Stephen Lighthill, ASC | Discipline Head

Stephen Lighthill has served as cinematographer on many documentaries including GIMME SHELTER and BERKELEY IN THE ’60s. His cinematography credits for independent features include OVER-UNDER, SIDEWAYS-DOWN, HOT SUMMER WINDS and SHIMMER, all produced for PBS’ American Playhouse. Lighthill served as Director of Photography on the TV series VIETNAM WAR STORY, EARTH 2 and NASH BRIDGES. He returned to documentaries as the cinematographer on BOFFO! TINSELTOWN’S BOMBS AND BLOCKBUSTERS and THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT: CAREGIVERS, both for HBO.

He is on the National Executive Board of the International Cinematographers Guild. In 2010, he received the Deluxe Bud Stone award for Outstanding Educational Contributions to the Art and Craft of Cinematography from the ICG, and the 2010 SMPTE Kodak Education Award for Outstanding Contributions in Film Production Education. He served as President of the American Society of Cinematographers from 2012–2013 and 2020–2023. Lighthill is annually a jury member at CAMERIMAGE cinematography festival.

Bill Dill, ASC | Dean’s Chair of Visual Storytelling

Dill holds a BA in Communication Studies from Oberlin College. His cinematography credits include SIDEWALK STORIES, B.A.P.S., DANCING IN SEPTEMBER, the Showtime TV series SOUL FOOD and the American Playhouse production of FIRES IN THE MIRROR, based on the Pulitzer-nominated play. Among many productions he has filmed for HBO are the Ace Award-winning children’s program MOMMY BUY ME THAT and comedy specials for Robert Townsend, Damon Wayans and Whoopi Goldberg. Dill also lensed a Clio Award-winning commercial campaign for Nickelodeon Television Network.

Jacek Laskus, ASC, PSC | Senior Lecturer

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Laskus is a graduate of Polish National Film Academy in Lodz. After arriving in NYC, he shot his first feature film, PARTING GLANCES. In Los Angeles he worked with directors such as Donald Petrie Sr., Robert Altman, Michael Pressman, Michael Tolkin and Academy Award^®-winning directors such as Jonathan Demme and Zbigniew Rybczynski. His work includes feature films, TV films and series, music videos and documentaries.

He was nominated twice by the ASC for his work on THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL and GARDEN OF REDEMPTION. He was a co–cinematographer on the Academy Award–nominated full-length documentary COLORS STRAIGHT UP.

Laskus shoots films in locations all over the world including Canada, Portugal, New Zealand, Italy, Lithuania, Japan, Nepal, India, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Peru. Laskus is also a published still photographer. He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and of the Polish Society of Cinematographers.

Denise Brassard | Senior Lecturer

Rose Fadem-Johnston | Senior Lecturer

Cinematographer Rose Fadem-Johnston’s work spans narrative, commercial, music video, and experimental formats. Originally from Berkeley CA, her first career was as a Trapeze artist, before she moved into the equally wild and wonderful world of production.

Fadem-Johnston earned her MFA in cinematography at the AFI Conservatory and her BA in Film Production from UCLA. Her work has been recognized at the Chicago IFF, Toronto, Riff, Montreal, Italian Contemporary, and Champs Elysse, Film festivals.

She is an avid backpacker and kayaker, as well as armature stained glass artist. Her cinematography work often includes tackling the challenges specific to SFX, VFX, stunts and stop-motion animation. In 2015 Fadem-Johnston became a founding board member of the ICFC (the International Collective of Female Cinematographers) and has lectured at the AFI conservatory, when not on set, since 2017.

Hana Kitasei | Senior Lecturer

Hana Kitasei is a Japanese and American LA-based cinematographer. She graduated with a BA in mathematics from Harvard and an MFA in cinematography from the AFI Conservatory. She assisted Ellen Kuras, ASC, (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) while cutting her teeth on a wide range of narrative, documentary and experimental projects. In 2018, she was chosen to participate in the first annual Fox DP development lab. Feature credits include: UNCONFORMITY, DAUGHTER (starring Casper Van Dien), THE UNBORN and PAULIE GO!. She is currently represented by Danica Pupa at Intrinsic LA.

