Konstantin Syomin
ABOUT ME
Konstantin Syomin
DOB: March 16, 1980
EDUCATION:
New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
September 2010 - February 2012
Masters in News & Documentary
Ural State University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
September 1996 - June 2001
B.A. in Journalism
JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE:
TV RUSSIA
Nightly news presenter, news show “VESTI+”
TV RUSSIA bureau chief in North America
Covered the 2004 presidential election, Hurricane Katrina, elections in Venezuela, Chile and Bolivia
Field Correspondent
Reported on the shutdown of the Chernobyl NPP, war in Chechnya, war in the Balkans, Operation Enduring Freedom and a terrorist attack on the Nord-Ost theater in Moscow (live)
Participated in production of the following documentaries:
«Chechnya. Heaven in the shade of the swords», 57 minutes, 2000
«Shaken by the wind. New Orleans in 2005», 25 minutes, 2005
«Mama America. International Adoptions», 45 minutes, 2007
“The Good Empire”, 55 minutes, 2007
“Lessons of Moldovian”, 25 minutes, 2009
«Ukraine. Living on the edge», 1 hour, 2010
“Don’t cry for your hair”, 1 hour 5 minutes, 2012
“Planet of Babel”, 57 minutes, 2013
DP and co-production for
“Sound of Vision”, 7 minutes, 2012 (DocChallenge Film Festival in Toronto Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Use of Genre, Audience Award), 2013 EMMY Awards nomination in the “New Approaches” (POV, PBS)
currently working on “Biochemistry of Treason”
Оригинал: konstantinsyomin.com
Konstatin’s NYU Foster Care Work
Konstantin Syomin
NYU FOSTERCARE | 03.04.2011 16:02
Konstantin was born in Yekaterinburg, Russia. At the age of 21 he graduated from the journalism faculty of the Ural State University, and since then has been working for TV RUSSIA (Russian State Television) as a correspondent, special correspondent, international correspondent, and finally nightly news presenter. His journalistic tenure includes reporting on the war in Macedonia and Kosovo , operation Enduring Freedom, Pakistan , operation Iraqi Freedom aboard US Navy aviation carrier Harry SS Truman . Konstantin also spent 3.5 years in New York as the US based correspondent for TV RUSSIA. He covered Presidential elections in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, while also traveling around Latin America: Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba. Konstantin is an outspoken critic of the current global political and corporate establishment. His sharp commentaries on various political matters not once put him at odds with officials both in Russia, and abroad. In 2010 Konstantin decided to shift his attention to documentary filmmaking as the most effective way to spread his uncomfortable truth. That’s what made him to join NYU NewsDoc. Besides television Konstantin plays guitar in his rock-band, and has some interest in programming music. He is married and raising his 4 year old son.
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Константин Семин
Константин родился в Екатеринбурге, Россия. В возрасте 21 года он окончил факультет журналистики Уральского государственного университета и с тех пор работает на ТВ РОССИЯ (Российское государственное телевидение) в качестве корреспондента, специального корреспондента, международного корреспондента и, наконец, ночной ведущей новостей. Его журналистская деятельность включает репортажи о войне в Македонии и Косово, операции «Несокрушимая свобода» в Пакистане, операции «Иракская свобода» на борту авианосца ВМС США Гарри С.С. Трумэна. Константин также провел 3,5 года в Нью-Йорке в качестве американского корреспондента телеканала РОССИЯ. Он освещал президентские выборы в 2004 году и ураган Катрина в 2005 году, а также путешествовал по Латинской Америке: Чили, Бразилия, Боливия, Венесуэла, Куба. Константин - откровенный критик нынешнего мирового политического и корпоративного истеблишмента. Его резкие комментарии по различным политическим вопросам ни разу не ссорили его с чиновниками как в России, так и за рубежом. В 2010 году Константин решил переключить свое внимание на документальное кино как на самый эффективный способ распространения своей неловкой правды. Вот что заставило его присоединиться к NewsDoc NYU. Помимо телевидения Константин играет на гитаре в своей рок-группе и интересуется программированием музыки. Он женат и воспитывает своего 4-летнего сына.
CASTIGATING CHILD CARE
NYU FOSTERCARE | 16.05.2011 12:21
Castigating Child Care
PRODUCED BY KONSTANTIN SYOMIN
The Russian government’s recent effort to reshape its child protection system raises public concerns that the new laws and the imported juvenile justice and child care framework may be specifically used to target the families of the poor, and become an extremely efficient tool to suppress the growing popular dissent.
