002, Professor Geoff Eley was theinterim director of Film & Video Studieswhile Professor Gaylyn Studlar was onsabbatical. A special thanks goes out toProfessor Eley from all Film & Video stu-dents, faculty and staff for a job well done!

Geoff Eley is the Sylvia L. ThruppCollegiate Professor of ComparativeHistory and has taught at the Universityof Michigan since 1979. His primaryappointment is in History, with a crossappointment in German Studies and anadditional affiliation with Film & VideoStudies. He has recently published ForgingDemocracy: The History of the Left in Europe,1850-2000 (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2002). Over the longer term, he isworking on a book on the contested

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than the faculty of any other university inthe country. We have scholarly and teach-ing expertise in African, Chinese, French,German, Italian, Japanese, Korean,Filipino, Latin American, Lusophone,Slavic, South African, and Swedish cinemaor television. As a result of this unusualbreadth of faculty knowledge, our curricu-lum is well-positioned to educate studentsfrom across the College in the connectionbetween the visual arts and cultural, econom-ic, political, and industrial developmentsacross the world. We offer a Global MediaStudies minor in which students focusexclusively on the international and globaldimensions of moving image media. In ourconcentration curriculum, every under-graduate major is required to take a surveycourse in world cinema and satisfy adirected elective that asks them to explorea non-U.S. national cinema or a non-filmicmoving image medium.

Film & Video’s undergraduate offerings,built around multicultural or internationaldimensions of cinema, are numerous andinnovative. Some courses offered in 02-03include “Asian Cinema”, “British Cinema”,“French Cinema”, “Italian Cinema”,“Dialogue of Violence: Cinema in WWII’sPacific Theater”; and “Third WorldCinema”. More unusual courses with aninternational dimension are: Professor EdDimendberg’s “Bertolt Brecht & Film”, andan exploration of cinemas of exile inProfessor Lucia Saks’ “The Global Screen:Community, Country, and Change.”

he mission of the Program in Film &Video Studies is to advance the under-

standing and practice of all forms of movingimage media including film, traditionallyproduced, and emergent digital forms.Research on television, video art, and dig-ital media, in fact, has gone from theperiphery of the discipline to become acentral concern of what was originallycalled ”film“ studies. This is connected to agrowing concern with audience reception,technology, and the economics of inter-related media industries. As a result ofthese changes to our field of study, movingimage media other than traditional film-on-film has also taken a central place in theFilm & Video offerings. For example, ourcourses include a broad range of topics:“New Media Studies”; “Digital Media andCulture in the 21st Century”; “Music, Voiceand Sound on Film”; “Technology and theMoving Image: Video Games /Culture /Forms”;“Video Art I: Documentary”; and “Race andEthnicity in Contemporary AmericanTelevision”.

Not only does our curriculum embrace abroader range of media topics, but we areoffering several courses that integrate pro-duction and studies. Because faculty arealways concerned with building on ourcurriculum rather than just maintaining it,they want to do more than just juxtaposethe critical studies and creative productionelements of the curriculum. Faculty havedeveloped a plan to help students makethe connection between intellectualknowledge of the field of moving imagemedia studies and creative experimentationin a broad spectrum of these media. Forexample, in Winter 2002, Terri Sarris andBambi Haggins taught a course on the sit-uation comedy that combined the actualwriting and production of a sitcom pilotwith students’ scholarly study of the sitcomas one of the most important forms in thehistory of television. In Winter 2003,Stashu Kybartus and Markus Nornes willteach a course on documentary film/video/digital in which the goal is to make thecreative production process of studentscontinually informed by critical and culturalanalysis of non-fiction forms.

Film & Video Studies’ courses also giveweight to the importance of understandingthe international and the global. Film &Video faculty bring a greater strength in thestudy of national cinemas to our students

MOVING IMAGE STUDIES PROPELSFilm & Video Program to Global Heights!

Year after year, Film & Video students havefrequent opportunities to speak to andinteract with artists from around the worldof diverse cultural backgrounds and inter-ests. For example, Harada Masato, a filmdirector and screenwriter from Japanshowed several of his films on campus in thefall of 2001, appeared on a panel address-ing the intersection of Latin American andJapanese cinema with scholars, and held amaster class for screenwriting students.Hosokawa Shuhei, musicologist and filmscholar, gave a public lecture and alsotalked about diasporic Japanese cinema inBrazil to Catherine Benamou’s course inLatin American cinema. In Fall 2001, film-maker Alan Berliner sat down with studentsfrom our Documentary course to discusshis landmark films, and in Fall 2002 inter-nationally renowned independent andexperimental filmmaker Jon Jost screenedhis new digital film, 6 Easy Pieces, and spentfour days participating in productionclasses with our faculty and students.

Our curriculum is based on the premisethat a broadly based education in themoving image gives the UM Film & Videograduate an advantage when entering theindustry or graduate school. In manyrespects, the dynamics of today’s filmindustry, in both its economic and creativedimensions, are globally driven. Our grad-uates are better prepared for those dynamicsbecause of our approach to the movingimage in all its technological and globalcomplexity.

