"SCAD is a Deaf-friendly institution, where we value Deaf people," says Dr. Kara Powis. "The Deaf worldview on visual arts is different than the hearing worldview, which I think is what SCAD is all about — looking at art and design in different ways."


As the new SCAD Coordinator of Deaf Services, Dr. Powis directs an interpreting staff that provides communication services to deaf students both in-class and for co-curricular activities. For the 2022-2023 academic year, SCAD has deaf students enrolled in Savannah and Atlanta, and via online learning platform SCADnow. Suitably, Powis arrives at an institution at the vanguard of art and design education.

"Dr. Kara Powis brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to SCAD, and approaches all of her interactions with a genuine smile," says Dr. Aimée Bellmore, SCAD Executive Director of Counseling and Student Support Services. "She has already made a significant difference for our deaf students. I know she will lead us forward with her mission to increase accessibility, inclusion, and belongingness for students who are deaf or hard of hearing at SCAD."

Meeting Dr. Powis on a recent morning in her Bradley Hall office overlooking Oglethorpe Square proves edifying. "I'm a hearing person, and I want to be mindful that I'm speaking as an ally to Deaf people, from my experience with the community, not of the community. That's an important distinction," she says.

Powis relates a focused history of Deaf culture in the past half century-plus, emphasizing the importance of the Disability Rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, the Deaf President Now student protest at Gallaudet University in 1988, and the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. An intersectional historian and linguist, Powis holds a Ph.D. in Transformative Learning and Change from California Institute of Integral Studies. Beneath her flourishing career lie the roots of her radical empathy.

"I came out of the womb as an activist," she says with her signature smile. "I grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, which was ethnically diverse — there were families from five different countries on our street. Early on I saw injustice and inequality in the world, and as a human being, I knew it was my job to do something about that. That's a big part of my background — and foreground."

As Director of Deaf Services Palo Alto from 2014-2022, Powis worked with some of the biggest Silicon Valley tech companies, coordinating interpreters for employees and executives, and running global Sign Language classes across 18 countries. Then, when her sister-in-law passed her a copy of SCAD President Paula Wallace's memoir The Bee and the Acorn (Assouline Publishing, 2016), Powis' curiosity was piqued, setting in motion a career and coastal shift.

Now at SCAD, Dr. Powis is enthusiastic for what Deaf culture can also mean to the lives of hearing students. "I have been approached by hearing students who want to start an ASL club. We need twenty students to be an official SCAD club, and if enough students are interested, I'm happy to sponsor it." (Students interested in learning American Sign Language through a formal SCAD club are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Powis directly: [email protected].)

"My job is administrative, and it's also educational in terms of helping the SCAD community think more about deafness and access and accessibility and language," Powis says. She articulates a vision for SCAD as a preferred destination for deaf prospective students. "That means elevating SCAD on the map in the Deaf world."

Readers may notice that sometimes the word “Deaf” is capitalized in this post, while in other instances it is not. The capitalized usage refers to a group of people, with the lowercase “deaf” indicates a condition. Thank you to Dr. Powis for the clarification.

For two SCAD alumni, a conversation about the underrepresentation of Caribbean people led to the creation a production company, Anacaona Pictures.

Mahalia Latortue (M.F.A., film and television, 2020) grew up traveling between her family’s home in New York state and their native Haiti, steeped in storytelling as part of a culture not often pictured in media.  She was inspired to invest in her future while attending SCAD as a graduate film and television student amid Atlanta’s thriving entertainment scene.

At SCAD, met kindred creative spirit Erik Francisco Medina (M.F.A., film and television, 2020), a native of Puerto Rico and former journalist, embarking on a similar journey to tell stories about the intersectionality of culture. Their like-minds created natural telepathy for screenwriting at SCAD.

Since graduating in 2020, Medina and Latortue have continued their shared mission to create a space where all cultures are valued, respected, and uplifted within media. They have produced several award-winning shorts championing Caribbean culture, people of color, and women in film, television, and documentaries. The year, Latortue’s “The Last Good Day” was a finalist in the best short screenplay competition at the Nashville Film Festival.

