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Two students participating in a psychological study
Amy Finkel
Assistant Professor of Photography
Bio
Amy Finkel is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, designer, photographer, and writer. She is the founder and creative director of Sailor Beware, an agency that specializes in photography, video work, and web design. Before joining the Marist community, Amy was a part-time Associate Teaching Professor at Parsons School of Design, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at both NYU and CUNY Hostos Community College, where she's taught classes in photography, documentary filmmaking, video editing, visual culture, media design, and web design for over 20 years. She also created photography curricula for The New School. Amy served as a judge for IDA's Documentary Achievement Awards, IFP, and New York Festivals, and as a ‘Doctor’ for New York Foundation for the Arts' "Doctor's Hours for Filmmakers." Amy's documentary, Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, was nominated for the Pare Lorentz Award by the IDA. Her first feature-length documentary, FUREVER, premiered at Hot Docs in 2013 and has since screened in over 50 film festivals worldwide. Its distributors are PBS and Gunpowder & Sky (formerly FilmBuff/Cinetic). Amy’s photography appears in assorted publications. A native of Seattle, Amy lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
Education
MFA, Design & Technology, Parsons School of Design, 2004
BA, Theater, English, and Music, Connecticut College, 1998
Research Interests / Areas of Focus
Analog and Digital Photography, Historic and Alternative Darkroom Processes, Sustainable Darkroom Methods, Documentary and Social Reportage, Portraiture, Vintage Cameras, Woodworking, Digital Fabrication, Medicine, Human Rights, Feminism, Social Issues/ Inequity, History, Democracy, Politics.
Creative Work
Work, interviews, or profiles published by: The New York Times; HBO; Comedy Central; The Believer; The Washington Post; Gothamist; IndieWire; The Wall Street Journal; CNN; Film Threat; The Hill; Mediaite; Dogster; Cleveland Magazine; HuffPost Live; KIRO News; WKQN; Playboy; Jezebel; Gizmodo; NewYork.Com; Time Out NY; The SF Weekly; Film Threat; Exclaim!; Indiewood/Hollywouldn't; Seattle Weekly; The Stranger; Toronto Film Scene; Toronto Star; Seattle Times; Pretty Clever Films; Giant Freakin’ Robot; Kickstarter; The Oklahoman; The Stranger: Line Out; Lost & Fond; Moviefone; /Film; Denver Post; Banjo Times; the Oklahoma Gazette; and the Memphis Flyer; among others. Work also featured in auctions/benefits and in private collections.
Film & Video:
Furever (Feature-Length Doc)
Prosciutto of Happiness: The Making of La Quercia (Promo/Doc Short)
The Seguine House of Staten Island (Doc Short)
Takka Takka: Silence (Music Video)
Uncommon Schools (Promo/Doc Short)
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart: The Banjomaniacs of Guthrie (Doc Short)
Selected Presentations
PANELS: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival; Seattle International Film Festival; Napa Valley Film Festival; Brooklyn Film Festival and BFF Exchange; Cleveland International Film Festival/School of Communication at Cleveland State University; Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF); Kickstarter; DC Independent Film Festival; Monmouth University; Christopher Newport University; Black Rock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD; Lake Placid Center for the Arts; The Institute for Arts & Culture at Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA; North Country SPCA; International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association (ICCFA) Convention, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV; Northside Film Festival; Salem Film Fest; DocUTAH; and Salt Lake City Film Festival; On Screen/In Person Tour.
Awards and Honors
Recipient of the 2023 NYU Teaching Excellence Award
FILM FESTIVAL WINNER (Furever, Feature Doc): Brooklyn Film Festival (Audience Award, Best Documentary); Las Vegas Film Festival (Best Feature Documentary); iD FEST, Winner (Best Feature); DocuWest, Winner (Best of Fest, Emerging Filmmaker Award); Kingston Film Festival, Winner (Best Feature Documentary); Delta Film & Video Festival (Best Feature Documentary); DocuFest Atlanta (Best Director, Feature Documentary); Nevada International Film Festival (Best Feature).
Awarded Multi-Year Faculty Appointment at Parsons School of Design, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2024. Appointed in 2022 to the Multi-Year Review Committee.
Served on Parsons Summer Intensive Studies Scholarship committee
Nominated by students for New School University's "Distinguished Teaching Award."
Gothamist story and Photo Essay, "10 Hours On A Bus With Newly Released Prisoners," picked as one of Gothamist's "Best of 2014." Garnered the attention of Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's Lockup, The Doe Fund, Osborne Association, and other journalists and prison reform/re-entry organizations.
Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart nominated for the "Pare Lorentz Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award" by the International Documentary Association (IDA).
Furever picked up for Distribution by PBS International and Gunpowder & Sky; Broadcast on Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Poland’s TVN Style, Australia's SBS TV, and in other territories.
Chosen as one of six directors for the 2013/14 "On Screen/In Person" film tour, funded by
the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation and the N.E.A.'s "Art Works" Regional Touring Program.
Full annual conference travel grant by the International Cemetery, Crematory, and Funeral Association (ICCFA), Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
"Top 25" award winner for Tribeca Film Festival + Amex's "My Life/My Card" Campaign.
Served as a judge for: IDA's 2009 Documentary Achievement Awards, New York Festivals’ TV documentary division, and Film Independent’s Independent Spirit Awards.
Served as documentary "doctor," New York Foundation for the Arts' "Doctor’s Hours for Filmmakers."