T

Alan Berliner discussing documenatary filmmaking with a student in the Donald Hall Collection.

from a

Professor Catherine Benamou hosted fourdistinguished international visitors. Theseeminent foreign film scholars and filmmak-ers furthered the Film & Video Studies ini-tiatives in global media studies and in grad-uate studies.

In October 2001, British filmmaker extra-ordinaire, Isaac Julien, nominated for theprestigious Turner prize, was invited to aretrospective of his films at the MichiganTheater and the UM Natural Sciencesauditorium. He also participated in a panelpresentation: “Rethinking the BlackTransatlantic.”

In February 2002, Romanian-bornphilosopher and film curator-critic JoanneRichardson provided a brief lecture on andscreened a special retrospective of shortexperimental films from Hungary (BelaBalazs Studio), Croatia (Zagreb and SplitKino Clubs), and Romania (Kinema lkonWorkshop).

In March 2002, Dr. Joao Luiz Vieira, aninternationally recognized film historianand critic from the Federal UniversityFluminense in Rio de Janeiro, presented alecture on the representation of street chil-dren in Brazilian Cinema Novo, and intro-duced a special screening of a recentBrazilian release, Chronically Unfeasible(Cronicamente Inviavel, 2000), directed bySergio Bianchi.

In November 2002, Gaston Kabore, recip-ient of the Genevieve McMillan and RebaStewart Fellowship for DistinguishedFilmmaking at Harvard University,screened his film Buud Yam (Burkina Faso,1997) and discussed cinematic collabora-tion in the Francophone world, as well asrecent developments in the funding anddistribution of sub-Saharan African film-

FILM & VIDEO STUDIES FACULTY HOST GLOBAL MEDIA VISITORS AND FILM SCREENINGS

making in general. Mr. Kabore currentlyheads FESPACO, the FestivalPanafricain de Ouagadougou.

In the last year, Professor Nornes broughtin some of the best scholars and filmmak-ers from around the world.

Harada Masato, film director and screen-

September 2002, there was afree screening of Knockaround

Guys organized by Film &Video Studies and SolomonFriedman Advertising . The

film was produced, directed,and written by Brian

Koppelman and David Levien(Levien is a University ofMichigan graduate), the

writers of Rounders.Koppelman and Levien held

a Q&A after the film.

2

Global Studies

FACULTY UPDATE

Catherine Benamou is completing Orson Wellesat Work in Latin America for the University ofCalifornia Press. As part of an ongoing exchangewith Brazilian film scholars, Professor Benamouattended the seventh annual “It’s All True”International Documentary Festival in Sao Paulo(April 2002), which included a commemoration ofOrson Welles’s expedition to Brazil in 1942. As arecipient of a Rackham Faculty research grantfor academic year 2002-2003, she will soonembark on a comparative research project onthe transmission and reception of Spanish-language television in the Los Angeles andDetroit metropolitan areas.

Global Influence

Abé Markus Nornes is an associate professor inUM’s Department of Asian Languages andCultures, and the Program in Film & Video Studies.His specialization is Japanese cinema. His bookon Japanese documentary up to 1946 will bepublished by University of Minnesota Press. He isalso working on two other book projects, one acritical biography of director Ogawa Shinsuke andthe other on translation and the cinema.

writer from Japan, showed several of hisfilms, and appeared on a panel on LatinAmerica, Japan, and cinema with scholarsfrom UM and Duke. Masato also held amaster class for screenwriting students.Harada’s most recent film played in thecompetition at Berlin International FilmFestival. He is known for films that arehugely popular, yet smartly political.

A series of films by Lee Myung-Se, Koreandirector and one of the stylists of Koreancinema, played at the Michigan Theater.He also appeared in an Asian Cinema class.

Alan Berliner, well-known American doc-umentary filmmaker, presented his work,and conducted a master class with a selectgroup of students from Nornes’ documen-tary course.

Hosokawa Shuhei, musicologist and filmscholar from Japan, held court in a LatinAmerican film course, where he talkedabout diasporic Japanese cinema in Brazil.Shuhei also gave a public lecture.

Jon Jost, an internationally renownedindependent and experimental filmmaker,presented a screening of his digital videofeature, 6 Easy Pieces, part of the newProjectorhead Series and conducted aseries of master classes.

FACULTY UPDATE

Catherine Benamou and Gaston Kabore Jon Jost

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wide range of ethnic, gender, and cultural backgrounds.A Different ImageProfessor Frances Gateward arrangedthree film series. First, the AfricanAmerican film series was in conjunctionwith two of her courses: ”WomenDirectors of the Black Diaspora“ and”Survey of African American Cinema.“ All20 films were directed by Black Americandirectors and screened at the MichiganTheatre. One film, Chameleon Street (1989),was hosted by the director Wendall B.Harris, Jr., and also present for questionswith him was the producer, cinematogra-pher, and several actors.

