SVA MPS Live Action Short Film: Faculty

I teach because...

I teach at SVA because I am continually taught by the brightest and most outrageous group of students imaginable—diverse cultures, totally different imaginations, wholly artistic individuals—each challenging themselves—and, me—to produce outstanding work each year. New York City is the perfect classroom for independent filmmaking. Our students have access to the industry’s best casting agents, actors, cinematographers, location scouts, stylists, and editors—all eager to help while offering a rare combination of academic and practical experience that inspires creative thinking beyond the classroom.

—Bob Giraldi, Chair MPS Live Action Short Film

DEPARTMENT CHAIR

Robert Giraldi

Bob Giraldi

Director, President, GIRALDI MEDIA, principal partner, CatatoniaGiraldi

Education: BFA, Pratt Institute

Productions include: The Grey Coat, 2010, Second Guessing Grandma, 2008, (Audience Award for Best Short Film, Sarasota Film Festival, Official Selection, 14 Annual Palm Springs International Festival of Films, Audience Award, Fresno Reel Pride, Jury award, 27 Reeling: Chicago Lesbian & Gay Film, “Winner” Best LGBT Short Film, 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival); Honey Trap, 2005 (Golden Remi Award, World Fest Houston); The Routine, 2002 (Best Drama, LA International Short Film Festival); Dinner Rush, 2001 (Selected for New Directors/ New Films Series presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Music videos include: Writer, director, "Beat It," Michael Jackson; "Say, Say, Say," Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney; "Just the Two of Us," Will Smith; "Love is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar; "Hello," Lionel Richie; "Loaded," Ricky Martin; "Don’t Drive Drunk," Stevie Wonder

Collections include: Museum of Modern Art, Baseball Hall of Fame

Awards include: Art Directors Club Hall of Fame; Gold Lion, Cannes Film Festival; Grand Award, gold and silver medals, New York Festival; Gold Award, AICP; Gold ADDY; CLIO; ANDY; People’s Choice Award; Rolling Stone; Billboard Music Video Award; Hershel Levit Award, Pratt Institute; MTV Video Music Award; "One of 101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising," Advertising Age; Media Project Shine Award; Who's Who in America; International Who's Who of Professionals

INSTRUCTORS

Rachel Leventhal

Screenwriter, Producer, Interactive Designer

Education: BA Cornell University; MPS NYU Tisch School of the Arts; Writers Boot Camp, Think Tank Screenwriting Program

Projects include: "Faux Baby," Co-creator; “Faux Baby” Episode 6, Valley of the Fauxs; Dragons of Amagansett; Rock Star’s Daughter; "Beavis & Butthead: Virtual Stupidity" (CDROM), Phantom 2040 (SNES), Producer; Mama Makes Movies, Executive Producer, Writer; New York International Children’s Film Festival & GKids, Inc, Boardmember

Formerly: Viacom New Media, Sr. Producer; Videogames, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount; Logic Bomb, Interactive designs, Principal

Peter Repplier

Director, Producer

Education: BA, Wesleyan University

Film Projects include: Tainted, line producer; Walls of Glass; Honey Trap, 1st assistant director

Television Projects include: Commercials for Delta, Volvo, Ford, American Express, Air Canada, Procter & Gamble. Online media producer, director for branding films for UPS, Unilever, Hewlett-Packard, IBM

Music Videos: “Bootylicious Remix” Beyonce; “Loaded” Ricky Martin

Susie Korda

Susan Korda

Director, Editor, Writer

Education: BFA, City College of New York

Directing and writing projects include: Mazel; Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler; For the Love of D-g; One of us; Vienna is Different: 50 Years After the Anschluss

Editing projects include: The Forest for the Trees; Swimmers; Cinderella of the Cape Flats

Awards include: 1999 Berlin Film Festival; 1989 Chicago Film Festival, Silver Plaque; 1990 Sundance Film Festival; Artist Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts; Fulbright Scholar; Documentary Fund Award, National Foundation for Jewish Culture; Jerome Foundation Grant

Francesco Portinari

Franceso Portinari

Director, Editor, Audio Technician

Education: MS, University of Milano

Projects include: We Tell Stories, Senior Editor, Music Editor; Small Potatoes, Senior Editor, Music Editor; Stripes, Senior Editor, Music Editor; Anno Zero, Editor; Memorie, Director, Editor; The King, Director, Editor

Awards include: Audience Award, Milano International Corto Film Festival; Arezzo Wave Music Festival Selection

Amresh Sinha

Filmmaker, Scholar

Education: BA, Patna University; MA Jawaharlal Nehru University; MA, SUNY Buffalo; PhD, York University

Director: Convict & the Trial; Quit India Movement

Publications include: "Spectacular Optical," Connecticut Review; "The Making of Modern Bihar"; "Patriot"; "Lost in the Archives; German Culture and Society"; "The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies"; "In Practice: Adorno, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies"; "Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film"; "Film"

Patrick Burns

Patrick Burns, Jr.

Editor, Director

Education: BS, Boston University

Projects include: Honey Trap, Editor; Five boros—Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island, Director/ Editor; Sound Class, Editor; Boso Zoku, Editor; Attack of The Little Green Mints, Editor; projects for US Army; Nike; Discovery Channel; MTV; Showtime; Food Network; United Nations; Budweiser; Bravo; Animal Planet; Showtime; Altoids; NASCAR; PBS; Verizon; Shell; Kraft; Wendy’s; ESPN; NEC; DELL; Microsoft; Island Def Jam; CBS

Awards include: Clio Silver; Clio Bronze; PSA/ Editing; International ANDY Award; Silver/ Bronze ADDY; Official Selection, Cannes Advertising Festival; PROMAX Gold

Alessandro Tanaka

Screenwriter

Education: BA, Vassar College; MFA, Columbia University

Projects include: Co-creator, Walorsky; The Sitter

Awards include: Best Short Film, Columbia University Film Festival