Digital Filmmaking Faculty

David Tames - Program Director

David has a broad range of experience in film production, web site design, media technology, and marketing. He has worked as Director of Photography on dozens of short subjects and five feature films including the award-winning "Never Met Picasso." He directed "Destiny," a short film premiered at the Long Island Film Festival and subsequently picked up for broadcast on WE: Women's Entertainment and PBS. David has held a wide range of professional positions including: Technical Instructor at the MIT Media Laboratory teaching video production in an atelier environment; Senior Systems Engineer at Apple Computer specializing in QuickTime and multimedia; Design Lead at the Viant Innovation Center doing business strategy and prototype web site design; Director of Marketing at Cineric, a firm specializing in postproduction and film restoration; and a member of the producing team of "The East Village," an episodic web site served on Time-Warner's Pathfinder site and winner of New Media Magazine's InVision Award in 1996. David has been a speaker and panelist at numerous industry conferences and workshops in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. He holds a B.S. in Computer & Cognitive Sciences and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Florida, and earned an M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Federico Muchnik - Program Director

Federico is a writer/director whose work has been shown at the Sundance, New York, and Toronto Film Festivals. His first film, You’re Not Telling Me Everything, Mrs. Malloy (1982) was licensed and aired on Home Box Office. As Producer of Destinos, produced by WGBH-TV, Federico traveled throughout Europe and South America filming this acclaimed television series. He co-wrote and played the male lead in Raul Ruiz’s cult film comedy The Golden Boat (1992), which won the Audience Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was shown at Sundance and The New York Film Festival. He recently completed Jack’s Movie (2004) a documentary which recounts the lifelong conflict between his aunt and his grandfather, and John and Leslie (2004) a documentary about couples. He is currently editing Between Heaven and Hell, a documentary about the Jewish resistance movement in WWII Holland. He is also editing Touching History, a film about the closing of The Tasty Diner, a legendary Harvard Square eatery. Federico earned a B.F.A. in Film and Television from The Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

Chris Boebel is a producer, writer, director, and editor who brings together a unique mix of creative experiences in his work on narrative features, documentaries, commercials, and corporate videos. His client list includes IBM, Lucent, Pfizer, Hachette-Filipachi, Young & Rubicam, and BBDO. He co-wrote, produced, and directed Red Betsy, a feature film that recently completed a successful theatrical release with positive reviews. Chris also co-directed and edited Containment, a one-hour documentary on the community around the Three Mile Island nuclear plant 25 years after the accident. Containment received grants from the Puffin Foundation, Hefner Foundation, and MIT Council for the Arts. His short film, Like/Dislike, won the CINE Eagle Award and screened at over 20 film festivals including Sundance Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, NY Short Film Expo (Special Jury Award), and Philadelphia Film Festival (Gold Medal). His creative projects have aired on Nickelodeon, PBS, BBC-TV, and other networks in Europe and North America. Chris earned his M.F.A. from New York University Graduate Film School and a B.A. from Oberlin College with High Honors in English Literature.

Andy Despres is currently the Engineer at FCTV, a local television station. His diverse background includes sound design, 3D animation, and motion picture film processing. Andy worked for several years as a Quality Assurance Engineer for computer companies including ATI (video cards and Video ASICs for Nintendo and Xbox) and Spacetec IMC (video drivers and gaming Joysticks). He now runs his own sound production company, called Twin Ankhs Productions, offering a range of services from studio engineering and technical support to building workstations for Audio, Video, and CAD. In his home studio he performs musical recordings, 5.1 surround mixing, movie scoring, and sound design. He also records outside musical acts, and does occasional live sound reinforcement and production. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell where he earned a B.A. in Music Performance - Sound Recording Technology.

Scott Doorley began working in film and television production in 1993. He has worked as unit cinematographer on CBS’s Big Brother, Fox Sports’ The Best Damn Sports Show Period, and on various shows for ESPN. He has production sound mixing credits on over 40 television shows for NBC, ABC, TLC, A&E, Vh-1, MTV, FOX and The History Channel and has worked in the sound department on over 15 independent feature films including Twin Falls Idaho and Happy Texas. Scott’s art directing experience includes commercials for Honda and Kia Motorcars among others. Beyond his various technical roles, Scott has also acted in several films including a supporting role in Dean Quixote, a feature film produced by Victor Simpkins, producer of the film Swingers. He holds a B.A. in Motion Picture Studies from UCLA.

G. John Garrett has mixed and recorded location sound for motion pictures and television for 20 years, and has done it underground, at high altitudes, underwater, and on five continents. John has worked on science documentaries like Nova and Horizon and all 11 seasons of Scientific American Frontiers. He has been the sound mixer on over 22 feature films including The Blue Diner, Working Stiff, Swimming on the Moon, Home Before Dark, Never Met Picasso, and Say You’ll Be Mine. Currently John is the only New England production sound mixer elected to the Cinema Audio Society.

