Master Class & Special Screenings

Join us each Tuesday evening in June at Kimball’s Peak Three Theater for a special screening and intimate and in-depth conversation with notable documentary filmmakers from around the country.

This summer, we will screen films and excerpts from five award-winning directors whose work has made significant impact nationally and internationally.

Join us for screenings and conversation as they discuss their films, their creative and storytelling process, and the challenges and rewards of documentary filmmaking in the 21st century.

June 1: Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider

Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider present their new film Los Hermanos.

Marcia Jarmel has produced and directed a slate of award-winning films for PatchWorks Films. She also works as a consultant and impact strategist on a broad range of films, including the Oscar nominee Last Day of Freedom and HBO’s Emmy-nominated 50 Children. Marcia has taught both undergrad and graduate film courses at NYU and Chapman University and been honored with residencies with Working Films, the Fledgling Fund, SFFilm, the Kopkind Colony, and BAVC Media Maker.  She has served as a juror for the Emmys, BAVC MediaMaker, and many film festivals.

Ken Schneider is a Peabody- winning producer/director who has also edited nearly 40 feature documentaries for PBS, HBO, Showtime and Al-Jazeera, and others. He received a Peabody as Co-producer and editor of Soft Vengeance. He edited the Oscar-nominated Regret to Inform, described by the New York Times as “unforgettable … exquisitely filmed, edited and scored.” Other films he edited have earned multiple Emmys, a Columbia-Dupont, three Peabodys, an Indie Spirit and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Ken is drawn to stories of war and peace, human rights, artists, American history, contemporary social issues, and Cuba.

June 8: Tom Shepard

YDA Founding Director Tom Shepard presents his latest film Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America.

Tom Shepard has been directing and producing documentary films for over 20 years. His film SCOUT’S HONOR won two top awards at the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast nationally on the PBS program P.OV. He also directed and produced KNOCKING, a film about Jehovah’s Witnesses, WHIZ KIDS, a coming-of-age documentary about youth who find their voice through science, and THE GROVE about the National AIDS Memorial Grove, all of which broadcast nationally on PBS.

Tom’s films have received acclaim in dozens of publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and the San Francisco Chronicle.  Previously, Tom worked as an editor at National Public Radio for Linda Wertheimer.  He 2013, he founded YDA and is the former chairman of New Day Films.

June 15: Eric Risher

YDA Instructor and OUR TIME Series Editor Eric Risher presents several short films.

Eric Risher is a regular faculty member of the Youth DocumentaryAcademy as well as staff editor. His own work as a director/producer/editor has been screened at film festivals and conferences around the U.S. Eric won a regional Emmy Award in Colorado for editing UNDER THE WIRE, a film featured in OUR TIME. He recently co-directed the feature documentary THE FANDOM which aired to nearly half a million in the first month of streaming.

In addition, he has done significant assistant editing on nationally distributed films including Oscar-winner AMERICAN FACTORY, the multi-award winning PBS documentary UNSETTLED and the upcoming film FREE FOR ALL by Director Dawn Logsdon about libraries in America. Risher splits his time between California and Colorado where he continues to teach and make films.

June 22: Sally Rubin

Sally Rubin presents her film Hillbilly.

Sally Rubin is a documentary filmmaker, editor, and professor who has worked in the field for over twenty years. She recently completed a documentary about stereotypes of Appalachia and their impact on our last presidential election, entitled hillbilly. The film is in distribution through the Orchard (Cartel Land, Life Animated) funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, recently won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has been praised by Michael Moore and Dolly Parton. In 2014 Rubin completed Life on the Line (with Jen Gilomen) about a teenage girl growing up on the U.S./Mexico border. The film broadcast nationally on PBS and premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Rubin’s previous film, Deep Down was an ITVS-funded feature-length documentary about two friends in eastern Kentucky who find themselves divided over mountaintop removal coal mining near their homes. The film was part of the 2010-2011 Independent Lens Emmy-winning PBS series, and has reached almost 1.5 million people through its broadcast, distribution, and outreach campaign. It was nominated for an Emmy for its Virtual Mine outreach project, in the category of New Approaches to News and Documentary. It was funded by Chicken and Egg Pictures, the MacArthur Foundation, ITVS, and the Fledgling Fund.