Faculty

Roddy Bogawa (BA, MFA UC San Diego) was born and raised in Los Angeles where he studied art and played in punk bands before turning to film. The DIY punk aesthetic continues to influence his work. Bogawa's work explores internal conflict, the relationship between individuals and their environment, and how identity is shaped by culture and history. He casts non-actors and actors side by side and layers his stories with metaphors, abstract material, and multiple narrative voices. His feature-length films, a unique blend of experimental and narrative styles, range from loosely (Some Divine Wind) and strictly (I Was Born, But …) autobiographical to science fiction (Junk) to documentary (Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis). His work was featured in Sundance Film Festival, the Mannheim International Film Festival (Germany), the Asian American International Film Festival (New York), Fukuoka Asian Film Festival (Japan), Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the 1993 Biennial Exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Oberhausen Festival Internationale and Cinematexas Short Film Festival.
www.roddybogawa.com

Joel Katz (BA Oberlin College, MFA Hunter College) is a non-fiction filmmaker and installation artist involved with issues of social justice. His works include Corporation with a Movie Camera(1992, PBS broadcast on New Television); Dear Carry(1997, premiere at Museum of Modern Art); Strange Fruit, a documentary about the history and legacy of the famed anti-lynching protest song of the same name first made famous by Billie Holiday (2002, Independent Lens PBS broadcast; theatrical release; extensive international exhibition); and White: A Memoir in Color, a memoir about whiteness, adoption, and identity (2012, in broad educational distribution). His works have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Independent Television Service, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture, the Puffin Foundation, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, and other agencies. www.onierafilms.com

Marcin Ramocki (BA Dartmouth College, MFA UPenn) is a Polish-born NYC artist working with a variety of computer centered media. His practice ranges from digital installations and online work, to feature length documentary movies. Thematically, these often revolve around conceptual portraiture, fascination by various social networks, and self-reflective commentary on contemporary art world. He is best known for his documentary projects "8 BIT"(2006) and "Brooklyn DIY"(2009), as well as shorter digital forms like "Virtual Singer" (2000), "Torcito Project"(2005) or "Blogger Skins‚"(2009). His works have been exhibited at MoMA, Hirshhorn Museum, Pacific Film Archives, Art Futura, Wexner Center, ZKM, ACME Melbourne, Le Palais de Glace Buenos Aires and many more. www.ramocki.net

Adjuncts

Paddy Johnson is the editor of the forthcoming book Impractical Spaces and the founding editor of the contemporary art blog Art F City. With Nancy Kleaver, she runs PARADE, a non-profit arts organization that commissions civically engaged art in Queens. She is a contributor to VICE, Observer and CNN. She teaches new media art and writing in New York, where she lives with her partner.

Samantha Farinella is a New York City-based filmmaker and founder of One Angry Woman Productions. Farinella's latest feature length project, Hunting in Wartime, premiered nationally on PBS, won five awards including the Big Sky Award at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and has screened in over thirty venues. Her first feature documentary, Left Lane, won eight awards including honors in New Zealand, Paris and New York. It received official selection in over forty film festivals including: San Francisco's Frameline, Out in Africa, Galway Film Fleadh, and opening night at Boston's LGBT Film Festival. Her short films have screened in over 50 festivals and won several awards. She also has extensive television production and advertising experience with media companies including Viacom, The History Channel, Animal Planet, PBS and Hogarth Worldwide. Farinella's most recent positions are as an adjunct professor and/or guest lecturer in media and film production/studies. Samantha received her MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.