Natalya and Leonid Galaktionov claim they were forced to send their twins Vanya and Maksim to an orphanage after they started receiving threats from social workers that they would have taken the kids anyway. The case of the Galaktionovs, a poor family from Vladimir, provincial city in central Russia, fueled the flaring debate about the rights and wrongs of the country’s child welfare system and became the burning argument for those who oppose the reform.
Once a week Leonid Galaktionov, a retired military officer in his 50s, rings the bell of the local orphanage. He is usually given an hour to hug his twins, give them presents and once again promise he will soon take them home. The problem is Leonid has no home or any other place that may be called home in the eyes of the social workers. This family of five occupies a 120 sq ft unit in a tractor plant dormitory. The temporary permit to stay in this property is the only reward Leonid was granted for his service in the two conflict zones, Tajikistan and Chechnya.
“I was number 800 on the waiting list for public housing, then suddenly I became number 3000,” explained Leonid. “I was number 52 in the line for rental reimbursement, then I’m 121.”
At issue is the definition of neglect. The social services office argues that inspectors had every reason to remove the children because of the parents’ inability to provide “minimal living standards”. But that is exactly the argument that has shocked and outraged parents all over Russia.
In a country still dealing with the aftermath of the ravaging economic transformation, extreme neediness, historically, was never seen as something unusual, not to say illegal.
“At this moment child protection services in Russia almost seized the authority of courts and prosecution, and they apply the mechanism of child’s removal mainly to just two groups of parents: the poor and the politically active citizens,” said Darya Mitina, an ex-member of the Russian Parliament, who is currently heading the youth wing of the new political movement “Left Front”.
Nevertheless even critics agree that the Russian child welfare system is in a desperate situation and does need improvement. Still there’s no unity in this society as of how the old system should be reformed. Pro-government forces in the Parliament are promoting an idea of the new child care system based on juvenile justice, that will dramatically affect the current legal practice. Underprivileged families are seen by the government as the main supplying source for the underworld. Minors are usually subject to direct influence from their parents, proponents of the new law insist, and that is why public services must intervene on early stages, removing children when necessary.
Some may argue the mechanism is already working in absence of juvenile justice. But the proposed juvenile courts if established will deal with these matters independently and in a very expedient way, as trials should not last longer than seven days.
“Juvenile justice is absolutely needed,” said Mitina. “But the near term juvenile justice is empty, it’s like a cover for anything you like. For example though people in Russia today are sent to prison under fabricated charges, it doesn’t mean we don’t need criminal justice.”
What scares the public the most are the precedents when social workers and police were taking children into custody to punish parents for their political activities.
On May 23, 2010 independent journalist Galina Dmitrieva who lives in Tolliatti published an article in the local newspaper about the coming layoffs on AutoVAZ, Russia’s main automobile factory badly affected by the economic downturn. Two days later her apartment was stormed by social workers and the police. Her children, 2 year old Nikita, and 6 year old Alexandra were removed under charges of neglect. In private conversations Dmitrieva hinted that she should not have messed with the factory.
Sergey Pchelintsev has his own unforgettable memories. On February 12, 2010 the small apartment in Dzerjinsk, Nizhegorodsky region where he lives with his wife Lidya, and their own children Maxim, Anna and Darya was host to some unexpected guests. Social workers were accompanied not only by the police, but also by a local television crew. This time the reason for children’s removal was clear and abrupt. Sergey was openly accused of being “too poor” to support the kids, and they were taken away by force. Both sides realized it well that the main reason was Pchelintsev’s involvement in the social protest against the government policies last fall when another Russian automobile plant GAZ was cutting its workforce.
“Our government has slashed and privatized everything: social benefits, pensions, public housing,” said Pchelintsev. “Unlike in the USSR these days they are market, not family oriented. This might help them to contain public dissent for some time. But when massive removals begin - expect a huge social explosion.”
the story goes on here
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КАСТИГИРОВАНИЕ УХОДА ЗА ДЕТЬМИ
Недавние попытки российского правительства изменить свою систему защиты детей вызывают у общественности обеспокоенность тем, что новые законы и импортированная система ювенальной юстиции и ухода за детьми могут быть специально использованы для нацеливания на семьи бедных и стать чрезвычайно эффективным инструментом для подавления растущей популярности инакомыслие.
