Rob Buchanan
Environmental Action and Research: NYC Waterways
Rob Buchanan is a lifelong magazine feature writer with an interest in travel, adventure sports, and environmental politics. His work has been published in Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Details and Men's Journal magazines, and he is a contributing editor at Outside magazine. He is also an activist working towards the ecological restoration of New York Harbor and the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. A co-founder of two community boathouses and the New York City Water Trail Association, he currently serves as the New York co-chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the EPA's Harbor & Estuary program. At Lang, Rob teaches journalism and writing seminars as well as courses on the history, geography, and politics of the Hudson River and the literary history of American environmentalism. His research interests include local environmental history, recreational and public access policies, and coastal development and waterfront design issues. He often holds class at the Village Community Boathouse on Pier 40, where six boats are kept, which were built by Eugene Lang College students in his Lang on the Hudson course.
Joshua Cohen
Writing City Criticism
The New York Observer described Joshua Cohen's novel, Witz, as "the sort of postmodern epic that arrives like a comet about once every decade." Library Journal predicts that his novel, Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, will become a cult classic, and Steve Stern called his work, A Heaven of Others, "a breathless flight of controlled delirium." His most recent collection of short fiction, Four New Messages, was a New Yorker Best Book 2012. His next work, Attention A (Short) History, is forthcoming from Notting Hill. Cohen is a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine.
Hal Hartley (co-instructor)
The New Screen: Filmmaking Boot Camp
Hal Hartley is a filmmaker and composer. His signature style, including a deadpan delivery of dialogue, established his presence early on in the independent film scene that began to emerge in the 1980's. His films include Henry Fool, Trust, and Amateur. Among the many notable actors featured in his works are Adrienne Shelley, Edie Falco, and Thomas Jay Ryan. Hal Hartley often scores his films under the pseudonym Ned Rifle. Along with the film editor, Kyle Gilman, he runs the digital retail company, Possible Films.
Talia Lugacy (co-instructor)
The New Screen: Filmmaking Boot Camp
Talia Lugacy is the writer and director of the critically-acclaimed Rosario Dawson film Descent. She is a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors unit and is the managing director of Tom Noonan's Paradise Factory, an East Village cooperative committed to independent filmmaking. She studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.
Caveh Zahedi (co-instructor)
The New Screen: Filmmaking Boot Camp
Caveh Zahedi is known for his self-reflexive, sometimes controversial, approach to filmmaking. His most recent film, The Sheik and I, was banned in the United Arab Emirates but ranked first at SXSW by Film Comment. His previous feature, I Am a Sex Addict, won the 2005 Gotham Award for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You. His other films include In the Bathtub of the World, I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore (winner of the Critics' Prize at the 1994 Rotterdam Film Festival), and A Little Stiff, which premiered at Sundance in 1991. He is an assistant professor of culture and media at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts.