The Korean series was rare collection offour films booked in only selected areas ofthe country. Professor Gateward was ableto arrange these unique Korean films intoAnn Arbor for a one-time screening at theMichigan Theatre. The series includedThe Anarchists (1st Korean/Chinese co-pro-duction); Three Friends (the first featuredirected by a woman); Eternal Empire (a his-torical epic); L’Amour (a melodrama aboutthe effects of contemporary social changeon the elderly).

The final film series dealt with humanrights and gender in South Asian film.One film screened was PurahandaKaluwara: aka Death on a Full Moon Day(1997, Sinhala). This Sri Lankan film waswritten and directed by PrassannaVithanage, which focuses on the ethnicconflict in Sri Lanka. It generated interna-tional attention, since it has been bannedin the country where it was made. Winnerof numerous international awards includ-ing the Amiens, Fribourg and SingaporeInternational film festivals, it was screenedfor the first time at the U-M. Godmother(1999, Hindi), directed and written byVinay Shukla, was introduced by ShabanaAzmi, actress/UN Ambassador/member ofParliament. It focused on the issue of gen-der in India and procured Azmi a nationalaward for best actress. The third film wasGandhi (1982) written by U-M alumnusJohn Briley.

Professor Kristen Whissel curated the“Dynamic Women” film series, shown atthe Michigan Theater. It investigated therepresentation of women and power infilm. Films shown as part of the film seriesincluded La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (France1928), Queen Christina (US 1933), The Lionin Winter (UK 1968), Bandit Queen (India1994), Elizabeth (UK 1998), and The HeroicTrio (Hong Kong 1996). ProfessorWhissel’s course, “Feminist Film Theory,”was also one of a number of coursesoffered as part of the theme semester.

This series was part of the “gender, power,and representation” theme semester, a UMtradition which allowed students toenroll in thematically related courses. Abroad range of scheduled events providedstudents with the opportunity to apply thecritical, theoretical, and historical meth-ods learned in the classroom to the repre-sentation of women in the various per-formances, productions, lectures, andexhibits. The exhibits at UM Museum ofArt entitled Women Who Ruled: Queens,Goddesses, Amazons 1500-1650 were com-prised of nearly one hundred works of artfrom the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

September 9 & 10, 2002, The Hooligans /DieHalbstarken, 1956.September 24 & 25, 2002, Kirmes, 1960.October 15 & 16, 2002, The Sinner, 1950.October 22 & 23, 2002, Bonjour Kathrin,1955.October 28 & 29, 2002, I Often Think ofPiroschka/Ich denke oft an Piroschka, 1955.December 2 & 3, 2002, Roses Bloom on theGrave in the Meadow/Rosen bluhen auf demHeidegrab, 1952.December 10 & 11, 2002, Sissi, 1955.January 13 & 14, 2003, In Those Days,1947.January 21 & 22, 2003, My Schoolmate/MeinSchulfreund, 1960.February 3 & 4, 2003, A Call Girl NamedRosemarie/Das Madchen Rosemarie, 1959.

After the War, Before the Wall:German Cinema, 1945-1960“After the War, Before the Wall” is a ten-film series, initiated and screened by theMichigan Theater, featuring highlightsfrom the landmark 31-film program thatran at the Walter Reade Theater in NewYork City. Often referred to as “Papa’sKino” or “Daddy’s Cinema,” this serieslooks at a period in German cinema fre-quently overlooked by critics. Althoughthe films are largely unseen today, post-warGerman cinema was a major industry withrecord levels of domestic attendance andsignificant exports around the world. It wasa national cinema that had already shown astrong proclivity to the use of genre, andthe films—dominated by Heimatfilm(homeland film)—proved a major force inthe creation of Germany’s post-war self-image.

Theme Semester takes on“gender, power and representation”

Frances Gateward edited two books: ZhangYimou: Interviews for University Press of Mississippiand Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Cinemas ofGirlhood with Murray Pomerance. She also workedas English language editor for the program andcatalogue of the Pusan Film Festival as well as theInternational Women’s Film Festival in Seoul.

FACULTY UPDATE

Johannes von Moltke’s current research focuseson postwar German cinema. He has recently pre-sented talks on this subject in New York, St. Louis,and San Diego. In May 2002, he participated in apanel organized by the Goethe Institute for theopening of the Lincoln Center film series After theWar, Before the Wall: German Cinema 1946-1960.After a leave of absence during which he completedhis book on the the place of home(land) in Germanfilm (entitled No Place Like Home: Locating Heimatin the German Cinema), he returns to teaching filmtheory and German film history in Winter Term2003.

FACULTY UPDATE

Professor Kristen Whissel is completing researchand writing for a book on the early American cine-ma entitled Picturing the Nation: AmericanModernity and Moving Pictures. She has publishedarticles on silent cinema in Screen, CameraObscura, and The Historical Journal for Film,Radio, & Television and has an article on theSpanish-American War and early cinema in AFeminist Reader in Early Cinema (Duke UniversityPress 2002).

