The Film Program at UCA hosts a number of filmmakers and industry professionals each year, from up and coming directors like Elizabeth Wood and Rebecca Thomas to established filmmakers like David Gordon Green and documentarian Albert Maysles to industry professionals like stuntwoman Monica Staggs. They conduct workshops with students, screen their latest films, and conduct Q&A sessions about their work.
Previous visitors include:
2019-2020
Mark Duplass
Actor/Filmmaker
Mark Duplass is a well known American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in a wide range of TV shows and movies including The League, The Morning Show, Bombshell, Paddleton, and The Mindy Project. He is also a prolific writer/producer/director. His projects have included Room 104, Togetherness, Jeff Who Lives at Home. Mark visited UCA as part of the Creative Sustainability Summit.
Jeff Nichols
Filmmaker
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas Jeff Nichols is the award-winning director Mud, Loving, Midnight Special, and Take Shelter. Jeff visited UCA as part of the Creative Sustainability Summit.
Emily Best
CEO/Filmmaker
Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed & Spark, a crowdfunding platform for storytellers and filmmakers. Emily visited UCA as part of the Creative Sustainability Summit.
R.J Daniel Hanna
Filmmaker
J. Daniel Hanna is a Toronto-born, Arkansas-raised writer, director, and editor. He directed the film Miss Virginia starring Emmy winner Uzo Aduba. His short film Shelter, starring Clea DuVall (Argo, Zodiac) and April Grace (Whiplash, Magnolia), played at the SAG Short Film Showcase and won the Audience Award from the NewFilmmakers LA festival, among other accolades.
2018-2019
Kevin Willmott
Screenwriter
After winning an Academy Award for Best. Screenplay with Spike Lee for Blackkkansman, Kevin Wilmott returned to UCA for his second visit. In addition to Blackkkansman, Kevin co-wrote Spike Lee’s follow-up Da 5 Bloods and Lee’s earlier film Chi-Raq.
Ramin Bahrani
Filmmaker
Ramin Bahrani is an Emmy-nominated Iranian American writer and director whose films have premiered at the Venice, Cannes, Sundance, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. His films, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and others have won numerous awards worldwide. Bahrani is a professor of film directing at Columbia University.
2017-2018
Werner Herzog
Filmmaker
Werner Herzog is one of the greatest living filmmakers in the world. His credits include Aguirre The Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and more recently Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
2016-2017
Paul Sand
Actor/Director
Paul Sand an actor and director with over 50 years acting experience. He is known for Can’t Stop the Music (1980), Eerie, Indiana (1991) and Chuck & Buck (2000), as well as his guest starring roles on numerous TV shows.
2015-2016
Elizabeth Wood
Filmmaker
Elizabeth Wood is the writer and director of White Girl, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
2014-2015
Rebecca Thomas
Filmmaker
Rebecca Thomas is a writer/director known for her film Electrick Children, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Casey Coleman and Nathan Harrison
Producers
Coleman and Harrison are film producers best known for their work on the Academy Award nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
Casey Coleman and Nathan Harrison
Producers
Coleman and Harrison are film producers best known for their work on the Academy Award nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
Andrea Kalin and Mouaz Moustafa
Filmmakers/Activists
Kalin and Moustafa are documentary filmmakers and political activists who worked on the documentary Red Lines (2014), about the 2011 Syrian crisis.
Andrea Kalin and Mouaz Moustafa
Filmmakers/Activists
Kalin and Moustafa are documentary filmmakers and political activists who worked on the documentary Red Lines (2014), about the 2011 Syrian crisis.
2013-2014
Eric England
Filmmaker
Enlgand is an Arkansas based writer and director with credits that include Madison County (2011), Contracted (2013), and Get the Girl (2016).
2012-2013
Michael Stephenson
Filmmaker/Actor
Stephenson is best known for his roles in the film Troll 2 (1990), as well as the subsequent making-of documentary Best Worst Movie (2009), and the documentary American Scream (2012).
Christof Putzel
Journalist
Putzel is a journalist and documentarian known for his award winning short Left Behind (2002) and his correspondence work for Al Jazeera America, Vanguard, and Current TV.
Brent and Craig Renaud
Filmmakers
Brothers Brent and Craig Renaud are Arkansas-based documentarians who have worked on projects for HBO and Vice News including Shelter and Peabody award winning series Last Chance High. They also founded the Little Rock Film Festival in 2005.
