Zuri Greene’s obsession with filmmaking started when he was a kid using an iPod media player to create stop-motion videos of his Lego figures.
This semester, he’s getting ready to produce his honors thesis film short with professional-grade lighting, camera and sound gear, thanks to the Department of Film and Media’s new production space at Emory Point.
“If you have an interest in seriously moving forward in film production,” says Greene, a senior film and media management major, “it’s the kind of equipment you want to know how to use.”
The new hub includes a soundstage, an automatic dialogue replacement (ADR) booth for dubbing sound and dialogue, a post-production film-editing lab and two classrooms.
These amenities take learning about film production at Emory to the next level, Greene says. “The film and media faculty are already absolutely fantastic, and the Emory Point space will only grow our community.”
It’s growing already.
In 2018, the department added its first tenure-track production faculty — Dehanza Rogers, associate professor and director of production, and David Barba, assistant professor. Others joined soon afterwards, including: James Pellerito, assistant teaching professor; Tanju Ozdemir, assistant professor; and Alonso Llosa, assistant professor. A sixth faculty member, specializing in sound production, is slated to arrive in fall 2026.
The department’s strong grounding in both film studies and production drew Ozdemir to Emory. “Film production is not just about teaching the technical part,” he says. “When students understand the history and theory, it makes our job easier as production faculty. That is one of the beautiful things about being a liberal arts college.”
The department’s expansion coincides with student demand. In 2014, 21 students graduated with film and media majors or minors. In 2026, 117 students have declared majors or minors in the program.
Previously, film and media shared Emory’s visual arts building with Integrated Visual Arts — a concentration whose class offerings and faculty count have also increased in recent years.
The launch of the new film and media teaching space marks a momentous time for arts at the university, says Kevin Karnes, senior associate dean of faculty and divisional dean of arts.
“This is the first new arts facility that we have built since the Schwartz Center,” he says, “and I think that demonstrates the College of Arts and Sciences’ commitment to arts as fundamental to the life of a research institution. It’s also going to make us even more of a destination for aspiring undergraduate filmmakers.”
From start to finish
When Alicia Brown arrived at Emory, she planned to focus on screenwriting. But that changed when she took Film 214, “Viewing Black Girlhood,” taught by Rogers. “We were really examining: What does the media say about Black girls on screen?” says Brown. “How are we represented?
“That’s when I realized I could probably shoot stuff, as well,” she says. “I don't have to stop at scriptwriting. I could probably do something bigger than that.”
Now a senior, Brown wants to make films, not just write them. As a film and media major minoring in media production, she says, “my goal is to be one of those voices in the industry” speaking out for fair representation.
This spring, she hopes to work on a student film on the new soundstage.
This is master’s-degree-level learning, says Rogers. And more space and resources give students the tools to learn every stage of movie-making, from start to finish.
“Students might write a script in the screenwriting class,” Rogers says. “Then, they come into the narrative filmmaking class and learn directing. Take a producing class and learn how we distribute work. So now, we have everything students need to learn to get from ideation to sending their work out to a festival and feeling confident about it.”
“It really makes you feel like you’re working,” says Brown. “You’re learning how to be on a crew in different positions. It’s the kind of hands-on experience that will help you in the future.”
Including a lounge where students could build community and collaborate on projects was “a really high priority for us,” says Michele Schreiber, associate professor and chair of film and media.
A lab for the future of filmmaking
The department’s growth, culminating in the new space, came about through the work and vision of many people, says Karnes. These include Michele Schreiber, associate professor and chair of film and media; Matthew Bernstein, Goodrich C. White professor and former chair; Kate Lawlor, assistant vice president of development, advancement and alumni engagement; and an anonymous donor, who funded the project.
Rogers acted as the final driving force behind the Emory Point expansion. In 2021, she presented a multi-page “moonshot” proposal for what a top-tier, film-production teaching space would look like.
“She’d done all this benchmarking with other institutions, and she had it all speced out,” says Karnes. Rogers researched several potential sites, noticing that Emory Point had the high ceilings needed for a soundstage and a loading dock for equipment.
“You know, if I were a chemistry professor, I would have requested funds to start a chem lab,” says Rogers. “This is no different. This is just what you need to do for the arts.”
She spent five years leading the project to completion.
Rogers has a background as a cinematographer — the person in charge of creating the look and feel of a film from a technical standpoint. “So, I loved nerding out over this process,” she says.
Schreiber and Rogers decided early on that the new space should contain a student lounge.
“That was a really high priority for us,” says Schreiber. “To make it so students would want to spend time here even when they weren’t in classes, to hang out together, doing their own work or collaborating on projects.”
The completed space has a kitchenette and restaurant-style booths.
“That way, they have a place to find their community,” says Rogers. “They become colleagues so they can work together in the future.”
Rogers recalls the first time she walked through the nearly complete Emory Point space in December.
“I don’t even think I took any pictures,” she says. “I was just, ‘Wow, okay, this is the thing in my head — it’s real.’ I'm really proud of that.”
Schreiber is proud, too.
“To see something that you’ve been talking about and seen in different two-dimensional forms, from the initial drawings to the feasibility study, all the way to picking out the chairs — it’s incredibly satisfying,” she says.
The Emory Point space signals the university’s commitment, “not just to our students, but to filmmaking as an important discipline,” Schreiber adds.
Rogers says she thinks about the anonymous donor who funded the project every day. “You want to look them in the eyes and say ‘Thank you.’ Because they’re making a real, substantive difference to the curriculum, to our students and to the filmmaking community. They’ve fundamentally changed the DNA of film production at Emory.”
Faculty are witnessing that impact firsthand.
“Students come in, and I’ve noticed this spark in their eyes as they take in the place and the equipment,” says Barba. “They think, ‘This was built for us.’”
All photos by Avery D. Spalding, Emory Photo/Video.