FACULTY UPDATE

Alan Berliner

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Jim Burnstein

“The highest compliments toour screenwriting program havecome from our Gindin VisitingArtists. After touring our stateof the art screenplay libraryand working with our studentsin special master classes, ChrisMcQuarrie turned to me andsaid: ‘Man, I wish I could be astudent here.’ A few weeks laterJoe Stillman said the exactsame thing.”

ARE THE STARS!

The James Gfeatures

s

...AND WHERE

WHERE SCREENWRITERS

Burnstein’s Tale!Congratulations to Jim Burnstein, Film &Video’s screenwriting coordinator, and hisscreenwriting partner Garrett Schiff.Following a bidding war, Burnstein andSchiff sold their spec script TheQuarterback’s Tale to MGM with Marc Platt(Legally Blonde) producing. The Quarterback’sTale is the story of a young sports fan wholands a PR job with the NFL and discov-ers that his hero, a quarterback, has majorflaws on and off the field. Burnstein andSchiff’s previous sales include Genius(MTV/Paramount), Naked Shakespeare(Patchwork Productions) and AWOL(optioned by Myriad Pictures and pro-ducer Paul Rosenberg). Burnstein’s creditsinclude Renaissance Man (directed byPenny Marshall and starring DannyDeVito) and D3: The Mighty Ducks

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), October 2001.McQuarrie did three full days of master class lectures andindividual scene work with the upperclass screenwriters.

Joe Stillman (Shrek), November 2001.Stillman covered writing animation

scripts for both film & TV. Also,advanced screenwriters pitched animation film ideas to Stillman.

David Goyer (Blade), December 2001. Along withreturning to his hometown, Ann Arbor, and screeninghis film, ZigZag, Goyer did an evening discussion onhis dual process of writing and directing ZigZag forFilm & Video’s screenwriters.

Kurt Luedtke (Out of Africa), September 2002. The upperclass Film & Videoscreenwriters worked with Luedtke on their story outlines. Winter Term2003, Luedtke will return to discuss rewrites for their first draft.

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TEACH!Gindin Visiting Artists Seriesthe industry’s best working

screenwriters & filmmakers.

The James Gindin Visiting Artists Series and the Donald HallCollection are made possible through funding from the FourFriends Foundation and Robert Shaye, CEO of New Line Cinema.STAR SCREENWRITERS

Jim Burnstein, John Sayles, and Gaylyn Studlar in the DonaldHall Collection. On the library, Sayles said, “I wouldn’t go toclass; I’d watch films all day long!”

In November 2002, Miguel Arteta (Star Maps: Director, The Good Girl) sharedhis jouney as an independent filmmaker on Star Maps. Four screenplay firstacts were read in class followed by Arteta’s critique.

Jonathan Glickman (Producer, Spyglass Entertainment), September 2002. ProducerJonathan Glickman discussed the film industry from a producer’s point of view andgave feedback on screenwriter’s pitches.

Hillary Seitz (Insomnia),October 2002. Seitz discussed “The Writing ofInsomnia” and did sceneanalysis of advancedscreenwriter’s work.

HOPWOOD AWARDS 2002

Drama/Screenplay Major Hopwood AwardsAndrea George, $5,000Jonathan “Yoni” Brenner, $5,000Jordon Rosenberg, $3,500

The Gayle Morris Sweetland ScreenwritingFellowship in Dramatic WritingJonathan “Yoni” Brenner, $5,000

Leonard & Eileen Newman Prize for DramaticWritingAaron Celious, $1,000

United Talent Agency Scholarship forScreenwritingAmol Parulekar & Paul Malewitz, $2,500.

Screenwriter/filmmaker John Sayles (LoneStar), April 2002. Sayles spent an afternoonwith the Film & Video screenwriters sharing hisvast knowledge and experience.

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In March 2002 and in conjunction withan interdisciplinary course taught byTerri Sarris and dance performer PeterSparling, the first Ann Arbor Dance onCamera Festival offered local audiences twodifferent programs of recent and histori-cal screen dance works. The festival fea-tured a sampler of the UM Library’srecent acquisitions and works direct fromthe Dance on Camera Festival 2002 at LincolnCenter in NYC.

Made specifically for the screen by artistsfrom the USA, Australia, Great Britain,Belgium, the Netherlands, and otherinternational centers, these “dances forthe screen” celebrate the inventive andtelling interplay between the eye of thebeholder and the human figure within theframe of the camera. The two differentevenings of works featured such interna-tional festival entries as Dancers Go Bowling(Amanda Rabin/Michael DeMirjian),Elevator World (Mitchell Rose), Measure (33Fainting Spells), A Very Dangerous Pastime(Canada Dance Festival), In the Heart of theEye (Dance Works, Ltd.), and R.I.P.(Annick Vroom).

