ISD Global partners with Manhattan Film Academy New York to offer film making workshops in Dubai

The workshops are scheduled to be held in Dubai at the ECMIT Campus in January 2013 over a two week period and will straddle Screenwriting, Directing & Acting.

Established in 2002, Manhattan Film Academy is a New York City-based group of internationally renowned award winning American & European filmmakers brought together by writer-director Robert Tutak, Professor of Film at the City University of New York.

The group includes Academy Awards (Oscars), European Film Awards, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy winners and nominees.

MFA offers a unique opportunity to learn first-hand from world-class screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, and editors through intensive hands-on workshops. The workshops in Dubai will be held at the ECMIT Campus at Al Nahda behind the NMC Hospital. The scheduled dates of the workshops are from January 13th to January 24th. Each discipline i.e. Screenwriting, Directing & Acting will have one-week (five-day) intensive workshop and participants can take any one or a combination of what interests them.

"The MFA, after two years of absence from Dubai, is excited to return for a new series of film production workshops. We look forward to a long-term collaboration with our partner ISD Global on a range of workshops, including a one-year U.S. accredited academic programme leading to a B.A. Degree in Liberal Arts. The workshops will be taught by internationally renowned award-winning American and European filmmakers, including Oscars, BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe winners and nominees," averred Robert Tutak, Founder, Manhattan Film Academy and Writer/Director. Robert is also the Professor of Film at the City University of New York.

"ISD Global has been at the forefront of providing unique, enriching experiences in this region to its audiences. The collaboration with the renowned Manhattan Film Academy is another step in that direction. The first of these workshops was conducted way back in 2005 with participation coming in from far and wide including India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan etc, apart from the UAE. The interest and enthusiasm is very high in this part of the world especially in the absence of quality training in these areas. The MFA-ISD Global alliance is an endeavor to address this gap area and offer to students in the region an opportunity to learn from the finest in their craft," remarked Suresh Dinakaran, CEO, ISD Global.

"The first ever MFA programme offered in the UAE was conducted at the ECMIT campus in Garhoud, Dubai. We were proud to associate with the programme considering the quality it offered and the value that it brought to participants- this is what ECMIT as an institution always takes pride in doing. We are happy to continue the partnership and look forward to yet another series of highly intensive, hands on film production workshops," stated Sudhir Kartha, President & CEO, ECMIT.

The Acting workshops will be conducted by Ella Sloboda - Actress & Acting coach. Sloboda is a graduate of the legendary Actor's Studio in New York City; whose alumni include: Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marylyn Monroe, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino, among other renowned actors. Her stage and screen acting career spans several countries across three continents: including the US, Australia, and Poland. She will be conducting the Acting workshop at ECMIT in Dubai.

The Directing & Screenwriting workshops will be conducted by Writer-Director Robert Tutak. Robert is Professor of film at the City University of New York (CUNY). His writing-directing credits include three feature films, currently in distribution: MATCH (Poland), NOBODY'S PERFECT (U.S.), and DUBAI: A CITY OF DREAMS (U.S.), as well as sixteen short fiction films and short documentaries. His work has been distributed internationally in over twenty countries across four continents as well as in the U.S., including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.