Наталья и Леонид Галактионов утверждают, что они были вынуждены отправить своих близнецов Ваню и Максима в детский дом после того, как они начали получать угрозы от социальных работников, что они все равно заберут детей. Дело о Галактионовых, бедной семье из Владимира, провинциального города в центральной России, вызвало бурные дебаты о правах и несправедливостях системы социального обеспечения детей в стране и стало горячим аргументом для тех, кто выступает против реформы.
Раз в неделю Леонид Галактионов, офицер в отставке в возрасте 50 лет, звонит в колокол местного детского дома. Ему обычно дают час, чтобы обнять его близнецов, дать им подарки и еще раз пообещать, что он скоро отвезет их домой. Проблема в том, что у Леонида нет дома или другого места, которое можно назвать домом в глазах социальных работников. Эта семья из пяти человек занимает помещение площадью 120 кв. Футов в общежитии тракторного завода. Временное разрешение на пребывание в этой собственности является единственной наградой, которую Леонид получил за службу в двух зонах конфликта, Таджикистане и Чечне.
«Я был номером 800 в очереди на получение государственного жилья, а потом неожиданно стал номером 3000», - пояснил Леонид. «Я был 52-м в очереди на возмещение арендной платы, тогда я 121.»
Под вопросом определение пренебрежения. Управление социальных служб утверждает, что у инспекторов были все основания для того, чтобы вывести детей из-за неспособности родителей обеспечить «минимальный уровень жизни». Но это именно тот аргумент, который шокировал и возмутил родителей по всей России.
В стране, которая все еще сталкивается с последствиями разрушительных экономических преобразований, исторически крайняя необходимость никогда не рассматривалась как нечто необычное, не говоря уже о незаконности.
«В этот момент службы защиты детей в России практически захватили власть судов и прокуратуры, и они применяют механизм удаления детей в основном только к двум группам родителей: бедным и политически активным гражданам», - сказала Дарья Митина, экс депутат российского парламента, который в настоящее время возглавляет молодежное крыло нового политического движения «Левый фронт».
Тем не менее даже критики сходятся во мнении, что российская система социального обеспечения детей находится в отчаянном положении и нуждается в улучшении. Тем не менее, в этом обществе нет единства в отношении того, как следует реформировать старую систему. Проправительственные силы в парламенте продвигают идею новой системы ухода за детьми, основанной на ювенальной юстиции, которая существенно повлияет на текущую юридическую практику. Государства, находящиеся в неблагоприятном положении, рассматриваются правительством как основной источник снабжения преступного мира. Несовершеннолетние, как правило, подвергаются прямому влиянию со стороны своих родителей, настаивают сторонники нового закона, и именно поэтому государственные службы должны вмешиваться на ранних стадиях, отсекая детей, когда это необходимо.
Некоторые могут утверждать, что механизм уже работает в отсутствие ювенальной юстиции. Но предлагаемые суды по делам несовершеннолетних, если они будут созданы, будут решать эти вопросы независимо и очень целесообразно, поскольку судебные процессы не должны продолжаться более семи дней.
«Ювенальная юстиция абсолютно необходима», - сказала Митина. «Но в ближайшее время ювенальная юстиция пуста, она как прикрытие для всего, что вам нравится. Например, хотя людей в современной России отправляют в тюрьму по сфабрикованным обвинениям, это не значит, что нам не нужно уголовное правосудие ».
Что больше всего пугает общественность, так это прецеденты, когда социальные работники и полиция брали детей под стражу, чтобы наказать родителей за их политическую деятельность.
23 мая 2010 года независимая журналистка Галина Дмитриева, проживающая в Тольятти, опубликовала в местной газете статью о предстоящих увольнениях на АвтоВАЗе, главном автомобильном заводе России, сильно пострадавшем от экономического спада. Два дня спустя ее квартиру обстреляли социальные работники и полиция. Ее дети, 2-летний Никита и 6-летняя Александра были удалены по обвинению в халатности. В личных беседах Дмитриева намекнула, что ей не следовало смешиваться с фабрикой.
