So i’ve been gone so long because I’ve started an MFA program at Columbia College Chicago in Film and Video. Each year the school takes 10-12 students and after three years and a number of short films both in the areas of narrative fiction and documentary, creates storytellers in filmmaking, ready to begin their thesis films.

The program is quite intense. The process operates between two absolutes: overwhelming and productive. You are always producing something and a good day is when you are not entirely overwhelmed. I can count the number of good days on one hand without my thumb.

We are ten very different people. Different ages, circumstances, geographic locations, cultures and genders. The one thing we all have in common is a great talent for telling stories. Columbia’s grand plan is to take that talent and make it better.