Faculty - 2007
Jonathan Wacks
Chair, Moving Image Arts, Directing Faculty
B.A., University of Essex; M.F.A., University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Wacks has directed a number of films including Powwow Highway, produced by Beatle George Harrison. This film was winner of the Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker's Trophy and was also nominated for 4 Independent Spirit Awards. Wacks' first film, Crossroads/South Africa, won an Academy Award in the documentary category (student). He then went on to produce the acclaimed cult-hit Repo Man, (Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton), and directed movies including Mystery Date, (Ethan Hawke and Terri Polo), Ed and His Dead Mother, (Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty), and an array of TV productions including 21 Jump St., (Johnny Depp), Sirens and Going To Extremes. He has served as Vice President of Production at the Samuel Goldwyn Company and is currently a member of the Directors Guild of America.
Diane Schneier Perrin
Director, New Mexico Filmmaker's Intensive
B.F.A., New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
Independent producer Diane Schneier Perrin has extensive experience in film development, production and distribution and a passionate commitment to quality filmmaking. Schneier Perrin has worked as Vice President of Production for FSA Film Enterprises and as Director of Creative Affairs for Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation. Her producing credits include: Run for the Dream (Lou Gossett Jr).; Convict Cowboy, ( Jon Voigt and Kyle Chandler); Barbet Schroeder's Academy Award-winning Reversal of Fortune; Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel; and Oliver Stone's Talk Radio.
Tom Musca, Screenwriting Faculty
Rutgers University; M.F.A., University of California, Los Angeles
Tom Musca's most recently produced screenplay Tortilla Soup, is the third highest selling Latino-themed DVD in history. He first captured attention as the producer and co-writer of Stand and Deliver. Starring Edward James Olmos, who earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination, Stand and Deliver won 6 Spirit Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. With director Ramón Menéndez, Musca produced and co-wrote Money For Nothing, (John Cusack, Benicio del Toro, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman). He made his directorial debut with Race, (Cliff Robertson). Other produced film credits include the award-winning Flight of Fancy for Showtime.
Forrest Murray , Producing Faculty
Forrest Murray is an independent producer whose credits include, Tony Bill's indie classic, Five Corners, (Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins and John Turturro). He re-teamed with actor turned director, Tim Robbins to produce the political mockumentary, Bob Roberts. Other independent award winners Murray produced include Dead Man Out for HBO, Denis Leary's No Cure For Cancer for Showtime, and The Spitfire Grill, (Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden and Alison Elliott). He has been a longtime faculty member at the American Film Institute and The School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Steve Kemper, Editing Faculty
B.A. University of Southern California
While working as an assistant editor for Michael Kahn on Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Steven Spielberg gave Steve Kemper his first editing position on the Amazing Stories television series. Kemper was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the episode entitled The Mission, which was directed by Spielberg. His first feature film credit came on New Jack City for Warner Brothers. Kemper's other editing credits include Time Cop, Sudden Death and End Of Days for Universal Studios, and The Relic for Paramount Pictures. His successful collaboration with John Woo's includes the director's biggest hits Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2, as well as Windtalkers. Kemper has taught graduate level film editing as an adjunct professor at U.S.C.
Jocelyn Jansons, Supervising Producer
B.A. Brown University, Fulbright Scholar
Prior to joining NMFI, Jansons worked as a producer and director in Los Angeles. As director and co-producer for the series "What's Your 20?" Jansons went behind-the-scenes on movies such as Monster's Ball starring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton and The Slaughter Rule with Ryan Gosling. Jansons was associate producer on the Sundance Film Festival hit, Chuck & Buck. Her television credits include E! Entertainment Television's Star Dates and the E! Style pilot, Mall or Nothing. In New York, Jansons served as an associate producer for Academy Award-nominated documentary film company, Gabriel Films and as the Administrative Director for the Nantucket Film Festival. Jansons experience in the locations department includes independent features Manny & Lo, Flirting with Disaster and Committed.
Jansons began her career at the age of 12 as a host and reporter for the Emmy Award-winning NBC television series, Fast Forward and Kids Just Kids, where she interviewed Andy Warhol, Iron Maiden and the Mets Baseball team, among others.