У Сергея Пчелинцева остались свои незабываемые воспоминания. 12 февраля 2010 года в небольшой квартире в Дзержинске Нижегородской области, где он проживает со своей женой Лидей и их собственными детьми Максимом, Анной и Дарьей, принимали неожиданных гостей. Социальных работников сопровождала не только полиция, но и местная телевизионная команда. На этот раз причина удаления детей была ясной и резкой. Сергея открыто обвиняли в том, что он «слишком беден», чтобы содержать детей, и их силой забрали. Обе стороны хорошо понимали, что главной причиной было участие Пчелинцева в социальном протесте против политики правительства прошлой осенью, когда другой российский автомобильный завод ГАЗ сокращал свою рабочую силу.
«Наше правительство урезало и приватизировало все: социальные пособия, пенсии, государственное жилье», - сказал Пчелинцев. «В отличие от СССР, в наши дни они ориентированы на рынок, а не на семью. Это может помочь им сдерживать общественное несогласие в течение некоторого времени. Но когда начнутся массовые выселения - ожидайте огромный социальный взрыв ».
история продолжается здесь
CASTIGATING CHILD CARE
December 10, 2010
The Russian government’s recent effort to reshape its child protection system raises public concerns that the new laws and the imported juvenile justice and child care framework may be specifically used to target the families of the poor, and become an extremely efficient tool to suppress the growing popular dissent.
Natalya and Leonid Galaktionov claim they were forced to send their twins Vanya and Maksim to an orphanage after they started receiving threats from social workers that they would have taken the kids anyway. The case of the Galaktionovs, a poor family from Vladimir, provincial city in central Russia, fueled the flaring debate about the rights and wrongs of the country’s child welfare system and became the burning argument for those who oppose the reform.
Once a week Leonid Galaktionov, a retired military officer in his 50s, rings the bell of the local orphanage. He is usually given an hour to hug his twins, give them presents and once again promise he will soon take them home. The problem is Leonid has no home or any other place that may be called home in the eyes of the social workers. This family of five occupies a 120 sq ft unit in a tractor plant dormitory. The temporary permit to stay in this property is the only reward Leonid was granted for his service in the two conflict zones, Tajikistan and Chechnya. The closet size suit is too small for a crib so the couple’s 18-month-old daughter, who the state left in their care for unknown reasons, sleeps with her parents.
“I was number 800 on the waiting list for public housing, then suddenly I became number 3000,” explained Leonid. “I was number 52 in the line for rental reimbursement, then I’m 121. Putin said for their first two kids parents should be given a “maternity subsidy”, for the third one - an apartment. Social workers told me: Putin said, Putin do.”
At issue is the definition of neglect. The social services office argues that inspectors had every reason to remove the children because of the parents’ inability to provide “minimal living standards”. But that is exactly the argument that has shocked and outraged parents all over Russia.
“Social services are going to get enormous rights over your family. They can remove your kid for almost any reason. For example, if you don’t have oranges in your fridge. Their list of essential food is composed by the social workers themselves,” resented Sergey Pchelintsev, a father of three and a social activist from Dzerzhinsk. “They can also take your kid if you don’t have enough toys in your apartment or if you ask your child to help you around the house. The latter is often called exploitation.”
In a country still dealing with the aftermath of the ravaging economic transformation, extreme neediness historically was never seen as something unusual, not to say illegal. Though the official statistics boasts the number of Russians below the poverty line has recently diminished to only 15 percent of the population, it’s hard to imagine how one can survive on the minimal wage of just 5,300 rubles ($170) per month when the cost of living is sometimes as high as in the EU. For a public accustomed to this tradition of extreme poverty to have it used as proof that they may not be able to take care of their children is seen as an unwelcome import from the West.
The case of Vera Kamkina, 34, a single mom from St. Petersburg whose four children were taken away from her when her unpaid utility bills topped 140,000 rubles ($4,500) was perceived as paving the road to more action against parents who live in poverty.
“At this moment child protection services in Russia almost seized the authority of courts and prosecution, and they apply the mechanism of child’s removal mainly to just two groups of parents: the poor and the politically active citizens,” said Darya Mitina, an ex-member of the Russian Parliament, who is currently heading the youth wing of the new political movement “Left Front”. “That makes people think that only the rich can enjoy the privilege of having kids in Russia these days.”
Though there is no valid data on Russian parents who lost their kids, it seems like single mothers are the most affected category. But to judge the cases of poverty like Kamkina’s is an ethically risky task. Local social services records indicate that this mother had constantly refused any offered help, all of her children have different fathers, all were infested with lice and were not attending school.
