"As a participant in the screenwriter’s workshop in this past summer of 2012, I was truly thrilled by the feedback and support that I received for my script -- Hawk Dreamer. The program was well structured with the quality of presentations, small group discussions, individual time for scene production and feedback all exceptionally helpful. I came away with a wealth of ideas for revising and taking my script to the next level. Jacob Forman, my mentor, is a rare find and amazingly supportive.
This type of experience in which screenwriters and staff were immersed for one week into a creative world with such an intense focus is one of a kind. What makes this workshop/ program so unique is the high calibers of mentors, who have had their work produced, have experience in the film industry and are skilled in revealing screenwriting techniques. Living and breathing within this realm is a life changing experience for any aspiring screenwriter."—Marlene Shigagawa

"My time at the screenwriting program in Squaw Valley was a rare opportunity to step away from my harried life and focus on my script with the guidance of incredibly talented mentors. I went in with a draft that I knew needed to be rebuilt from the ground up, so I was ready for it. Tom Rickman went above and beyond in his role as my advisor and the sessions with other mentors were invaluable. I highly recommend this program to any screenwriter looking for an intensive workshop with a star-studded lineup of patient and generous teachers."
—Amanda Micheli

"Squaw Valley is the most powerful and effective of any workshop I've attended. My mentor, Camille Thomasson, helped me to see where my story had holes, which characters were extraneous, and how to get back in line with my original intent. The difference is the way Squaw approaches us as individuals. The one-on-one mentoring combined with “community” sessions strikes the right balance and gives writers the direction we need."
—Kari Nevil,Filmmaker

"I found the Squaw Valley Writers Workshop in Screenwriting to be incredibly rewarding, both professionally and creatively speaking. I made numerous valuable contacts in a short amount of time, and was able to receive, through the mentoring system, individualized and focused feedback from a seasoned professional in my field, something you just don’t get at other writing conferences.Coming away from Squaw, I was not only closer to a final draft of my screenplay, but I knew what to do with it afterwards. The close-knit and supportive faculty gave me the confidence and the know-how to get my script into the right hands post-workshop. My first screenplay, “Luna’s Highway” is now in pre-production, and I wholeheartedly attribute this success to my experience at Squaw Valley. I highly recommend this program for anyone interested in tuning their writing dreams into reality."
—Tamuira Reid

Production commitments will determine
the availability of staff members.

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 feature, From Ghost Town to Havana, shot in Oakland, CA and Havana, with Roberto Chile as cinematographer and co-producer, in Havana.

JACOB FORMAN is a screenwriter whose credits include All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, starring Amber Heard, which screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired there by The Weinstein Company for worldwide distribution. Jacob currently has two features in development at Paramount Pictures, as well as projects with Davis Entertainment, the Mark Gordon Company, and Liddell Entertainment. He has developed hour-long dramas for CBS Television and ABC Touchstone. His second produced feature, The Weli, completes principal photography in January 2013. He is a Lecturer in Screenwriting and Conservatory Studies at the American Film Institute.

PAMELA GRAY is a screenwriter whose credits include Walk on the Moon (aka The Blouse Man), which received a Golden Satellite nomination, Music of the Heart, and Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. Variety named her one of the “Ten Screenwriters to Watch.” She wrote the screenplay for Conviction, released by Fox Searchlight in Fall 2010, and voted Best Picture by the Boston Film Festival. It starred Hilary Swank, who received a nomination for a SAG award for best actress. She is currently writing a comedy feature for Paramount, and developing a Broadway musical about the Woodstock Festival. She is also a published poet.

PATRICIA K. MEYER is a screenwriter/producer who has written screenplays for Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions, as well as all the major studios and networks. Her many producing credits include the ABC miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place, starring Oprah Winfrey, which earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Miniseries. She executive-produced Nora Ephron’s directorial debut motion picture, This Is My Life, and numerous movies for television. Her comedy, The Ex-Boy, will be in production in 2013. Packaging for her historically-based thriller, Waikiki, is also in process. She is a Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting at American Film Institute.

CHRISTOPHER MONGER is a writer/director whose feature credits include The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down A Mountain; Girl From Rio; Waiting for the Light; and Crime Pays. His television credits as writer include Seeing Red, for which he received a Christopher Award, and Temple Grandin for which he received the Humanitas Prize and a Peabody. The film received 7 Emmys and won both the Monte Carlo and Banff TV Festivals. Liz & Dick, the story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for Lifetime was screened in November 2012. Recently he adapted Maggie O'Farrell's novel, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, for CrossDay Films; My Husband Rock Hudson, for HBO; and is currently completing his original pilot for NBC/Working Title, Madam Zena's Psychic Tea Room. Next he will write four episodes for HBO about the young Teddy Roosevelt. He has also directed the documentaries Special Thanks To Roy London and A Sense Of Wonder.

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 Patricia Highsmith’s novel, Ripley Underground. She was the story consultant on Roger Spottiswood's Shake Hands With the Devil, released in 2010, and for The Bang Bang Club, a feature about young conflict photographers in South Africa, released 2011. She is currently working with German scriptwriter Jørn Precht on a feature about Rochus Misch, the SS bodyguard who is the last living witness to Adolph Hitler's death in 1945.

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 adapted Front of the Class from the book by the same name, for Hallmark Hall of Fame, (2008). Currently he has completed the Miles Davis story entitled, Miles and Me, for the producer Rudy Langrich (Hotel Rwanda) and A Smile As Big As the Moon for Hallmark Hall of Fame.

