Lisa Katzman

Primary Academic Program: Film and Electronic Arts

Biography:

Lisa Katzman worked as a journalist, film critic, and educator for many years before becoming a documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. Tootie’s Last Suit, her documentary about the history and culture of New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians and iconic Chief Tootie Montana, premiered at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, played theatrically in New York and Chicago, and received the prestigious Jean Rouch Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology. Her project After Disasters is a two-part documentary that explores the environmental and health effects of 9/11 and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. For her original investigative work on BP’s use of the toxic dispersant Corexit during the 2010 Gulf disaster, she received a research fellowship from The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund that led to a feature story in Mother Jones. She also served as writing and acting consultant on HBO’s 2017 series The Deuce. Original screenplays include Rachel and Gerard, an interracial romance set in the art world of Chicago, that will be directed by Visiting Artist in Residence and distinguished filmmaker Charles Burnett; and Deep Song, a commissioned adaptation of Dorien Ross’s Returning to A, a novel about an American woman’s experiences learning flamenco guitar from Spanish gypsies in the 1960s. Katzman has written extensively about film, art, food, the environment, feminism, and human rights for publications including the New York Times, Village Voice, Film Comment, Interview, Saveur, Playboy, High Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. As an educator, she has taught film studies and screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Tulane University, Brooklyn College, and Vassar College. She also led screenwriting workshops for the Woodstock Film Festival and at Woodstock’s Byrdcliff Arts Colony.

BA, Bard College; MA, University of Chicago. At Bard since 2018.

Contact:

Location: Fairbairn
Office: 206