Nevertheless even critics agree that the Russian child welfare system is in desperate situation and does need improvement. According to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation as of 2007 there were roughly 700,000 orphans in Russia. 80% of them have parents, but were removed from them. Most of the abandoned children live in orphanages, whereas the number of foster care families is still insignificant. The overall picture looks even gloomier than in 1945, when the devastating war left 680,000 children deserted. In modern Russia it’s not the war to be blamed, but the miserable living conditions and vicious economic disparities. Approximately 154,000 crime acts committed by minors were recorded in 2005 alone. 55,000 among them were serious crimes like murders or sexual assaults. More than 10,000 Russian kids currently stay in penitentiary facilities. Admitted into the real world of organized crime these convicts are thus becoming new conscripts for the ever-present Russian mafia.
Still there’s no unity in this society as of how the old system should be reformed. Pro-government forces in the Parliament are promoting an idea of new child care system based on juvenile justice, that will dramatically affect the current legal practice. Underprivileged families are seen by the government as the main supplying source for the underworld. Minors are usually subject to direct influence from their parents, proponents of the new law insist, and that is why public services must intervene on early stages, removing children when necessary.
Some may argue the mechanism is already working in absence of juvenile justice. But the proposed juvenile courts if established will deal with these matters independently and in a very expedient way, as trials should not last longer than seven days. The judicial base for terminations will also go far beyond the harm to child’s health or life to “neglect” and “inability to care”. In an environment as corrupt as Russian it is already becoming a new sort of criminal business. Parents all over the country complain they were offered to solve their cases for bribes. They are also worried that once parental rights are terminated children may be offered for domestic or international adoption which is also a flourishing business in Russia.
All in all the main concern is that juvenile courts may become an isolated apparatus so financially and technically interwoven with social care that it starts to work as a well-oiled castigating machine aimed at nothing but the money. That’s why parents are personifying juvenile justice with evil and accuse anonymous evil forces behind it in conspiring to destroy the traditional Russian family. “Stop juvenile justice now!” is the main slogan of the nation-wide campaign that gained unexpected support from the Russian Orthodox Church.
“If this system were just a more humane way to prosecute juvenile offenders, it would be hard to imagine anyone who would oppose it. But the Western experience in juvenile justice shows it is pure delusion to think so. If juvenile courts are put in charge of all family matters then at some moment they start to oversee everything,” \ Vsevolod Chaplin, an official spokesman to the Russian Church wrote in his column on patriarchy’s web site. “This system is encouraging children to inform against their parents.”
When it comes to child protection reform everywhere you go in Russia there’s little knowledge and a lot of confusion. American and Canadian experience is often cited by the Church and its sympathizers as the worst possible example. Still the very fact that juvenile courts and family courts are different institutions in America somehow evades attention of both anti-juvenile justice activists, and pro-juvenile juvenile justice experts.
“Send us back to our parents”,
“Every family under total control”
Anti juvenile justice posters
Regardless of this they do have something to worry about as significant changes to the Russian Family Code are also on table. Russia has a centuries long tradition of using harsh parenting techniques, which have never been a matter of criminal oversight. With the new amendments in action for the first time in Russian history children will be given the right to turn to social services with complaints about maltreatment or unsatisfactory living conditions. According to the proposed laws this may cause direct intervention on their part and parental rights suspension or even termination as a result. Russia is a signatory to the European Social Charter and the UN Convention on the rights of the child. Supporters of the reform use that as a justification. But many parents and social activists fiercely reject the very idea of breaking into private family matters. To some it’s a direct allusion to the infamous Soviet propaganda story about Pavlik Morozov, a responsible and fearless kid who snitched on his greedy and affluent grandfather to the NKVD, and was murdered by him for betrayal of the family values. Notwithstanding the ideological message this plot had never been popular among the Soviet people.
Pavlik Morozov by N.Chubakov, 1959
Irina Yarovaya, member of the country’s ruling party United Russia, and vice-chairman of the parliamentary commission on institutional legislature put her party’s take on the issue straight: “1,613 cases of children’s aggravated deaths were registered in 2009. These are horrendous numbers, and they prove we need more child protection in this country. Today’s isolated actions are not enough. We finally need to build our own juvenile justice that would avert crimes against children.”
Maybe such a humane version of child care wouldn’t be perceived with anger. What scares public the most are the precedents when social workers and police were taking children into custody to punish parents for their political activities.
“Juvenile justice is absolutely needed. But the mere term juvenile justice is empty, it’s like a cover for anything you like. When we say criminal justice, its necessity is indisputable in theory, but in practice our attitude depends on the real essence of the laws. Though people in Russia today are sent to prison under fabricated charges, it doesn’t mean we don’t need criminal justice,” said Mitina.
To any parent there is no other thing in the world more important than the child. The subtle manner of dealing with politically active parents proved so attractive that it quickly spread all over Russia. Similar cases are registered from Khabarovsk in the East to St. Petersburg in the West.
On May 23, 2010 independent journalist Galina Dmitrieva from the city of Tolliatti published an article in the local newspaper about the coming layoffs on AutoVAZ, Russian main automobile factory badly affected by the economic downturn. Two days later her apartment was stormed by social workers and the police. Her children: the 2.5 Nikita, and 6 year old Alexandra were removed under charges of neglect. In private conversations Dmitrieva was explicitly clued that she should not have messed with the factory.
In Moscow Alexander and Zinaida Lapin were raising their only daughter Vladislava, whom they managed to adopt from a provincial orphanage. In April 2010 Vladislava was removed from Lapin’s custody after social workers claimed the girl was beaten at home. Both Lapins are highly educated professionals who work at the Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Computer Sciences. They are also active members of the local communist party branch and vocal critics of the Russian political establishment.
Sergey Pchelintsev has his own unforgettable memories. On February 12, 2010 the small apartment in Dzerjinsk, Nizhegorodsky region where he lives with his wife Lidya, and their own children Maxim, Anna and Darya had seen an unexpected deputation of guests. Social workers were accompanied not only by the police, but also by a local television crew. This time the reason for children’s removal was clear and abrupt. Sergey was openly accused of being “too poor” to support the kids, and they were taken away by force. Both sides realized it well that the main reason was Pchelintsev’s involvement in the social protest against the government policies last fall when another Russian automobile plant GAZ was cutting its workforce.
It should be mentioned that all of the above parents ended up getting their children back after substantial investigation and painful court hearings. All were warned to stay out of politics.
“The State is willing to spend 20,000 rubles ($700) a month on every child in an orphanage, but they are reluctant to support the parents struggling to make a living. This is a money laundering scheme. Our government has slashed and privatized everything: social benefits, pensions, public housing,” said Pchelintsev. “Now they’re ready to sell families. Unlike in the USSR these days they are market, not family oriented. This might help them to contain public dissent for some time. But when massive removals begin - expect a huge social explosion.”
Оригинал: punitivecare.wordpress.com screen
См. также:
- 03.04.2011 Konstantin Syomin // nyufostercare.wordpress.com Скриншот
- 15.05.2011 ACS: WELFARE OR VICTIMIZATION // nyufostercare.com Скриншот
- 06.03.2010 Сергей Пчелинцев: Это для них шоу, а для нас - горе // zagr.org Скриншот
- About NYU News and Documentary // nyufostercare.com
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
nyunewsdoc.com
NYU News & Doc is a video journalism website created by the students at New York University’s News & Documentary graduate program, part of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
NYU News & Documentary
The News and Documentary concentration at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University prepares graduate students to report and produce short form and long form journalism for traditional and non-traditional media. From the first class, students are on the streets reporting, shooting and editing. We emphasize not only the story, but the storytelling. Our goal is to have a student skilled in both form and content, able tell a story by effectively using all aspects of the medium.
The Reporting I class begins with the basics of short form stories in a variety of formats and genres. After a progression of reporting classes, the curriculum culminates with each student producing a thirty-minute documentary. Our News Magazine editing class coincides with the Advanced Reporting class to give extra support to the production of the documentary.
Master Classes
Not only do students work with full time faculty, but we now have a series of Master Classes that bring in the best independent documentary filmmakers in New York City. This year’s series began with cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Other Master Classes scheduled for this year will feature Alan Berliner, veteran cinema verite producer, Susan Froemke and a sound recording class. We also host filmmaker screenings throughout the year so students can see current work and interact with filmmakers to learn more about the process and different styles.
Our students are in demand for internships at all the major broadcast news organizations and websites in New York as well as at smaller documentary production companies.