FILMMAKING PROGRAM FACULTYSOCAPA offers small classes and an accomplished teaching staff comprised of industry professionals with recent and ongoing production experience. Drawn from some of the top universities and film schools, including the Ivy League, USC, the American Film Institute, NYU, and Columbia, the instructors at SOCAPA guide the students through the three-week program with delicacy and skill.
| Nick Ordway (Advanced Filmmaking, NYC): Before entering the world of film, Nick Ordway studied literature and theatre at Princeton University and taught English at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. His films have played at Lincoln Center and on the web. In addition to directing, Nick both freelances as an assistant director and sound recordist. Nick was the Assistant Director on the 2011 Academy Award-winning short "God of Love." Nick received his MFA in Film Production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2009. He is currently developing a dark romantic comedy. |
 |
| Luke Matheny (Writing & Directing, NYC): Luke Matheny is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, writer, actor and teacher. His short film "God of Love," a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion who receives a package of love-inducing darts, recently won an Oscar for Best Short Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. The film also won the gold medal at the 2010 Student Academy Awards, special jury recognition at Aspen ShortsFest, as well as first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Film Festival. "God of Love" was Matheny's thesis at NYU's prestigious graduate film program. Matheny has also co-written a feature-length coming-of-age comedy, "A Birder's Guide to Everything," with Sundance-award-winning director Rob Meyer. The project is currently in pre-production at Crossroads Films in New York. |
 |
| Nicole Opper (Writing & Directing, LA, VT): Nicole Opper was nominated for a 2011 Emmy Award for her feature documentary, "Off and Running," which was an Audience Favorite Finalist at the Tribeca Film Festival and winner of the Audience Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Her other filmmaking credits include producing the Emmy-nominated The Killer Within (Toronto International Film Festival, Discovery Channel), Sacco and Vanzetti (Winner of Best Historical Film by the American Historical Society) and the here! network's five-part documentary series LSS. She was recently selected for Filmmaker magazine's annual list of "25 New Faces of Independent Film." Opper holds a degree in film production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently in post-production on a new documentary about an innovative group home for abandoned youth in Mexico for which she received a Fulbright Fellowship. |
 |
| Jennifer Gerber (Writing & Directing, NYC): Jen received her BA in Film and Video from Columbia College in Chicago and is currently pursuing her MFA in Film at Columbia University School of the Arts with concentration in Directing. She has served as Senior Producer for Manning Productions and as Director/Writer/Editor for Sagebrush Productions as well as Assistant Director on numerous film productions. She is an Award Winning Director: Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards, Princess Grace Honorarium, two-time Columbia College Chicago Big Screen Finalist, and winner of two Telly awards. |
 |
| Levi Abrino (Writing, Directing & Editing, NYC): Levi is a 2010 graduate of New York University's Film Directing MFA program. He currently resides in New York City's East Village where he works as a teacher and editor, notably editing the 2011 Oscar-winning short film "God of Love." He returns frequently to his family's farm in Pennsylvania to make films, including "I Ran with a Gray Ghost." You can catch his most recent film "Little Horses" on the festival circuit now. It recently had screenings at the Austin Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Naples International Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC), Miami Short Film Festival, and Three Rivers Film Festival (Pittsburgh, PA). |
 |
| Jamie Yerkes (Writing & Directing, NYC, VT): Jamie has worked in the film industry as a cinematographer, an editor, and a writer/director since 1994 when he made his first short film, “Cowboy Jesus,” an official Sundance Selection that has won awards at festivals worldwide. His first feature, “Spin the Bottle” was released by TLA Releasing in 2001. Jamie received his MFA in Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to teaching at SOCAPA, he has taught for over five years as a tenure-track Professor of Film Production and Film History at Long Island University. |
 |
| Bobby Webster (Cinematography, NYC): As a cinematographer, Bobby shot the 2011 Academy Award-winning short "God of Love." He has shot over twenty other short films and other projects in the past three years, including the award-winning TV pilot Illuminati Brothers, and the upcoming feature Casual Encounters. As a writer-director, he has worked with major emerging UK talent including Rebecca Hall and Rory Kinnear; his short film Bluebeard's Wife (Best of Raindance) has been televised in the US. Bobby received his MFA in Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently attached to several upcoming projects as cinematographer, is developing a feature-length screenplay, and is in post-production for his latest short film, "Detour " |
 |
| Chris Reed (Directing & Editing, LA): With his BA from Harvard, a Master’s from Yale in Film Studies, and an MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in Film Production, Chris is SOCAPA’s resident film scholar. Chris has directed many short films, both documentary and narrative, including the award-winning "All About George." Chris has taught at the high school level at Exeter, Choate, and LREI, and at the college level at Long Island University, the Art Institute of New York, and currently at Stevenson University, in Baltimore. Chris works as a freelance director, cinematographer and editor. |
 |
| Caroline Aragon (Advanced Filmmaking, VT, NYC): Caroline grew up in the cosmopolite suburbs of Paris and studied in Cape Town, South Africa, before starting her film career in 1997. Beginning as film festival coordinator, she soon pursued a career as line producer and assistant director in France, working on short films and commercials as well as feature film productions. She was also a development producer for two years at Orenok/Uqbar in Paris. In 2001, she moved to New York to attend the MFA program of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She directed several narrative short films. Among them is "Some Sort of Love," which was screened at the Berlinale Talent Campus (Germany), at Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival (France), at the Oval House (London UK), First Run & Fusion Festivals (in NYC), and Montreal World Film Festival. After the production of her graduate thesis film, "Curfew", she created a production company Rolling Moss Films, which is currently developing several projects with a focus on international collaborations. |
 |
| Jacob Okada (Writing & Directing, VT): Jacob graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2002 witha BFA in Film and TV. His short film, Curtis, received an honorable mention at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Jacob shot and co-produced Off and Running, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. He has recently been DP on Macky Alston's The Truth Will Set You Free, a documentary about Reverend V. Gene Robinson, and Nina Davenport's upcoming movie about single motherhood. Most recently, Jacob has been traveling around the country working on a project about prisons. Jacob also freelances as a film editor with credits for PBS and many emerging filmmakers. In addition, Jacob has taught several filmmaking courses at Long Island University's Department of Theater, Film & Dance. |
 |
| Craig Johnson (Writing & Directing, NYC): Craig received his MFA in Film Production from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and his BA in Theater from the University of Washington. He is currently on the festival tour (SXSW Film Festival, Vail Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival) with his first feature film as writer/director, True Adolescents. The film stars Academy Award Winner, Melissa Leo (The Fighter, 21 Grams, Frozen River), Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair, Baghead) and Bret Loehr (Identity) and is produced by Thomas Woodrow (Shadows) and veteran indie film producer Gill Holland (Sweetland, Loggerheads). Craig is the co-writer of the feature scripts The Skeleton Twins, a 2007 Sundance Writer’s Lab finalist and Working Stiffs, now in development with Benderspink (American Pie, A History of Violence). Craig was a member of the popular Seattle sketch comedy group Kazoo and has taught at editing at NYU and the School for Film & TV. He also played Macbeth at age 10. He is the only Macbeth with braces on record. |
 |
-Bridge S., Seatlle, WA