Ziad Hamzeh is a director, producer, writer, and educator. He has earned over 40 critical awards and festival accolades for his films, stage direction, and productions. The Letter, his highly controversial feature length documentary, deals with what the media has dubbed the “Somali invasion” of Lewiston, Maine, racism, and the neo-Nazi cult. He founded two theaters in Los Angeles, which are still going strong: The Open Fist Theatre and The Egyptian Arena. He has written and directed a number of feature films, many television commercials, PSAs, and dramas such as Baal, Poor Murderer, Silent Knock and the pilot El Amor Brujo. His feature, Shadow Glories won five film festival awards. Ziad mentors and advises emerging filmmakers. He earned an M.F.A. in Directing from California State University, Fullerton, an M.A. in Writing and Criticism from California State University, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Chi-Ho Lee is a freelance editor and an Apple Certified Final Cut Pro trainer. His editing experience includes feature films and documentaries. His previous documentary, The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti, aired on WGBH in 2004. He is currently editing The Bat Women of Panama, slated for broadcast later this year and The Busker, a hi-def independent film, shot locally in Boston. He has been teaching for years at various training centers such as Future Media Concepts, Boston Film & Video Foundation, the International Film & Television Workshops at Rockport, Maine, Milton Academy, and other training and educational institutions. Recent corporate clients include Oxygen Design, the government of Dubai, IBM, Schering-Plough, Springfield College, and Center for Advanced Special Technologies.

Howard Phillips (Associate Program Director, Digital Filmmaking) has been involved in film and video work for over 20 years. While in college he ran a business specializing in corporate and music video productions, earning a slot on MTV’s Basement Tapes with his production of “Fools for Fashion” by The Talk. In 1988, after working as a freelance cameraperson in the U.S. and in Europe, he moved to Boston and founded The Edit House, which provided film editorial and postproduction services to over 80 feature films and was Avid’s first dedicated 24fps beta site. Over an eight-year period Howard made significant contributions to Avid’s Film Composer quality assurance team and was invited to share in Avid’s second Technical Oscar™ in 1999. Howard currently teaches and provides testing and consulting services to companies including Aaton, Arriflex, Avid, and Panasonic. He studied film and television at Montana State University and is fluent in both French and English.

Anne Renehan is currently the Director of Marketing at Boris FX, where she oversees the Authorized Training Center program and develops the Boris training curriculum. Before joining Boris, Anne worked for PBS as an Avid editor. Her credits include such series as Antiques Roadshow, ZOOM, Championship Ballroom Dancing and Victory Garden, as well as several documentaries. She has also completed projects for the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the Annenberg channel. Prior to that her experience included working for both Avid Technology and Discreet Logic. She also researched and wrote feature and hard news stories for the Washington, D.C. bureau of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. She holds a B.A. in Communications from Boston College and an M.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University, where she graduated with highest distinction.

Tom Robotham is a Director of Photography in the International Cinematographers Guild who has worked on feature films, commercials, music videos, documentaries, and corporate projects. He has also written, produced, directed, and edited commercials, PSAs, and narrative shorts including his own project, Desperate Measures, which won six awards on the festival circuit and screened at numerous festivals. He is a graduate of Hampshire College, where he received his B.A. in Visual Arts. Tom started his commercial art career when he joined his family’s firm, Robotham Creative, first as a copywriter and designer, later as chief creative and marketing consultant. He switched from sculpture to movies after he picked up a Super 8 camera in 1992. Tom’s sculptures have been purchased for private and corporate collections, and his large-scale floating works have been commissioned by the Cambridge Arts Council.

Franco Sacchi is a Freelance Editor/Producer and senior Avid Instructor. He worked for over six years in the Department of Educational Services at Avid Technology. While at Avid, he contributed to developing the Avid Certified Instructor Program, taught hundreds of classes, and conducted Train the Trainer courses to certify new Avid Instructors. Clients included ABC 20/20, NBC Dateline, Telemundo, RAI (Italian National Public Television), and many others. As a speaker, Franco has conducted seminars at NAB in Las Vegas and at the DV Show in New York. Franco collaborates on an ongoing basis with two news magazines of RAI International (the international branch of Italian Public Television) as a broadcast journalist/producer. Franco co-directed, produced, and edited, American Eunuchs, a feature length documentary aired in 2004 on the Sundance Channel and on Channel 5 in the UK and shown at several national and international film festivals, including the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). He graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of Bologna and earned an M.A. in Visual Arts from Emerson College.

Hal Wagner is a post-production audio engineer who draws from his diverse creative background in the motion picture industry, nationwide stage events, museums, and audio production. His company, Indigo Sound, has over 25 years experience in full audio post-production for film and music, sound effects creation, oral history production, DVD authoring, audio restoration, and sound design for movies, music, exhibits, museums, and trade shows. Hal has been a film and audio consultant for the annual ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Conference, as well as audio, video, exhibit, and sound designer at the New England Aquarium. His current work includes an ongoing audio restoration project at Northeastern University, teaching sound design and stagecraft at various institutions, an oral history DVD project, and sound design for independent movie soundtracks. Hal is also working to convert a major stage play into a two-hour radio drama for international distribution.

Tim Wright is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Blinktank, a collective of media producers and analysts. He has taught media production and media literacy at youth and adult education venues throughout New England for 20 years. His celebrated works include Conservation of Matter: The Fall and Rise of Boston’s Elevated Subway, winner of the Editing Award at the 1996 New England Film/Video Festival and the Grand Prize and Audience Choice award at the 1997 U.S. Super 8mm Film & Video Festival. Tim is currently directing the documentary Plastic: Credit Cards and the Culture of Debt with funding from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.