Like much of the faculty at SMU, Carolyn Macartney, Pam Elder and Kelli Herd, professors from the Meadows Division of Cinema-Television, practice what they teach.
This semester, the three women were awarded honors from organizations in their fields. For all three, these awards were additions to their past accolades and lengthy resumes.
Macartney, an assistant professor, received a 2007 Kodak Faculty Scholarship Award during the national University Film and Video Association conference earlier this semester.
Her recognition was based on her “capacity to enhance skill development in film production and classroom education.”
She says she will use the $4,000 award to help fund her documentary “Wanda the Wonderful,” a feature-length documentary that will chronicle the life of her grandmother, a Wild West sharpshooter.
Macartney says she spent the past summer filming in Wyoming, shooting interviews and “atmospheric” footage.
“I worked with two assistants over the summer, Carah Ronan and Letticia Gallegos, both of whom are recent CTV alumna. I am currently working on a trailer [for the film] with editor Caitlin Van Dusen, who is also a recent SMU CTV alumna,” says Macartney.
Another of Macartney’s films, “There Goes the View,” was also awarded Best Experimental Film by the association.
In both films, she plays the role of writer, director, cinematographer and editor (and adds sound editor to the list on “There Goes the View”).
Macartney’s black and white photography work has also won awards and has been exhibited internationally, with exhibits in New York, Germany and Spain.
Elder, also an associate professor, was also recently honored for her work when she was selected to participate in the Academy of Television Art and Sciences annual Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles last month. The honor is only given to 20 professors, chairs or deans of film-TV departments nationwide.
The Academy awards each delegate a $1,000 stipend to attend the seminar. The seminar covered information on how producers and writers function in the industry, program selection, scheduling, promotion and cancellation and several other topics.
Elder was selected partly based on her resume which includes writing and producing for PBS and NBC. She was also one of the early producers of the children’s series “The Puzzle Place” and executive producer of the Educational Enterprises Division at the PBS affiliate in L.A.
Herd, a senior lecturer, was named “Filmmaker of the Month” for August by Women in Film-Dallas. Herd is a 1983 graduate from SMU and now teaches screenwriting, directing the screen actors and filmmaking.
Her independent film, “It’s in the Water,” won an Audience Award at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival following its release in 1998. The film is about residents in a fictional town in Texas that go into a panic about the water supply after a number of gays and lesbians “come out.”
In an interview with Women in Film, Herd said she’s working on a sequel to “It’s in the Water” and plans to begin shooting in the spring. She also said she’s writing an action film called “The Vermilion Border.” In addition to these projects, Herd is currently co-writing a screenwriting textbook called “The Language of Screenwriting.”
