Class of 2015

The Class of 2015 is currently in production. Each student is working on a short documentary, while also crewing on shoots for fellow classmates.  Their twelve documentary shorts will screen at the annual Truth Be Told public film festival in May 2015.

Jonathan Bjerg Moller

Jonathan loves movies. Especially old ones and westerns. He’s into yoga, juicing, karaoke, steaks and donuts. He has nurtured a chili plant from the time it was a seedling.

Justine Bo

Justine Bo was born in France. She received a master’s degree from Sciences Po University (Paris) after several trips to the Middle-East, where she studied atheism as a focus for her thesis film. She has since directed several narrative/documentary projects, and just published her second novel. Focusing on memory and interior constructions of social issues, she is on a journey to blur the lines between documentary and fiction.

Alexandra Brown

Alexandra Brown studied anthropology as an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York City. After graduation, she produced several short films and worked as a location scout, location assistant manager, and producer’s assistant in New York and L.A.  She then decided to study documentary film as a way to bridge the gap between her interest in ethnography and her passion for narrative filmmaking.

Ian Cumming

Ian Cumming has lived all over the United States, but grew up primarily in West Hartford, Connecticut. He studied cinema at SUNY Purchase, and now lives in Brooklyn. In addition to making films, he is a hard-core golfer and pianist.

Michelle Cura

Michelle was proudly born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, but was raised in Miami in a Latin community where she was able to retain her bilingual skills and cultural roots as the daughter of Argentine immigrants.  She has an undergraduate degree in communications and an extensive production background in commercial television. Since moving to New York in 2006, she has explored freelance opportunities, including translating for victims of sex trafficking.   She chose to study documentary  at The New School as a way to engage with the world through cinema.

Naiara Eizaguirre

Naiara Eizaguirre was born and raised in San Sebastian, Spain. She is a multimedia journalist and for most of her professional career has worked in television as an on-air reporter, host, and producer . She often goes beyond her limits, so after ten years in broadcasting, she decided to make her next career move the study of the craft of documentary.

Erich Hehn

Erich’s first encounters with movie-making involved a Sony Handycam and a series of stop motion “magic shows” amidst the wee hours of childhood. He grew up in Monticello—a small town of 5,000 people—and studied graphic design down the road at the University of Illinois.  After graduation, he moved to Korea where he travelled and taught English for several years before returning  home to work as a graphic designer. The experience only served to motivate bigger ideas — and so the pursuit of serious filmmaking began.

Päivi Kankaro

Päivi Kankaro is a curly-haired singer from Finland with a master’s degree in Media Studies from the University of Turku.  Her professional work as an online producer led her to the world of multimedia and, later, to her passion for photography and film.  A sense of empathy and an urge to comprehend mankind inspired her life-long dream to pursue the art of documentary film.

Henry Laurence

Henry Laurence completed his undergraduate studies in history at The London School of Economics. In 2013, he made his first film Waiting for Justin which chronicled the tour of musician Justin Bieber from the perspective of his most committed fans. At The New School, his work in Documentary Studies combines interests in popular culture, historical practice, and film.

Sean Regan

Sean Regan grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is the youngest of six children.  He graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature, and worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for ten years.  An avid sports fan, he draws inspiration from this genre of documentary, and will direct a feature film on basketball in the future.

Nathan Reich

Nathan Reich was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a guitar player, a singer, a folk song writer, a speed chess player, a rock climber, and an intrepid filmmaker. Always on the hunt for a good story.

Laura Salaberry

Laura Salaberry is a graphic designer and illustrator from Brazil. She has a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication in Media and Advertisement, and a graduate certificate in the History and Culture of Gastronomy. She worked in magazines and newspapers for several years before deciding to focus on documentaries about food.