NYU Returns to Santa Fe for Second Free Summer Filmmaking Workshop

The cast and crew of a micro short film on location during last year's workshop. Photo by Linda Lynn.

NYU Tisch School of the Arts will offer a second summer workshop in Santa Fe for directors and writers who want to develop their filmmaking skills in support of Indigenous stories. The free, intensive workshop will run July 13 through August 3, 2025 at Santa Fe Community College.

The rigorous, non-credit program is open to students of all backgrounds and will be taught by instructors from Tisch's Graduate Film Program, working in partnership with SFCC and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Applications are being accepted at this website through June 1. The workshop is limited to 12 participants.

Tisch professor Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, an Iñupiaq filmmaker who is the next chair of the renowned Graduate Film Program, leads the faculty, which also includes Tisch professors and workshop directors Barbara Schock and Jennifer Ruff.

"Our program empowers individuals to tell the stories that matter to them and their communities. It's hands-on, it's rigorous, and it works," says MacLean.

Students will spend the first two weeks on directing and writing exercises, as well as technical lessons in editing, sound, and cinematography. In addition, they will receive instruction in professional practices, including securing permits and releases for locations, casting, scheduling, and safety protocols.

They will use the final week to direct their own micro short films, which will be screened together at the Santa Fe International Film Festival in October.

New Mexico is home to 23 Native tribes and Pueblos and is a popular location for filmmaking companies, including Netflix and Amazon. As a result, Santa Fe has become a small but growing hub for filmmakers.

Eleven students from New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, and Seattle participated last summer.

"Last year's participants responded enthusiastically to our critique-based curriculum, and we were pleased with the growth we witnessed during the very intensive session," Schock says.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old. Filmmaking experience is welcome but not required. Participants can be current college students or graduates, but college-level education is not required.

About Tisch School of the Arts
For over 50 years, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar of the arts. Today, students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a premier global university with campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and 11 academic centers around the world. Learn more at tisch.nyu.edu