photo courtesy Todd Wemmer (http://photosdie.typepad.com/photosdie)
Dennis Lanson
220 N. Zapata Hwy.
Ste. 11, PMB 126-B,
Laredo TX 78043
(978) 281 5235 home (Vonage)
( 415) 117 6756 mexican cell
(781) 888 5252 (only when I'm in the States)
dlanson19@gmail.com
tohearthemusic@gmail.com
CURRICULUM VITAE: full CV available on request.
INDEPENDENT FILM/TAPE PRODUCTION
A YEAR IN THE FIELD, 2020, DIRECTOR/EDITOR, a documentary about a young Estonian anthropologist doing a year's fieldwork in the fishing town of Bay de Verde, NL.
Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources (DER).
A film by George Gmelch and Dennis Lanson
Preview: https://vimeo.com/405236196
password: please contact dlanson19@gmail.com to see full film.
https://vimeo.com/412905144
WALK WITH US, 2019, a film about the migrant crisis, as seen through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio
Martinez, Director and Founder of the ABBA House, a safe house for migrants heading north, and deportees heading south, in Celaya, MX.
https://vimeo.com/316632028
email dlanson19@gmail.com for the password.
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD, 2020, a documentary about changes in a NEWFOUNDLAND outport, Bay de Verde, in the 25 years since the 1992 Cod Moratorium put virtually everyone out of work, is being produced in collaboration with anthropologist and co-director George Gmelch.
vimeo.com/286971110
(trailer edited by Ian McGuire)
And two earlier trailers, from our first shoot.
vimeo.com/259250198
vimeo.com/247878495
TO HEAR THE MUSIC, Hour-long doc about Gloucester organ builder CB Fisk, and Opus 139, a multimillion dollar instrument built on Cape Ann and installed in 2012 in Harvard University’s Memorial Church. Broadcast on 250 PBS stations throughout the USA, including WGBH, WNET, and others 2015-2017. Woods Hole and Nyon Film Festivals, 2014.
GRINGOLANDIA, 54 min, PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/VIDEOGRAPHER/ EDITOR. Video doc about the impact & experience of Americans in Mexican colonial city favored by expats.
Production grants as faculty research, Endicott College.
SEEKING THE 36, 30 min. CO-DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER. EDITOR. Video documentary on the Lamed Vov, Jewish kabbalic myth of the 36 just souls. Grants (2) from The Harold Grinspoon Fndtn, Springfield MA. Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, Utopia Film Festival (2010).
PITSTOP, PRODUCER/WRITER/DIRECTOR/EDITOR. 91 min.
35mm feature road movie set beside interstate in California’s Central Valley. Nine characters cross paths in a truckstop, find and lose love, and move on. In 1996-2001 raised $250,000 cash, & over $200,000 in-kind from private investors. Camera grant from Panavision. Festivals include Wine Country, Welsh Intl, MFA Boston, IFFM, Woods Hole, Rhode Island Intl. Broadcast WGBH, spring ’00 and numerous times thereafter. 35mm premiere April 2001 (NY) and June 2001 (LA)
3AM ETERNAL, 1999. DIRECTOR. A troubled Vietnam vet is given the opportunity to go back and save a dead buddy. Festivals: Dances with Films, Newport Beach.
AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, 25 min. DIRECTOR.
Comic short about a magic crystal. Cine Golden Eagle.
BOOMING, 57 min. PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/WRITER/EDITOR.
Documentary on mobile home living in a Wyoming uranium mining town in mid-winter. Grants: Wyoming Council for Humanities; CUNY Research Foundation; Screenings: Sundance, Denver, Popoli, Edinburgh, Sinking Creek (Producer Award). Screened Museum of Modern Art, NY; Broadcast PBS.
PHANS OF JERSEY CITY, 50 min. CO-DIRECTOR/CAMERAMAN.
Documentary on Vietnamese family of 20 struggling with life in USA.
Grants: AFI Independent Filmmaker, NEA, NY State Council on the Arts, NJ Arts Council, NJ Humanities Council, NJ Public Television, MERC.
Festivals: American (Red Ribbon), Popoli, New Directors /New Films. Broadcast PBS, Sale to Dutch, Danish, Australian television.
Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources (DER)
CROCK OF GOLD, 19 min. WRITER/DIRECTOR/EDITOR/CAMERA
Satiric “docufantasy” on McDonald’s hamburger empire.
Festivals: FOCUS (1st prize, documentary), National Student Festival (2nd place), finalist student Academy Awards. Screened at MOMA and Kennedy Center. Broadcast PBS 1982.
FREELANCE, Cameraman/Editor numerous documentary productions; shot GRANDPA (NY Film Fest short).