Sara Nesson
Filmmaker
Sara is a documentary filmmaker best known for her Academy Award nominated short Poster Girl (2011).
Robert Walden
Actor
With over 45 years of experience as a film and television actor, Robert is best known for his roles in All the President’s Men (1976), Lou Grant (1977-1982), and Happily Divorced (2011-2013).
2011-2012
Evan Glodell
Filmmaker
Evan is an independent filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and cinematographer on several films, including his critically acclaimed experimental film Bellflower (2011).
Monica Staggs
Stuntwoman
Monica has done professional stunt work for over 90 films and television series including Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and True Blood (2011-2012).
Taylor Feltner
Producer
Taylor is a television and film producer with credits that include The Book of Caleb (2008), Just Like Us (2010), and Too Late (2015).
2010-2011
Spike Lee
Filmmaker
Spike Lee is a renowned award winning writer, director and documentary filmmaker with esteemed titles that include Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006).
Sam Green
Filmmaker
Sam Green is a documentary filmmaker who directed the Oscar nominated film The Weather Underground (2002), about the radical political activist group of the 1970s.
2009-2010
Mike Brune
Actor/Director
Mike Brune has worked on several films as an assistant director, director, and actor with credits that include Blood Car (2007), Drinking Buddies (2013), and Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell (2015).
Robert Kenner
Filmmaker
Kenner is an Academy Award nominated and Emmy winning documentary filmmaker who has worked for National Geographic and PBS, but is best known for his political documentaries Food, Inc. (2008), and Merchants of Doubt (2014).
Ivan Rogers
Actor/Director
Rogers was a character actor and director on such films as Forgive Me Father (2001) and The Payback Man (2010).
2008-2009
Albert Maysles
Filmmaker
Maysles was a legendary and award winning documentary filmmaker with credits that include Gimme Shelter (1970), Grey Gardens (1975), When We Were Kings (1996), and Iris (2014).
Brent Renaud
Filmmaker
Brent Renaud is an Arkansas native and award winning documentarian whose work has taken him worldwide, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Egypt. Some of his films include Dope Sick Love, and Off to War.
2007-2008
Alloy Orchestra is a three-man musical ensemble that performs live eclectic accompaniments and soundtracks to classic films of the silent era.
2006-2007
Long Cheng
Editor
Long Cheng is a film editor with a who has worked on such acclaimed films as House of Flying Daggers (2004), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), and To Each His Own Cinema (2007).
Jing Tao
Sound Designer
Tao is an award winning sound designer whose most notable work includes Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and The Flowers of War (2011).
Harry Cheney
Sound Designer
Harry Cheney is a Hollywood veteran sound designer with dozens of credits as a sound and foley mixer, including such films as Legends of the Fall (1994), American Pie (1999), and 2 Guns (2013).
2005-2006
Ly Bolia
Cinematographer
Ly Bolia is a cinematographer and camera operator who has many short film and feature credits to his resume.
Jeff Seckendorf
Cinematographer
Jeff Seckendorf is a cinematographer known for Judy Berlin (1999), Finding Home (2003), and The Crux (2004).
2004-2005
Filmmaker
Arkansas native Indie-sensation turned Hollywood filmmaker David Gordon Green is responsible for such films as All the Real Girls (2003) Pineapple Express (2008), and Eastbound and Down (2009-2013).
Michael Moore
Filmmaker
Michael Moore is an Academy Award winning documentarian and activist. Some of his more influential films include Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story.
James Neihouse
IMAX Cinematographer
James Neihouse is an Arkansas native and an award winning IMAX cinematographer.
2003-2004
Kevin Wilmott
Filmmaker/Actor/Screenwriter
Kevin is known for his films Ninth Street, and C.S.A: The Confederate States of America, as well as co-writing Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq.
Graham Gordy
Screenwriter
UCA alumnus (1999), Graham Gordy is the screenwriter behind War Eagle, Arkansas (2007), and co-writer of The Love Guru (2008). He was also a staff writer of the television series Rectify (2013-2015). In 2015, he became the executive producer of the television series Quarry (2015).
2002-2003
David Bordwell
Film Scholar
Bordwell is a renowned film theorist and historian. He has authored over a dozen works on cinema, its history, and theory.
Ben Meade
Filmmaker
Ben Meade is a documentarian and producer responsible for films like Vakvagany and C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America.