New MFA in Social Documentary Film Program Announced

Beginning in the fall of 2009, the School of Visual Arts (SVA), will offer a two-year, sixty-credit Master of Fine Arts program in Social Documentary Film. Taught by seasoned professionals from the New York documentary film community and equipped with the latest in digital technologies, the new program will emphasize the craft, creativity and practical acumen needed to produce compelling documentaries suitable for commercial distribution. The MFA in Social Documentary Film will provide students with a solid foundation in the fundamentals of non-fiction filmmaking, as well as an immersion into the critical and analytical processes necessary to conceptualize and develop films with content of significant social relevance.

The program will be chaired by award-winning documentary producer and director Maro Chermayeff, whose work includes the recently-released PBS 10-hour television event, Carrier. As Chermayeff explains, "With this program we aim to provide an environment that fosters the development of socially accountable, non-fiction film. Through hands-on experience, students in this program will gain the technical and theoretical knowledge they need to bring their individual visions to fruition. It’s our goal that graduates leave this program with films which engage larger issues, and perhaps even impact public policy.”

Provost Dr. Christopher Cyphers commented, "SVA is extremely fortunate to have a filmmaker of Maro's caliber lead the College's new graduate program in Social Documentary Film. This program represents the convergence of journalism, social activism and the art of filmmaking; we expect that graduates of the program will deploy their technical skill, conscience and aesthetic sensibilities as a means to affect the public discourse on a wide range of social, political and cultural topics."

Faculty and guest lecturers include: Academy Award nominee Deborah Dickson (Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton, The Education of Gore Vidal); Emmy Award-winning producer Jeff Dupre (Broadway: The American Musical, Out of the Past); Emmy Award-nominated cinematographer Bob Richman (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, My Architect, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills); editor Ann Collins (Sound and Fury); producer Robin Hutt (senior vice president of Tru Television); Emmy Award-winning producer Glenda Hersh (A Baby Story); producer, director and sound recordist JT Takagi (North Korea: Beyond the DMZ, Keeping Speech Free, Homes Apart: Korea); Deborah Shaffer (Academy Award-winning Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements); Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Michael Epstein (The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood); 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship winner Pamela Yates (State of Fear, When the Mountain Trembles); and Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Susan Froemke (HBO’s “Addiction,” Abortion: Desperate Choices), among others, all selected for their expertise in the field.

The MFA in Social Documentary Film is a concentrated two-year course of study with a curriculum designed to develop the journalistic skills of research, analysis and critical inquiry, while emphasizing the practical aspects of filmmaking--from developing a budget, to making a pitch, to understanding the markets. Required core courses include: Producing; Visionary Journalism & Writing; Directing; Editing; Cinematography & Sound; and Process and Style lectures, which feature guest lecturers brought in to discuss niche topics such as rights and clearances, archival research, public television and film festivals. In addition, there will be an ongoing weekly screening series, designed to expose students to the best documentary films in the genre, where top filmmakers present and discuss their films. The degree program will culminate in the creation of a thesis film, either ready for distribution or serving as the basis for a more ambitious post-graduate project.

Maro Chermayeff is a three-time Emmy Award-nominated producer, director, author and former television executive. She is an executive producer, director and co-creator of the recently premiered PBS television series, Carrier, a 10-hour non-fiction television event which explores life aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, during a deployment to the Gulf in support of the Iraq War. Chermayeff also produced and directed the Emmy-nominated PBS series Frontier House, which won a Cine Golden Eagle for each of its six episodes; the multi-award-winning feature-length documentary Kindness of Strangers; and the American Masters' program "Juilliard," for which she co-authored the companion book. As a programming executive at A&E Television Network, Chermayeff was executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning and multi-nominated series Biography, as well as numerous documentary specials and series.

Application Information: Office of Graduate Admissions, gradadmissions@sva.edu or 212.592.2107.
Media Contact: For further information or to arrange interviews with Maro Chermayeff, please contact Keri Murawski, publicist, at 212.592.2164 or kmurawski@sva.edu.