Still image from Measure by 33 Fainting Spells, 2001

Integrated TV Studies and Production Course Produced Four

Original Situation Comedies

A standing room only crowd turned outfor the premiere of Money For Nothing,Collegi’tude, My Life at Greeks, and Wiser Buds,four original situation comedies, written,produced, and directed by the students inFV 366/402. The course, a 6-credit inte-grated studies and production course, wastaught by Professor Bambi Haggins andSenior Lecturer Terri Sarris for the firsttime in Winter Term, 2002.

With a course development grant fromCRLT (Center for Research, Learning andTeaching), Haggins and Sarris spent aweek in November in Los Angeles on thepopular CBS situation comedy King ofQueens, observing the process of creating asitcom from first table-read through pro-duction. Television producer and writerDavid Pollock, whose numerous televi-sion credits include M*A*S*H and Frasier,was instrumental in arranging their visitand during winter term, Mr. Pollack spenta week with the class, reading the fourfirst-draft scripts and giving his invaluablecomments and suggestions.

Prior to Mr. Pollock’s visit, each of the 15students in the class had pitched an ideafor an original situation comedy. Four ofthese were then chosen for production of

a pilot episode. Students worked in teamsto write, cast, rewrite, rehearse, rewrite,and rewrite, the four shows. Each teamhad only one week of studio class time inthe Garrison multi-camera studio in whichto direct their productions. Productionswere then edited on Final Cut Pro andAVID.

The four pilots produced were:

Money For Nothing, created and written byAmber Mitchell, directed by Anya Tatumand edited and co-produced by DeborahPowers.

Collegi’tude, created by Joaquin Elizondo,written by Joaquin Elizondo, DenaZamore, Sheonna Mix, and TheresaEzenwa, directed by Sheonna Mix, pro-duced by Dena Zamore and TheresaEzenwa.

My Life At Greeks, created by TraciWeintraub, written by Traci Weintraub,Maya Mulkern, Linde Levin, and SallyEdger, directed by Traci Weintraub.

Wiser Buds, created by Heather Blanda,written by Heather Blanda, Weston Hall,Michelle Nicholson, directed byUgboaku Opara, produced by MichelleNicholson.

At their public screening, all four showsmet with enthusiastic audience response.A reception at the Michigan League fol-lowed. With the success of the productionsand the class, Haggins and Sarris arelooking forward to teaching the courseagain in Winter Term 2004.

Bambi Haggins is the television studies scholarfor Film & Video Studies. Her work interrogatesissues of representation, identity formation andaudience across media and has appeared inEmergences: Journal for the Study of Media andComposite Cultures and Velvet Light Trap. Herarticle, “Laughing Mad: The Black Comedian’sPlace in a Post Civil Rights Era American Comedy,”can be found in Frank Krutnik’s AmericanComedian Comedy (Routledge Fall 2002). Hagginsedited, with John T. Caldwell, Identity,Globalization, Convergence: Ethnic Notions andNational Identity in the Age of Television andDigital, an anthology that expands and updatestheir co-edited two volume Emergences.

Terri Sarris’ creative work weaves togetherdance and media in a variety of forms. In an inter-disciplinary “Videodance” course, Sarris continuesto explore the intersection of the two art forms.Fast Forward/Playback, her recent video installa-tion collaboration with Choreographer PeterSparling and Architect Ronit Eisenbach wasincluded in the Detroit Tri-centennial “Artist’s Takeon Detroit” exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts in2001/2002. In 2001, Sarris and Sparling werechosen for the UM Faculty InterdisciplinaryAssociates Program to further develop theircollaborative course in Videodance. Ms. Sarrisreceived a 2003 Art Serve Michigan Creative ArtistGrant from the Michigan Council for Arts andCultural Affairs for an experimental film, incor-porating dance.

FACULTY UPDATE

FACULTY UPDATE

David Pollock

In the last year, Film & Video Studies’Donald Hall Collection, named for therenowned poet and author Donald Hallwho taught at Michigan from 1957 to1975, expanded into the adjacent class-room. The wall between the two roomswas laboriously drilled and opened up to anewly renovated room that now handles10 viewing stations equipped with newDVD & VHS players, monitors, andheadsets. With the expertise of Film &Video Librarian Phil Hallman, theDonald Hall Collection has acquiredover 4,000 DVD’s and 2,000 scripts forour students and faculty. The library alsohas a handsome number of videos andlaser disks of films not available on DVD.Thanks to a generous gift by RobertShaye, President and CEO of New LineCinema and an alumnus of the Universityof Michigan (BBA ‘60), DHC’s primarymission is to support screenwriting.

The Ted Salter Film CollectionTed Salter, the initial artist for the MagicCastle Wall of Fame, passed away at theage of 86. His wife Eileen, on his behalf,left to the University of Michigan’s Film &Video Studies an extraordinary and usefulgift of his collection of films, film-relatedmaterials such as trailers, cartoons, news-reels, and television programs like completeepisodes of the Tonight Show with JohnnyCarson. Without dedicated collectors likeTed Salter, much of our film heritagewould be lost. We are most grateful to bethe recipients of the Ted Salter Collection.

