Eddie Cockrell

Biography:

East coast editor and video columnist, Nitrate Online (http://www.nitrateonline.com) Variety critic, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Seattle, Denver festivals (http://www.variety.com) Catalogue editor/writer, Washington DC, Philadelphia,Hamptons, Sydney festivals Eddie Cockrell is a film critic, programmer and public speaker based in suburban Maryland. From 1994 to 1996 he presented sneak screenings at Washington's Biograph Theater, and continues to speak regularly at the Key Sunday Cinema Club, Talk Cinema and Sunday Cinema at the Charles program in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Westchester. He contributes film catalogue notes to the Sydney and Hamptons film festivals, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and Filmfest DC, serving as Senior Catalogue Editor and Programmer for the latter since its inception in 1986. His recent programs for the Smithsonian Associates include "Understanding the Art of Film," "Comedy Today" and "The Hollywood Musical," and he has hosted programs at the Corcoran Gallery of Art exploring the films of Peter Weir and Stanley Kubrick and at the National Gallery of Art surveying contemporary Slovak Cinema. He has been film critic for Fox Morning News and Fox News at Noon in Washington, DC (Fox WTTG 5) and Programmer/Project Coordinator for "Films from the Americas," presented by the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel. Since 1992 he has served as Executive Director of The Americas Film Festival Foundation, a non-profit organization which presents new Spanish- and Portuguese-language film events around the world. For many years he served as the Associate Director of Film Programming for The American Film Institute National Exhibition Programs, planning and presenting film and video series at the AFI's year-round repertory cinema at WashingtonÕs Kennedy Center. He researched and wrote Preview, the theater's monthly film schedule. Highlights include previously banned films from Romania, an ongoing weekly examination of new American Independent Cinema, contemporary German films and tributes to film personalities (including John Cassavetes, Greta Garbo, Satyajit Ray, Fred MacMurray, Barbet Schroeder, Marlene Dietrich, Ken Russell and the gangster in film). A veteran of television, radio, and classroom, he has appeared on the Panorama (WTTG), John McLaughlin (CNBC) and WorldNet (USIA) TV programs; the Derek McGinty (WAMU FM), Voice of America (USIA) and Morning Papers (WHFS FM) radio broadcasts; and at various movie presentations, on-stage celebrity interviews and fundraising events. A Washington area native, Cockrell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature/Cinema Studies from The American University and served on the adjunct faculty from 1990 to 1993. From 1979 to 1989 he was film critic for WGMS radio in Washington, and for a time wrote the "Film Talk" column for the Friday Weekend section of The Washington Post. As Film Specialist he was involved with the "Filmmaking in America" project for the United States Information Agency from 1982 to 1989. In this capacity he researched and wrote panels for the exhibit and traveled to Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Bratislava, where he trained the on-site tour guides and discussed the history of Hollywood with local media, academics and exhibit visitors. In 1992 he served as a juror for the inaugural edition of the Festival of First Films in Bratislava, (former) Czechoslovakia.

Publications:

Nitrate Online , Sydney Morning Herald , Variety