Directory

I teach literature, script writing, film history and aesthetics courses to help students encounter masterworks of human imagination and, in the process, discover themselves.

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Each life converges to some center.” Each of us grows out of an identity uniquely our own. Discovering that identity and working creatively from it is powerfully liberating. In writing courses, I try to teach students to migrate to their centers and write prose that is lucid, cant-free, and informed. In film history courses, I seek to demonstrate that yesterday is always present today, that our progenitors inspire and empower. In courses teaching TED-style talking, I help students explain the art they make and express ideas by which they live.

Make Film History, Rewrite, Reshoot, and Recut the World’s Greatest Films (Michael Wiese Publications), my film history book and integrated website (http://makefilmhistory.com), presents film history as the series of transformative choices made by singular creative artists. Using filmmaking exercises on the website, readers reenact key creative choices made by great filmmakers.

As an active member of  both the University Film and Video Association and the Society for Cinema and  Media Studies  I have, since 2011,  been presenting a series of talks focusing on the role of filmmaking, film studies, and public speaking courses in general education. These include Beyond Hollywood: Filmmaking as Today’s Literacy,   Old Films, New Eyes,  How to Build Your Students’ Filmmaking Vocabulary Using Brilliant Visual Story Telling Found In All the ‘Wrong’ Places,  New Paths to Teaching Film History,  Ending Your Movie, and Film Story.

Online I discuss the value of film history education in Film Courage  interviews such as Top Ten Movies in Film History for Filmmakers, Which Day In History Will You Always Remember, Most Important Technique in Film History, Is DIY Filmmaking the End of Hollywood? and “What Students Love About Film History.” I discuss the learn-by-doing Make Film History process in Movie Geeks United! Interview: Robert Gerst.

My ongoing research and writing includes a history of America’s first film school and a study of the role that public speaking can play in the intellectual and social growth of university students.

I served as the original chair of the MassArt Liberal Arts Department and I continue to teach Humanities Department film courses,  creative writing courses, and public speaking courses. As Liberal Arts chair, I helped create the summative elective program which serves as the capstone of the college general education curriculum.

Because I believe that community service is an essential feature of an educator’s role, I served for fourteen years on the Newton Massachusetts Board of Aldermen.