Rob Kraetsch | Senior Lecturer

Valentina Martinico, AIC | Senior Lecturer

AFI Alumna and Cinematography Faculty Valentina Martinico, AIC was born and raised in Milan, Italy, where she obtained her BA in Literature, European History and Philosophy. As a Los Angeles-based Cinematographer, she has specialized in period narrative genre and celluloid capture, while comfortably shooting on both digital and film formats. Martinico was recently invited to join the Italian Society of Cinematographers (Autori Italiani Cinematografia), sponsored by colleague Alfredo Betro, AIC and supported by former AIC President and illustrious IMAGO founder Luciano Tovoli, AIC.

In addition to teaching her regular First and Second Year Cinematography courses, Martinico was the Lead Educator for the latest edition of the AFI Cinematography Intensive for Women (CIW), spearheaded by her supervisor, mentor and colleague Stephen Lighthill, ASC.

Other academic experiences include cinematography workshops at UC Santa Barbara and University of New Orleans. Martinico is also a regular new books’ proposals and drafts Reviewer for Focal Press/Routledge Cinematography textbooks.

Michael M. Pessah | Senior Lecturer

Raised in New York, award-winning cinematographer Michael Marius Pessah began his career working with top commercial DPs as an assistant at Curious Pictures. Later he earned a BA at Hampshire College, was the recipient of a Kodak Cinematography Scholarship award and received an MFA in Cinematography at the AFI Conservatory.

He was named an Outfest Five in Focus emerging talent for his cinematography in JOSHUA TREE, 1951 — the first cinematographer to receive the recognition and one of the few contemporary cinematographers to have shot two black-and-white features.

His scripted work has played theatrically worldwide, and for networks including HBO, A&E, MTV, Lifetime, Nickelodeon, History Channel, USA, BET and the BBC.

Pessah has shot spots for global brands such as Ralph Lauren, AT&T, Ford, TCL, Spyder, Pfizer, Red Bull and Anheuser-Busch. He has filmed music videos for artists ranging from Halsey to Five Finger Death Punch. The video he shot for WRONG SIDE OF HEAVEN won Best Rock Video of 2015 from Loudwire.

His documentary work includes VIVA LA CAUSA, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award^®, and ARTUR SCHNABEL, NO PLACE OF EXILE, which was chosen to be screened at the Library of Congress. His cinematography for the visual artist Jen DeNike was selected to be part of the official program in the 2017 Art Basel, Miami.

Sandra Valde-Hansen, ASC, LPS | 2nd Year Visual Essay Director & Senior Lecturer

Named one of Variety’s 2019 Artisan Elite Up-Next, Sandra Valde-Hansen holds an MFA in Cinematography from the AFI Conservatory. Working in feature films, television and documentaries, story is key when Valde-Hansen looks for projects to shoot.

Collaborating with indie darling director Gregg Araki, Valde-Hansen lensed his STARZ TV Series NOW APOCALYPSE, as well as his last two Sundance features, KABOOM and WHITE BIRD IN BLIZZARD. She also worked with showrunner and New York Times Best Selling Author Jenny Han on her two tv series, XO, KITTY for Netflix and THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY for Amazon.

Much of Valde-Hansen’s work concentrates on promoting diversity in front and behind the camera. She is committed to ensuring her work helps open up experiences of many diverse voices.

Born in Miami, Florida, to a Filipino family of medical professionals, Valde-Hansen worked her way up through the camera department and was mentored by luminaries such as Stephen Lighthill, ASC, Alan Caso, ASC, Nancy Schreiber, ASC and Steven Poster, ASC. In 2022, she became a member of the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), her lifelong goal. In 2023, she also became a member of Lupon ng Pilipinong Sinematograpo, LPS, the Filipino Society of Cinematographers, based in Manila, Philippines. She is also a member of The Society of Camera Operators, The International Cinematographers Guild, the American Association of University Professors and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Valde-Hansen resides in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter, Mazzy.

