Previous Class projectS
2020
My Underground Mother is an auteur-driven documentary about a daughter’s dogged search for identity and reconciliation with a mother whose hidden past surfaces many years after her death.
A middle-aged man tries to come to terms with his life over the course of an afternoon walk through his hometown.
2019
A filmmaker and her whole family become protagonists in a documentary about their struggle to love each other and stay together despite deep divides and disparate beliefs.
In a story of race and betrayal, a filmmaker returns home after 20 years away and is forced to confront the world he left behind.
A little boy gets to live as a woman for a day when he sends his spirit into his babysitter’s body.
Long-serving Muslim-American mayor risks his life abroad to bring humanitarian relief to Syria and confronts Islamophobia at home in the U.S.
A long-suffering housewife, Harriet, has a midlife crisis and decides to finally live out her dream of going to film school - without telling her philandering husband or her self-involved teenage daughter. Starring Miriam Shor.
The New York Love Songs chronicles a number of artists throughout the decade to explore how their relationship to music evolves as they come of age at the start of the new digital frontier.
When Hannah notices the symptoms of a terminal and painful illness in her aloof daughter, Esme, she decides to take a camping trip to her childhood hometown in a desperate attempt to connect with Esme before they have to say goodbye.
A documentary about life after being released from jail and the subject of recidivism in East Baltimore - that was to feature Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from The Wire and elements of her memoir, Grace After Midnight - but is now a documentary about four former inmates in New York City.
On the 4th of July, a serial killer has a moral crisis when he discovers that his latest victim is a high-school student; simultaneously, a rookie cop and a seasoned detective race against the clock to save her life.
2018
Being BeBe follows the intimate journey and unpublished backstory of BeBe Zahara Benet – a charismatic drag performer from Cameroon who is also the very first winner of the culture-changing phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race.
As hurricane Sandy descends upon New York, leaving destruction in her wake and plunging the city into darkness, a group of friends and neighbors come together and discover the joys, heartaches, and pleasures of human connection.
A documentary following Paul Vile - aka Jelloman - as he travels the world one Jell-O shot at a time, trying to carve out his own legendary mark while living in the shadow of his older brother, indie rockstar Kurt Vile.
Premiered at SXSW 2019. Four siblings reluctantly return home to say goodbye to their compulsively lying mother in the twilight of her terminal illness.
Premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. Distributed by FilmRise. Teenage Nola grew up living out of a van with her father Clint but when tragedy strikes, Nola must confront her life and decide whether or not to get off the road for the first time. Starring Sabrina Carpenter and Danny Trejo.
Premiered at SXSW. Three young Texas cowgirls are tasked with carrying on their families' legacies amidst a volatile landscape and industry.
A time traveling assassin inadvertently falls in love with his target aboard a cruise ship.
2017
Directed by Rachel Koteen
NWHL: History Begins is a behind-the-scenes look at the founding of the first professional women's hockey league in the US.
On the anniversary of her younger sister’s death, Rosie decides to take things into her own hands when she discovers that the man who sexploited her sister is back on the prowl.
Framed for murder by mafia cops Barry Gibbs was freed from prison after two decades only to discover that his real nightmare had just begun.
The criminal subculture of the Albanian community in the Bronx, starring a real-life ex-con.
Distribution by Film & TV House. A woman who has been dumped eleven times in a row, discovers (to her dismay) that she has a loser in love gene.
After their lives are overturned by vicious online harassment, three women seek justice from the internet.
New Zealand farmer and dog trainer Paul Sorenson passes his knowledge to the next generation of shepherds to pursue his intense passion for dogs.
Following the death of her father, a 17-year-old girl is sent to live with her estranged family and finds comfort in a questionable friendship with a self-destructive neighbor, leading both on a startling path to self discovery.
2016
Fathers of Football is a character driven documentary that follows a small-town Oklahoman high school football team as they struggle to maintain their highly unanticipated winning streak, with the help of their coach and father-figure, Dale Condict.