Through their company, Anacaona Pictures, Latortue and Medina are telling new stories featuring diverse voices in-frame and behind the camera. They credit their Caribbean-Latino community for their continued success.

Mahalia Latortue: Erik and I both love our cultures. The intersectional figure for our cultures is Anacaona, a Taíno chief, religious expert, poet, composer, and ruler of five tribes in Hispaniola. Eighty percent of Puerto Ricans identify as Tainos, and Anacaona was born on the island of Haiti. What's so fascinating about her is she is a woman leader who protected her tribes from extinction.  Anacaona is a symbol of strength. Who is a better icon to represent our writing and stories than Anacaona?

Erik Francisco Medina: My culture defines me. Before I'm Hispanic, I'm Latino. Before I'm Latino, I’m Caribbean. When we discuss more inclusive representation, it's exploring this intersectionality. We're fighting for our culture to be represented, uncompromised, and showcased as it is without diluting it.

Mahalia Latortue: When we co-wrote screenplays, everyone seemed to think it came from one person. As a writing duo, that is so hard to do. 

Erik Francisco Medina: Ninety-five percent of my film career is a collaboration with Mahalia.  I'm very grateful for that. SCAD opened those doors to see my career flourish and keep developing. We attribute collaboration and helping others to our continued success. As filmmakers, we can lean into the community and support each other no matter what. There's room for everybody in the industry as Latinos, being Hispanic.

Mahalia Latortue: What I find most inspiring about my Haitian culture is that even through adversity, people don't give up. It's an excellent metaphor for success, where you're striving towards your goal. Sometimes it's three steps forward, sometimes two steps back, and that's okay. That’s part of your journey to success.

Visit Anacaona Pictures!

"When you know how you would move, you understand how the characters will move,” says Emily Rodriguez (B.F.A., animation, 2020).

A native of Miami Lakes, Florida, Rodriguez danced on a competition team in high school, until injuries redirected her career goals. Studying At SCAD Atlanta, Emily was able to connect her pursuits. “Through my experience with movement, I learned how to flow and transition between steps in my animation,” she says.

"Emily has a passion for learning and pushing herself to the next level, and she never settles,” says SCAD Atlanta animation professor Jenna Zona. “As my student, she was always looking for the next project to be better than the last and took her critiques seriously. Emily valued the learning process, resulting in her ability to adapt and grow quickly."

At SCAD AnimationFest 2022, Emily participated on the Alumni Voices panel, speaking about her work on shows including Netflix’s Paradise PD and Hoops, and Adult Swim’s Birdgirl. She is currently a 2D animator at Awesome, Inc. in Atlanta, GA.

Emily Rodriguez:

Growing up, I knew I had a talent, but lacked resources in South Florida. My mother supported my passion and enrolled me in all general art classes. I distinctly remember being the only 14-year-old in a room of nine-year-olds painting on canvas and trying to learn as much technique as I could.

When I arrived at SCAD, I had a significant learning curve. Animation is very technical. For the first year, I only studied 3D animation. I learned a ton, but it was a struggle. I love to draw, and I missed the illustration aspect.

When I met Professor Zona and enrolled in her class Animation: Digital Produciton and Compositing [ANIM 382], I realized, 'Oh, there's more to animation than 3D!' In one quarter, my creative world expanded enormously. Professor Zona's class was the starting point for me to develop the skill I loved: traditional 2D animation, which I now do professionally and clicks in my brain like nothing else. The projects I created in Professor Zona's class helped me land my first internship at Bento Box. I told Professor Zona my goal; she pushed me to achieve it. 

At SCAD, I gained confidence and affirmed my passion for animation. I'm excited to be an animator because it has been my dream growing up since middle school. I hoped I would be an animator, but before SCAD, I needed to figure out how to get to where I'm right now. Every day is a blessing that I get to go to my job and make art for a living and enjoy it. I work alongside several SCAD alumni at Awesome Inc. Growing professionally together is the best thing.

As a Cuban-American, my work ethic is my heritage. I'm relentless in honoring the sacrifices of my family. I carry the work ethic wherever I go and in everything I achieve. I want to make them proud. My success and achievement are in their honor.

