Mary Beth Fielder

Last updated

Mary Beth Fielder is an American writer, director and producer of television and feature films. [1] She served on the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts from 1994 to 2009.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Biography

Fielder began her academic career at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in fine arts. [1] She subsequently moved to New York City and studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater under Sanford Meisner.[ citation needed ] After three years working in New York theater, she was accepted to the Master of Fine Arts Program in Film Production at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts. In the following years, Fielder wrote several scripts for studios such as Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. She also directed thirtysomething for ABC television and a number of other series.[ citation needed ]

In 1994, Fielder returned to USC as a full-time faculty member, teaching film directing, screenwriting and acting and serving as the faculty mentor on over 100 student films.[ citation needed ] She was awarded the Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2007 for mentoring undergraduate students and again in 2009 for mentoring graduate students. [2]

Fielder has also worked with the Jewish Federation's Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership Program, teaching and writing the curriculum for a Cinema Master Class and coordinating a summer exchange program between Tel Aviv University and USC. In March 2008 she received a U.S. Speakers and Specialists grant to conduct a series of scriptwriting workshops and career mentoring workshops in Nairobi, Kenya. [3] The workshops took place in Kibera, where she taught scriptwriting to fifty students for the Hot Sun Foundation. [1] [4]

Fielder co-wrote and produced two feature films. Wild About Harry (2009) tells the story of a teenage girl who discovers a shocking secret about her recently widowed father. [5] The film was awarded "Best of Fest" at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the filmmakers also received a special award from the City of Palm Springs for their efforts in fighting homophobia.[ citation needed ] Togetherness Supreme (2010) is the first feature film shot entirely in Kibera, Kenya, [6] and tells a story of intertribal conflict and reconciliation set against the backdrop of the contested presidential election in 2007. The film won two awards at the 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards, [7] and in February 2011 won Best International Feature Film Award at the 26th Santa Barbara International Film Festival. [8]

Fielder is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Aviv University</span> Public university in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv University is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and research of the city, comprising 9 faculties, 17 teaching hospitals, 18 performing arts centers, 27 schools, 106 departments, 340 research centers, and 400 laboratories.

The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television; Interactive Media & Games; Media Arts + Practice; Peter Stark Producing Program.

Barnet Kellman is an American theatre, television and film director, television producer and film actor, and educator, best known for the premiere productions of new American plays, and for the pilots of long-running television series such as Murphy Brown and Mad About You. He is the recipient of two Emmy Awards and a Directors Guild of America Award. He is the co-founder and director of USC Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts, and holds the school's Robin Williams Endowed Chair in Comedy.

Jennifer Warren is an American actress, producer and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Fullerton</span> American game designer, educator and writer

Tracy Fullerton is an American game designer, educator and writer. She is a Professor in the USC Interactive Media & Games Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC. In 2014 she was named Director of the USC Games Program, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the School of Cinematic Arts and the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC. From 2010 to 2017, she served as Chair of the USC Interactive Media & Games Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Wolff (screenwriter)</span> American screenwriter-actor

Paul Wolff is a screenwriter, actor, producer. He was a screenwriting teacher at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He retired in 2016 after teaching at the university for over twenty years. Wolff previously had a career in television which spanned nearly three decades.

Kibera Kid is a short film set in the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya. It was written, directed and co-produced by Nathan Collett in collaboration with the locals of Kibera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Collett</span> Kenyan film director

Nathan Collett is a filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot Sun Foundation</span>

Hot Sun Foundation is a non-profit organization that works in Nairobi, Kenya with young people from urban slums and other marginalized communities of East Africa to train and expose their talents and potential on the world stage. Hot Sun Foundation trains youth in all aspects of filmmaking, from scriptwriting, camera, sound, pre production, budgeting, production, directing, editing, and marketing. Vision of Hot Sun Foundation: Social transformation through art and media Mission of Hot Sun Foundation: Identify and develop youth talent to tell their stories on film

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Kenya</span> Film industry of Kenya

The cinema of Kenya refers to the film industry of Kenya. Although a very small industry by western comparison, Kenya has produced or been a location for film since the early 1950s when Men Against the Sun was filmed in 1952. Although, in the United States, jungle epics that were set in the country were shot in Hollywood as early as the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Todd</span> American film producer

Suzanne Todd is an American film and television producer, and the owner of the film production company Team Todd.

Kathy Smith is an Australian independent animator, painter, new media artist, and Professor with the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Smith chaired the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts from 2004 - 2009 & 2010 - 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercy Murugi</span>

Mercy Murugi is a noted Kenyan film producer and production manager who has worked on a number of local and international projects including Worse Than War, Stranded with Cash Peters. She has worked with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, BBC, among other global production houses and TV channels. Her most recent project is a feature film called Togetherness Supreme, shot on the Red One camera and filmed in Kibera. Murugi is currently a producer at Page83 films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival</span>

The Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival is the largest of its kind in the world and is considered one of the most important in its field. The film festival hosts hundreds of students, lecturers and guests of honor from the world's leading film industry in Tel Aviv, for a week of screenings and cultural events. Hundreds of films, premieres, cinematic events, workshops, conferences and special projects are held, inviting thousands of visitors to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque halls every day. Since 2013, it has been held once a year, in June, in Tel Aviv.

Togetherness Supreme is a 2010 Kenyan film.

Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, author and professor. He is the former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, alumnus of Telluride Association Summer Program and an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs.

<i>Veve</i> (film) 2014 film

Veve is a 2014 Kenyan drama film directed by Simon Mukali. VEVE is a co-production of One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noa Regev</span>

Dr. Noa Regev is an Israeli lecturer in film, CEO of the Israel Film Fund, and a former CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque.

Jason Rosenfield is an American film editor, writer, director, producer and educator known mostly for his work in story-driven feature-length documentaries. Elected to membership in American Cinema Editors., an honorary society of distinguished editors, he has earned multiple Emmy Awards for his work and contributed to numerous additional awards, including an Emmy Award and three nominations, an Academy Award nomination, a Peabody and R.F. Kennedy Award.

Kelley Kali Chatman is an American director, actor, writer, and producer. She is the creator of the 2021 indie film I'm Fine , which has won several awards in the film festival circuit.

References