Finding 52 follows director/producer Josh Zeman (Cropsey, The Station Agent, Mysterious Skin, Ceremony), Adrian Grenier (star of "Entourage" and producer of How to Make Money Selling Drugs and Teenage Paprazzo) and a team of world renowned scientists searching for the elusive '52 Hertz Whale'. Calling out at 52 Hz, a frequency unrecognized by other whales, this mysterious creature is believed to have lived its life in complete solitude, its calls forever unanswered by its own kind. In our ever-present fascination with these majestic beasts, the tale of '52' has prompted an intense reaction amongst our own species, pointing to a greater awareness of human loneliness than ever before.
Daphne, a young go-getter in Portland, Oregon, leaves her mother’s home to move to the Oregon Coast and start a family with her boyfriend, Roger, when he inherits his childhood beach house. But when they run into Susanna, an awkward woman who works at the local arcade, Daphne learns that Roger hasn’t been completely honest about his past and Daphne might have to fight not just for her relationship but for her very survival.
Ovid and the Art of Love is a dramedy about a young man who finds his life in peril when he writes a guide to love (and seduction).
Former gang leader turned anti-violence activist Terrance Roberts is arrested for shooting a young gang member during a peace rally in Denver’s historic “Holly” neighborhood. While Roberts awaits trial, his absence reignites a deadly gang war as years of truces and community work unravels and other forces move in. Facing 102 years in prison, and fearing for his safety, Roberts seeks information that might exonerate him from what he believes was a set-up. When witnesses begin to come forward and emergency federal and local money pours in to fight what becomes one of the nation’s most violent gang wars, evidence of a conspiracy to take down Roberts surfaces—along with shocking revelations of a larger and more systemic corruption plaguing communities of color.
A long-troubled itinerant carpenter returns home to small town Vermont and attempts to build a log cabin by hand, hoping to free himself from a cycle of poverty and addiction but when he reconnects with Sierra, a woman with whom he shares a complicated past, he becomes locked in a desperate struggle between the person he was and the person he hopes to become.
The story takes place in a high school where things spiral out of control when a terrible accident involving a science experiment injures a kid for life. Distributed by Gravitas Ventures.
Premiered at Sundance 2017. Featuring Jason Schwartzman, Chloe Sevigny, and Mary-Louise Parker. The arrival of a young foreign girl disrupts the lives and emotional balances of two Brooklyn families.
Premiered on PBS POV. A group of tenacious Hasidic women challenge the patriarchy in their community by creating New York City’s first all-female ambulance corps.
2015
Premiered on PBS POV. A group of tenacious Hasidic women challenge the patriarchy in their community by creating New York City’s first all-female ambulance corps.
A Gothic Caribbean love story... Amidst the ruins of a coconut plantation in rural Trinidad, a displaced girl seeking her roots is drawn to a young fisherman who shares her desire to look beyond. Their taboo attraction grows despite family disapproval, political turmoil and mysterious hauntings from ancestral spirits.
Sister Simone is a Catholic nun, a lawyer, an author, and a lobbyist.
The film follows Sister Simone, leader of the historic Nuns On The Bus tour, as she challenges both the Catholic Church and US Government to reclaim their core values. This treacherous and heartwarming journey challenges our notions of religion and politics, the role of government, women and power, our own faith, and our sense of ourselves as a nation.
Fifty miles from Manhattan, a community of Hasidim are building their version of utopia, redefining Judaism in America, and challenging the boundaries between Church and State. This documentary will explore what life is really like inside this village, the appeal and power of ultra-orthodox strain of Judaism, and how its exponential growth is creating new tensions and struggles.
On the eve of selling their family home, a baby boomer empty-nester retreats to Cape Cod rather than follow her relocating husband to Kansas. Arriving in the quaint seaside town, she stumbles upon a free-spirited mentor and embarks on a quest for self-discovery. Supported by a local artist, her literary agent and a sexy fisherman, our heroine finds herself anew, an “unfinished woman” ripe with possibility.
