Alister Sanderson

About

Prof. Alister Sanderson holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Oxford University and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University, where he was a George Amberg Doctoral Research Fellow and specialized in WWII British documentary film.

Before coming to MMC, he taught at New York University, Drew University, the School of Visual Arts and Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He also made experimental films, served on the board of directors of the Millennium Film Workshop, and founded and edited the Millennium Film Journal, the leading international publication devoted to avant-garde film-making.

In commercial television, Alister was Hearst/ABC’s ARTS’ and A&E’s Creative Director and senior producer during the launches of those networks. He went on to head up his own communications and production company which was hired for the launches of Lifetime, Lifetime Medical Television, Request Television (America’s first pay-per-view channel), the Sci-Fi Channel and TNT. Among other clients were HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, the New York Times, USA Network, The Long Island Philharmonic, Artpark, Pilobolus, Parsons Dance, and the NYC Refugee Employment Project.

In the last few years, Alister has produced, written and directed for the History Channel (for which he received the American Advertising Federation’s Addy award) as well as for Biography, the Kennedy Space Center, the Smithsonian, and the National Constitution Center. His own films include the award-winning A Little Tour of Manhattan, Sun Tea and All the Time in the World. Chase Games, made with Prof. Elizabeth Higgins and featuring MMC dance students, was shown at the Utah Arts Festival and the Independent Film Festival in Florida. A number of his films, including Herbarium (2013), which explores the scientific mission of the New York Botanical Garden, can be seen at www.alistersanderson.com

Among the courses Alister teaches are Sense and Medium: Introduction to Creative Media, Survey of Film & Video, The Films of Alfred Hitchcock and The Avant-garde in Performance, Film & Art.

Alister established and was the founding director of the Dept. of Communication Arts’ Theresa Lang Center for Producing, which provides the production facilities for MMC students to work creatively in video, sound design, graphic design, and new digital media.