TEACHING FILM/VIDEO PRODUCTION
ENDICOTT COLLEGE, BEVERLY, School of Communication, from 2001-2013. FULL PROFESSOR.
EMERSON COLLEGE, BOSTON, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Undergrad Program, Visual/Media Arts.
PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER . Video production with film studies/history component. AVID instruction.
SCHOOL OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON. Film Area.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, BOSTON Dept. of Broadcast and Film. VISITING ASST. PROFESSOR .
BROOKS INSTITUTE, Santa Barbara. Screenwriting and Directing, Doc Production, Narrative, Postproduction.
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS, UNRANKED.
NYU, TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, ASST. PROFESSOR. Narrative, Sight and Sound, Cinematography.
BROOKLYN COLLEGE (CUNY), ASSISTANT PROFESSOR. Production Courses, Cinematography.
DOCUMENTARY FILM/TAPE EXPERIENCE, COMMERCIAL
San Miguel de Allende: video support for FEED THE HUNGRY, THE SAN MIGUEL WRITERS CONFERENCE, THE SAN MIGUEL ARCHIVE PROJECT, and others.
Endicott College: This Land is Our Land, 17 min. PRODUCER of student crewed/directed project about the 2008 New Hampshire primary election. Two short promotional tapes, one for The Mexico Campus, and another documenting the college's Mexico Culture and Community Service Project. PRODUCER/ EDITOR.
CPS Prods, Boston: "Samuel Bak: The Art of Speaking the Unspeakable" Documentary on a Boston painter and Holocaust survivor. EDITOR.
Warner & Company, Portsmouth: Redefining the American Dream: Cambridge College Capital Campaign, 2001. EDITOR.
Stuart Television, Concord: "The Cop and the Criminal" A&E. Channel. Hour long doc on the Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. EDITOR.
WGBH-TV, BOSTON: Local Programming: Tease/Wraps for Viewpoint/Indie Select. EDITOR.
Tera Media, Boston: "Hooked: History of Illegal Drugs", History Channel. CO-EDITOR.
Stuart Television, Concord: "Inside the Big Dig" Discovery Channel/ABC co-production. Hour long report on nation's largest highway project.
Spy Pond Prods/CPS, Boston:
"Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Eastern Europe" CO-EDITOR. PBS Pledge Drive doc on Boston chorale's return to Europe, where namesake group was wiped out by Nazis.
Phillips Academy Andover: "Art at Andover" WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/EDITOR
Also "Music At Andover" and "Andover: A World of Languages". Admissions videos.
Stuart Television, Concord: "The American Internet Story." Documentary on a business startup.
Stuart Television, Concord: "At the Grass Roots, with Robert Reich" 1998. PBS program. Pre-election journey to the Ohio River Valley with former labor secretary commenting. EDITOR.
LA Mission. PRODUCER-DIRECTOR-WRITER. Promotional tape on learning program for homeless.
Anderson Photo Safaris. "Focus on Africa" WRITER.
Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara. WRITER. Promo tape for the film school.
Barr Films, LA, WRITER. "YOU’RE NOT COMMUNICATING," a management training film; also "WHAT’S IN A BOOK?," (library use for preteens).
Wine Country Film Festival, Sonoma, CA. Trailer and other publicity.
AT&T Information Management, Morristown, NJ. WRITER/PRODUCER.
Northeast Utilities, Northfield, MA, "NORTHFIELD MOUNTAIN," a film for tour visitors. DIRECTOR/EDITOR.
Fidelity Corporation, Boston. WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR.
Videotapes on IRA corporate funds.
SCREENWRITING: member emeritus WGAW.
JOAN OF THE REDWOOD Teenager who hears voices saves her town
BAGGAGE Ensemble piece set in airport.
PIT STOP (dir/prod) Nine travelers meet - a black comedy.
TRANSIT (optioned) Serial murder in the NY subways.
INVERSION Environmental disaster thriller.
THE 36 (optioned) Comedy-adventure based on Jewish myth.
ONE DAY OF LIFE Courage, community & death in El Salvador.
URANIUM FEVER A prospector’s story set in the ‘50’s.
Writing residencies:
The MacDowell Colony - 1982, 1984, 1992.
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts – 1986, 2007
Djerassi Foundation - 1988.
MEMBERSHIP
Writers Guild of America West
Independent Feature Project East
University Film/Video Association
International Documentary Association
EDUCATION
The American Film Institute, LA., Directing Fellow.
Wrote, directed and edited three half-hour dramas.
Columbia University, School of the Arts, NY, MFA in Film (honors).
National awards for thesis film, CROCK OF GOLD
US Peace Corps, Ethiopia X. Taught English, Kombolcha, Wollo.
Haverford College BA, Honors. English Major, conc. in American Literature.