Decades after her mother’s death, a young photographer goes on a transcontinental journey to learn about the mother she never knew, and subsequently herself, by revisiting iconic photographers her mother interviewed decades before.
When international artist Peter Bjorn’s much anticipated show is panned by critics he disappears from the art world without a trace. He finds refuge in a remote Polish village, where he is enchanted and transformed by the haunting tones of pipe organ music and the sweet voice of a hiking nun. In the meantime his artwork mysteriously starts selling out in auctions and black markets, ironically making Peter B. sought out by collectors, and museums alike. When Peter B. reads online that he is thought to be dead he decides to go back and confront his past life.
Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Featuring David Oyelowo, Dianne Wiest, and Rosie Perez. A young man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law.
Premiered at SXSW 2016. Distributed by The Orchard. Peter is forced to move back to working class Warwick, Rhode Island where he reunites with a former childhood friend who drags him into doing a supposedly simple favor.
Premiered on PBS POV and nominated for an Emmy. Three Brooklyn high school seniors work tirelessly as peer counselors in the hopes of getting their entire class into college.
2014
Premiered on PBS POV. A group of tenacious Hasidic women challenge the patriarchy in their community by creating New York City’s first all-female ambulance corps.
SK8 GIRLZ is an underdog story that documents the rise of an all-girls skateboarding team as they tear down the barriers created by a male-centric sport.
Directed by Alex Ross Perry, starring Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston. An intimate and sad story about two strong women and the weaknesses that defeat them, Queen of Earth takes something familiar and makes it uncomfortable and nightmarish.
A hilarious new mockumentary in the Christopher Guest tradition, Maybe There’s A Tree suggests that the American theater is indeed on its deathbed. Starring Creed Bratton (The Office), Colin Mochrie (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), and Kathryn Kates (Orange is the New Black) as Mrs. Deuce.
Playwright Sidney Falk and his fiancee, actress Lucinda Greene, are expecting a baby. Over four days in Manhattan, Sidney wrestles with his attraction to a house-guest named Genevieve. This is no casual affair: inside Genevieve, the hired gestational carrier, is Sidney and Lucinda's baby.
All in Time tells the story of Charlie, who quits his job to move back home to Pennsylvania to manage his favorite hometown rock band. His supportive girlfriend shares his passion for the band, but struggles within the band force them to make choices that will change their lives forever.
2013
Premiered on PBS POV. A group of tenacious Hasidic women challenge the patriarchy in their community by creating New York City’s first all-female ambulance corps.
Missing People is a nonfiction mystery about a enigmatic woman investigating her brother's long unsolved murder, while obsessively collecting and researching the violent work and life of an outsider artist from New Orleans. As these parallel narratives intertwine, shocking events unfold.
Stars Rory Culkin (Signs, You Can Count on Me) and Mary Beth Peil ("Dawson’s Creek"). A dramatic adventure about love, class, and the ghosts that lurk behind all families, set on a stunning lake in the Adirondack Mountains.
Official Selection at Sundance 2014 and Official Selection at NYFF. Stars Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore). After refusing to promote his awaited second novel, a self-absorbed writer takes refuge at his literary idol's isolated summer home.
Official Selection, SXSW 2014. Stars Zachary Quinto (Star Trek), Alfred Molina (Love is Strange, Spider Man 2), Maggie Grace (Taken), and Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men). Written and directed by Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory). A man screws up on a transcontinental level in a noble effort to win back "the one."
Official Selection At Sundance 2014. Directed, written by, and starring Desiree Akhavan (Girls). Shirin struggles to become an ideal Persian daughter, a politically correct bisexual, and a hip young woman from Brooklyn.
Premiered at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival. Featuring Rory Culkin and Jack Falahee. Music collector Ollie Sway recruits his only friend, a rowdy Russian drifter, to help him steal a 78 record from his own family's estate..
