Who is Jay Sanders?
No one is as important to film and media studies at Auburn University as Professor Emeritus Jay Sanders. He was the first to introduce media courses to the school, then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API). He taught at Auburn for thirty three years, touching the lives of an estimated 19,000 students.
Jay was a veteran of the First Marine Division and served during World War II. A graduate of the University of Tampa and the University of Florida, he also took classes at Boston University and New York University before joining the faculty of API in 1952. Shortly after joining the faculty, Jay received a Ford Foundation Fund scholarship to complete his education at Northwestern University. Upon returning to Auburn in 1953, he began teaching film and media courses that quickly became among the most popular at the school.
In addition to teaching media courses, Jay also was actively involved with the Alabama Educational Television (AET). Along with Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s student television workshop, he produced a children’s program, Cabbages and Kings for AET. It aired every Wednesday evening at 6:30 throughout the late 1950s. Later, he worked on The Anthology and Mosaic programs for the network. He also was active in radio, producing WJHO’s “Campus Highlights” program through API’s radio workshop. It was a lively and popular blend of music, news and interviews. In 1960, the year he received tenure, he illustrated the textbook Method and Means of Public Speaking.
In his spare time, Jay wrote plays. He also was a prominent member of the Auburn community. He was well known about town as the “little man with the big dogs.” He got this moniker because he raised both Great Danes and Irish Wolfhounds. His Great Dane, Hamhock, and his Wolfhound, Mr. McGoo, both weighed more than Jay. He also raised Tennessee Walking Horses and rode in area shows. Jay’s love of animals was best demonstrated in his faithful support of the Humane Society.
In 1983, Jay’s students awarded him with a replica of the “Oscar” for his continued devotion to film education. Also that year, a film fund was established in his name. Since then the Jay Sanders Film Fund has helped fund many worthwhile film related endeavors at Auburn. Jay retired from teaching in 1985 after thirty three years of tireless service but continued to be a presence at the university and in the community. In 1996, the Auburn Film Society honored him by naming its annual film festival after him. Since then, the Jay Sanders Film Festival has presented a wide range of excellent student films and videos submitted from around the world.
Jay passed on in December 2001. He is missed by many loving friends; his commitment to film and media studies lives on and continues to inspire new generations of students, filmmakers and scholars.
2010 Judges Coming Soon
2009 Judges:
Mark Alice Durant
Mark Alice Durant is Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at UMBC. His photographs, installations and performances have been presented internationally including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Artist’s Space in New York. He has written extensively on the nexus of photography, performance and cultural phenomena with essays appearing in such journals as Art in America, Art on Paper, ArtUS and Art Journal. He is author of McDermott and McGough: A History of Photography, Robert Heinecken: A Material History and co-author of Vik Muniz: Seeing is Believing. In 2005 Durant co-curated and co-authored Blur of the Otherworldly: Contemporary Art, Technology and the Paranormal and in 2008 curated Notes on Monumentality at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Rick Pukis
Rick Pukis (Pook-is) is a filmmaker and an Associate Professor of Communications at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia. He began his educational pursuits in the world of film and expanded to embrace the digital world. This combined expertise is exemplified in his diverse, 25-year career in broadcast communications gained in a variety of locales ranging from Chicago, Illinois to Missoula, Montana and Spokane, Washington. Today, the former Editor, Producer, Senior Producer, Account Executive, and Media Specialist is an enthusiastic, award-winning filmmaker, a technically savvy television professional, and an integral member of the Television and Cinema track at Augusta State University. Away from the classroom, Rick continues to create his own independent films, his latest “Wits End” shot on celluloid. It was selected for showing at the Film Attack Film Festival and Flicker Spokane.
Kerry Weldon
Kerry Weldon recently relocated to Auburn after spending 15 years in New York City where she served as Administrative Director of NewFest: the New York LGBT Film Festival. Kerry joined NewFest after 9 years at IFP, where she held the position of Managing Director of Development, and, a brief stint as Director of Development at the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She has also served on the NewFest Board of Directors for three years, where she chaired the Development Committee. As a filmmaker, Kerry has directed two short films: "Transit" and "Quejios", and has appeared on panels at the Tribeca Film Festival, and South by Southwest. She has also served on juries for Slamdance (narrative features 2006), the International Emmys and the Director's View Film Festival.
Michael Young
Michael Young began his career in front of the camera at the helm of several Emmy Award winning productions. He starred in Kids Are People, Too for the ABC television network in the late '70's and early '80's, which won an Emmy Award for outstanding children's programming for the 1979 - 80 season. He also appeared on popular shows including Love Boat, The Fall Guy, Remington Steele, Silver Spoons, Love American Style and others. He participated in the launch of The Disney Channel and CNBC on cable television. Currently he is the CEO of Michael Young Media, which produces television programming