Ted Salter had operated his own commer-cial art business in Los Angeles for manyyears, but performing arts and the MagicCastle were always quite dear to him.Puppet and variety arts performances withhis wife Eileen occupied much of his sparetime. He demonstrated his Black Paintingact as a guest on the television shows Truthor Consequences hosted by Bob Barker andalso on The Steve Allen Show.

DHC 2: Donald Hall CollectionExpands to New Heights!

Projectorhead is a loose organization offaculty, staff and students in the Programin Film and Video Studies who wish topromote an alternative film culture at theUniversity of Michigan by sponsoringevents such as the new Thursday nightfilm series. For the Winter 2003 filmseries schedule see web site:

www.lsa.umich.edu/filmvideo/projectorhead.html

Fall 2002, Thursday Night Film Seriesincluded:

Sept 19: Greed, 1925.Sept 26: Hallelujah!, 1929.Oct 3: Tabu, 1931.Oct 10: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang,

1932.Oct 17: Trouble in Paradise, 1932.Oct 24: Scarlet Empress, 1934.Oct 31: Cat People, 1942, & I Walked with

a Zombie, 1943.Nov 7: A Visit with Filmmaker Jon Jost,

6 Easy Pieces by Jon JostNov. 14: Theodora Goes Wild, 1936, &

When Tomorrow Comes, 1939.Nov. 21: The Great Waltz, 1938, & Ziegfeld

Girl, 1941.Dec. 5: They Drive by Night, 1940, &

Pursued, 1947.

NEW! Projectorhead film series

In October 2002, Peter Benedek conducted an open discussionwith the Film & Video students. Benedek’s talk focused on rep-resenting the writer in the film and television industry.

Screenwriting GetsAnother Big Boost: The Peter and Barbara BenedekArtist-in-Residence Fund

The Screenwriting Program in Film &Video just took another leap forward,thanks to a generous gift from Peter andBarbara Benedek of Los Angeles to estab-lish an Artist-in-Residence Fund. TheBenedek’s gift allows the program to bringan experienced screenwriter to campus fora term every year for five years. In Fall2002, Dan Baron (See Spot Run) was thefirst to fill the position. An alumnus andartist from Hollywood, Mr. Baron taught“Introduction to Screenwriting” and an“Advanced Screenwriting Seminar”. JimBurnstein, screenwriting coordinator, saysthat it is invaluable to the program to beable to bring professional writers to teach.

United Talent Agency SponsorsPrize for TV WritingUnited Talent Agency of Los Angeles willaward an annual prize of $2,500 to thebest TV script written by a Michigan stu-dent. Peter Benedek, alumnus and head ofUTA, proposed the prize to encourageMichigan undergraduates to reach fortheir best. A similar UTA prize for screen-plays has been offered since 1997, and Mr.Benedek, who has read the winning scriptevery year, has been impressed with thequality of writing coming out of Film &Video’s Screenwriting Program. He iseager to see the same growth in the area ofTV script writing. Film & Video extendssincere thanks to Mr. Benedek for his valu-able guidance, support, and encourage-ment of our efforts to build a nationallyrecognized screenwriting program.

Peter Benedek is a founder and senior partner ofUnited Talent Agency, one of Hollywood’s leadingliterary and talent agencies, representing such wellknow talents as Tom Fontana, Dick Wolf, DavidChase, M. Night Shyamalan, and the CoenBrothers.

Barbara Benedek is a renowned screenwriter ofsuch films as The Big Chill, Men Don’t Leave, andthe remake of Sabrina.

Nearly 400 caricatures in the MagicCastle, including those of Orsen Wells,the great Tomsoni, Johnny Carson, DavidCopperfield, Doug Henning and HenryBlackstone, Jr., bear his signature. OnMarch 10, 1979, Ted Salter was awardedlifetime membership in the Academy ofMagical Arts. A book containing 276 ofthe caricatures was published in 1988 byNielsen Magic.

In Winter Term 2003, Film & Video’s newProjectorhead Series will show 12 weeks offilms from the Ted Salter Collection everyThursday evening at 7:00 pm in MLB 2.

Ted Salter

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FACULTY UPDATE

VISITING FACULTY

NEW FACULTY

Richard Abel is Robert Altman CollegiateProfessor of Cinema Studies in Film & VideoStudies. Abel taught cinema/media/cultural studiesin the English Department at Drake University,where he was the first director of the undergradu-ate Cultural Studies program and director of theCenter for the Humanities. His books includeFrench Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929(Princeton 1984); French Film Theory andCriticism, 1907-1939: A History and Anthology, intwo volumes (Princeton 1988); The Cine Goes toTown: French Cinema, 1896-1914 (California1994); Silent Film (Rutgers 1996); and The RedRooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910 (California 1999). Several of these bookshave won national awards, and The Red RoosterScare was a finalist for the 1999 Kraszna KrausFilm Book Award. Recently, with Rick Altman, heedited The Sounds of Early Cinema (Indiana 2001);currently, he is editing the Encyclopedia of EarlyCinema (forthcoming from Routledge) and com-pleting a book entitled The “Imagined Community”of US Cinema, 1910-1914. His next project is astudy of the relationship that developed betweennewspapers and moving pictures in the USA,1910-1915.

