Documentary Advisors
Professor Mark Jonathan Harris is an Academy-Award winning documentary filmmaker, journalist and novelist. Among the many documentaries he has written, produced and/or directed are The Redwoods, a documentary made for the Sierra Club to help establish a redwood National Park, which won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary (1968). The Long Way Home (1997), a film made for the Simon Wiesenthal Center about the period immediately following the Holocaust won the Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary (1997). Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport was produced for Warner Bros. and also won an Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary (2000).
Kate Amend is the editor of the Academy Award-winning documentary features The Long Way Home (1998) and Into The Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2001) for which she received the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie award. She teaches fiction and documentary production courses for USC.
Amend edited the 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary short On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom and the Peabody Award winner Beah: A Black Woman Speaks. She is a frequent advisor at the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Storytelling Lab and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ Academy.
Lisa Leeman produces, directs, writes and edits documentary films. She has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival, the president of the International Documentary Association, and on the boards of the IDA and the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers. She writes articles specializing in the ethics of documentary filmmaking.
Her work has been seen on PBS, HBO, Discovery, ARTE, and in theaters and festivals worldwide. Awards include the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival for her directorial debut, Metamorphosis: Man into Woman (POV, 1990); an Emmy nomination for her short Fender Philosophers; the once-in-a-lifetime American Film Institute’s Independent Filmmaker Grant; a Western States Media Arts Fellowship; and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pacific Mountain Network, and California Arts Council.
Tomlinson Holman is a Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and at the Viterbi School of Engineering, Chief Scientist at Audyssey Laboratories, and founder of TMH Corporation. He was Chief Engineer of Advent Corporation and founded Apt Corporation, manufacturer of the Apt/Holman Preamplifier. Tom was subsequently Corporate Technical Director for Lucasfilm Ltd where he pioneered the THX Sound System, Home THX, and introduced innovations into postproduction that became widely used. He named the most widely used multichannel sound system “5.1”, and in recent years has been working on a 10.2-channel one.
Josh Morton’s teaching is shaped by the depth of his professional experience, which ranges from 16 mm political documentary (Mayday, Hurry Tomorrow) to 65 mm visual effects (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Brainstorm). He has photographed several NOVAs for PBS (The Beast of Loch Ness, Daredevils in the Sky) and survived six seasons of Rescue 911.
As director/cinematographer, he has produced one-hour specials for A&E (Playing with Fire) and the Discovery Channel (A Cup of Courage: The Jockey’s Story). Morton has worked extensively on the History Channel series A Day in the Life and Unsolved History. He is currently photographing Time Warp for The Discovery Channel.
—————————————————————————
Other Mentors
Kenneth Hall has edited and completed over 950 films and TV productions. He has been associated with several Oscar-winning and nominated pictures including: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Amityville Horror, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Patton, Under Fire, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Basic Instinct, L.A. Confidential and Mulan.
Hall received two Gold Records for E.T and Mulan and was nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for First Knight, L.A. Confidential, Executive Decision, Mr. Baseball, The Ghost & the Darkness, Star Trek: First Contact and Mulan.
Hall has worked with some of the most respected and talented film composers in the world including: John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Alex North, Henry Mancini, John Barry, Bill Conti, Maurice Jarre, Lalo Schifrin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lionel Newman and Miklos Rozsa. When time permits, Hall continues to work in the industry.
