CURRICULUM VITAE / Rob Cohen rob@filmcohen.com

MEDIA PRODUCTION • SCREENWRITING FILM THEORY • CINEMA HISTORY  COMMUNICATION THEORY 

EDUCATION

• Yale University, BA Film • Fairfield University, MFA Screenwriting

TEACHING

2012-2019 The University of Rhode Island, Lecturer Courses taught:

• Topics in Film Media Production Technique (Film Media Dept.) Advanced level production seminar created around specific film production topics

• Interdisciplinary Approach to the Business of Media (Film Media Dept.)

  Upper level course examining the interplay of communications disciplines in media, and that social media has blurred the  distinctions between advertising, marketing, public relations 

• Video and the Business of Media (Film Media Dept.)

  Upper level course examining how video is the lingua franca of business, with the aim of preparing students to speak fluent video regardless of their chosen career

• Advanced Seminar in Film Media: “Great Scenes” (Film Media Dept.)

  Senior level seminar for Film Media majors aimed at deconstructing the ‘great scene’ from great movies

• Screenwriting (English Dept. online)

  Seminar addressing fundamental screenwriting structure and helping student writers find their voice

• URI OnCampus International Students Film Seminar (Film Media Dept.)

  This is a course given every semester in film history and theory, reserved for first year URI international students 

• World Cinema from 1950 to the Present (Film Media Dept.)

  In depth examination of the history of film with emphasis on the craft of the director 

• Introduction to Film Media Production Technique (Film Media Dept.)

  Introductory course required of Film Media majors covering basic techniques in cinematography, editing, sound and production 

• Introduction to Film Media (Film Media Dept.)

  Introductory survey course required of Film Media majors focusing on the history and aesthetics of the medium

• World Film History (Film Media Dept., online)

  Introductory survey course required of Film Media majors focusing on the history and aesthetics of the medium

• URI Senior Honors Project Advisor (3 years)

  One on one mentorship during the senior year of URI honors students; projects included: 

  Production design installation for a film adaptation of  Michael Ondaatje’s “The Cat’s Table”

  Slam Poetry film promoting new initiatives in RI public schools

  Personal film diary in the life of a student living with Lyme disease

2011 Salve Regina University

• TV Commercial Production Workshop

  36 hour mini-course to write, shoot & edit tv spot

2013-2017 Ocean State Summer Writers Conference 

• Screenwriting Workshop: “Short Story Screenwriting”

  The rise in popularity of short films, focusing on the writer’s approach to a film 10 minutes or less

• Screenwriting Workshop: “Blurring the lines:  writing for the screen”

  Workshop for writers who will create content for  platforms apart from movie theaters and television

• Screenwriting Workshop: “Non-fiction Film”

  There is truth, there is fiction and there is Documentary. This intensive seminar studies how documentarians craft a reality where fact and imagination share the same heartbeat

• Television Workshop: “Non-fiction Television”

  Cooking, science, adventure, history, home restoration, sports, travel, animals; how to write and pitch ideas for television

• Television Workshop: “What can you write in 30 seconds? 30 minutes? 1 hour?”

  Television is the writer’s medium with a time limit;  writing for a clock is a skill that can be learned

Grants

• URI 2017 Victor / Gussie Baxt Fund in Judaic Studies

  Create a film production course with the goal of guiding  URI film students toward creating videos aimed at Holocaust education in Rhode Island public schools

• URI 2018 Victor / Gussie Baxt Fund in Judaic Studies

  Continuing the film production course, as URI film students crete videos aimed at Holocaust & Genocide education in Rhode Island public schools

FILM PRODUCTION (selected)

• “KINDERBLOCK 66 (BARRACK 66)” / Director-Writer

  Award winning feature documentary about the audacious attempt to hide 1500 Jewish children in plain sight, inside Buchenwald Concentration Camp

  Selected by The United Nations for screening during Holocaust Remembrance 2015 www.kinderblock66thefilm.com 

• “THE LONGEST RIVER” / Director-Producer

  The first descent of the Bio-Bio River in Chile

  Feature documentary aired nationally on PBS stations PBS series “Quest”

• “NEXTWORLD”/ Executive Producer- Director

  14-hour documentary TV series about the future of everything

  DISCOVERY Channel, Produced for CBS.

