Guest Speakers in the David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts

The David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts draws on industry experts, academics, and professionals from all areas of film production and distribution. Visiting lecturers from past years have included:

Pen Desham

Film and television producer, writer, and director of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and Moll Flanders

Duwayne Dunham

Director and editor of films and TV shows such as Twin Peaks, JAG, 7th Heaven, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, and many others.

Kelly Edwards

Writer, Producer, Entertainment Executive, Pipeline Program Consultant

Peter Farrelly

Writer/Director of films, including Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, and Shallow Hal

E. Max Frye

Writer/producer/director of films, including the 1986 movie Something Wild, HBO’s Band of Brothers and in 2015, received an Academy Award nomination for co-writing the original screenplay Foxcatcher.

J.V. Hart

J.V. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in Ft. Worth Texas on Drive-In Movies and Saturday Matinees. His writing/producing credits include:

Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on an idea by Hart’s then 6-year-old son, Jake
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Muppet Treasure Island, directed by Brian Henson
Contact, directed by Robert Zemeckis

Other writing/producing credits include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Tuck Everlasting, and Jack And The Beanstalk: The Real Story. Sahara, Lara Croft: Tombraider – The Cradle Of Life, August Rush, Epic, and the TV series Crossbones, which he created and developed. The Hot Zone, the acclaimed series for Nat Geo based on Richard Preston’s best-selling book, was created by Hart, who also shared writing and story credits on each episode and served as an Executive Producer.

Hart has been a faculty member of the Columbia University Graduate Film program and has mentored for Sundance Film Labs, the Austin Writer’s Ranch, and the Equinoxe-Europe Writing Workshops.

“No one has a job in our business until you type ‘the end’.” — J.V. Hart

Kim Hudson

Author of The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual, and Sexual Awakening

Anya Leta

Anya Leta is a screenwriter from Fairfield, Iowa, whose writing credits include Homeland on Showtime and the forthcoming Mosquito Coast on Apple TV. She has developed television projects with the FX Network and Fremantle Productions and wrote/directed the award-winning short film Points of Origin, which she filmed in Mumbai. Anya earned an MFA from NYU Tisch Asia and a BA from the UCLA School of Film & Television.

David Lowery

Acclaimed filmmaker David Lowery David Lowery is known for directing independent films such as Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story, The Old Man & the Gun, and The Green Knight, as well as studio productions such as Disney’s Pete’s Dragon and Peter Pan & Wendy.

Martha Nochimson

Martha P. Nochimson has taught at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and developed and chaired a Film Studies program at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. She is the author of eight books, including The Passion Of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood and David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty From Lost Highway to Inland Empire.

Katrina O’’Gilvie

Storytelling is Katrina’s passion and coming from Jamaican, Irish, and Puerto Rican descent, she is proud to write with a wide range of exciting and diverse characters. Growing up in a family of legacy artists who broke through color barriers to become some of the firsts in this industry, she has perspective and appreciation for the journey.

Katrina O’Gilvie grew up between New York City and the South of Spain, where her father produced live Jazz concerts, and her mother was a singer. She fell in love with the film industry at an early age and followed that passion to film school at The New School University in NYC.

Seeking the warmer climate of her childhood, she moved to LA and became a feature development assistant at Imagine Entertainment before working for Aaron Sorkin on SPORTS NIGHT. While raising her children, Katrina worked in production, wrote a pregnancy book, was a feature writer for LA Parent Magazine, and completed her first novel. TV One produced three of her movies, including the award-winning and NAACP Image Award-nominated Rosa Parks movie, BEHIND THE MOVEMENT. She proudly wrote on the first season of SWAGGER for Apple TV. During the height of the pandemic, she sold a pilot, ACTIVATION to CBS, and wrapped on the third season of the legal drama, ALL RISE, airing on OWN.

Katrina lives in the Hollywood Hills with her partner Brian and their rescue dog, Nina. Between them they share five (grown-ish) kids and a very large vegetable garden.

Kate Purdy

A writer/producer known for BoJack Horseman, Cougar Town and The McCarthys.

Susan Seidelman

Writer/Director/Producer of films including Smithereens, the first American independent feature to be screened in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and Desperately Seeing Susan, among others.

Sabrina Sutherland

The longtime producing partner of David Lynch, Sutherland has been instrumental in bringing many of his visions to life, including Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and The Return.

John Truby

Internationally influential screenplay theorist, author of Anatomy of Story.

Matthew Weiner

Writer, Director, Producer, Creator of Mad Men, The Romanoffffs. Writer/Executive Producer of The Sopranos. Won Multiple Emmy and Golden Globes.