2009 SCREENWRITING WORKSHOPS

EUGENE CORR is a writer/director of films and television whose credits include the Academy Award- nominated Desert Bloom, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, (co-written/directed with Robert Hillmann), Prefontaine for Disney Pictures, and Mike Hammer: Too Legit for VH1, and The Joe Louis Story for Hallmark Entertainment. His television credits include Against the Law (Fox), Shannon’s Deal (NBC) and I’ll Fly Away (NBC). Currently he is producing a documentary, From Ghost Town to Havana, shot in Oakland, California and Havana, with Roberto Chile as cinematographer and co-producer, in Havana.

PAMELA GRAY is a screenwriter whose credits include A Walk on the Moon, which received the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award and a Golden Satellite nomination for Best Original Screenplay; Music of the Heart; and Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. Her television credits include one-hour drama pilots for CBS and ABC. Her original screenplay, Betty Ann Waters, will be produced in early 2009, starring Hilary Swank. Currently, she is writing an adaptation of the bestseller Dewey, the Small Town Library Cat who Touched the World, with Meryl Streep. Walk On The Moon is being adapted as a Broadway musical.

TONEY MERRITT is a writer, editor, and cinematographer. An independent filmmaker for 35 years, his films have been screened globally. In process is a ten-part film-poem on the Brazilian Amazon and a film on shamanism. He has recently completed, Lucha Libre de Tijuana, as well as a documentary on human sexuality, Erotic Powerplay, for Dr. Gabriele Hoff. He teaches Writing for Visual Media as part of San Francisco State’s Digital Video Intensive Program.

CHRISTOPHER MONGER is a writer/director whose credits include The Englishmen Who went Up a Hill But Came Down A Mountain for Miramax; Girl From Rio; Waiting for the Light, Crime Pays, for Film Four International. His television credits include the record-breaking film Seeing Red, for Granada and WGBH, for which he received a Christopher Award. Recently he directed the documentary Special Thanks to Roy London, and A Sense of Wonder, based on the play. He has two projects currently in production for HBO Films: the still untitled Temple Grandin story, and an adaptation of Dangerous Doses, based on the book by Katherine Eban.

JUDITH RASCOE’s screenwriting credits include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Havana, Endless Love, Who’ll Stop the Rain, the screen adaptation of Robert Stone’s novel Dog Soldiers, and of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley Underground, soon to be released. She was the story consultant on Roger Spottiswood’s Shake Hands With the Devil and for The Bang Bang Club, a feature about young conflict photographers in South Africa, which is scheduled for production later this year.

TOM RICKMAN is a screenwriter/director whose many credits include Coal Miner’s Daughter, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award; Everybody’s All-American; and The River Rat (which he also directed). His television credits include Truman, nominated for an Emmy Award; Tuesdays With Morrie, for which he received both the Humanitas Award and the Writers Guild Award; and The Reagans, nominated for an Emmy. He recently adapted the critically acclaimed Front of the Class from the book by the same name, for Hallmark Hall of Fame, which screened in December 2008.

LISA ROSENBERG is a screenwriter whose credits include independent features The Riddle and Savage Dawn, the dramatic short Friends, KCET’s The Oddest Couple documentary series, the internet-based political series Reinventing America and the Emmy award-winning public TV series, Psychology: The Study of Human Behavior. She recently completed her adaptation of Edie Meidav’s award-winning novel Crawl Space. She is also writing a column on storytelling for SF360, the S.F. Film Society’s website.

TOM SCHLESINGER was Caroline Link’s story consultant on the Academy Award- winning script, Nowhere in Africa, and Beyond Silence nominated for an Academy Award in 1998. He also consulted on Prom Night in Mississippi -- a feature length documentary screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival; two Burkert-Bareiss/TV60 productions: Hearts of Fire, written and directed by Luigi Falorni, in the theaters in 2009; and Ayla, now in production. He created and developed The Stranger, a television series with Keith Cunningham for Moroccan television, and is co-writing and producing Fierce Beauty, an independent film that will be shot in New Mexico in Spring, 2010, and is also writing a feature Pet Dreams.

CAMILLE THOMASSON’s screenwriting credits include Ave Maria and Luther. Her television work includes The Brook Ellison Story, which won a Christopher Award; The Magic of Ordinary Days; The Valley of Light, for which she was awarded a Templeton Prize; and a second Christopher Award for her adaptation of Patricia Reilly Giff’s Pictures of Hollis Wood. Currently she is adapting Regina Louise’s memoir, Somebody’s Someone, for Lifetime. She is writing The Stacey Bess Story, based on the autobiography Nobody Don’t Love Nobody for Hallmark Hall of Fame as well as The Lois Wilson Story, based on the book of the same name.

MICHAEL URBAN's first feature-length film Saved! was written while he was a fellow at the AFI. He is currently writing a feature film for Plan B/Paramount, called The Killing, to be directed by Jacob Estes. He has been in production on a test shoot for a feature he wrote and hopes to direct, Difficult Child. Additionally, he is collaborating with Camille Thomasson on a comedy feature, Outlaw Inlaw.

GUESTS: (Production commitments will determine availability.)

JULIE PARKER BENELLO is the principal at Chicken and Egg Productions.

SARAH RYAN BLACK's production company is Grand Illusions.

GRAHAM LEGGAT has been the executive director of the San Francisco Film Society since October 2005.

SCOTT ROSENFELT is an independent producer who founded I.E. Productions with producer and writing partner, Billie Grief; he also is a partner in Picture Play Films.

GEORGE RUSH’s law practice specializes in the entertainment industry with emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area film community.

GAIL SILVA is an advisor and curator for arts organizations, individual artists and filmmakers, with nearly 30 years of service to the independent media field.

RON YERXA is a producer and partner of Bona Fide Productions in Los Angeles.