Photos of Emily Rodriguez by Caitlin Smith, Honey Photography & Planning

"As someone whose career is multidisciplinary, I learn a lot as I go," says Heejung Kim (B.F.A., fashion marketing and management, 2017).

Working as art director for agency Harper + Scott, Heejung is part of the team that launched wildly successful backpack company Dare to Roam in 2021. Owned by R&B megastar Ciara, DTR has been acclaimed for its colorful, antimicrobial accessories by everyone from HYPEBAE to Oprah.

"I appreciate my title as art director, but it's not something that wholly encapsulates all the different tasks that I'm doing on a day-to-day basis," Heejung says. "I'm the person where, if you need help, I'm going to be there to support in any necessary capacity. That's the best way to learn about the production side, the marketing side, and all different aspects of a brand."

A native of Seoul, Korea, Heejung belongs to the exclusive coterie of alumni who began their SCAD experience in Hong Kong and finished in Savannah. Now based in San Diego ("It's eye-opening how much creativity comes out of this city"), she embodies the best of SCAD fashion marketing and management.

Heejung Kim:

On preparing for a creative career: "Harper + Scott hired me as a graphic designer because they saw my SCAD portfolio. That says a lot about the fashion marketing department. Professor Alessandro Cannatà taught me hard skills, like how to apply my photography minor to a campaign. Professor Oscar Betancur pushed me to be a better creator and try different approaches to get messages across. At the time, fashion marketing still primarily meant retail and merchandising, and Professor Betancur brought a fresh perspective with his multimedia class, which was visionary."

On creating a successful brand launch: "I touched on all aspects of building Dare to Roam, from prototyping to branding and speaking with the client. We launched with our hero product, the Prodigy backpack, which is minimal and antimicrobial and water-resistant, so you can wipe it and go. I got to be behind the camera and watch the campaign take shape, helping photograph and produce those shoots. Now, one year later, we're in Target and on Good Morning America. It's amazing."

On working with a Black, famous, female founder: "Working with Ciara as a founder has been educational. I've never worked with such a high-profile celebrity before, and it's inspiring to see how she's able to market strategically. Dare to Roam is only one aspect of her multi-multi-entrepreneurial goals, and it's exciting to see how she and her team think through what she wants to put out there."

On SCAD as the differential: "I don't take my SCAD education for granted. I use all the skills that I learned at SCAD: social media, website, and email marketing, creating look books, all directly applied to my job. I actually had the opportunity to look back at my SCAD portfolio recently, and I'm really proud of the professionalism that I put into my work. I miss living in Savannah and working in SCAD buildings, because that's where inspiration finds you. I've brought that vibrancy with me on my creative journey as I continue to move forward and grow."

Photo of Heejung Kim by Minnow Park.

"How many of you here are studying sequential art?" asked Andre R. Frattino from the SCAD MOA stage. Across the theater seats, almost every student's hand went up. Frattino: "Those of you raising your hands, how many of you write and draw?" Nearly every hand stayed up.

Frattino (B.F.A., sequential art, 2009) and collaborator Kate Kasenow (M.F.A., sequential art, 2011; B.F.A., sequential art, 2008) were back at SCAD to discuss their intersecting professional journeys. The occasion was the publication of their brand-new graphic novel Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour (Tuttle Publishing, 2022).

Already reviewed enthusiastically in Forbes, the graphic novel tells the true story of Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American woman persecuted as a propagandist during World War II, and her postwar redemption. As Kasenow put it: "I'm telling her story—it's not mine."

Frattino mentioned that his grandfather was an artist who'd been a Marine at Pearl Harbor in 1941. "He would tell me about his experiences in the war, and when I watched war movies growing up as a kid, there was always this Tokyo Rose character, this disembodied woman's voice being broadcast, standing in for the Japanese in the Pacific, and I thought who is this? Is this the enemy?"

Frattino researched Toguri's story, deciding to tell it in graphic novel form. Over oysters at The Crab Shack on Tybee, he convinced Kasenow to come on board. They consulted with Asian American and Pacific Islanders regarding issues of authenticity and sensitivity. Recounting this process led to a larger discussion of the importance of collaborating.

