Bruce Sheridan
Working with filmmaking partner Kerry Brown, Bruce Sheridan produced and occasionally directed a run of commercials, music videos and music projects. The pair co-directed Dave Dobbyn in Concert and Split Enz doco Spellbound. The latter saw Brown concentrating on visuals, and Sheridan taking charge of writing and interviews.
Aside from his work with Brown, New Zealand-born Sheridan has directed a number of videos solo, including songs for Greg Johnson, the Headless Chickens and the Hallelujah Picassos ('Lovers +'), plus Shona Laing hit '(Glad I'm) Not a Kennedy'. He also produced the live shoot for Beastie Boys video 'Gratitude'.
Sheridan has a musical background himself. In the 80s, he was the top graduate at a recording engineering school held at Auckland's Harlequin Studios, and a member of band Everything that Flies.
Wearing his drama hat, Sheridan has produced everything from acclaimed biopic short Lovelock, troubled family TV movie House of Sticks (featuring an early performance by Kate Elliott), and the macho detective styling of the debut Lawless tele-movie (which he co-produced with Tim Sanders).
In 1998 Sheridan wrote and directed Perfectly Frank, a documentary chronicling the life and literary impact of writer Frank Sargeson.
After producing the GOFTA award-winning Lawless, Sheridan moved to the United States (in 2001). These days he is chairman of the film and video department at Columbia College in Chicago, the only film school with a permanent teaching unit on a Hollywood lot. In January 2010 the college opened $US21 million studio complex the Media Production Center in Chicago, as originally proposed by Sheridan. The facility includes three shooting stages and a motion capture stage. Sherdian's view is that film education can be a creative and commercially viable endeavour.
Sheridan was also on the Jury of the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival.
His 30-minute documentary This Song Is Old was selected for the Santa Fe Film Festival the same year; it would be voted one of the audience favourites at a festival in New Mexico. Written and directed by Sheridan, the film follows a retired lawyer delivering the Torah to a group in India who claim to be descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel.
September 2012 saw the Boston Film Festival debut of feature-length doco Head Games, which examines concussion in sports. Sheridan produced the film with its Oscar-nominated director Steve James (best known for basketball tale Hoop Dreams).
Sheridan was also one of the producers of addiction tale Kubuku Rides, directed by Steppenwolf Theatre founder Terry Kinney. The short film played in numerous festivals including the London International Film Festival.
Sheridan is currently developing a feature film called Hunting Daniel, set in New Zealand and Peru. He is also working on his doctorate in philosophy (having already achieved first class honours in the subject), writing a memoir, and working on his own music.
Sources include
Bruce Sheridan
'Film & Video - Creative Producing Faculty Spotlight' (broken link) Columbia College Chicago website. Accessed 3 September 2012