Come join us for one week of Continuing Education classes on directing. The series includes hands-on training in cinematography, field lighting, and both documentary and narrative directing. Through practical training taught by instructors who are also professionals in the field, you’ll learn how to tell a compelling visual story, direct actors, and turn your concept into a reality. You’ll also get to hear from a guest director about their work and have the opportunity to ask them questions to enhance your professional development as a director.
Below you can briefly meet each of our instructors for the directing sessions.
INSTRUCTOR BIOS
Arturo Jiménez
Classes: Principles of Directing (July 7 & 8); Directing for Documentary (July 10); Ask Me Anything About Directing (July 11)
Arturo is a Mexican filmmaker and educator with over 15 years of professional and international film experience in documentary and narrative projects. He co-directed, alongside Edna Diaz, the documentary SANGRE VIOLENTA / SANGRE VIOLETA. The film premiered at SXSW 2024 and won the Audience Award in the Texas Shorts category. He holds an MFA degree in film production from UT Austin.
Joe Olivas
Class: Principles of Cinematography: Seeing Through the Lens (July 9)
Filmmaker Joe Olivas has been working in film for the past 15 years with an emphasis in commercials, documentaries, narrative shorts, and music videos. Over that time, he has had the opportunity to work in almost every aspect of the filmmaking process — from gaffer to director to producer — but his primary emphasis and love has always been cinematography, and he has lensed projects for clients such as the Utah Jazz, Park City Film Studio, and Horrorshow Pictures. Currently the owner/operator of Maddock Media, Joe’s focus moving forward is documentary filmmaking, where he seeks to tell stories that showcase the inherent humanity and commonality within us all.
Sharon Arteaga
Class: Ask Me Anything About Directing (July 11)
Sharon Arteaga is a film director from Corpus Christi, Texas, whose work playfully navigates themes of generational, linguistic, and cultural differences between people. Her award-winning short films include the 2021 HBO Latinx Short Film Competition winner WHEN YOU CLEAN A STRANGER’S HOME, now streaming on Max; and IN TOW, which screened at the Oscar®-qualifying Austin Film Festival and New Orleans Film Festival. Arteaga is a Warner Bros. Discovery 150 Artist, a Rainin Grant Fellow, and was a Gotham Market participant in 2022.
She was a 2019 Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens finalist and earned a Gold Signal Award while working as the story producer on the KUT/Identity Productions Tacos of Texas podcast. Arteaga is one of the founders of the Tejanas in Film and is the Sr. Manager of Filmmaker Support at the Austin Film Society. She is passionate about empowering others to make their own films.
Bryan Poyser
Class: Ask Me Anything About Directing (July 11)
A two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee, writer/director Bryan Poyser has made four features that have premiered at major festivals like Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and BFI London. He has also made numerous short films as well as projects for Comedy Central, the USA Network, Ridley Scott Associates, and HBO. Bryan’s most recent feature, LEADS, recipient of an AFS Grant, world premiered in the US Narrative Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. His second feature, LOVERS OF HATE, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards. His first feature, DEAR PILLOW, was also nominated for a Spirit Award in 2005. Bryan’s third feature, LOVE & AIR SEX, premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and was released by Tribeca Films. His work for television includes directing the pilot Overanalyzers for Comedy Central and writing an episode of the Duplass Brothers’ HBO series Room 104. His most recent short film, DON’T YOU GO NOWHERE, screened at 40 festivals and won 18 awards. Bryan lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter and teaches filmmaking as an Associate Professor of Practice at Texas State University.
Kelly Daniela Norris
Class: Ask Me Anything About Directing (July 11)
Kelly Daniela Norris is a Mexican-American director, writer, and editor. She shot her first feature, SOMBRAS DE AZUL (SHADES OF BLUE), on-location in Cuba, weaving together memory, travelogue, and narrative as a tribute to her late brother. SOMBRAS DE AZUL premiered at the Austin Film Festival, winning the Audience Award in its category. Her second feature, NAKOM, was shot on-location in a remote farming village in northeastern Ghana. NAKOM premiered at Berlinale in 2016 and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards. Norris graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a degree in film and psychology. She taught courses in avant-garde cinema and film history in the Film and Media Department at the University of California, Berkeley, during her time as a PhD candidate, as well as presented her research on early stuntwomen of the 1910s at the Austin Film Society.