• “TESTIMONTY:  Sweatshops and American Corporate Responsibility”  Director-Writer

  Film about ethical garment manufacturing and human rights in developing nations.

  Filmed on location in Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Guatemala 

• “FUTURECAR” / Executive Producer-Creative Director

  4-hour documentary television series about the future of automotivity

  DISCOVERY Channel, Produced for CBS

  Used as curriculum in Automotive Design seminars at NEIT

• “THE DIARY OF IMMACULEE” / Writer-Postproduction

  Documentary recounting the story of a Immaculee Llibagizze, who hid in a bathroom for 91 days with seven other women  during the genocide in Rwanda

• “THE QUEEN’S LESSON” Writer/Director

  Animated short film teaching children about nutrition 

  PBS

• “WHAT COULD AMERICA BE? Introducing philosophy to American Public Schools”  / Director-Writer 

  The Squire Family Foundation Advancing Philosophy Education

• “DRIVING AMERICA” / Director (segments)

  A history of driving as a way of life in American history

  National Geographic Channel Television special

• “JOHN MCENROE US OPEN SPECIAL” / Director-Writer

  3 television specials on for the US Open Tennis Championships

  USA Networks

• “COME TOGETHER” Segment Director

  Film short about disparate Americans setting aside their differences on Super Bowl Sunday.  Aired during Super Bowl

  NBC

• “THE UNITED STATES OF CARS” / Executive Producer/Creative Director

  Documentary pilot hosted by actor Adam Ferrara connecting the American cultural experience with the cars people drove. 

  HISTORY Channel

• “MISSING REWARD” / Director-Writer

  TV series searching for missing persons

  Host:  Stacy Keach

  Syndicated

Lectures and Panels

• Yale University:  screening and Q&A

  Guest speaker: making non-fiction television, 2010

• The United Nations:  screening / panel discussion

  Chosen by the UN as the film to be shown during International Holocaust Remembrance Week, 2015

• Montclair State:  screening and Q&A

  Guest speaker for Holocaust Studies students

• URI:  screening and Q&A

  Special screening, faculty work, URI Film Media department

• Salve Regina:  screening and Q&A

  American premiere of Kinderblock 66

• Roger Williams University: screening and Q&A

  FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival 2012

• Glen Rock Jewish Temple:  screening and Q&A

• Hartford Jewish Temple:  screening and Q&A

   

AWARDS / RECOGNITION

• FirstGlance Film Fest Philadelphia

  Best Director Feature Documentary, Kinderblock 66 

• Rhode Island International Film Festival

  Feature Documentary First Prize, Kinderblock 66 

• Clio Awards Finalist (3)

  Isuzu Motors campaign, 1988, honored by the premiere American TV advertising awards competition

• CA Advertising Annual / BMW Motorcycles, Notable TV Commercials,

• DocUtah / Whitney Vanguard Award:  Kinderblock 66

• Downtown Boca Film Festival / Best Feature:  Kinderblock 66

• LI International Film Festival/ Allan Fortunoff Humanitarian Award; Kinderblock 66

• Montreal Film Festival / Special Invitation, The Longest River

• BOLI awards  / Best PSA, Long Island Lighting

• US Industrial Film Festival / Parents Magazine

• Columbus Film Festival   / Best in Category, The Longest River

PRO BONO & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• My Sister’s Place Women’s Shelter 

  Honored as community volunteer, pro bono television campaign

• Helen Keller Society, pro bono television campaign

• Big Sisters’ pro bono television campaign 

• Boston Ballet, pro bono television campaign 

• Lighthouse Preservation Society, pro bono television campaign

• The Shelburne Museum, pro bono television campaign

• POP Sustainability, pro bono television campaign

• Ackerman Institute for the Family, films about family therapy

• American Jewish Committee, films on Anti-Semitism and racism

• Maimonides Hospital, pro bono television campaign

• New England Flower Show, television campaign

• “Time to Care” WBZ Television campaign, pro bono television campaign

• Adaptive Sports Foundation, developmentally challenged ski instructor

ADVERTISING, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS and BRANDING Partial list

CISCO   / Created 15-spot campaign to explain Cisco’s market priorities

XEROX  / Created campaign - boost morale and build a better Xerox

GENERAL MOTORS  /  Created campaign to invigorate ethos during corporate re-organization