Kasenow: "I made a lot of friends at SCAD, including Andre.  We met at one of my first classes and collaborated during school. Collaboration is immensely important, especially in comics. The relationship you have with other artists, writers, concept artists, editors—everything is collaborative. Comics is a storytelling medium, so you're not just thinking of your own perspective on things, you're constantly getting feedback from other people."

Frattino: "In some instances, when I work on a graphic novel, I'll write and illustrate it. My style is like Bruce Timm's Batman meets Archie Comics. On certain stories I might collaborate with someone whose visual style fits better. When I went to SCAD, I met Kate and saw her art and how intricate and delicate it was. I'd never seen illustration done that way. I thought, I've got to work with her!"

The pair funded Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour via Kickstarter. When the project was acquired by Tuttle Publishing, a key member of the creative team joined. "Tuttle said they could get Janice on board," Frattino said, referring to veteran letterer Janice Chiang. "Janice showed how the lettering could work with visual elements to enhance the story," Kasenow added. "We were lucky to work with her." 

Collaboration, teamwork, patience, pliability, passion: all accounted for. As Kasenow put it: "The most important thing is the respect you have for the people you're working with."

Visit the official page for Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour by Andre Frattino and Kate Kasenow.

Event presented by Director of Alumni Programs Grace Grund and career advisors Erin Berkery-Rovner and Juan Murillo Noguera.

Learn more about SCAD career and alumni success.

"Time is a currency to me," writes Dominique Clayton (M.A., creative business leadership, 2018) in her essay in A Nickel Bag of Time. "I have to trade, sell, borrow, and sometimes steal it to get what I need done."

Clayton's essay, featured in the new issue of arts broadsheet FIND PEACE. KEEP PEACE., addresses the combined challenges of life as a gallerist, entrepreneur, and married mother of three. She may make it look easy — but like the old song goes, it ain't necessarily so.

After earning her master's degree via the virtual SCADnow platform, Clayton came to Savannah for the first time during deFINE ART 2022. Her generative insights lit up a panel on radical approaches to arts management.

Now, having brought her brick-and-mortar Dominique Gallery into the virtual world ("a good shift for me"), Clayton is working towards a new definition of what a 21st century gallerist can be.

What follows is condensed from an extensive, wide-ranging conversation.

Dominique Clayton:

Although I started my first gallery and exhibition program in 2015, it wasn't until 2018-9 that I really began going the extra mile, trying to build the network and do all things at the same time. During the pandemic, there was a lot of outreach to me and Black writers and artists to tap into our feelings and our insights on how to make change.

Institutions and collectors were wanting to make some kind of amends, or open up a dialogue, as if this was a brand-new issue. And a lot of the younger artists' protest art, and Black identity art, was created and seen through this lens. But if you were to look at works from Black artists in the 1970s, the images, the feelings, the struggle, were identical. It's a cyclical thing, where this new generation of artists and audiences, it's fresh to them, and it's forced them to be a bit more reflective. Those who care to look back and see what happened in the past and how it influenced today, those are the artists and thinkers who I respond well to.

A lot of my clients and the artists I work with are skewing younger; they're digital natives. One thing I ask these Instagram artists: How would anyone find you if Instagram broke? Where are you archiving your studio work? I think about my children, when they're in college, learning about this time in the arts, where are they going to get their information? So, I keep magazines. I keep newspapers. I keep clippings, and brochures from art fairs. As an older millennial, part of me is still analogue. One of the planned pivots for Dominique Gallery is to launch an in-house publishing wing, and provide that service for artists and for galleries that I collaborate with.

SCAD helped me figure out that I don't have to limit myself. The masters program in arts leadership was the best way for me to fully immerse myself in the arts and come out with useful management skills. In my cohort, we were all virtual friends, we came from different communities, some right out of SCAD undergrad, some were older and making a career switch. My colleague Lauren Jackson Harris (M.A., creative business leadership, 2017), founder of Black Women in Visual Art, is an art sister to this day. In October, I'm going to Venice with Lauren for an artists' retreat in honor of Simone Leigh and her participation in the Biennale. At the end of October, I'll be back in L.A. curating a show for an art auction for the Wearable Art Gala, an initiative from Ms. Tina Knowles and Richard Lawson.

