ELA THIER - Founding Director, Head-Teacher Ela Thier wrote and directed A SUMMER RAIN, winning numerous awards including the Official Best of Fest Award, a compilation created each year by festival curators from around the world. The film is currently screening at over 200 venues, festivals and TV stations. This year, Thier wrote and directed FOREIGN LETTERS, a feature film that was sponsored by B&H Photo, Arri CSC, and the contributions of over 250 individuals and organizations. The film is currently in post-production. Most recently, Thier wrote and directed JUDO GIRL, produced by FluidFilm, and she directed GENTLE CYCLE ONLY, a film written by Mrinalini Kamath. Thier studied filmmaking at NYU where she wrote and directed over a dozen short projects.

Thier's writing credits include RETRACTABLE (starring Chris Evans), currently in production, and THE WEDDING COW, a film that won over twenty international awards including nine Best Feature, and five Audience Choice awards. A prolific writer, Thier's feature scripts have been selected four times by the Independent Film Week (formerly IFP Market). In 2008 she was awarded a fellowship grant in screenwriting from New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). In 2006 she began teaching screenwriting, starting with a class of eight participants. As word spread, over two thousand filmmakers attended her workshops. As part of her teaching, Thier played a variety of roles in her students' film projects. Her credits are listed on IMDB. Ready to expand, Thier founded the Independent Film School (IFS). In its first year, she will teach most workshops and invite guest instructors for specialty seminars. As the program grows, Thier is committed to exercising one criterion in selecting additional staff: she'll be inviting instructors that she herself wants to learn from.

CONSULTING FILMMAKERS: our roster of mentors are available to guide our students as they move from the classroom to making their films.

CRAIG T. WILLIAMS As CEO of Red Wall Productions, Craig Williams has produced over 50 film projects including independent short films, promotional videos, educational films, actor reels, and the ground breaking documentary Black Sorority Project. He is the writer of over 20 short films, including the award winning shorts Allergic To Nuts and Drawing Angel. William’s feature screenplays include: Cape of Good Hope (just optioned), Soft Place to Fall, Jimmie and Game Night. He is most excited about the feature script Forty Third Street, which will go into production 2009. Williams had participated in a professional writer’s workshop at the School for Visual Arts and studied with Robert McKee and David S. Freeman’s story and structure workshops. He's been a member of Ela Thier's Screenwriting Lab since 2007 and is a member of the East Coast Writers Collective. He has also studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory and appeared in over 50 stage productions and independent films. Craig William's blog yobabydaddy.blogspot.com is a series of essays and prose about the joy and power and fear of raising a black male.

BENNO SCHOBERTH Writer-Director Benno Schoberth won First Prize at the IFP Market for his feature film Shelter. The film also won the Special Jury Prize at the Cinequest Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Taos Int'l Film Festival, Best Film at the CFVF Festival, and Audience Choice Award as well as Grand Jury Prize at the Temecula Int'l Film Festival. He is currently developing his feature script Brenda, which he'll be directing. Schoberth has worked on sound editing crews for numerous directors including Ron Howard, Robert Mulligan and Jim Jarmusch. For over fifteen years he has worked as a picture editor for film and television. Schoberth was born and raised in Aachen, Germany. He studied screenwriting with Ela Thier since 2007.

INNA BRAUDE   Inna Braude has worked as 1st and 2nd Assistant Director, as well as Production and Post-Production Supervisor, in over thirty short and feature film productions ranging in budgets and scope. Titles include The Education Of Charlie Banks, Cold Souls, The Hungry Ghosts, Adventureland and many others. Braude studied at the New York Film Academy where she wrote, directed and produced her short films My First Story and Private Beach. She is currently a member of Thier's Screenwriting Lab and is working as her producing partner on her upcoming feature project. Braude was born and raised in Russia. She moved to the US in 1988 when she was sixteen-years-old, and worked as a statistician before turning to filmmaking.

PAYAL SETHI   Payal Sethi has five years of experience in film development & production with Mira Nair's production company, Mirabai Films. She worked as an assistant to the director, assistant director and production associate on Monsoon Wedding, Hysterical Blindness, Vanity Fair, The Namesake, and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Sethi has programmed the Indo American Arts Counsel (IAAC) Film Festival & the Independent Film Week (Formerly IFP Market), and has managed industry relations for Tribeca & Hamptons Film Festivals. Committed to nurturing stories that push boundaries, from and about South Asia, she is a co-founder of Karavan Film, a distribution company of South Asian films.

FAYTHALLEGRA COLEMAN   Bio coming soon

MRINALINI KAMATH   Bio coming soon

ANDREA COLEMAN   Bio coming soon