Last Thursday, I had the pleasure to give a guest lecture about documentary film editing to Penelope Price’s Documentary production class at Scottsdale Community College. Although, it had been a long time since I lectured or taught a class, I had a blast and think that I didn’t totally waste the student’s time. I was very impressed by the school, both its facilities and the students. The production program at SCC includes shooting 35mm film and the school has more camera equipment and better facilities than most 4 year schools I’ve visited. I got a chance to hear about some of...

Congratulations to Christian Bunz, the director of “Stairway From Hell,” a film I edited last year, for winning the best director award at the 2010 Cincinnati Film Festival. The film, originally titled “Pagasa” is the story of three students at the Sisters of Mary School in the Philippines. The school’s goal is to end poverty by giving impoverished students a free education, vocational training and job placement. The program exists in five countries and has proven to be immensely successful. Christian spent more than a year at the school and at the homes of the students...

After much too long a wait, “Pagasa,” a documentary I edited last year is finally getting its premier. The film, now titled “Stairway from Hell” makes its debut at the 2010 Cincinnati film festival where it will show on Saturday October 9th at 11:00 am and Sunday October 10th at 9:15 pm. The Cincinnati film fest is a small but prestigious festival, accepting only 20 feature films each year. Last year, every accepted film got a distribution deal, and the festival was in the list of the “Top 25 Film Festivals worth the entrance fee” by Movie Maker Magazine. Directed...

On June 23rd “Don’t Quit Your Daydream” got its official Los Angeles premier, complete with red carpets and celebrities. After the screening the audience got treated to a rare live Good Listeners show complete with guest performers from the film, including Adrian Grenier. After winning an award at the Nashville Film Festival in April, the film will show in three more festivals this fall: The Woodstock Film Festival; the Carmel Art and Film Festival; and the Heartland Film Festival. If you want to know more, here’s a link to the “Don’t Quit Your Daydream” site...