Faculty Partners

Larry Engel received his B.S. from Yale College, M.S. from Pratt Institute, and M.F.A. from Columbia. He is a documentary filmmaker specializing in science and adventure. His work is seen regularly on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and Turner Broadcasting. He has won numerous awards including a Daytime Emmy for cinematography and an AAS-Westinghouse Science Journalism award for television writing. He produces, directs, writes, and shoots most of his own work. In pursuit of stories, he has found himself chasing tornadoes, flying into hurricanes, running from wildfires, rescuing mummies, and dancing with penguins. Having been to all seven continents, Mr. Engel considers Antarctica the best of the lot.

Nancy Friedland received her MA from New York University and MLS from Rutgers University. Nancy has been working for Columbia University Libraries since 1995. As the Librarian for Butler Media, Film Studies and Performing Arts, she is the primary selector for all formats in film, theater, dance, television, media, and performance art. She also serves as liaison to the students and faculty in the School of the Arts. She currently serves as President of the Theatre Library Association and is a member of the board for Women Make Movies. She has taught at Pratt's School of Information and Library Science. She served as contributor and editor of Documenting Costume Design and has contributed to Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema & Media Studies. She is the faculty partner for The Film Language Glossary.

David McKenna earned a B.A. from the University of Texas and an M.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University. Since 1971, he has directed more than 100 productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional and university theatres. In addition to writing for off-off-Broadway and radio, he has been co-writing and co-editing projects for Desperate Comfort Films. He has served as a story analyst/consultant for Focus Features, HBO, 20th Century Fox, CBS-Fox Video, New Line, October Films, and numerous private clients. As an acting teacher/coach, he has worked with the NATAS Actors' Workshop, the American Academy, the Yale Dramat, NYU, and the University of South Dakota. He has narrated documentaries for Camera Planet, VH-1, WebMD-TV and Court TV. He has twice adjudicated the American College Theatre Festival and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Richard Peña received his M.S. in film and video from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently the program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the director of the New York Film Festival. He has taught film history and theory at Harvard University, MIT, University of California (Berkeley), and City University of New York. Peña is the host of "Conversations in World Cinema" on the Sundance Channel, and, in January 2001, he was named Officier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. He is the faculty partner for The Film Language Glossary.

James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter (The Ice Storm), producer (Brokeback Mountain), and former CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company whose films have included Moonrise Kingdom, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Kids are All Right, The Pianist, Coraline, and The Dallas Buyers Club. He is also Professor of Professional Practice in Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory. He is the author of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud: The Moving Word, published by the University of Washington Press. He earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. He recently directed the short documentary That Film About Money and is currently in post production on his feature directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, starring Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon and Tracy Letts.