TFT Alumni Classnotes

Techqua Ikachi (Land and Life): Aboriginal Warning, a feature docudrama by Alan Gorg MFA ’70, has been honored at the Dreamspeakers, Mumbai, and Moondance international film festivals.

Gil Jordan '70, had a 15 year theatre career in Southern California culminating with seven years as the Technical Director of the La Mirada Civic Theatre.  In 1985 Gil moved to Montana with his wife, Kimberly Pinter, and since 2005 he serves as Executive Director of the Northwest Montana Historical Society and the Museum at Central School in Kalispell, preserving and presenting local history

The Long Weekend, produced by Vin Di Bona MFA ’71, is a film that uses outrageous videos that are “too hot” for TV as story points. An Emmy-winning executive producer known for introducing America’s Funniest Home Videos, Vin is chairman of The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors.

G. Marq Roswell ’71 has been a music supervisor for more than 20 years for films such as Casanova, An Unfinished Life and Dawn of the Dead.

Chris Baumgart ’73 has served for the past 15 years as chairman of the board of the Hollywood Sign Trust, which oversees the upkeep and preservation of the famed landmark.

Shirley Jo Finney MFA ’73 directed Alice, a new play written by Whoopi Goldberg, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Bob Field MFA ’74 has spent almost 15 years researching, writing and co-producing award winning interactive media experiences for museums and visitors centers Norwood, MA-based Boston Productions. Clients have included the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame and the Virginia Marine Museum.

Charles David Brooks, III, MFA, Directing "74 '76 
Acting Chair Benedict College Fine Arts Department.  Brooks is the Director of the Theatre Ensemble and has produced and directed 12 Plays since 2000, the latest being SHELTER (2008) depicting the down and out lives of men and women and their road to recovery. Brooks was Distinguish Faculty of the Year 2007-2008.

Brooks aka CDBIII spent three weeks (2007) with a......more

Tom Schlesinger '76 is Story Consultant on "Prom Night in Mississippi" -- a feature length documentary in this year's Sundance Film Festival -- about Morgan Freeman arranging the first integrated Senior Prom in his small Mississippi town. He also consulted on two Burkert-Bareiss/TV60 productions: "Hearts of Fire," written and directed by "Story of the Weeping Camel" filmmaker Luigi Falorni, which will be in the theaters in 2009; and "Ayla," which......more

Twelve films written and directed by Charles Burnett ’69, MFA ’77, were showcased at the Louvre in Paris in 2006, including Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger. In 2007 Killer of Sheep (1977) and My Brother’s Wedding (1983) were re-issued to rave reviews, theatrically and on DVD, by Milestone Film......more

Michael Nankin '77 directed the season opener of Battlestar Galactica which airs 1/16/09-- along with 8 other episodes of the show. He also found time last year to direct episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Eureka, and The Dresden Files. He wrote a miniseries for AMC last year and is currently writing a pilot script for Fox. He just wrapped an episode of CSI, which will air April 16, 2009.

Jonpatrick Anderson, '79, PhD is a grammy nominated singer/songwriter and member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences/Recording Academy, a former archivist for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration specializing in documents and film preservation, and a member of the UCLA First Century Society.