Sara Ross-Samko | Visual Essay Supervisor & Senior Lecturer

Drawn to the misty realms between dream and document and informed by a background in music and theatre, Sara Ross-Samko approaches image making with a spirit of adventure and experimentation. A graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory with a degree in Cinematography, her work has been shown at festivals around the world including the Venice Intl’ Film Festival, Telluride and Berlinale. Other honors include participation in the Berlinale Project Lab and the New York IFP Week, a Women in Film Scholarship for Directing, a Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Grant and an American Documentary Film Fund Award. Working with puppets, animation, in-camera effects, celluloid, mud, ink, bugs, beasties and all things weird and wild bring her great joy

Allan Arkush | Senior Lecturer

Allan Arkush was the executive producer of the TV series HEROES and CROSSING JORDAN. His other Television Directing & Producing credits include NCIS,GET CRAZY, FAME, ALLY MCBEAL, MOONLIGHTING,LA LAW, HELLCATS, ELVIS MEETS NIXON,ST. ELSEWHERE, DEFIANCE,BRAINDEAD, WITCHES OF EAST END, SHANNON’S DEAL, CENTRAL PARK WEST, MOON OVER MIAMI and PARENTHOOD, over 400 episodes in all.

His most recent directing assignment, Netflix’s A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: THE HOSTILE HOSPITAL episodes earned him a DGA Nomination for Best Directing of a Children’s Show.

As a lifelong film buff, Arkush’s film criticism can be found on TrailersFromHell.com, where he is a contributing Guru. He also taught Producing & Directing For TV at UCLA Graduate School.

Arkush graduated from NYU Film School and began his career working for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in the mid-1970s. It was there that he began his career by Co-directing with Joe Dante, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, for which they were paid $85. In 1979, he made The Ramones’ cult favorite ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, which Rolling Stone magazine named as one of the top 10 rock ‘n’ roll DVDs of all time.

Arkush resides in Los Angeles with his wife. He has 2 daughters in graduate school.

Moran Cerf | Sloan Scholar

Moran Cerf is a professor of neuroscience. Additionally, he is the Alfred P. Sloan faculty at AFI.

Prior to his academic career, professor Cerf worked as a hacker for nearly a decade, breaking into leading financial and government institutes to test and improve their security. His hacking background has led him to later pursue non-traditional ways to investigate the brain, using methods and techniques that benefit from heavy computational skills and novel research tools. Notably, he has been working with patients undergoing brain-surgery where he studies behavior, emotion, decision making and dreams – by directly recording the activity of individual neurons using electrodes implanted in the patients’ brain.

He is a multiple-times national story-telling champion (‘The Moth’), and his public talks at TED, TEDx, Google Zeitgeist, PopTech, DLD and others have received millions of views and a large following. In addition to his academic career, professor Cerf is a science consultant for various Hollywood films and TV shows. Recently, he was named one of the “40 leading professors below 40”.

Most importantly, he is right handed.

Barry Sabath | Senior Lecturer

Holding an MA and PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University, Sabath also offers two decades of feature film development experience as both a studio executive and producer.

A Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures, he also ran the film division of Robin Williams’ Blue Wolf Productions, whose productions include MRS. DOUBTFIRE. At Twentieth Century Fox, he was Senior Vice

President of Production for Paul Schiff Productions, where he oversaw MY COUSIN VINNY and was co-producer on GHOST IN THE MACHINE and PCU.

Sabath is a recipient of the French Chevalier medal for his contribution to French film culture, an international mentor for the Korean Film Council’s Filmmakers’ Development Labs, a participant in labs and panels at the Busan International Film Festival and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and a consultant for the newly launched Hainan Island International Film Festival in China.

Sabath taught film history and theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois State University, and is the co-author of ERNST LUBITSCH: A GUIDE TO REFERENCES AND RESOURCES.

Cathy Wischner-Sola | Senior Lecturer & Faculty Director, Internships

Wischner-Sola is an award-winning executive producer. She executive-produced HBO’s TAKING CHANCE starring Kevin Bacon, which debuted in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and won WGA and DGA awards and the Humanitas Prize. The film garnered 10 Emmy® nominations, including Outstanding Television Movie, and the Golden Globe nomination for Best Movie. She won the Christopher Award and Television Academy Honors, and was nominated for the Television Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild.

Wischner-Sola served as Vice President, Original Programming at TNT Originals, where she shepherded and supervised an extensive slate of distinguished movies, miniseries and high-budget international co-productions, earning network ratings and critical acclaim. Her projects include Emmy®-nominated PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY, DAVID COPPERFIELD, Patrick Stewart’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL and ANIMAL FARM.

Additional producing credits include the CBS miniseries COMMON GROUND and Emmy®-nominated A WINNER NEVER QUITS with Daniel H. Blatt Productions, where she previously served as Vice President, Creative Affairs. Wischner-Sola holds a BA from The New School for Social Research and attended Northwestern University. She is a member of the Television Academy.