Giorgio Bertellini (Ph.D. NYU, 2001) is aPostdoctoral Fellow at the Michigan Society ofFellows and a visiting assistant professor in Film &Video Studies. His doctoral dissertation onSouthern Italians’ film spectatorship in Italy and inNew York City at the turn of the 20th century wasa co-winner of the 2002 Society for CinemaStudies Dissertation Award. He is currently work-ing on a book based on his dissertation and on ananthology, 24 Frames: A Guide to Italian Cinemafor the London-based publisher Wallflower Press(2003). Bertellini’s essays have appeared innumerous periodicals (Film History, Film Quarterly,The Velvet Light Trap, KINtop, ComunicazioniSociali), and in a dozen collected works publishedin Europe, Canada, and in the United States. In2000, he edited the first-ever special issue on“Early Italian Cinema” for Film History. Bertellinihas taught film studies at NYU, UC Davis, TheSchool of Visual Arts (New York) and CUNY-QueensCollege. He has been the recipient of numerousawards and fellowships in the US and Europe,including the Jay Leyda Award for OutstandingAcademic Achievement (NYU), the FondazioneMaria and Goffredo Bellonci Award, and three fel-lowships from the Center for National Research(Italy).

Jennifer Hardacker received her MFA fromSouthern Illinois University. She is a film and videoartist whose work concentrates on questions ofidentity and belonging. Her work has beenscreened in festivals and salon screeningsthroughout the States including the BostonUnderground Film Festival, Black Maria FilmFestival, Madcat Women’s International FilmFestival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the AnthologyFilm Archives in NYC. Her most recent project,Wherever You Go, There You Are, was funded by anEmerging Artist Grant from the JeromeFoundation. Most recently she has taught film pro-duction and editing at the New School University inNew York City. She has also worked as an editor oftelevision commercials and a feature-length doc-umentary, Keeping Sound.

Frank Beaver, for the last two years, has taughttwo courses in the Michigan Community ScholarsProgram. This program is a unique, richly-integrat-ed approach to undergraduate learning thatinvolves theory, creativity, community engagementand social development. It engages more than 50undergraduate students in intensive media (docu-mentary) work that involves area professionaldocumentarists as lecturers and advisors, communi-ty leaders, and cross-campus faculty associates.The Community Partner for the courses and pri-mary advisor is Chris Cook, Emmy-award-winningdocumentarist and producer-director of therecently acclaimed The Sprawling of America.

Hugh Cohen’s book, Ingmar Bergman: The Art ofConfession, published by Twayne in 1993 wascalled by Choice Magazine an outstanding aca-demic book. Their reviewer, Maurice Yacowar,wrote that it is a bio-critical study that is “dangerousbut successful,” adding that it works “brilliantly onthe level of re-creation.” Yacowar likens the bookto watching Bergman’s films with “a brilliant com-mentator murmuring a sensitive, illuminatingoverlay with none of the annoyance that real com-mentators practice.”

Sheila C. Murphy is about to complete her disser-tation in the Program in Visual Studies at theUniversity of California, Irvine—and will hopefullyhave filed it by the time this newsletter is pub-lished. She received her BA from the University ofRochester in Art History while working extensivelyin academic computing. Her dissertation, “Lurkingand Looking: Media Technologies and CulturalConvergences of Spectatorship, Voyeurism, andSurveillance,” theorizes about the emergence ofthe “lurker,” the passive yet interactive spectatori-al user-position necessitated by contemporaryaudiovisual media. Her essays on this topic haveappeared in the anthology Technologies of MovingImages: From Edison to the Webcam andStrategies: A Journal of Theory, Culture andPolitics. At Irvine, she taught extensively in theProgram in Film Studies and the Humanities CoreCourse. She oversaw the UCI Film & Video Centerscreening program and she has also served on theSociety for Cinema Studies Information Technologycommittee. Her other research interests includeidentity and the Internet, video game form andnarrative, and the global politics of wirelesstelecommunications.

Lucia Saks is an assistant professor in Film &Video Studies. Previously, Prof. Saks taught for fiveyears in the Media and Communication Program atthe University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. Herresearch interests include comparative approach-es to the study of cinema between national and/orgeo-aesthetic areas with regard to the production,consumption and interpretation of film, the rela-tionship between cinema texts, race, ethnicity, andidentity formation in “transitional societies,” andcinematic constructions of Europe and female sex-uality in Hollywood cinema of the 1950s and1960s. She is currently completing a book on thereconstruction of national identity in post-

apartheid South African cinema. Prof. Saksreceived her Ph.D. in 2001 from the University ofSouthern California, where she trained in theCritical Studies division of the School of Cinema-Television.