When I have control over my time, I feel like the ultimate hustler. Time is truly a commodity. Five more minutes to sleep, or five more minutes to finish that article due at midnight—you don't realize how important time is until you have none left.

Photos of Dominique Clayton taken in South Central, Los Angeles, by Texas Isaiah.

Purchase the new issue of FIND PEACE. KEEP PEACE. to read A Nickel Bag of Time in full.

"The DNA of writing is authenticity. How do you get really honest with yourself?" asks dramatic writing professor Sandra Daley with a knowing smile. "I'm here to push students to access that place, which means tackling fears, being gutsy, and putting it all on the page."

Daley joined SCAD faculty full-time in Fall 2021. Previously a professor at Sarah Lawrence, she earned her MFA at Hunter College, where she studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker and Pulitzer finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Daley's vibrant resume includes lauded work as an actor, director, writer, and dramaturg, as well as a producer with the OBIE Award-winning collective Harlem9.


"Professor Daley is a dynamic addition to SCAD dramatic writing, and her strong commitment to our students is evident in the open, supportive, and creative environments she fosters in all her classes," says dramatic writing chair Averie Storck. "Her passion and energy are tremendous! In her first year, she led the writers' room of Episode 3 of the SCAD original sitcom G.R.I.T.S., while student scripts from her playwriting classes are being used in cross-departmental collaborations. We're lucky to have her as part of our faculty."

This quarter, Daley is teaching courses including Introduction to Playwriting (DWRI 272) and Writing the Television Drama Pilot Script (FILM 438). "I feel grounded in what it is I bring to the classroom and what I bring to the SCAD community, and to these new, young student writers," she says. "Being a Black woman and being Caribbean means having a different perspective around the conversation of identity—especially for young people who are identifying around gender, sexuality, and mental health challenges. Students are looking for validation for their voices."

Within the space of a few minutes of conversation, Daley references Lynn Nottage, Alvin Ailey, Charles Mee, Lorraine Hansberry, Henrik Ibsen, Dominque Morisseau, and Sophocles. This significant swathe confirms her expansive knowledge base—and stimulates curiosity.

"Most of my students are not only learning how to write, they're trying to understand what playwriting is really about," she explains. "The biggest thing I can show them is how to tell compelling stories in short form, and how to honor the words on the page."

Daley's nurturing approach is feedback-based. "I take a lot of time to give students individual attention, so that they feel heard and respected, because the process is hard." Coddling is avoided. "My prompts take students out of their comfort zones. I'm giving you something that frees your brain."

SCAD dramatic writing embraces both stage and screen. While noting the disparities between playwright and TV writer as professions, Daley envisions a new working model for today's dramatic writer.

"There's something about the TV world right now that I love: the platform is broad, with experimental work. TV has that type of collaborative writers-room writing that is reassuring, whereas playwriting can feel lonely. I'm happy teaching both here now at SCAD. I feel appreciated in our wonderful and quickly growing dramatic writing department."

"I put glue on my feet and I dance," said Johana Moscoso during her show-opening talk at SCAD MOA. The Bogotá-born artist was referring to an important step—literally—in her process, as she preps fabric for the final addition of metallic foil. The vivid dividends of her footwork dominate her new exhibition, Entre sistemas invisibles.

Moscoso (M.F.A., sculpture, 2009) hand-stitches layers of fabric together using a traditional technique called mola. She explained that the reverse applique method originated with indigenous Latin American communities like the Kuna. Layers of cloth are sewn together, then cut away to reveal designs and symbols. "Their stitching is invisible, because that's how incredible the indigenous work is," Moscoso said, affirming the inspiration for the title of her show.

The gallery talk was a lively conversation between Moscoso and SCAD Museum of Art assistant curator Brittany Richmond. Richmond mentioned that Moscoso, a graduate of SCAD Atlanta, was visiting the university's Savannah campus for the first time, in connection with her exhibition.