LISA ROSENBERG is a screenwriter whose credits include independent features The Riddle and Savage Dawn, the dramatic short, Friends, the treatment for KCET’s The Oddest Couple documentary, the Emmy award-winning public TV series Psychology: the Study of Human Behavior, the internet-based political series Reinventing America, and the educational series The U.S. Constitution narrated by Bill Moyers. Currently, she is writing an historical drama for producer Doug Wroan and a contemporary feature for a San Francisco producer, and seeking production funds for her screen adaptation of Edie Meidav’s novel, Crawl Space.

TOM SCHLESINGER is a screenwriter and story consultant whose collaborations include Nowhere in Africa, with Caroline Link, which won the Academy Award in 2003 for Best Foreign Film, and Beyond Silence, nominated for the Academy Award in 1998. In 1996 he collaborated with writer-director Doris Dorrie on Nobody Loves Me, which won the German Film Prize, and The Fisherman and His Wife. Tom is currently co-producing the feature film, Playground with Robert Cort Productions in Los Angeles. He has just completed an adaptation of Sergio Bambaren’s book, Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer, for an animated feature.

CAMILLE THOMASSON’s recent television credits include Beyond The Blackboard for which she received a Humanitas nomination in 2012; When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, for which Wynona Ryder received a SAG nomination; The Pictures of Hollis Woods, a Christopher Award winner in 2008; The Valley of Light, winner of the Templeton Prize in 2008; The Magic of Ordinary Days; and The Brooke Ellison Story, directed by the late Christopher Reeve, for which Thomasson received a 2004 Christopher Award. Her feature work includes Ave Maria which debuted at the Latin American Film Festival in Cuba in 2000; and Luther, staring Joseph Fiennes, which won the Golden Screen Award in Germany in 2004. She is currently adapting a thriller, and teaching screenwriting at Yale. Her new play, Stalker, has been selected for development by the feminist theater company, She Said Yes.

MICHAEL URBAN is a screenwriter and instructor at the American Film Institute. His first feature film Saved! (co-written with Brian Dannelly) was produced by MGM/UA in 2004. He has since completed writing assignments for several major film and television studios including: 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Good Humor TV, Warner Brothers Television, ABC Television, Lionsgate and HBO. He is currently developing a one-hour series with the producers of Saved! for cable television and a feature film, Hurry Home (co-written with Camille Thomasson).

GUESTS
(Production commitments will determine availability.)

SARAH RYAN BLACK is a producer and partner with Grand Illusions Productions in Los Angeles. Her credits include most recently, We Are Champions, Parraiso Travel, 100 Feet and Restoration.

LINDA BLACKABY is an international media arts programmer in the U.S. and abroad. She is a specialist in community engagement in the media arts, and has served as consultant to film festivals, film-makers and other organizations.

TED HOPE is the recently appointed Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society. A producer for 25 years with over 60 credits, he is known for his ability to recognize emerging talent, and has produced 20 first features, including those of Alan Ball, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener and Ang Lee.

VIVIAN KLEIMAN is Executive Producer, Producer, Director, and writer at Vivian Kleiman Productions. A Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, she has a distinctive portfolio of creative video, and film production specializing in documentaries for diverse venues.

RUDY LANGLAIS is a producer residing in Los Angeles. His many films include The Hurricane, Sugar Hill, Who Killed Atlanta's Children and Redemption. His current productions include Miles and Me, the Miles Davis story written by Tom Rickman.

STEPHAN NAMATH lives and works in Los Angeles. He is the CEO of Rhino Films and produces both features and documentaries. His many titles include: Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dogtown and Z-bog, and lately, The Sessions.

GEORGE RUSH's law practice specializes in the entertainment industry with emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area Film Community.

DIANA FULLER, Program Director: Diana Fuller, producer, free-lance curator,editor, and arts administrator. She has been the program director of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Screenwriting Program for the last twenty eight years. From 1960 to 1990 she was owner/ director of (Hansen/Goldeen) Fuller Gross in San Francisco. She edited Art/Women/California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections, published in 2004 by the University of California Press. Until 2009 she served a consultant to the estate of artist Richard Pousette-Dart, in New York for whom she has initiated several travel exhibitions for museums. She continues in her role of advisor and consultant to both visual artists and filmmakers. She was the last President of Film Arts Foundation and continues to be available to all participants of the summer program, guiding them to production. She is President and a founding member of the Board of the Roxie theater in its rebirth as a non-profit and is in the final production phase of the project, Racing to Zero, a documentary feature.

CHRISTOPHER UPHAM, Director of Readings and Screenings: Writer director Christopher Upham's Vietnam documentary, Return to Dakto will be released by Collective Eye Films in Fall 2012. His Vietnam novel, A Distant Dream of War will be published in concert with the film. Recently, Mr. Upham was screenwriting Artist-in-Resident at MVLA Academy. His current project is Dark Gate, a San Francisco noir novella and feature film about a female Iraq war vet who puts her life in danger by making performance videos about her experiences at Abu Ghraib.

JASON WOLOS, Assistant Director: Jason Wolos recently wrote, directed, and produced the indie feature Trattoria starring Tony Denison (The Closer) and John Patrick Amedori (Gossip Girl, Jane Mansfield’s Car). He runs Fine Dining Video Productions, which has produced and shot for numerous projects, major corporations, and indie films that have been on the Sundance Channel; 60 Minutes; ESPN2, LinkTV, and Cartoon Network, among others. His short films have played worldwide and in particular 'The High and The Mighty played on major airlines as part of IFP’s Independents in Flight.