Formerly known as Film & Video Club, the Film& Video Student Association provides anopportunity for Film & Video students to net-work with their peers.

Social activities and major events are plannedeach term. In November 2002, the Film &Video Student Association visited the DetroitFilm Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts fora screening of The Seven Samurai (a restoredprint). In connection with filmmaker Jon Jost’svisit, FVSA students joined Jost and Film & Videofaculty for an informal discussion after thescreening of Jost’s digital project, 6 Easy Pieces.Other planned events include the third annualDigital Festivus, the 48-hour production marathon inwhich student teams have 48 hours to write, plan,shoot, and edit short video projects, culminating in apublic screening on a Sunday.

Film & Video Student Association

Name _________________________________________Degree/Year_________________

Address __________________________________________________________________

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City ___________________________________ State ________________ ZIP __________

Area Code/Phone __________________________________________________________

Email _____________________________________________________________________

Recent Activities (Please type or print clearly on a separate sheet and attach.)

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KEEP IN TOUCHWe enjoy hearing from our Film & Video alumniand we encourage you to keep us and your fel-low alumni up to date on your activities. Fill outthe form and mail it to:

Mary Lou Chlipala, Program CoordinatorU-M Program in Film & Video Studies2512 Frieze Building 105 South State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1285

or email Mary Lou Chlipala at mlouisa@umich.edu

To Our Alumni and Other Friends...Support Film & Video Studies

Undesignated giving is one of the most important ways you can support Film & Video. This type of annual support allows the Director to use funds where theyare needed most. Film & Video knows how to stretch a dollar, but costs for higher education continue to rise. The support of alumni and friends is vital to ourgrowth. We ask that you consider giving a gift to Film & Video. Please use the form below.

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tions on their respective professions. Abig thank you goes out to screenwritersand Film & Video faculty Dan Baron andJim Burnstein for their participation in2001 and 2002.

Film & Video’s Screenwriting Faculty participate in

LS&A’s annual Career Link.In Fall term, the LS&A Advisory Centerorganized Career Link. This annual pro-gram supports future LS&A graduates bybringing to the UM working profession-als in many diverse fields to answer ques-

FESTIVALOUTREACH

The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The university of Michigan is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex color, religion, creed national origin or ancestry, age marital status, sexual orientation,disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the University’s Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, 4005 Wolverine Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1281, (734) 763-0235; TDD (734) 647-1388.For other University of Michigan information call: (734) 764-1817.

Regents of the University of Michigan:

David A. Brandon, Ann Arbor; Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield

Hills; Daniel D. Horning, Grand Haven; Olivia P. Maynard,

Goodrich; Rebecca McGowan, Ann Arbor; Andrea Fischer

Newman, Ann Arbor; S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms;

Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio

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ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTEDUniversity of Michigan Program in Film & Video Studies2512 Frieze Bldg105 S State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1285

The Festival Outreach program conducted a nine-week (June-August ‘02) Writing for Film program for 16 girls from theGirlstown Foundation, a residential program for abused andneglected teen girls. Screenwriting Coordinator Jim Burnsteinwas the master teacher, and he was assisted by two Film &Video alumni, David Turner and Andrea George. Burnstein said,“What was exciting about working with these girls is that someare quite talented and could have a future in writing.” The summer program went so well that a fall ten-week Writing forFilm program was set up at the Girlstown residential home withTurner and George as instructors.

A major change took place in the 4th (2002)season. UM theatre professor John NevilleAndrews became the artistic producer, takingover from Artistic Director Frank Gagliano.The basic mission of the Festival as a devel-opmental workshop for new plays, screen-plays, and musicals remained unchanged.

Last season included: the staging of screen-play Sage by Film & Video alumna AndreaGeorge; a new musical inspired by 50s’ sci-fi films and music of the 60s’ called WildWomen of Planet Wongo; and a new playOrchidelirium by UM’s 2001 recipient of theArthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing,Dave Carley. In addition, two special offer-ings happened in 2002. Through generous

MOVES INTO ITS 5TH SEASON IN 2003!

FESTIVAL OF NEW WORKS

support from the UM School of Musicand the MASCO Corporation Fund, anew opera was workshopped, Madame Mao,by UM School of Music professor andMacArthur Foundation recipient BrightSheng, and Kitchen Prayers, a new play con-ceived and directed by Glenda Dickerson,UM professor of Theatre & Drama.

With the 5th season approaching, theFestival of New Works continues as one oftwo professional theatres in Ann Arboraffiliated with Actors’ Equity, which allowsthe Festival to mix professional actors withUM student actors to better serve thewriter’s vision of character and story.

Sage, a screenplay by Andrea George (Season 2002).Directed by Daniel T. Green

Madame Mao, a new opera by Bright Sheng.Directed by Joshua Major

Screenwriting