A number of SCAD students and alumni inside the single-room gallery were Colombian. Seeing an old classmate across the room, Moscoso spontaneously exclaimed: "Oh my goodness, I know that guy!" She then acknowledged her sweetheart Scott Carter (B.F.A., painting, 2008). Richmond, laughing: "A lot of SCAD love happening here."

Returning to the work, Richmond challenged attendees: "Does anybody see sculpture or what you think of as sculpture in this room?" A couple tepid hands. "I think these works all have a sculptural presence, you can feel their physicality and the materiality in the room," the curator said.

Richmond wasn't wrong. The ceiling-hung works addressed but did not touch the walls. The laser-cut textiles featured serpentine embroidery both abstract and representative. The work told stories without dictating fixed narratives. The mandala-like complexity of "Entre camuflados" would've sent Rorschach into apoplexy.

On the floor, three video monitors showed Moscoso's adhesive hoofing in mud and glue. The artist explained the relevance.

Johana Moscoso, "Entre sistemas invisibles," 2022, video still

"Dances are part of my practice," she said. "With my family, every time we meet it's a party. Dance becomes something normal. In Bogotá, we'd take the bus and the driver would be blasting salsa, so it's part of everyday life.

"Making this work, I was dancing to Celia Cruz. In the 1970s she was with Pacheco and all the Fania musicians in New York, playing cha-cha and mambo in all the clubs. In classic salsa, the male was the one who got the majority of the attention. The only woman among them was Celia Cruz, so the music I danced to all over my pieces with glue, and foil transfers, was Celia Cruz."

An immigrant to the United States, Moscoso has lived and worked in the U.S. for the past 14 years. She grew up during a time of unrest in Colombia, and it will be fascinating to see how her forthcoming work reflects Colombia's promising new political reality, including the recent election of President Gustavo Petro and Vice-President Francia Márquez, the first Afro-Colombian woman elected to high office.

One imagines she will continue to dance.

Experience Entre sistemas invisibles at SCAD MOA through Oct. 31, 2022.

Their dynamic is potent. This summer it pointed to the Luberon Valley.

In July, Gonzalo Hernandez (M.F.A., fibers, 2019; M.A., painting, 2018) traveled to SCAD Lacoste as an Alumni Atelier associate. Professor Todd Schroeder was there teaching painting. Working in person, the duo began to create large-scale prints exploring layered techniques.

"Participating in the Alumni Atelier program in Lacoste allowed me to develop multiple projects," says Hernandez. "Knowing that Todd was there was an extra incentive, providing us with the opportunity to work together."

Schroeder has been a mentor to Hernandez since 2017 when Gonzalo—then an M.A. painting student—took his class Experiential and Conceptual Art (PNTG 766), exploring Surrealism and Dada and learning, in Schroeder's words, "to foreground objective strategies aimed at generating composition."

After earning his master's degree in painting, Gonzalo worked with Schroeder as a teaching intern. Hernandez acknowledged Schroeder's influence in the title of the painting "):) (gracias Todd)" in his solo show at SCAD MOA in 2020. The pair collaborated on the exhibition "SIH" —an acronym for Spanish Is Hard—at THE END in Atlanta in 2021. Something larger was taking shape: originally student and professor, the two became closer to peers.

"With my collaborations with Gonzalo, I focus my attention on a kind of hypersensitivity to associations, and I think Gonzalo does the same," Schroeder says of their summer in the studio and classroom spaces of SCAD Lacoste.

"Todd drew an arrow up and an arrow down," Hernandez says. "I began thinking about what that means, conceptually, and I thought of ‘los de abajo' and the sense of ‘let's pull up the people who are underdogs.'"

A native of Lima, Peru, Hernandez mentions the popular TV program ‘Los de arriba y los de abajo' "which was a bit like Romeo and Juliet, about an upper-class woman who falls in love with this poor guy from another level of society. It was one of the biggest telenovelas that we had in Peru in the 1990s, with lots of references to its political moment."

In the new work, text and image comingle, optically jittery, indicating upheaval and urgent motion.