In a hospital waiting room, a mother reviews her experience raising her son who has autism. Starring Janel Moloney (The West Wing), Nic Bishop (Body of Proof), and Matt Kane (Switched at Birth).
2012
Davina is an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl who often escapes into a beautifully twisted fantasy life. Having grown up quickly as the sole caretaker of her disabled mother, she looks for salvation in a new relationship with an older boy. Davina is swept into a whirlwind of romance and adventure, but the enchantment of her new relationship quickly fades when his volatile side begins to emerge. I Believe in Unicorns takes us on a road trip through the stunning and complex landscape of troubled young love. Directed by Leah Meyerhoff and edited by TEC Alum Rebecca Laks.
Tribeca Film Festival 2013. Stars John Slattery (Mad Men), Adam Driver (Girls), Louisa Krause (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby). When Lesley, the local school bus driver, becomes distracted during her end-of-day inspection, she fails to notice a sleeping boy in the back of the bus. What happens next shatters the tranquility of a secluded industrial town.
Stars Adam Brody (The O.C.) and Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show). After living for years as a struggling artist, Jake is preparing to leave New York City to live in Ohio with his ailing father. On his last day in the city, he convinces his three oldest friends to recreate their greatest adventure together: walking down the entire length of Manhattan.
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Debra Granik (Winter's Bone). Premiered at the 2014 New York Film Festival. This documentary follows Ron "Stray Dog" Hall, a working class man from Southern Missouri who came of age as a solider in the Vietnam War. Each year, Stray Dog rides in the Run For the Wall, a cross-country motorcycle odyssey to the Vietnam Memorial.
Layla is top of her high school class - and pregnant. Giving into family pressure, Layla decides against an abortion, drops her scholarship to college and moves into her beloved Grandma’s trailer on the family property.
2011
Black comedy that explores obsession, self-righteousness, and the perverse allure of victimhood in New Haven, CT. Edited by TEC Alum Ron Dulin and stars Will Rogers (The Bay) and Eleonore Hendricks (Heaven Knows What).
Documentary chronicling the ups and downs of several severely overweight female friends. Winner at the Austin Film Festival, 2013.
The film delves into the infamous McDonald’s hot coffee case which became the poster child for frivolous lawsuits in America. Premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up by HBO. Produced by TEC Founder Alan Oxman and edited by TEC instructor Cindy Lee.
This Emmy nominated documentary covers the highs and lows of an artist finding his place in New York City's cutthroat world of haute cuisine. First premiered at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival and was subsequently picked up by HBO. Produced by TEC founder Alan Oxman and edited by TEC alum Amy Foote.
Documentary about the first years of a small public high school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Winner of the 2013 Cine Golden Eagle Award. Directed by Emmy Award winner Jyllian Gunther.
Premiered at SXSW 2013. Distributed by Sundance Selects. A documentary about punk legend Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre and a central figure in the riot grrrl movement.
Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival. Stars Chris Messina (Argo), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) and Rich Sommer (Mad Men).
2010
Psychological portrait of a woman traveling home from a refugee camp in her warn torn country. Starring Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days).
Road trip comedy about a dysfunctional family who embark on a Lewis and Clark-reenactment journey. Starring Cara Buono (Mad Men) and John C. McGinley (Scrubs, Office Space).
The documentary film Fallout plays out against the uneasy backdrop of our nation's renewed nuclear fear.
Stars Emma Roberts (American Horror Story, Palo Alto) and Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and distributed by Fox Searchlight.
Directed by Aaron Katz (recipient of the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, 2007). Premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival and distributed by IFC Films.
“There were so many story lines in the movie that I wanted a lot of people giving input. And students’ minds are more open to breaking conventions.”
Documentary about a remarkable school for special needs students in New Jersey. Aired on PBS's "P.O.V." and received a prestigious Peabody Award in 2013.