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FMA aluma has acting debut in The Observers

By Chia-Ching Lin | Published: May 14, 2012

Filmmaker Katya Gorker, FMA ’12, takes a turn in front of the camera in her acting debut in Jacqueline Goss’ The Observers, playing a short run this week at Anthology Film Archives in New York. Gorker and Dani Leventhal, also a filmmaker, play climatologists who go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. Based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story The Great Carbuncle, the film features the extreme and varying beauty of the windiest mountain in the world.

Reviews of The Observers have appeared in Time Out … Read more »

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FMA alumna’s film to show at Anthology Film Archives

By jcronin | Published: March 1, 2012

A new documentary by Kimi Takesue, FMA ’00, opens March 2 at the Anthology Film Archives in New York. An MFA graduate, her film, Where Are You Taking Me?, documents life in post-war Uganda – a nation trying to rediscover itself in peace.

According to the film’s synopsis, “Eschewing a journalistic discussion of wartime atrocities and losses, Takesue allows such contextual information to quietly enter the frame, as her roving camera quietly observes the negotiations, rhythms and cycles of daily life in a new Uganda.”

Critic Jay Weissberg of Variety said, “Beautifully meditative…an uplifting observational documentary that plays on … Read more »

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FMA alumnus to premiere short at SXSW festival

By jcronin | Published: March 1, 2012

Minka Farthing-Kohl, FMA ’09, will premiere his new short, Cheap Extermination, at the increasingly important South By Southwest Film Festival, which runs March 9-17, 2012.

Watch the film’s trailer here: … Read more »

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RTF alumna co-produces HBO film on interracial marriage

By jcronin | Published: February 13, 2012
Patty Romeu, RTF ’82, ’88, co-produced The Loving Story, a documentary film about Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple whose quest to be together as husband and wife was resolved by the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, who ruled in their favor, overturning bans against interracial marriage throughout the country. The film combines interviews with archival footage and photographs to tell the courageous couple’s story. The film was funded in part by National Endowment for the Humanities. It is set to air Feb. 14 on HBO.

… Read more »

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FMA alumnus to direct Universal Studios feature

By jcronin | Published: October 18, 2011

Dan Trachtenberg, FMA ’03, has been signed to direct Crime of the Century, a science fiction action heist film, for Universal Studios. It is being produced by Chris Morgan of Wanted, Fast Five and 47 Ronin.

This is Trachtenberg’s first feature film, however his short film, Portal: No Escape, based on a video game, became the second highest rated video on YouTube’s film and animation section.

Trachtenberg conceptualized Crime of the Century and has been writing it with screenwriter Daniel Kunka. … Read more »

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FMA alumna’s documentary an official selection at Image+Nation

By Brandon Watz | Published: October 6, 2011

Perfect Society, a documentary by Dita Gruze, FMA ’11, is an official selection at Image+Nation, an international LGBT film festival in Montreal, Canada. For more information on the festival, visit www.image-nation.org. … Read more »

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FMA alumni screen films at International House

By jcronin | Published: August 18, 2011

John Gross, FMA ’09, and former FMA student Daniel Kremer, co-founders of ConFluence Film, screened their films Aug. 18 at Philadelphia’s International House. Gross showed his 30-minute short, The Wind Blows Where it Wishes, while Kremer sc…

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Jonathan Olshefski, Recent MFA Graduate Appointed Visiting Assistant Professor

By lmpatzer | Published: August 7, 2011

Jonathan Olshefski accepted a visiting assistant professor position at Rowan University in Glassboro NJ. He will be teaching Intro to New Media and New Media Production courses in Rowan’s Radio, Television and Film department. As a graduate student, Olshefski taught … Continue reading →

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HBO film highlights topic of alumnus’ research

By jcronin | Published: April 29, 2011

A new generation of television viewers has been exposed to what some call one of the first reality television shows this spring through Cinema Verite, HBO’s fictional take on a PBS documentary from the 1970s.

But it’s been a part of Jeffrey Ruoff’s, RTF ’89M, life since his time at Temple’s School of Communications and Theater.

He first saw An American Family in an anthropology course. The 12-part series sent cameras into the Santa Barbara, Calif., lives of Bill and Pat Loud and their five teenagers.

“An American Family was a breakthrough series because it confronted the issue of divorce … Read more »

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Two SCT alumni hope for prime time success

By jcronin | Published: January 24, 2011

As the world celebrated the new year, two School of Communications and Theater alumni were each eagerly awaiting the pending premiere of their new television series.

It’s a part of the job Jason George, THEA ’96, and Johnny Ray Gill, FMA ’07, both say you can’t really prepare yourself for, but also one that’s completely out of an actor’s hands. So both are sitting back as the first few episodes air and hope the viewing public makes their shows successful.

George, who is also a member of the SCT Board of Visitors, stars in Off The … Read more »

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