"We wanted to play with the idea of how does it feel when things are going up and down?" Hernandez says. "The process began with Todd making a painting, then we'd take a photo of it and put it into Photoshop and use a blur filter to give the idea of movement. At the same time, I'm creating text, creating layers, seeing how it goes."

That exploratory mentality is a key to the process that Schroeder instilled in Hernandez at SCAD. Foregrounding process over result, the painting professor emphasizes staying "open to developments no matter how peripheral to any original conceit; in fact, to look to the peripheral for guidance."

Later this year, Hernandez will manifest a full slate of projects, including a SCAD commission for Design Miami and a solo exhibition at La Galería Rebelde in Guatemala, while Schroeder will return to teach at SCAD Savannah.

There are more arrows in their quiver.

"In every avenue of media, editors are in high demand, so there is a lot to be excited about if you want to be an editor," film and television professor Alexander Newton told SCAD District in 2020, regarding the then-new SCAD Video Editor's Club.

Newton (M.F.A., film and television, 2008) has continued to emphasize the professional opportunities available to students studying editing. In May of this year, he oversaw the inaugural networking event The Cut, connecting industry-leading alumni with current students for a slate of panels and workshops.

Before joining SCAD film faculty in 2015, Newton worked for Digitas, Vice, and The New York Times. A certified AVID instructor, he continues to work on film projects whenever possible, including the forthcoming documentary The Price of Hope. A modest master of time management, Newton contributed the following list of films he believes exemplify the transformational power of editing.

Hiroshima mon amour (Dir. Alain Resnais, 1959)

"A film well known to lovers of cinema history. From Marguerite Duras' story to Emmanuelle Riva's performance, there is much to discuss, and we often delve into it in my class Editing Aesthetics (FILM 330). For me, the main reason this film stands out is the way that it moves. Right from the start, it feels as though you're being carried by a current downstream. You realize you are someplace entirely different from where you had been moments earlier, and wonder, ‘How did I get here?' The answer, of course, is masterful storytelling shaped by masterful editing."

Moneyball (Dir. Bennett Miller, 2011)

"The structure and editing of this film puzzled me when I first saw it in the theater. Interesting choices are being made in what would ordinarily be considered conventional dialogue scenes; holding on a character's closeup far longer than usual to reveal subtext, for example. Sound drops off completely in certain key moments of action, then creeps back in. In its shot design and editing, Moneyball shares a lot with All the President's Men (1976). There is a cadence and rhythm that I find effective; I'll sometimes have it playing in the background, like music. It probably helps that I'm a baseball fan."

The Vietnam War (Dir. Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, 2017)

"This may be the most potent PBS series Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have yet produced. America's involvement in Vietnam was an underexplored subject in my early schooling, so this series was an education both intellectually and emotionally. The Burns aesthetic is clear, but there is a willingness to experiment with new structural approaches. In the first episode, the history of the war is traced to the French colonial occupation of Vietnam in the late 1800s. The episode employs a parallel structure, where the ‘dry' historic elements of the story are intercut with more contemporary American and Vietnamese accounts. The result is compelling."

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

"Terrence Malick films are famous for impressionistic storytelling, often featuring swooping shots, scenes that seem to have no dialogue, all layered with voiceover narration. His second feature is where the mechanics of the film are visible and reveal the filmmaker's evolutionary process. A heavy conversation between characters is distilled to body language in the edit—a glance, a knowing look. Malick invites the audience to pay closer attention and fall deeper into the world of the film. Young Linda Manz was recorded in the studio as she watched an edit and shared her impromptu reactions. This audio then formed the basis of the film's narration. Malick's later films The Thin Red Line and Tree of Life were made possible by his willingness to use post as a creative and exploratory process in Days of Heaven."

Star Wars (Dir. George Lucas, 1977)

"As a kid, I watched the original Star Wars films over and over. In the days before the internet, I even managed with my father's help to hook up an audio cassette player directly to the TV so I could record portions of the soundtrack and dialogue, making it the first material I ever edited. Marcia Lucas' editing of the final act is an absolute masterstroke."

See the work of Alexander Newton, and learn more about SCAD film and television.