Atlanta Film Society Instructors
The Atlanta Film Society proudly presents instructors from East Coast to West Coast actively working with the community to push the boundaries of film and media!
Interested in becoming an instructor for the Atlanta Film Society? Apply at the bottom of the page!
Anjanette Levert
Anjanette Levert is a multi-talented professional with a diverse background in the world of documentary filmmaking, production, curation, podcasting, coaching, and teaching. Currently, she serves as the Director of Spelman College's Documentary Filmmaking Program, where she shares her expertise and passion for the craft with aspiring filmmakers. In recognition of her outstanding teaching abilities, Anjanette was honored with the prestigious Presidential Teaching Award in 2022.
Asad Farooqui
Asad Farooqui is a director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He has directed multiple films and written various scripts about characters stuck in an America that refuses to accept them. Asad’s feature script, The Immigration Game, won first place at the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Contest. His pilot script, The Islamic Boys, was a finalist at the Nashville Film Festival. Most recently, Asad’s feature script, Boundaries, won the Sidewalk Film Festival Screenplay Competition.
Ashleigh Chavis
With more than 20 years of working in film and television production, two-time Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Award Nominee and Key Makeup Artist for the Oscar® winning film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Ashleigh Chavis has nearly 60 projects under her belt. Working with actors like Michael Shannon, Richard Dreyfus, Helen Hunt, Zach Galifianakis, Jane Seymour, Ethan Hawke, Leslie Jones and Christopher Walken.
CARRIE SCHRADER
Carrie Schrader is an award-winning writer-director of short films, commercials, and feature-length films. She co-directed the short film Don't Mess with Texas with Ethan Coen and directed the Netflix commercial Batdad: Battle For Bedtime. Carrie also wrote and co-directed the feature-length documentary The Founders (Peacock, Amazon), and currently makes her living from multiple feature-length film write-for-hire contracts.
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Chris Anthony Hamilton
Chris Anthony Hamilton is an award-winning director and cinematographer living between Atlanta, GA and Verona, Italy. With an education in film from Hofstra University, Chris honed his skills in New York City working with giants including Spike Lee, Sesame Street, and Ralph Lauren and has had the likes of such prolific people as Barack and Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey in front of his lens.
Cristina “Trinity” Vélez-Justo
Cristina “Trinity” Vélez-Justo (she/they) is a public speaker and educator, and an award-winning composer for film and media through her business ReelScoring, LLC. She relocated to Charlotte, NC, from Los Angeles in 2018 after finishing the Television Academy Foundation Internship in Music .
EVAN HODGES
Evan Hodges is an Atlanta-based, multi-instrumentalist mixed-media composer. His compositional style is a mix of neoclassical and electronic minimalism, funneled through his education of jazz’s improvisation, harmony, and rhythm.
Gillian Albinski
Gillian Albinski spent 25 years working as a freelance Production Designer and Prop Master in film and TV. She has a degree in Theatre Arts from Penn State and has worked in professional theatre from coast to coast.
Harim Leon
Harim Leon has an incredible story of perseverance. A writer/producer based out of Nashville, TN, he knows what it’s like to take the leap from dreamer to entrepreneur first-hand. After years growing up in the construction industry but always an artist at heart, Harim experienced an event that changed his life forever and changed his perspective on what it means to truly live
Janlatae’ Mullins
Janlatae’ Mullins is an award-winning writer, producer, and freelance director based in Nashville, TN. She directs narrative short films, music videos, promos, and branded content, and is commercially represented by BARK BARK.
JEFF KEATING
Jeff Keating founded Georgia-based Doghouse Pictures in 2002. Doghouse Pictures is a film and podcast production company that produces featured documentary films, podcasts, television commercials, and promotional films. Jeff's Living is Winning documentary film won the Atlanta Film Festival Audience Award and received U.S. distribution from Passion River Films.
Karen Ceesay
Karen Ceesay is an actress, writer, acting coach, producer and Spelman College alumna, with over twenty years experience in Atlanta, Georgia and throughout the southeast. You may have seen Karen in several of her recurring roles on projects such as, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Black Lightning, and Greenleaf to name a few.
Kathy Berardi
Kathy Berardi is a filmmaking instructor and writer-producer who graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television’s MFA in Screenwriting program. Kathy recently became an associate producer on the new feature film, Golden Arm (2020). In 2019, her co-written feature screenplay, Secrets of the South was named as an official selection of the San Francisco International Screenwriting Competition. The 2019 script also placed in the top 13 out of over 3,000 Scriptapalooza entries and was a quarter-finalist in the Finish Line Script Competition.
Linda Burns
I read scripts, provide coverage and develop projects. I breakdown, budget, schedule, pitch, propose, close, negotiate, spend, reconcile, research, network, strategize, market, collaborate, consult, wheel, deal and deliver. I face challenges, solve puzzles and plan ahead. From script to screen, digital to film, union to non-union, large to small, I do it all! Always on time. Always on budget.
Lisa Ferrell
Lisa Ferrell has worked in series and tele-film development for such companies as CBS, Lifetime Television/Hearst Entertainment, NBC and TBS. While at motion capture studio Giant Studios/Profile, she was involved in the post production of films that include New Line Cinema’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Sony Imageworks animated holiday feature Polar Express directed by Robert Zemekis and starring Tom Hanks.
LUKE WILLIAMS
Luke Williams is a seasoned international filmmaker from Atlanta with 15 years of experience in film and television production, working on Spanish and English-language films. His cinematic sensibility is a fusion of his ventures in the United States, Argentina, and Europe, which resonate globally. Mentored by luminaries like Dana Lustig, David Lawson, and Atlanta's own Linda Burns, Luke's narrative ability marries artistry with industry insight.
Melissa Salpietra
Melissa Salpietra is an Emmy® Award-winning freelance video editor, motion graphics artist, and producer based in Charlotte, North Carolina. During her 15+ years as an editor, she has used her craft to tell stories through educational shorts, commercials, and narrative films for television and the web.
Melissa Simpson
Melissa Simpson is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Film Impact Georgia, a nonprofit dedicated to helping uplift the voices of those making independent films in Georgia. She was born and raised just north of Atlanta and has a BS in Film & Digital Media from the University of North Georgia.
Ruckus & Lane Skye
Ruckus & Lane Skye are the husband/wife writing and directing team behind the Appalachian thriller, The Devil To Pay starring Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Harder They Fall, Station Eleven). It premiered at the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival and took home the Georgia Film Award. It received a 10/10 review from Film Threat, who called it "brilliantly crafted."
Scott Myers
Scott Myers has written over thirty movie and TV projects at almost every major Hollywood studio and broadcast network. His screenwriting credits include K-9, Alaska, and Trojan War. Since 2008, Scott has hosted GoIntoTheStory.com, the official screenwriting blog of the Black List, and named Best of the Best Scriptwriting Website by Writer’s Digest.
SHANNAN E. JOHNSON
Shannan E. Johnson is a former Development and current Programming Executive at The Syfy Channel (Being Human, Haven, Warehouse 13) turned CEO of The Professional Pen (TPP), a script consultancy. TPP develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers prepared for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams to streamline their development process to get them to pre-production more efficiently.