ASU names the director of its new film school
Dianah Wynter is taking on the role of director of Arizona State University’s Sidney Poitier New American Film school with a goal of making her students indispensable in the industry.
Wynter is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge. She will take over as director of the film school at ASU on July 1.
“My main goal is that our students graduate with expertise and knowledge of all the aspects above the line below the line. Whether it’s editing, audience analysis, producing, cinematography, editing, whatever, they are going to be excellent at at least one thing that will make them attractive, marketable and hirable,” she said.
The university announced in January it was naming its film school after Hollywood icon Sidney Poitier. The school will be one of several programs housed in the 118,000-square-foot university facility that will open in downtown Mesa in the fall of 2022.
The film school began as a film program 15 years ago. It’s one of five schools
in the University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Nearly 700 students are currently enrolled.
Wynter is an Emmy-nominated director
Wynter is a member of the Directors Guild of America and part of the guild’s African-American Steering Committee. One of the first events she served on the committee for was the guild’s tribute to Sidney Poitier in 2001.
After earning her master’s degree in theater at the Yale School of Drama, Wynter directed episodes of sitcoms including “The Secret Life of Alex Mack,” “The Parkers,” “Soul Food,” “Cousin Skeeter” and “The Journey of Allen Strange.”
She received an Emmy nomination as director of the TV movie, “Daddy’s
Girl” and she also earned a master’s degree in film directing from the American Film Institute.
The mission of ASU’s film school convinced Wynter to take the job
Though she will miss the students and faculty at California State Northridge, she said she’s is excited to be a part of the mission President Michael Crow and Steven Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, have for the university.
“When they told me they were naming the school in honor of Sidney Poitier, that certainly made a difference,” Wynter said.
“But there were so many significant factors, mainly the mission of the university and the mission of the film school. To be the most egalitarian film school in the world, what a big statement to make, what a daring mission and goal. It’s extremely striking and for them to devote their dedication to justice, equity and inclusion was really remarkable. For a school that’s not that diverse, it was rather stunning.”
She added that now is one of the best moments in history for filmmakers of color and women filmmakers.
“It’s one of those painful watershed moments when people and a nation has to really examine itself and make some changes. We’re right in the heart of that now,” Wynter said.
“Being a filmmaker is always going to be hard, whether you’re a person of color, or you’re a white male. It is a tough nut to crack. You have to want it and you’ve got to have just unbelievable ambition, determination and that’s just the base requirements. But I feel like this is a really great time, great things are happening right now. People are breaking out of the box.”
Wynter will seek opportunities for ASU’s students
Wynter hopes that Arizona can be a place that attracts Hollywood productions. Several films have been filmed in the state including “Moneyball,” “Transformers,” “Into the Wild,” and the film that made Poitier the first Black man to win the Academy Award for best actor “Lilies of the Field.”
“When productions are filming in Arizona, those are opportunities for our students,” Wynter said.
Until then, Wynter plans to create opportunities for students as director of ASU’s film school.
“The success of students’ achievement is my goal no matter who they are, what they look like, where they come from, how much money that their parents have, or don’t have. And that’s, believe it or not, not always easy to achieve,” she said.
“Preparing the students, adding new faculty and adding new courses that will make (students) indispensable to the industry. The students have to come out being indispensable in some way. That’s my motto.”