Faculty

Christopher Zaluski (MFA ’13) teaches courses in editing, advanced production, and visual storytelling and is a faculty advisor to Wrought Iron Productions, a student-run video production company housed within the Graduate School.  Zaluski has a background in multimedia journalism and has created films for commercial, non-profit, and independent film organizations.

Zaluski has won awards for multimedia storytelling and filmmaking from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Broadcast Education Association, American Association for Sunday and Features Editors, Virginia Press Association, National Broadcasting Society, and the Online News Association. His documentaries have screened at festivals nationwide and his film, Wagonmasters, was acquired by PBS and Amazon for distribution.

Peter Gilbert teaches courses in documentary storytelling, sports storytelling, cinematography and sound and entrepreneurship.

Gilbert has had a distinguished career in producing, directing, and photographing documentaries, feature films, commercials, and music videos. He is one of the filmmakers who made Hoop Dreams, serving as a producer and director of Photography. The film won numerous awards including The Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, Producers Guild of America, Independent Spirit Award, and The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for Journalism. Hoop Dreams was on 100+ top ten lists for 1994. Also with Kartemquin Filmsand Steve James, he also directed At the Death House Door, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2008, and won awards at several other festivals, including the inspiration award at Full Frame. It aired on the Independent Film Channel in May of 2008. In 2004, he produced and directed, With All Deliberate Speed, the first work in the new series “Discovery Docs,” for the Discovery Network. The nationally released film portrays the drama of the monumental Brown V. Board Supreme Court decision that helped change the racial fabric of our country in 1954. With All Deliberate Speed was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for Distinguished Work in Non-Fiction Film.

Cara Pilson teaches in the areas of documentary storytelling, research, clearance and fair use, ethics, and documentary history.

She has worked as associate director, chief researcher and web producer on multiple award-winning films that were broadcast nationally and internationally, including, Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power and Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore. Both films aired nationally on PBS and received the Erik Barnouw Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary.  She also served as Associate Director and Director of Research on The Last Flight of Petr Ginz an award-winning documentary that has screened in more than 40 countries and is distributed by First Run Features and Forward Entertainment.  Other past films include Giving Up the Canal, Campaign for Cuba and Last Days of the Revolution, all of which aired nationally on PBS.

Through her work with the Documentary Film Program at Wake Forest, and previously with the University of Florida’s Documentary Institute, Pilson has helped students produce work that has received national and international attention.

Chris Sheridan teaches courses in documentary and sports storytelling, digital and social media, and the business of sports media.  He also supervises student internships.

Sheridan is an award winning, journalist, content creator and media executive who has built and led content teams at some of the biggest media companies including ESPN, CNBC, NBC and ABC. A true cross-platform executive, he led the digital video team at ESPN, helped launch the SportsCenter social media experience, launched The CNBC Digital Workshop and ran abcnews.com. His work in the digital space comes after an award winning 17-year career in television news.  A thought leader in the industry, Sheridan now works with sports and media companies on how to use the power of story to help with leadership development, and issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.  He is also a lead, leadership trainer with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida