Area Award Nomination Form - Special Olympics Texas: Fill & Download for Free

I just remembered that I never answered this, although God knows I've spilled enough of my life story (and my guts) all over this site that of the people interested enough to read this, most will already know a lot of it.I was born in Baltimore, Maryland to American-born Greek-American parents. My mother's people were from Sparta and my father's people from the islands. Three of my grandparents were born in Greece; my mother's mother was born in Pittsburgh to a Greek-born father and a Polish-born mother.[There's a legend in my family (I hope it's true) that my mother's mother's mother left Poland as a teenager because she was running away from anarranged marriage to a coal miner twice her age. Whatever happened, shemade her way to Reading, Pennsylvania, where she got a job in a Greekrestaurant and met my great-grandfather, who was an itinerant puppeteer and looked like Cary Grant (seriously). They got married and embarked on a lifestyle that involved her staying at home for weeks or months while he went out on the road, touring from one Greek coffeehouse to another with hismarionettes. He would return home long enough to knock her up and thengo out on the road again.]My mother died in January 2013, just a few weeks before her 83rd birthday. Here she is on her 82nd birthday.My dad is 90. If Mom had survived another few months they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in June 2013.My dad is a retired electrician who owned a small appliance store when I was a little girl, then foresaw the dominance of the big box stores (realizing he could not compete with a local store called Luskin's) and got a job as a troubleshooter at the big Bethlehem Steel plant in Sparrows Point, Maryland. He retired in 1984. My mom was the office manager at an insurance agency until I was born, then stayed home for about ten years, then took a part-time job, but basically dedicated herself to my brother and me.My brother is four years younger than I am. I despised him when he was born but for many years he has been very dear to me, and his 13 year old daughter Christina is one of the joys of my life. Unfortunately I live in Oregon and pretty much my whole family live in Maryland, so I don't see them more than three or four times a year, which can be hard sometimes. This is my brother and me, taken by Christina, on his birthday a few years ago. (She and I made the cake.)I'm very happily married to a guy I went to college with, Mike Radway. We were together as a committed couple for 26 years before we got married, and knew each other as friends for six years before that. During the time before we got married we got asked a lot of questions about how long we'd been together and I always used to enjoy responding, "Since the Carter Administration, although we met during the Nixon Administration."Stephanie V's answer to Do long-distance relationships work?Here is our wedding photo. We were married at the Multnomah County Courthouse. I'm glad no one ever called my mother's attention that I wore black (she's seen the photos of course, but in her relief that I was finally married she didn't pay much attention to the details).Not only did I manage to find an excellent life partner, he has a great family who have always welcomed me warmly into whatever events or activities I happened to be doing with them. I know many people can't say the same about their own in-laws and I feel very fortunate.When I was an adolescent I always assumed that I'd never get married, partly because I couldn't imagine ever wanting to marry anyone, and partly because I didn't feel like wife material. I am a slob and an terrible housekeeper. I'm not much of a cook (although I'm improving). I knew I didn't want to have children. I knew I would never want to change my name. Etc. However, the one time I tried to discuss these feelings with my mother I only succeeded in freaking her out because when I spoke the words, "I'm just not the kind of girl boys marry," she ran with that in a whole different direction. I figured it out later.Because I am a firstborn my mother had no idea I was a little weirdo when I started reading at about age 2.5. She just assumed this was how it went. We didn't have public kindergarten, so when she took me (just turned 6) to sign up for first grade they told her I had to take a reading readiness test. When she told them I'd been reading for years they didn't believe her until I started reading all the forms they had printed out for the parents, at which point I got to meet the principal, got sent for testing to the Baltimore County Board of Education, and got skipped into the second grade. So I was always a year younger than my classmates, all through school.I was never much good at sports but I was really good at pretty much everything in school, and I especially loved math, at least until I ran into second year algebra (the only D I ever got) and got scared off. I took five years of French and a lot of English and social studies classes instead. I got involved in student government, became the VP of my junior class and then the president of the student council. I was most likely to succeed and all that. My mother wanted me to stay in Baltimore and go to Goucher College (which was all female in those days). I wanted to go away, and I knew that if I was going to get my parents to accept it I needed to get into a major brand name school. I got into Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Goucher, and two other schools. Most first generation Greek-American fathers in 1973 would never have supported the idea of a daughter going to Yale. I had some financial aid and a bursary job but my parents came through with the money for me to go.Yale was a transformative experience for me.Stephanie V's answer to How has higher education changed your life?Stephanie V's answer to What does it feel like to attend a world-renowned university?For my senior essay in American Studies I decided to write about the Black Sox scandal. I called up the most notorious baseball fan on the Yale faculty, A. Bartlett Giamatti, and asked him to advise it. He agreed. A few months later he was elected President of Yale, but he insisted on keeping his commitment. Working on it with him was a great experience.After Yale I managed to land my dream job as an executive trainee with MLB (business).Stephanie V's answer to Is it really possible to make your own luck?While I worked as Manager of Waivers and Player Records for the American League, I went to law school in the evenings at Fordham. I graduated from Fordham in 1985 and lucked into something great. There was a new Commissioner, Peter Ueberroth. Peter didn't like lawyers but he did like professional women, and he created a new Assistant General Counsel position for me in the Commissioner's Office, so I could stay on. This was a huge break for me, and I'll always be grateful to him for it.In 1988-89 when it started to seem that moving on from MLB might be a good idea, Bart (who by then was National League President and would soon be Commissioner) introduced me to his Yale classmate Donald Dell. Donald was a former US Davis Cup captain and had started the first sports agency specializing in representing tennis players, ProServ. His first two clients were Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith. By the late 80s ProServ had branched out into other sports and represented hundreds of athletes including Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Greg LeMond, Boomer Esiason, James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins, and tennis players like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, and Gabriela Sabatini. I worked for Donald for eight years. A major highlight of that time was in 1990 when ProServ was hired to represent the merchandising rights to Nelson Mandela's first US visit, after his release from Robben Island. (When Mandela was released from prison, Arthur Ashe was the first person he asked to meet, and Arthur helped us get a meeting to pitch the business.) A colleague and I ran the merchandising program. It was thrilling.The licensee in the Bay Area was Winterland Productions. I flew out to San Francisco and appeared on local TV with the head of artist licensing at Winterland to urge people to buy only the officially licensed t-shirts, etc.In 1995 I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association, and still serve as a director, and now as a member of the Executive Committee.I was recruited to Nike (company) in 1997 and worked there for almost 14 years. I was originally recruited to do sports marketing deals but lucked into an opportunity to start building Nike's global product safety team and infrastructure in a serious way in about 1999, and ran with it.In that job I built a global multidisciplinary virtual team that only saw each other perhaps twice a year, but which met weekly to deal with existing issues and plan out the mechanisms by which we hoped to prevent future issues. We traveled to Asia and Europe to give and receive trainings. We visited the European Parliament and the Chinese product safety authorities in Shanghai. We managed the occasional product recall and worked with product designers and developers to avoid future recalls. I served on the ethics committee of the Nike Sport Research Lab and my team and I worked with the NSRL and the product engines to decide how much we were willing to promise by way of product performance claims based on their work. I worked with amazingly smart people -- chemists, materials scientists, manufacturing gurus, social compliance experts, ESH specialists. My team and I sat through days of toxicology lectures to elevate our understanding of consumer allergies, sensitivities, and other chemical safety issues. I took a special two-week training course called "PS72 Shoe School" in 2000 and learned how to brief, design, spec/develop, cost out, and build an athletic shoe. Those two weeks (one in Oregon, one in Korea and China) will always be a highlight of my life. I can't ever remember learning so much in such a short time.Between 1997 and 2009, in partnership with the staff on the business side, I also papered and negotiated literally billions of dollars in sports marketing deals. My principal sports of concentration were tennis, golf, baseball, and some Olympic sports. I worked on every piece of Nike sports marketing business related to Lance Armstrong for 12 years, including setting up the "LiveStrong" wristband promotion and getting it legally qualified in the 20 states that regulate that kind of fundraising. Last I heard more than 70 million yellow wristbands had been sold. I'm sure it's closer to 100 million now. I worked on Nike's product supply and sponsorship agreements with Ohio State, University of Washington, University of North Carolina System, and other schools. I worked on Nike's deals with scores of athletes. I've been called a bitch by at least two agents representing athletes you've heard of. I also have had very warm relationships with people who represented athletes under contract to Nike.http://www.quora.com/Stephanie-Vardavas/My-Posts/I-just-learned-that-my-friend-Keven-Davis-died-on-Friday-nightIn 2009 Nike had major layoffs after which I was repurposed as a trademark lawyer, a specialty I had last practiced 20 years earlier, at MLB (although at MLB we did licensing and at Nike we did clearance and prosecution [registration] of trademarks). After a few more departmental reorgs I found myself involuntarily retired. I won't say I had no idea about what to do next. Rather, I had too many ideas about what to do next. I started working on a couple of patents, which I'm still working on, but I thought I wanted to get a new job. At first I thought I'd try to get a job in the technology field, which has fascinated me since the first time my friend Jim HendlerWho is James Hendler?first showed me the World Wide Web in 1995.Stephanie V's answer to What was the first website you built, and in what year did you build it?I applied for jobs at [tech startup A], [tech startup B], [tech pioneer], and [tech survivor], got a couple of phone interviews, and that was it. I realized as I scanned the various job listings that nobody wanted to hire a lawyer with my amount of experience. So I knew I was going to have to take charge of my own path from then on. I remembered that ten years earlier I had thought about becoming a mediator after I retired. Now was my chance.I took almost 100 hours of training as a mediator and embarked on a new career. I've also done some consulting in product safety, the work I loved most when I worked for Nike. But none of it felt exactly right. Finally the light bulb went on for me when I hit a million miles on United Airlines and realized I had never owned a carry-on bag that I really liked. I connected with a former Nike colleague who is an expert in materials and a new company, row99.com, was born.In 2011 the Governor of Oregon appointed me to the Oregon Commission for Women, and I was elected Chair in 2012. My service on the Commission has been a great experience so far. My fellow Commissioners are really smart, capable women, and the work we do is important.I'm politically activeStephanie V's answer to What is it like to host a political fundraising dinner at your house?Stephanie V's answer to What is it like to be a delegate at an American presidential nominating convention?and cut my teeth in local politics as a library advocate, with six years on the board of directors and two years as President of the Friends of Multnomah County Library. I was also one of the founding board members of EMERGE Oregon (a 501c4 that trains Democratic women to run for office). I spent Election Day 2008 as a voter protection volunteer at a polling place in Albuquerque. I have absolutely zero ambition to hold elective office myself, and happily neither does Mike. We don't want that kind of life. (That's us with the late Elizabeth Edwards. We spent a day driving her around in June 2007 when she came to Portland to campaign for her husband. I'll always be grateful for the time we spent with her, but if I'd known what a dick he was I would never have supported him, so I guess I'm glad I didn't know, or I would never have met her.)And here we are with Congressman John Lewis, a real honest-to-God hero.Like seemingly 95% of Quorans, I have an idea for a startup. I don't have the technical skills to execute on it but the service would have immediate value to some very big ecommerce companies so I keep telling myself I need to figure out how to find someone to work on it with me and make it happen; I'll be really sad if someone else gets to it before I do. I've been researching prior art at the USPTO to decide whether I should try to get a business process patent to give me some protection while I try to implement it. I'm not a natural born entrepreneur but I've been in the business world for more than 30 years and learned a few things along the way.Random miscellaneous crap about me:I love Jane Austen (author), Star Wars, Leonard Cohen, Elton John, The Beatles (band), and lots of other music, including Baroque Music and Opera. I love Musicals. I am both an Anglophile and a Francophile, although some believe those two things to be mutually exclusive. I love Star Wars (creative franchise). My favorite animal is the Sheep, but I was born in the Year of the Monkey. I love Monty Python and I know I should love Firesign Theatre, but I never got into it.Going to law school at night broke my TV habit. Today I watch very little television, and the only thing I watch live is sports and awards shows like the Oscars, or other kinds of breaking news. On Tivo I watch all three US major network news shows, The Big Bang Theory (TV series), The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. On DVD I recently finished a 19 hour Downton Abbey (TV series) marathon and have dived into the Q&A here.I love Architecture and would have considered becoming an architect if it weren't for all the math. %^>I love the Baltimore Orioles, and have since I was a very little girl. I care about the Yale Bulldogs and have learned to love the Baltimore Ravens almost as much as my father and brother do. In the National League I've always liked the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants.The National Basketball Association (NBA) has never interested me all that much but I do love college hoops (I was raised a fan of the Maryland Terrapins; one of the biggest thrills I had working for ProServ was the opportunity to spend a little time with John Lucas, whom I really loved as a player, who later had terrible drug problems, and who got clean and is now very successful).I have no artistic talent to speak of, but I can take pretty good photos, and I used to be good at sewing. I could make professional looking coats and suits. My sewing skills are now long atrophied. I bought a fancy new electronic sewing machine six years ago and have never used it. I can still hem things by hand and sew on buttons, and I enjoy doing that kind of thing for my husband; it helps me delude myself into feeling domestic.I read widely, often nonfiction, especially Biographies and Memoirs. I do reread Austen (luckily she only wrote six books) at least once every couple of years. I recently did deep dives into Henry James (author) and Edith Wharton, who unaccountably has no Quora topic of her own. I'm reading Anna Karenina (1877 book) now for the first time (shocking, I know, but better late than never).I've been to Christmas luncheon at Manchester United. It felt as if I had stepped into outtakes from Love Actually (2003 movie)In 1975 I borrowed Brooks Robinson's uniform for Halloween. That's a whole other story.There's a chapter about me in the book Baseball Lives, by Mike Bryan, and the part relating to Brooks' uniform was excerpted in Sports Illustrated in April 1989 (the issue that had Tony Mandarich on the cover, I forget the date). George Vecsey also wrote a column about the uniform story the weekend Brooks was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.I've stood 50 meters from the finish line of the Tour de France on the Champs Elysées and cried like a baby when they played the Star Spangled Banner for Lance Armstrong as he mounted the podium.In 1990 I went on morning TV in New York City along with Arthur Ashe to talk about the Mandela merchandising program. It was a huge thrill for me.Stephanie V's answer to What are some of the unique (likely hasn’t been done by another Quora member) experiences of Quora community members?I've sat in the Commissioner's box at the World Series, in the owner's (singular) box at Yankee Stadium, in the owners' (plural) box at Fenway Park, and in the Directors' box at Old Trafford. I sat in front of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and one seat over from Harry Belafonte in the House gallery when Mandela addressed a joint session of Congress in 1990.In October 2011 I traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, where I attended in the same week both the World Championships of the International Gay Rodeo Association and the Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America. I am quite certain I am the only person in the world who did this.I've also got three unfinished novels in my hard drive. Perhaps I will finish one of them someday. I hope I'll pick a good one.

Q. What is the best rated university for film education?USC - THR Ranks the Top 25 American Film Schools 6:30 AM 8/18/2016Illustrations by Rami NiemiLearning to become a filmmaker used to be much simpler: All you needed was a 16mm camera, a few scraps of film stock and an inspirational teacher. But these days, film schools are considered useless unless they offer state-of-the-art augmented reality labs, high-end digital Steadicams and at least one course taught by James Franco — all of which makes applying to these institutions more confusing than ever before.To help, THR presents its sixth annual ranking of the 25 best U.S. film schools (and a list of 15 of the best foreign film schools). As always, the magazine assembled the list by consulting with academic experts, industry professionals and scores of film school alumni.Reporting by Ashley Cullins, Rebecca Ford, Mia Galuppo, Borys Kit, Kendal McAlpin, Pamela McClintock, Brian Porreca, Tatiana Siegel and Rebecca Sun.25 Yale University Film and Media Studies ProgramTuition: $45,800 (undergrad)If classes like World Cinema — which explores the "coexistence of globalization and the persistence of national identities" — are your cup of tea, then Yale is the school for you. Its film program also boasts impressive partnerships: You can study abroad at the Czech Republic's FAMU. And while James Franco doesn't teach any courses, he plans to get his Ph.D. here.NOTABLE ALUMNI New York magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri, The New York Times film critic Wesley Morris24 FSU's College of Motion Picture ArtsTuition: $3,880-$7,760 (in-state undergrad); $12,980-$25,960 (out-of-state undergrad); $14,380-$21,589 (in-state grad); $33,321-$49,982 (out-of-state grad)Tucked away in Tallahassee, Fla., FSU recently unveiled a 5,000-square-foot visual effects lab and will launch a VR storytelling curriculum in 2017. Some alumni feel the school's greatest asset is its remoteness. "You're out of New York or Los Angeles, so you have pure instruction and pure filmmaking," says Spotlight exec producer Jonathan King ('92). "Florida State is a conservatory. You get away and create."NOTABLE ALUMNI The Maze Runner director Wes Ball, It Follows director David Robert Mitchell23 Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing ArtsTuition: $43,440Upstate New York's other film school also focuses on international filmmaking, with exchange programs in Bosnia, Peru and Italy (where students get to work with the great Bernardo Bertolucci). It also has a strong presence on the festival circuit, sending students for internships at Cannes and Sundance.Says alum and Princess and the Frog screenwriter Rob Edwards, “Barely a day goes by when I don't think about the principles I learned as a film student at Syracuse. Many schools focus on theory but Syracuse puts it into action. I made 6 films during my Freshman year and the practical experiences made me fearless and eager to take on the challenges of the hyper-competitive Entertainment Industry.”NOTABLE ALUMNI Pixar's Jim Morris, producer Thom Oliphant, Coraline director Henry Selick22 Cal State University, NorthridgeTuition: $6,582 (in-state undergrad); $7,848 (in-state grad), $15,510 (out-of-state undergrad), $15,660 (out-of-state grad)A $2 million grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is helping spruce up this San Fernando Valley campus — half the money is being used to update equipment and facilities. The school also is fighting the good fight for diversity, devoting the other half to scholarships for students from underrepresented populations.NOTABLE ALUMNI Actress Joan Chen, My Cousin Vinny writer Dale Launer, Screen Gems production president Glenn Gainor21 San Francisco State UniversityTuition: $6,476 (in-state undergrad); $18,380 (out-of-state undergrad); $7,742 (in-state grad); $19,646 (out-of-state grad)In 2014, it had 800 undergrad and graduate students; this year, enrollment has ballooned to 1,200. But its masters programs remain exclusive: Only 15 students are admitted each year for MFAs and only 10 for MAs. "My favorite experience at SFSU was walking around the city with a 16mm Bolex and only a loose idea of what I wanted to film," recalls Ethan Van der Ryn ('85), who went on to become sound editor for the Transformers and The Lord of the Rings franchises.NOTABLE ALUMNI Steve Zaillian, producer Jonas Rivera (Inside Out)20 Art Center College of Design, PasadenaTuition: $40,046 (undergrad); $42,324 (grad)Courtesy of “Under” director, Javier Barcala(Pictured: Students at Pasadena's ArtCenter College of Design set up a shot.)It's one of the few schools that lets students retain rights to the work they make on campus. "The school doesn't baby you," says filmmaker Saman Kesh ('11), attached to direct Cube at Lionsgate and Controller at Fox. "It's like a mini-industry when you're there." ArtCenter recently signed a partnership with China's Huace Group for a $300,000 scholarship fund, and it's adding augmented reality facilities to a new Immersive Media Lab in spring 2017.NOTABLE ALUMNI Michael Bay, Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary, The Vow director Michael Sucsy19 Rhode Island School of DesignTuition: $46,800It's an arts school — arguably the arts school — so it's hardly surprising that half of the film program's students focus on animation. A partnership with Laika, the Oregon studio that made the Oscar-nominated film Coraline, has turned the school into a pipeline to Hollywood animation studios.NOTABLE ALUMNI Seth MacFarlane, Gus Van Sant, Martha Coolidge18 Ithaca College ArtTuition: $41,776Come to upstate New York and see the world. Ithaca offers students more semester-abroad options than just about anybody — you can study in London, New York, Los Angeles and now Cuba. Three students are in Brazil, assisting NBC Sports as it broadcasts the Rio Olympics. Back on campus, the new Innovation Lab, filled with 3D printers and eye-tracking devices, is set to open in the fall. "My best friends in L.A. are IC grads," says TLC president Nancy Daniels ('94). "They've become my West Coast family."NOTABLE ALUMNI Bob Iger, David Boreanaz, producer Bill D'Elia17 Savannah College of Art and DesignTuition: $35,190 (undergrad); $36,045 (grad)The only school on this list that produces its own streaming sitcom; every quarter a new episode of The Buzz — about a bunch of college grads hanging out in a coffee shop — gets produced, directed, edited by a different set of students and streamed on the school's website. The show is produced at SCAD's new 22,000-square-foot filmmaking complex, but the school also has a digital media center in Atlanta. "It had such a rounded curriculum — you could just bounce around," says video editor Alex Hammer ('06). "It was an entire visual effects program."NOTABLE ALUMNI Sicario associate producer Emma McGill, Zootopia animator Zach Parrish16 Ringling College of Art & DesignTuition: $39,510 (undergrad)The youngest film school on this list — the 48-acre Sarasota, Fla., campus launched its film program in 2007 — it will open in December a 30,000-square-foot soundstage and postproduction complex, the Gulf Coast's first such professional film facility. And Ringling's Studio Lab program, a partnership with Semkhor Networks, continues to lure talent, collaborating with directors like Kevin Smith, who will shoot his next film on location there in November.NOTABLE ALUMNI Oscar-winning animator Patrick Osborne, YouTube star Michelle Phan15 Columbia College of ChicagoTuition: $24,590 (undergrad); $28,950 (grad)The largest film school in the U.S., offering about 200 specialized courses, is located 2,000 miles from Hollywood. But that's a plus, according to Eric Freedman, the new dean of Columbia's School of Media Arts. "Our students engage with and learn from one of the nation's most dynamic media ecosystems — Chicago." A few other pluses: There's a $100,000 annual fund for student films, a partnership with the Beijing Film Academy and — in Hollywood — a five-week studio immersion program.NOTABLE ALUMNI Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, The Lego Movie editor Chris McKay, Barbershop producer George Tillman Jr.14 University of North Carolina School of the ArtsTuition: $8,930 (in-state undergrad); $24,400 (out-of-state undergrad); $10,556 (in-state grad); $23,963 (out-of-state grad)This small school in a picturesque patch of Winston-Salem is transforming into a cutting-edge tech hub. This fall, it's offering a new track in immersive entertainment and augmented reality as students create a VR movie with help from Jacquie Barnbrook, producer of The Martian VR Experience. In 2015, the school completed its 30,000-square-foot digital media building, housing state-of-the-art equipment for digital design, gaming, animation and effects. Enrollment has skyrocketed, up nearly 37 percent compared with 2015.NOTABLE ALUMNI Vice Principals creators (and UNCSA classmates) David Gordon Green, Jody Hill and Danny McBride13 Boston UniversityTuition: $49,176 (undergrad); $49,176 (grad)The film program got new digs this year: It has taken over a 3,000-square-foot space on Babcock Street that used to store dorm-room mini-fridges and transformed it into a production beehive for cinematography and directing classes. The university picked up the bill for the renovations, and Chinese venture capitalist Hugo Shong provided cash for a slew of state-of-the-art cameras and other equipment.BU also is known for its outpost in L.A., on Wilshire Boulevard, where 200 students come to learn from industry pros. "BU is about finding yourself as a filmmaker," says director Henry Hughes ('06), who got an Oscar nomination for his 2015 short Day One.NOTABLE ALUMNI Lauren Shuler Donner, Bonnie Arnold, Joe Roth, Nina Tassler12 Stanford UniversityTuition: $47,331 (grad)This MFA program focuses on documentaries and only documentaries. And now, thanks to the new $85 million McMurtry Building — home to the Department of Art & Art History, where the program resides — every student gets his or her own editing room. Not such a tight squeeze, considering only eight MFA applicants are accepted to the program each year.The intimacy tends to keep students bonded for life. "Six years after graduating, I still work closely with my classmates," says Jason Sussberg ('10), co-director of the upcoming The Bill Nye Film.NOTABLE ALUMNI Leah Wolchok (Very Semi-Serious), Mike Attie and Meghan O'Hara (In Country), Mark Becker (Art and Craft, Pressure Cooker)11 University of Texas at AustinTuition: $4,977 (in-state undergrad); $17,621 (out-of-state undergrad); $6,362 (in-state grad); $12,436 (out-of-state grad)Where else can you learn at the feet of Matthew McConaughey? "In the Script to Screen class, students get to follow the journey of a film I'm working on through a semester," says the Oscar-winning actor ('93), who delivers lectures on campus and through recorded videos. "Students become privy to the choices and changes we make during the process."Aspiring writers participate in a writers room workshop, with their scripts shopped around to network and cable outlets. Plus there's the Austin Film Festival. All right, all right, all right!NOTABLE ALUMNI Director-producers Mark and Jay Duplass, DreamWorks Animation's Jennifer Howell, Sony Pictures Classics' Michael Barker10 Emerson College, Visual & Media Arts SchoolTuition: $42,144 (undergrad); $1,251 per credit (grad)For a school in Boston, it has great industry connections. Its internship program is super-aggressive, placing students with Hollywood producers, networks and studios. New Regency production president Pamela Abdy ('95) did her internship at Jersey Films then landed a gig as the company's receptionist."The internship program gave me access to Hollywood," she says. "And honestly, being from New Jersey, I had no Hollywood connections whatsoever." Emerson also has a satellite campus in Hollywood, which recently upgraded to cool digs on Sunset Boulevard. But back in Back Bay, the college that graduated Jay Leno and Norman Lear launched a BFA program in comedic arts in 2015.NOTABLE ALUMNI DreamWorks' Holly Bario, Sony's Andrea Giannetti, Viacom's Doug Herzog9 Wesleyan UniversityTuition: $50,312 (undergrad)Wesleyan's College of Film and the Moving Image is a liberal arts college as much as it is a film school, meaning students are not only educated in the practical side of filmmaking but also steeped in critical and historical analysis. Beloved faculty icon Jeanine Basinger all but invented the discipline of film studies — and we mean discipline. "We were not allowed to be late — if you were late for her class, she locked the door," recalls The Purge franchise producer Brad Fuller ('87). Adds Chuck & Buck director Miguel Arteta ('89), "Jeanine puts into your mind that your own greatest weapon is the screwy way you see the world." Other teachers at the Middletown, Conn., school include The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott and A24 executive David Laub.NOTABLE ALUMNI Michael Bay, Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Matthew Weiner, D.B. Weiss, Paul Weitz, Joss Whedon8 Loyola Marymount University School of Film and TelevisionTuition: $43,526 (undergrad); $20,916 (grad)Producer Effie Brown ('93) couldn't get in to LMU's School of Film and Television, so she enrolled as a theater major but then cornered the film dean and begged him to let her switch."He said, 'You had me when you started talking about your heart,' " recalls the Project Greenlight star. The school, based in Westchester, Calif., remains smallish — 12 students per teacher — but its curriculum continues to grow. It's launching a facility in neighboring Silicon Beach and new certificate programs in documentary and digital storytelling and media.NOTABLE ALUMNI Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Parts 1 and 2 director Francis Lawrence, American Horror Story producer James Wong, Bond producer Barbara Broccoli7 Chapman University's Dodge College of Film & Media ArtsTuition: $24,155 (undergrad); $24,180 (grad)There's a reason Ted Sarandos, Steve Mosko, AMC's Ed Carroll and even Hugh Hefner have sent their children to this school — and it's not only because the Orange County campus is close to home. Chapman's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is equipped with a $42 million, 76,000-square-foot facility designed by Bastien and Associates, the same firm that has built soundstages for Paramount, DreamWorks, Universal and Warner Bros. Say Matt and Ross Duffer ('07), who recently hit it big with the Netflix horror series Stranger Things: "The kids are smart and passionate. And it's not too pretentious — our senior thesis was about a shape-shifting cannibal, and the students and faculty loved it."NOTABLE ALUMNI Dear White People director Justin Simien, BoJack Horseman staff writer Kelly Galuska6 California Institute of the ArtsTuition: $45,030Naturally, the school Walt Disney built in Valencia, Calif. — he introduced it to the public in 1964 by screening a short during the premiere of Mary Poppins — is famous for producing top-notch animators. In February, Pete Docter ('90) became the latest to pick up an Oscar, for Inside Out.But cartoonists aren't the only ones who go there: Zackary Drucker ('07) and Rhys Ernst ('11), co-producers on Amazon's Emmy-winning series Transparent, are CalArtians (yes, that's what they call themselves). "I wish I could go back," muses Jorge R. Gutierrez ('98), the Mexico-born director of animated movie The Book of Life. "To be surrounded by such diverse and incredible talent was inspiring." This fall, students can be inspired by One Act to Cinematic Event, a class James Franco has taught at CalArts for about five years.NOTABLE ALUMNI John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Kirby Dick, Tim Burton, Brenda Chapman (co-director of Brave and the first woman to win an Oscar for an animated feature)5 Columbia University School of the ArtsTuition: $52,478 (undergrad); $57,296 (grad)Without Columbia's MFA program, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016, Making a Murderer would not have happened. The crime doc series was hatched a decade ago when two graduate students — Moira Demos ('08) and Laura Ricciardi ('07) — began tracking the Steven Avery case.When they went on to make the show for Netflix in spring 2015, they chose one of their former professors, film program chair Maureen Ryan, to serve as production adviser. "Columbia is so focused on story, character and narrative — it played a major role in helping us turn thousands of hours of footage into something a layperson could follow," says Demos. Other faculty moonlight for Netflix as well, including Frank Pugliese, who in February was promoted to co-showrunner on House of Cards.NOTABLE ALUMNI Nicole Holofcener, James Mangold, James Ponsoldt4 UCLA School of Theater, Film and TelevisionTuition: $15,457 (in-state undergrad); $16,405-$26,917 (in-state grad); $42,139 (out-of-state undergrad); $31,507-$39,162 (out-of-state grad)There was grumbling when the undergraduate film program shifted from a two-year to a four-year program in 2014, but UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television remains the first choice for a huge number of aspiring filmmakers (only 2 percent of undergraduate applicants are accepted). Part of the reason is its free-spirited approach to filmmaking, encouraging students — and graduates — to experiment.When Francis Ford Coppola ('67) recently came up with his Live Cinema concept — a combination of live theater, film and TV performed in front of an audience — he tested it at his alma mater, with 75 students as his crew. And when Courtney Marsh ('09) came up with the idea of "traveling to a foreign country and filming a documentary in a language I didn't speak" — that would be her 2015 Oscar-nominated short Chau, Beyond the Lines, about a 16-year-old Vietnamese boy disabled by Agent Orange — UCLA guided her as she planned her trip."They even helped me in getting the funds," she says. When not lecturing at USC or NYU, James Franco sometimes teaches here as well.NOTABLE ALUMNI Frank Marshall, Justin Lin, Dustin Lance Black, George Takei3 New York University Tisch School of the ArtsTuition: $53,882 (undergrad); $56,804 (grad)NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, the best, most prestigious American film school east of the Hudson River, is alma mater to such cinematic heavyweights as Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and M. Night Shyamalan. Ang Lee ('82), after studying drama at the University of Illinois, arrived on the NYC campus barely speaking English but discovered the universal language of 16mm."Making movies was easier than every other thing I did in America. It's just sight and sound; I could speak broken English and make it work," says the director, who in November will release his experimental 120-frames-per-second film Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. NYU students create more than 5,000 movies a year — some on old-school celluloid — and can pick the brains of David Fincher, Sofia Coppola and scores of other A-list filmmakers as part of the recently launched Chair's Workshops series. James Franco not only sometimes teaches here, it's also where he got his MFA.NOTABLE ALUMNI Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Cary Fukunaga, Joel Coen, Colin Trevorrow2 American Film InstituteTuition: $47,030 (first year); $58,216 (second year)AFI made history at this year's Student Academy Awards, becoming the first school to sweep the medals — gold, silver and bronze — in the narrative category. It can add those to the pile of trophies its alumni have collected during the past year, including prizes at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, and display them in the school's newly renovated library on its woodsy campus overlooking Hollywood.AFI's efforts toward gender equality also are awards-worthy: In 2015, for the first time, the incoming class for the directors program included more female students than male. The school's editing track is getting a boost with the hiring of Oscar nominee Matt Chesse, and students' thesis films are guaranteed distribution through American Film Institute, where they are available for rental or purchase. "The biggest lesson I learned at AFI was the challenge of executing a vision that you have to defend and get other people to collaborate on," says Patty Jenkins ('00), director of Warner Bros.' upcoming Wonder Woman. Jenkins' AFI thesis, by the way? A female superhero movie.NOTABLE ALUMNI Darren Aronofsky, David Lynch, Terrence Malick1 University of Southern California School of Cinematic ArtsTuition: $51,442 (undergrad); $46,454 (grad)USC's School of Cinematic Arts has been around since 1929, but THR's No. 1 film school — for a fourth consecutive year — always is one step ahead of its time. These days USC is betting big on virtual and augmented reality, with VR content company Jaunt announcing in January that it would fund a VR incubator at the school. The Jaunt Cinematic Virtual Reality Lab, under construction next door to the Zemeckis Center, will be home to courses like Directing in the Virtual World (taught by Oscar-winning visual effects artist Michael Fink).But the school is ahead of the curve in other ways as well, pushing Hollywood toward diversity: In October it received a $10 million endowment, partly from alum George Lucas ('67), earmarked for financial support for students from underrepresented communities. Says The Birth of a Nation producer Jason Michael Berman ('06), who teaches a course, "Filmmakers from diverse backgrounds have really incredible and important stories to tell, so to be able to offer those students these scholarships is going to be amazing and so important." USC's location — in Exposition Park — also keeps the school on top, providing easy access to many of the best brains in the business … and James Franco, who teaches one of his far-flung film courses here.NOTABLE ALUMNI Judd Apatow, John August, Susan Downey, Kevin Feige, Doug Liman, Shonda Rhimes, Bryan Singer, John Wells10 Best Film Schools in America of 2017 | TheBestColleges.org(Image Source)What is it that makes one film school superior to another? The process of creating a film, regardless of whether it is art, cinema, documentary or an event, or regardless of where it is filmed – Wyoming, Wisconsin, West Virginia – requires knowledge in a variety of areas. Camera operators must understand the theory behind film, the technology necessary to capture events on film and the knowledge to produce a meaningful series of images which convey the intended meaning behind the film. A good film school will teach students the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the functions required to accomplish this. An excellent film school will produce graduates who have developed an inherent understanding of what must be done, the creativity to produce unique projects and the ability to successfully implement their ideas. Developing a curriculum which matures each student’s natural abilities and cultivates an advanced understanding of what makes great film is essential to significant success in the commercial or private film industry.Camera operators will need to understand the foundational premises of a number of subject matters. Attaining an understanding of the areas of journalism, communications, marketing, graphic design, computers and photography are all valuable. Each field provides knowledge essential to the production of meaningful films. Students may need to develop a more in depth understanding of certain areas based on the type of film in which they intend to work. Certain schools may provide a general overview of the field but may concentrate more in one area than another. Schools which offer strong degree programs in film will provide sufficient training in each area to ensure graduates are equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the entire industry, not just small segments which barely cover the vital areas. By encompassing all of the subjects relevant to the film industry as a whole, students will be given the opportunity to explore the various areas of focus and make an informed decision as to where their strengths lie and which specialty is most relevant to their abilities.With the high level of competition expected for individuals vying for positions in the film industry, choosing the right school will be important. Graduates entering the film industry will need to rely substantially on the reputation of the school where the degree is earned to provide an advantage over other applicants applying for the same position. A limited number of entry level positions are expected to be available over the next several years. Competition for the available positions will be fierce. With limited practical experience, the quality of the education received by a candidate will be the factor employers will consider most when making a decision. Selecting a school ranked among the top in the nation will provide the advantage needed.1. Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University was established in 1873 as a small private institution with ties to the church. Throughout the next century, Vanderbilt University grew exponentially in geographical size, student enrollment and in academic regard. Vanderbilt University has earned membership to the Association of American Universities and has placed among the top twenty private universities in the nation. The private research university possesses numerous degree programs which consistently rank among the top ten in the country. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, students are in close proximity to one of the main a cultural hubs in the nation. The flexible curriculum affords students the opportunity to tailor the degree programs to their educational goals. Alumni of the university boast leadership positions in the industries for which they studied. The University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.The interdisciplinary film studies degree programs provides a comprehensive education in the cinema arts. Students learn about the cultural, historical, theoretical and aesthetic aspects of the field. The students learn through academic exploration and practical experience and training. Required courses for the program include film studies, film theory, communication, culture and consciousness, cultural rhetoric of film, culture and society, history of art, America on Film. In addition to the major specific courses, students will be expected to complete general studies courses in communications studies, philosophy, psychology, Asian studies, art, and European studies. In addition to the curriculum, students have the opportunity to participate in the film festivals and contests hosted by the University where they have the opportunity to compete and showcase their work.2. University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a renowned research institution with a highly regarded curriculum. Considered a pioneer in education and research, the University of Chicago is credited with developing programs which have been duplicated across the nation. The college boasts more than 80 Nobel Prize winners among its faculty members and students as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner. University of Chicago has a history in film dating back to the late 1800’s when the institution provided one of the first public viewings of motion pictures. Since these early beginnings, the established Department of Cinema and Media Studies has evolved into a leader in the field. The challenging, interdisciplinary curriculum encompasses the central areas of theory, history and criticism, but also placing emphasis on video production and performance studies. The University of Chicago houses the oldest and most prominent student film society in the nation.The degree programs offered at the University of Chicago include both undergraduate and graduate programs. The degree programs examine the various cinematic forms and techniques and how cinema is affected by production. Students also analyze the method by which cinema conveys a story. The cinema studies courses will explore the aesthetic perspective of films, film culture and the styles of film. Additionally, the curriculum will include studies in narrative contexts, racial and national identity, transnational media production and circulation, commercial and leisure entertainment forms and consumer culture. Students will concentrate on American films with some examination of European, Russian and East Asian films. The curriculum requires students to complete coursework in general studies as well as cinema. Students take courses in Anthropology, art history, music, history, philosophy, English and Comparative Literature. Students will also be expected to complete a research paper3. University of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California has earned its reputation as one of the top ranked film programs due to its high caliber degree program, central location, extensive resources and expert instructors. The university is dedicated to developing the creative and leadership abilities and skills in students through the study of film and interactive media. The concentration on experiential learning provides ample opportunity for students to gain practical experience. Students create their own short films; assuming the role of camera operators, writers, directors, scriptwriters and exploring the various other critical function of the film industry. The school is located in the cinema capital of the world, Los Angeles; in close proximity to motion picture and television companies. The University of Southern California offers unparalleled state of the art facilities which include sound stages, animation facilities, mixing theaters, digital classrooms, screening rooms, and post-production suites. The award faculty members are working professionals in the field; comprised of directors, screenwriters and a number of other professionals.The School of Cinematic Arts offers interdisciplinary undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degree programs in the creative field of film. The school is composed of six divisions and includes two research units. Students study the theory and practices of the film industry as well as fields with creative and cultural relevance. The curriculum provides exposure to all aspects of the various mediums of moving video including film, television and interactive video. Students, regardless of their area of focus, study all aspects of the field to develop an inherent understanding of the importance and impact of each and to expand their abilities into other areas. Students are provided with consistent opportunity to implement theory with substantial practice. Concentration areas include critical studies centering on the processes behind creating film and he effect of film on culture and social, political and economic facets of society; film and television production where students concentrate on scriptwriting and storytelling, editing, sound design, producing an directing; animation and digital arts, interactive media, producing program and media arts and practice.4. New York UniversityThe department of Cinema Studies at New York University was one of the earliest departments dedicated to the film discipline. Film studies at NYU concentrate on the traditional areas of history, theory and film aesthetics through interdisciplinary study. The impact of the international and cultural influences on film as well as the technologies and central mediums utilized to produce the finished results are also analyzed. The study of film at New York University isn’t limited to only the traditional scopes though; instead including the areas of video art, online projects and broadcast television. The program is consistently updated to include the various evolving aspects of the discipline, taking into consideration the changing nature of film. The 300 plus instructors within the department are professional artists with extensive experience in the profession. New York University offers an extensive library of videos for the use of its students. The weekly cinematic provides opportunities to participate in film screenings. Located in New York City, NYU provides substantial opportunities for cultural enrichment.New York University offers a number of degree options in the film major. Students are required to compile and submit a portfolio for admission into some of the major programs. Degree programs include the Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in cinema studies, a double major option with the second major in humanities, social sciences or arts, the Master of Arts in cinema studies or in moving image archiving and preservation and the PhD in cinema studies. Three areas of study are required for the major; core curriculum, small lecture courses in cinema studies and large lecture courses in film aesthetics, directors and genres. The curriculum includes an intensive expository writing requirement, courses in language, literature, dramatic literature, theater history, world through art, foreign language, world cultures and social science courses including journalism and linguistics and a quantitative reasoning and natural science course. The special programs offered at the school to enhance the experience include a study abroad option in places such as London, Prague, Shanghai and Dublin and summer internship opportunities.5. Cornell UniversityCornell University, labeled as one of the elite Ivy League schools, offers a long history of excellence in quality education, research and alumni success. The department of Theatre, Film and Dance at Cornell provides flexible degree options with an extensive range of opportunities. Students are afforded the opportunity to take courses in film without committing to the major. The major can be declared in the sophomore year, permitting students the time to decide which course of study they prefer to pursue. The interdisciplinary film studies programs encourage students to explore courses in many other related disciplines including history, romance studies, psychology, anthropology history, German studies and Asian studies. The Cornell Cinema Exhibition is an opportunity for students to explore and to screen a range of film samplings and participate in film workshops. Guest filmmakers come to the campus to participate in the events. Students are able to joint film making clubs where they can organize screenings of their work and receive funding for equipment and various projects.The students pursuing a film major at Cornell University are afforded exceptional flexibility in developing their degree programs. Both undergraduate and graduate degree programs are offered in film studies. Students can choose to complete a double major with another discipline or to create their own major developed from the film studies curriculum. Students can pursue a program in film studies or film production. Film studies centers on the history, theory and criticism of film. Students examine the various genres of film, the cultural contexts and the artistic and creative aspects. Film production concentrates on creating and developing ideas and learning the various techniques of filming including audio editing, using software tools and video editing. Students study the various genres of film; documentary, animation, narrative and take courses in directing, play writing, screenwriting and acting. All students are required to complete a senior project which provides the opportunity to create and experiment with their own film. The study abroad program allows students to spend their junior year in Paris at the Center for Film and Critical Studies.6. Columbia UniversityIn addition to being regarded as one of the top ranked national universities, Columbia University is considered one of the premier film schools in the country. At Columbia, the various forms of art, including film, are researched as vigorously as other disciplines. Students together with expert faculty members collaborate on intense and innovative research projects to create and discover new processes and techniques while still adhering to the curriculum studying the traditional concepts of history, theory and criticism. Columbia University adheres to a distinctive perspective of the study; endeavoring to develop unique methodologies from which to view the field. Students learn to and are encouraged to develop their own style and creativity through studying and analyzing the experts from the past and present, learning the history of the field and exploring related disciplines and how they impact and affect the discipline. The intellectual aspects of the field are emphasized as much as the creative.Students are able to pursue both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in film studies. The curriculum permits students to explore the discipline from varying perspectives. Students can choose a program which focuses on art, technology or even cultural significance. The program includes coursework in the arts and humanities. Students will create a program with the assistance of an adviser comprised of twelve required courses. Courses include introduction to the study and theory of film, auteur studies, genre studies, national cinemas, film theory, lab in fiction film making, script analysis, narrative strategies in screen writing and non fiction film making. Intense concentration on writing, seminars in screenwriting and film making are also part of the curriculum. Internship opportunities with film companies are offered to students. Other opportunities to participate in film projects can be found with the student run film organization.7. University of California – BerkeleyThe University of California Berkeley campus is a part of the renowned California University system. Film studies at Berkeley encompass the traditional, historical forms of moving-image as well as the most recent, cutting edge developments in the industry. The degree programs emphasize theoretical and historical analysis of films in humanitarian and interdisciplinary studies context. Students are able to attend the Pacific Film Archive, a highly regarded internationally recognized cinematheque where film makers are able to visit the campus to screen films. Located in one of the cultural hubs of the world, the University of California provides extensive opportunities for students to explore the various aspects and settings of the film industry. The advisers help students develop a plan to ensure all requirements are met and to answer any questions concerning courses and internships.The students majoring in film studies at the University of California Berkeley have the opportunity to pursue undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Students are also offered the option of pursuing a double major. Students will complete courses including history of silent and sound film, documentary and the avant-garde film, film theory, film genres, introductory film and video production, screenwriting, and a variety of courses centering on specific film makers and various national cinemas. The curriculum develops the student’s skills in analytical thinking, critical thinking, communications and visual literacy. Students also study political science, anthropology, ethnic studies, women’s studies, comparative literature and foreign languages. Hands on production opportunities are sometimes offered as are internship opportunities with local film and video production companies and the Pacific Film Archive and journal Film Quarterly.8. University of PennsylvaniaAs one of the top ranked Universities in the nation, the University of Pennsylvania is a premier institute of higher learning. The university offers superior degree programs, expert faculty instructors and an advantageous location in the cultural center of Philadelphia. The university has a pioneering history in cinema studies, beginning with controversial performances in the late 1800’s. Cinema studies at the University of Pennsylvania center on the essential areas of history, theory and criticism, but also encompass the vital aspects of production and screenwriting. The University of Pennsylvania boasts among its alumni DreamWorks CEO, former presidents of CBS and Warner Home Video, current president of Columbia Pictures and directors from the renowned Sundance Film Festival; evidence of the quality of its cinema program. The University of Pennsylvania possesses extensive film library within the department from which students are allowed to borrow. Students are offered the opportunity to participate in the study abroad programs which enables them to attend festival screenings or experience the preservation and archiving of the National Film Archive.Cinema degree programs at the University of Pennsylvania are offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students are also offered the option of pursuing the field as either a major or minor course of study and of pursuing a certificate program in graduate studies. Studies incorporate a traditional humanities program framework; studying theory, history and aesthetics. Students will analyze national cinemas, international film movements, legal and political forces governing film industry practices, various film makers and film and media theory. The curriculum for the cinema studies degree programs are interdisciplinary; drawing substantially on a variety of methodological approaches from varying subjects for studying the discipline. Students will evaluate the relationship between film and other various forms of art. Coursework can include such diverse courses as languages and literature, women studies, romance languages, fine arts, communications, anthropology, English and history. Other required and elective courses will include world film history, introduction to film theory, Soviet montage theory, French auteur theory, and a range of enema courses in various cultural areas.9. Yale UniversityYale University is ranked among the top universities in the nation and has earned international recognition for the superior quality of its degree programs. The Film Studies programs offered at Yale University are no exception. Film studies are considered as an artistic expression with significant cultural and social import. The programs concentrate on the history, theory and criticism of film. Both undergraduate and graduate degree programs are offered in film studies. Students are offered the opportunity to create films or videos as part of the curriculum and possibly gain admission to either the fiction or documentary film workshops. Students are encouraged to develop a collaborative relationship with other departments; utilizing resources which are relevant to film studies and completing course within the department which will complement the area of interest which they want to pursue. The lecture series offered at Yale University in Film Studies provides opportunities to hear renowned experts discuss various aspects of the film industry.The interdisciplinary degree programs in film studies encompass all of the essential elements of the discipline. Students are permitted to develop a curriculum tailored to their interests, pending approval by a committee within the department. Students are expected to complete certain prerequisite courses including introduction to film studies. Other required courses include Close Analysis of Film, Film Theory and Aesthetics, Issues in Contemporary Film Theory and studies in international, cultural films. The production seminar courses, theater studies, creative writing and art concentrate on the creative aspect of the film process. An area of concentration is expected to be chosen by each student in history of art, literature, philosophy, social sciences, film theory, productions, race and gender, photography, or national or regional cultures and their cinemas. All students are required to complete a senior essay or project which incorporates all of the knowledge and skills gained throughout the student’s years in the film degree program.10. University of California – Los AngelesThe University of at Los Angeles has long been regarded as one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the nation. The School of Theater, Film and Television within UCLA maintains that reputation continuing with the tradition through rigorous and dynamic degree programs, award winning faculty members and advisors and extensive resources and network connections. The curriculum concentrates on the traditional areas of theory, practice and criticism; with a strong emphasis on experiential learning, analytical thinking and creative development. UCLA prepares the future leaders of the industry by encouraging innovation and risk taking. Students enrolled at UCLA have access the school’s renowned film and television archive; the largest of its type in the world. UCLA hosts workshops credited with developing exceptional skills in various areas of the field of cinema. UCLA also offers summer programs for high school students, college students and professionals. The online film program offers the opportunity to complete courses at the convenience of the student.The University of California at Los Angeles offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the field. Students intending to enroll in the Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television will only be able to do so in the last two years of their undergraduate program. The first two years of the program will be dedicated to general educational studies. Coursework include foundational arts and humanities, society and culture, scientific inquiry, writing, foreign language, literature, American history and institutions. The curriculum provides a comprehensive overview of the field. Students learn all of the relevant areas of the field; the conceptual areas of history and theory as well as the technical and creative aspects. Storytelling is a main focus of the field as it is considered the central element of film. Additional areas meant to expound the students abilities and understanding include special effects for film and television, digital library research and archival restoration, computer animation, interactive television and web based media arts.

Gold is an inflationary hedge—not suitable in a deflationary environment of decreased demand like the one we face today. It is true now more than ever that gold is a commodity, and like all commodities drops during deflationary cycles. Aside from being used as shiny jewelry and a few industrial purposes in computer tech, gold has little intrinsic value—particularly in the modern age. (Most gold demand comes from India and China for jewelry). People would prefer other tangible goods and services. That’s why nations are selling their gold reserves. Gold rose the last few years along with stock markets (as all commodity cycles do) due to the artificial inflationary environment created by QE globally, aka absurd amounts of money-printing to sustain deficits and zombie corporations rather than allowing for a natural reset of the economy as has always been the case. Gold would especially not be useful in a true national emergency of epic proportions as many argue, as you can’t eat it or trade it for anything practical. Food, fuel, land, bullets etc is what people would hoard/demand.Gold is the best exchange for a simple self-sufficient agrarian economy, but potentially disastrous in an expanding commercial economy (that grows faster than the gold supply), as gold by nature is relatively scarce. Gold was somewhat still viable for most nations in the world (save the highly industrialized), up until a few decades ago, but as has happened many times throughout the modern age, a gold standard led to heavy deflation.Both gold and paper carry the dangers of inflation and deflation, and can be weaponized against the people or other states. For example, as Ray Dalio and others have noted, the collapse of the Weimar Republic’s economy in post World War I Germany wasn’t due to so much to printing too much money as it was by foreign investors from around the globe pulling capital investment out at a rapid pace, due to threats by France to reoccupy the country if their demands for reparations weren’t met at the Versailles treaty rate—a financially unrealistic proposition. In fact Germany was at the point of reestablishing it’s position as a leading industrial powerhouse—the economy was booming towards prewar levels with extremely high demand for competitively priced german manufactures.This is obviously more true of paper currency: it can be printed in excess without the requisite economic expansion it ostensibly represents to back it, and thus more paper means less value and devalues/robs the people's savings. Americans lost 30% of their wealth through Fed QE printing over the last decade, and lost 200% of their buying power since the early 80s.By restricting currency (deflation) the value of people's labor goes down as everyone competes for fewer dollars. This especially hurts debtors who have to repay debt with more manhours of work. This is why bankers have traditionally favored a gold standard, or "sound money." Hence bankers always wanted money and debts (which they made profts from through charging interest) expressed in terms of a strictly limited commodity i.e. gold.This is also why they wanted control of the money supply and all monetary matters out of the hands of the government and politcal authority i.e. the people, as they would supposedly be handled better by private banking interests in terms of such a stable value as gold.Deflation however, while hurting producers and merchants, favors consumers as everything becomes cheaper. Hence monopolies and cartels such as OPEC form to limit production and supply, keeping prices for goods and commodities such as oil artifically high.Gold can also expereince inflation, though usually less severely than paper currency. The inflation of 16-17th century Europe was largely caused by the Spanish flooding markets with American gold and silver and the opening of mines in Central Europe. The effects were noted by Howard Zinn:"For all the gold and silver stolen and shipped to Spain did not make the Spanish people richer. It gave their kings an edge in the balance of power for a time, a chance to hire more mercenary soldiers for their wars. They ended up losing those wars anyway, and all that was left was a deadly inflation, a starving population, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and a ruined peasant class (A People's History of The US).Zinn also notes, regarding contact between Europeans and Native Americans,“Beyond all that, how certain are we that what was destroyed was inferior? Who were these people who came out on the beach and swam to bring presents to Columbus and his crew, who watched Cortes and Pizarro ride through their countryside, who peered out of the forests at the first white settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts?...A French Jesuit priest who encountered [the Iroquois] in the 1650s wrote:"No poorhouses are needed among them, because they are neither mendicants nor paupers.. . . Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have, but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common."Perhaps there can be a basket of precious/base metals used as the commodity to back money.Either a gold-based sound money regime or even an honest free-market based floating currency regime would both do as monetary systems.Take America’s trade imbalance with China: a gold standard In the former case, the US would have lost massive amounts of gold reserves, causing the domestic banking system to contract, credit to be curtailed and domestic wages, prices and costs to decline until imports abated and exports picked-up.And under an honest free market float, the adjustment would have occurred via massive appreciation of the Yuan exchange rate versus the dollar. That would have dramatically reduced the competitive advantage of China’s cheap labor economy while opening the door to a higher level of US exports.*An honest float exchange rate would also do if fiat credit borrowed from future tax payers isn’t injected into the economy to artificially irrationally chase 2% inflation as some elixir of prosperity (when costs needed to deflate the last 43 years). Gold is mined at about 2-3% per year while the modern info-service/high-tech economy grows 5%+. To wit there isn’t enough gold to back today’s economy meaningfully (imagine trying to redeem $20 of gold at $5,000+ an ounce when today gold is used mainly for jewelry and 10% for industrial purposes like semiconductors). All the world’s gold could fit into an Olympic-sized pool. For fiat systems to work, the Fed would have to revert to being strictly a loaner of last resort in exchange for good assets and charging a penalty slightly above market interest rates. No bond buying.Nature of moneyA currency is a contract comparing various forms of economic activity. Goods measured in money is called price, while money measured in goods and services is called value. Currency is legitimate as long as people have faith in the body that issues it—government generally. The Congress of the Confederacy for example, could not see money in any terms but hard specie. Congress permitted the Treasury Department to issue $20 million in treasury notes or paper currency, which people could not convert into specie (gold or silver coin) until two years after the conflict ended. The Confederate Congress, however, resisted making the treasury notes legal tender. Therefore, citizens did not have to accept the money as a form of payment.These events, in early 1861, set a precedent for the Confederacy; it constantly struggled to manage the economic issues brought on by war (Thomas, The Confederate Nation). Thus, short of specie (precious metals such as gold, silver, or even copper) as all cash was reinvested in slaves and land—king cotton made up most of American exports and was extremely lucrative and thus cash was never exchanged for specie but reinvested—turned to treasury notes, which went for .02 cents to the northern greenback by war's end due to a lack of confidence in the Confederate government.Napolean shared the same sentiments toward money as the Confederate Congress would. Napoleon's insistence on hard specie contributed to his defeat as it did to the Confederacy. Corroll Quigley (Tragedy and Hope) notes,"This organizational structure for creating means of payment out of nothing, which we call credit, was not invented by England but was developed by her to become one of her chief weapons in the victory over Napoleon in 1815. The emperor, as the last great mercantilist, could not see money in any but concrete terms, and was convinced that his efforts to fight wars on the basis of "sound money," by avoiding the creation of credit, would ultimately win him a victory by bankrupting England. He was wrong, although the lesson has had to be relearned by modern financiers in the twentieth century."Napolean refused to see the benefit of creating credits from bank reserve notes (fractional reserve banking), keeping his faith in hard specie, believing he could bankrupt England.Medieval Europe's transition from an agrarian to market economy illustrates the practical value of paper in an expanding commecrial/industrial economy:The function of coinage is threefold: to provide a measure of value and a means of comparing commoditites; to provide a medium of exchange, and to serve as a means of accumulating and storing wealth. A coinage should be sufficiently abundant to serve the needs of commerce; it should be available in denominations small enough for use in small-scale transactions in the rural market, and it should be stable. The expansion of the 12th centruy european market economy required greater amounts of currency and bills of exchange were used as to not reduce commerce to a small-scale barter economy.....Currency units representing larger values became necessary to facilitate expanding trade, and thus larger, purer specie were minted. But even these coins would eventually have to be replaced by bills of exchange, or paper currency out of practical necessity.NJG Pounds:The steadily depreciating value of the small currency [due to debasement] at a time of expanding trade made it desirable to introduce a currency of higher value. There was, in fact, even in the Carolingian period, a dominant coinage, minted in units that were too large for the petty business of the market-place. Before the Caroligian reforms the Byzantine solidus or nomisma, a gold coin, was in the words of Cosmas Indicopleustes, "accepted everywhere...because no kingdom has a currency that can be compared to it". The nomisma, bezant, was in all respects the outstanding coinage of the earlier Middle Ages. Byzantium had a sufficient supply of gold during much of its history to maintain the gold content of its coinage. There were times when a lightweight bezant, known as a hyperperon, was minted, but always the authorities reverted to the full gold content of their coinage. The maintenance of a stable currency was a matter of pride to the Byzantine state, costly though it was to the tax payer [as he produced more goods and services, the lack of currency meant deflation in the value of his produce]. The nomisma circulated in Italy, where it even continued to be minted as long as the Byzantine emperors retained their control of parts of the south, but it was rarely seen to the north of the Alps. It represented too large a value for the feeble commerce then carried on in nothern Europe. The nomisma was the dollar of the Middle Ages.The progressive debasement of the penny in the nothern European Carolingian penny, at a time of commercial revival in the 11th-13th centuries led to the introduction of forms of paper transactions and also to the creation of larger denominations both of silver and gold. It was no accident this occurred in the thirteenth and fourteen centuries, and were initiated in those Italian cities which stood foremost in the commerce of the continent. (NJG Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe)Paper in essence is practical for non self-sufficient economies such as the manor economy of the early medieval period and earlier. Pounds:As a general rule, however, money (specie) entered little into long-distance trade. A significant amount represented a heavy burden and would have added greatly to the risks normally run by travellers. Each of Champange's fairs ended with several days which were given over to settling of accounts. The Flemish merchant was, at the end of the fair, owed money for his cloth, while he himself owed money for his purchases. The final settlement thus consisted, in effect, of comparing statements which by and large offset one another. In the end, the amount of money which changed hands might have been very small, a minute fraction of the total value of all transactions.Even after the decline of the Champagne fairs, there continued to be periodic meetings of merchants for the purposes of balancing their books and offsetting their mutual debts against one-anther. The fairs of Lyons continued to serve this purpose until well into the the sixteenth century. The growing complexity of European commerce in the thirteenth century called for yet another device for the discharge of debts. With the decline of fairs, merchants ceased to meet face to face. They placed orders by means of a notarial act of a bill of exchange. The earliest known use of the bill of exchange was in the first half of the fourteenth century. As a means of discharging finanical obligations, however, its use did not become widespread until after the Black Death (et al).Currency as WeaponThe weaponization of currency (particularly the gold standard), not just in interantional trade wars, but against the people was keenly recognized in the past. In the 17th-mid 20th century the latter came in the form of deflation. Financiers prefer a gold standard since the value of future money increases in value and thus creditors make an extra interest profit on money they lend essentially.Two years after he came out of prison for organizing strikes, Eugene Debs wrote in the Rail-way Times:"The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society—we are on the eve of a universal changez By the 1920s, 30,000 workers a year were killed in accidents and 200,000 permanently injured or maimed. They often worked 16 plus hours a day, six days a week, in dangerous conditions for starvation wages, often having to take their children with them. Children would strike with their parents with picket signs: We want to play.” The late 19th-early 20th century did see an increase in standards of living and wives could stay home supported by a husband single wage, leading to the development of domestic modern marketing, department stores etc, while hours and pay began to increase.****Thus, Howard Zinn says, “the [eighteen] eighties and nineties saw bursts of labor insurrection, more organized than the spontaneous strikes of 1877. There were now revolutionary movements influencing labor struggles, the ideas of socialism affecting labor leaders. Radical literature was appearing, speaking of fundamental changes, of new possibilities for living.FarmersCould the squeezed and desperate farmer turn to the government for help? After the Civil War both parties were controlled by monopoly capitalists (as opposed to laissez-faire capitalists*) and divided along North-South lines, still hung over with the animosities of the Civil War. This made it very hard to create a party of reform cutting across both parties to unite working people South and North-to say nothing of black and white, foreign-born and native-born.*The commercial capitalist sought profits from the exchange of goods; the industrial capitalist sought profits from the manufacture of goods; the financial capitalist sought profits from the manipulation of claims on money; and the monopoly capitalist sought profits from manipulation of the market to make the market price and the amount sold such that his profits would be maximized (Tragedy & Hope, Quigley). These systems emerged in respective order out of the manorial/feudal or self-sustaining agrarian barter system and culminated in today's pluralist economy of lobbyists and technocrats.Zinn Continues:The government played its part in helping the bankers and hurting the farmers; it kept the amount of money based on the gold supply steady, while the population rose, so there was less and less money in circulation. The farmer had to pay off his debts in dollars that were harder to get. The bankers, getting the loans back, were getting dollars worth more than when they loaned them out—a kind of interest on top of interest. That is why so much of the talk of farmers' movements in those days had to do with putting more money in circulation by printing greenbacks (paper money for which there was no gold in the treasury) or by making silver a basis for issuing money (et al).A currency is simply a contract representing goods and services (like bills of exchange) and are valid as long as the backing agency—usually government—has the faith of the people to enforce such contracts. Zinn continues:It was in Texas that the Farmers Alliance movement began. It was in the South that the crop-lien system was most brutal. By this system the farmer would get the things he needed from the merchant: the use of the cotton gin at harvest time, whatever supplies were necessary. He didn't have money to pay, so the merchant would get a lien—a mortgage on his crop—on which the farmer might pay 25 percent interest. Goodwyn says "the crop lien system became for millions of Southerners, white and black, little more than a modified form of slavery." The man with the ledger became to the farmer "the furnishing man," to black farmers simply "the Man." The farmer would owe more money every year until finally his farm was taken away and he became a tenant.In the summer of 1886, in the town of Cleburne, near Dallas, the Alliance gathered and drew up what came to be known as the "Cleburne Demands"—the first document of the Populist movement**, asking "such legislation as shall secure to our people freedom from the onerous and shameful abuses that the industrial classes are now suffering at the hands of arrogant capitalists and powerful corporations." They called for a national conference of all labor organizations "to discuss such measures as may be of interest to the laboring classes," and proposed regulation of railroad rates, heavy taxation of land held only for speculative purposes, and an increase in the money supply.The Alliance grew to 200,000 members by 1887 in three thousand suballiances. By 1892 farmer lecturers had gone into forty-three states and reached 2 million farm families in what Lawrence Goodwyn called "the most massive organizing drive by any citizen institution of nineteenth century America." It was a drive based on the idea of cooperation, of farmers creating their own culture, their own political parties, gaining a respect not given them by the nation's powerful industrial and political leaders (A People's History of the US, Zinn).In 1895-1896, Nebraska Senator William Jennings Bryan launched a national speaking tour for the democratic nomination in which he promoted the free coinage of silver. He believed that “bimetallism,” by inflating American currency, could alleviate farmers’ debts. In contrast, Republicans championed the gold standard and a flat money supply. American monetary standards became a leading campaign issue. The Democratic party platform asserted that the gold standard was “not only un-American but anti-American.”Bryan astounded with his stirring speech wherein he declared, “Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” After a few seconds of stunned silence, the convention went wild. Some wept, many shouted, and the band began to play “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” Bryan received the 1896 Democratic presidential nomination.Hundreds of years ago, bankers began to specialize, with the richer and more influential ones associated increasingly with foreign trade and foreign-exchange transactions.Since these were richer and more cosmopolitan and increasingly concerned with questions of political significance, such as stability and debasement of currencies, war and peace, dynastic marriages, and worldwide trading monopolies, they became the financiers and financial advisers of governments. Moreover, since their relationships with governments were always in monetary terms and not real terms, and since they were always obsessed with the stability of monetary exchanges between one country's money and another, they used their power and influence to do two things: (1) to get all money and debts expressed in terms of a strictly limited commodity—ultimately gold; and (2) to get all monetary matters out of the control of governments and political authority, on the ground that they would be handled better by private banking interests in terms of such a stable value as gold.In 1895 the gold reserve of the United States was depleted, while twenty-six New York City banks had $129 million in gold in their vaults. A syndicate of bankers headed by J. P. Morgan & Company, August Belmont & Company, the National City Bank, and others offered to give the government gold in exchange for bonds. President Grover Cleveland agreed. The bankers*** immediately resold the bonds at higher prices, making $18 million in profit.Although the root cause of the depression can be laid on demographic factors such as the peak spending wave of the generation peaking around 1929, the restriction of immigration in the early 1920s, thus decreasing potential population growth, and saturation of markets with consumer goods such as automotives (the latter affecting many related dépendant industries), the deflationary policies in the US and Europe made the depression much more severe, and led to the rise of Nazi Germany.*****By the 20th century Howard Zinn points out the bipartisan abhorrence to inflation at the turn of the 20th century by the Clinton administration and the financial constituency, which would lead to higher wages:President Clinton reappointed Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve System, which regulated interest rates. Greenspan's chief concern was to avoid "inflation," which bondholders did not want because it would reduce their profits. His financial constituency saw higher wages for workers as producing inflation and worried that if there was not enough unemployment, wages might rise.Reduction of the annual deficit in order to achieve a "balanced budget" became an obsession of the Clinton administration. But since Clinton did not want to raise taxes on the wealthy, or to cut funds for the military, the only alternative was to sacrifice the poor, the children, the aged—to spend less for health care, for food stamps, for education, for single mothers.Two examples of this appeared early in Clinton's second administration, in the spring of 1997:* From the New York Times, May 8, 1997: "A major element of President Clinton's education plan-a proposal to spend $5 billion to repair the nation's crumbling schools—was among the items quietly killed in last week's agreement to balance the federal budget. .. ."* From the Boston Globe, May 22, 1997: "After White House intervention, the Senate yesterday ... rejected a proposal ... to extend health insurance to the nation's 10.5 million uninsured children ... Seven law makers switched their votes ... after senior White House officials .. . called and said the amendment would imperil the delicate budget agreement.Meanwhile, the government was continuing to spend at least $250 billion a year to maintain the military machine. The assumption was that the nation must be ready to fight "two regional wars" simultaneously. However, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, Bush's Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney (hardly a dove), said, "The threats have become remote, so remote that they are difficult to discern. (A People’s History of The US).”**The complexity of Populist belief was shown in one of its important leaders in Texas, Charles Macune. He was a radical in economics (antitrust, and capitalist), a conservative in politics (against a new party independent of the Democrats), and a racist. Macune came forward with a plan that was to become central to the Populist platform—the sub-Treasury plan. The government would have its own warehouses where farmers would store produce and get certificates from this sub-Treasury. These would be greenbacks, and thus much more currency would be made available, not dependent on gold or silver, but based on the amount of farm produce.***Quigley:The names of some of these banking families are familiar to all of us and should be more so. They include Raring, Lazard, Erlanger, Warburg, Schroder, Seligman, the Speyers, Mirabaud, Mallet, Fould, and above all Rothschild and Morgan. Even after these banking families became fully involved in domestic industry by the emergence of financial capitalism, they remained different from ordinary bankers in distinctive ways: (1) they were cosmopolitan and international; (2) they were close to governments and were particularly concerned with questions of government debts, including foreign government debts, even in areas which seemed, at first glance, poor risks, like Egypt, Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Imperial China, and Latin America; (3) their interests were almost exclusively in bonds and very rarely in goods, since they admired "liquidity" and regarded commitments in commodities or even real estate as the first step toward bankruptcy; (4) they were, accordingly, fanatical devotees of deflation (which they called "sound" money from its close associations with high interest rates and a high value of money) and of the gold standard, which, in their eyes, symbolized and ensured these values; and (5) they were almost equally devoted to secrecy and the secret use of financial influence in political life. These bankers came to be called "international bankers" and, more particularly, were known as "merchant bankers" in England, "private bankers" in France, and "investment bankers" in the United States. In all countries they carried on various kinds of banking and exchange activities, but everywhere they were sharply distinguishable from other, more obvious, kinds of banks, such as savings banks or commercial banks (Quigley, Tragedy & Hope). The Bushes are also descended from this clique of bankers, as were both presidents Roosevelt, and others.****“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”"They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mobWhen there was earth to plow or guns to bear, I was always there, right on the jobThey used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory aheadWhy should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against timeOnce I built a railroad, now it’s done,Brother, can you spare a dime?Once I built a tower up to the sun, brick and rivet and limeOnce I built a tower, now it’s done,Brother, can you spare a dime?"—Jay Gorney and “Yip” Harburg “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” first appeared in 1932, written for the Broadway musical New Americana by Jay Gorney, a composer who based the song’s music on a Russian lullaby, and Edgar Yipsel “Yip” Harburg, a lyricist who would go on to win an Academy Award for the song “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (1939). With its lyrics speaking to the plight of the common man during the Great Depression and the refrain appealing to the same sense of community later found in the films of Frank Capra, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” quickly became the de facto anthem of the Great Depression.To reiterate as Quigley says, “Bankers tradionally preferred a gold standard as it increased the value of money and favored creditors such as bankers who's loans were worth more when paid back at a later date. They preferred deflation and thus the 19th century went on the gold standard.”Quigley ca pp 76*****Quigley, (Tragedy & Hope):Four Economic Blocs Dominate Corporate AmericaIt has been calculated that the 200 largest nonfinancial corporations in the United States, plus the fifty largest banks, in the mid-1930's, owned 34 percent of the assets of all industrial corporations, 48 percent of the assets of all commercial banks, 75 percent of the assets of all public utilities, and 95 percent of the assets of all railroads. The total assets of all four classes were almost $100 billion, divided almost equally among the four classes. The four economic power blocs which we have mentioned (Morgan; Rockefeller; Kuhn, Loeb and Company; and Mellon) plus DuPont, and three local groups allied with these in Boston, Cleveland, and Chicago, together dominated the following percentages of the 250 corporations considered here: of industrial firms 58 percent of their total assets, of railroads 82 percent, and utilities 58 percent. The aggregate value of the assets controlled by the eight power groups was about $61,205 million of the total assets of $198,351 million in these 250 largest corporations at the end of 1935.The Economic Power of the Money Trust in America Is Almost Beyond ImaginationThe economic power represented by these figures is almost beyond imagination to grasp, and was increased by the active role which these financial titans took in politics. Morgan and Rockefeller together frequently dominated the national Republican Party, while Morgan occasionally had extensive influence in the national Democratic Party (three of the Morgan partners were usually Democrats). These two were also powerful on the state level, especially Morgan in New York and Rockefeller in Ohio. Mellon was a power in Pennsylvania and DuPont was obviously a political power in Delaware.The Morgan HierarchyIn the 1920's this system of economic and political power formed a hierarchy headed by the Morgan interests and played a principal role both in political and business life. Morgan, operating on the international level in cooperation with his allies abroad, especially in England, influenced the events of history to a degree which cannot be specified in detail but which certainly was tremendous....Finance and Monopoly Capitalism Dominate AmericaIn the United States, however, the ... [system] of financial capitalism was much more protracted than in most foreign countries, and was not followed by a clearly established system of monopoly capitalism. This blurring of the stages was caused by a number of events of which three should be mentioned: (1) the continued personal influence of many financiers and bankers ... ; (2) the decentralized condition of the United States itself, especially the federal political system; and (3) the long-sustained political and legal tradition of antimonopoly going back at least to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. As a consequence, the United States did not reach a clearly monopolistic economy, and was unable to adopt a fully unorthodox financial policy capable of providing full use of resources. Unemployment, which had reached 13 million persons in 1933, was still at 10 million in 1940. On the other hand, the United States did take long steps in the direction of balancing interest blocs by greatly strengthening labor and farm groups and by sharply curtailing the influence and privileges of finance and heavy industry.The Interlock Between Bankers and IndustrialistsOf the diverse groups in the American economy, the financiers were most closely related to heavy industry because of the latter's great need for capital for its heavy equipment. The deflationary policies of the bankers were acceptable to heavy industry chiefly because the mass labor of heavy industry in the United States, notably in steel and automobile manufacturing, was not unionized, and the slowly declining prices of the products of heavy industry could continue to be produced profitably if costs could be reduced by large-scale elimination of labor by installing more heavy equipment. Much of this new equipment, which led to assembly-line techniques such as the continuous-strip steel mill, were financed by the bankers. With unorganized labor, the employers of mass labor could rearrange, curtail, or terminate labor without notice on a daily basis and could thus reduce labor costs to meet falls in prices from bankers' deflation. The fact that reductions in wages or large layoffs in mass-employment industries also reduced the volume of purchasing power in the economy as a whole, to the injury of other groups selling consumers' goods, was ignored by the makers of heavy producers' goods. In this way, farmers, light industry, real estate, commercial groups, and other segments of the society were injured by the deflationary policies of the bankers and by the employment policies of heavy industry, closely allied to the bankers.When these policies became unbearable in the depression of 1929-1933, these other interest blocs, who had been traditionally Republican (or at least, like the western farmers, had refused to vote Democratic and had engaged in largely futile third-party movements), deserted the Republican Party, which remained subservient to high finance and heavy industry.The Democratic PartyThis shift of the farm bloc, light industry, commercial interests (notably department stores), real estate, professional people, and mass, unskilled, labor to the Democratic Party in 1932 resulted in the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. The new administration sought to ... reward and help the groups which had elected it. The farmers were helped by subsidies; labor was helped by government spending to make jobs and provide purchasing power and by encouragement of unionization; while real estate, professional people, and commercial groups were helped by the increasing demand from the increased purchasing power of farmers and labor [at least that was the theory. Roosevelt’s policies didn’t change much of the situation on the ground].The New DealThe New Deal's actions against finance and heavy industry were chiefly aimed at preventing these two from ever repeating their actions of the 1920-1933 period. The SEC Act sought to supervise securities issues and stock-exchange practices to protect investors. Railroad legislation sought to reduce the financial exploitation and even the deliberate bankruptcy of railroads by financial interests (as William Rockefeller had done to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul or as Morgan had done to the New York, New Haven and Hartford). The Banking Act of 1933 separated investment banking from deposit banking. The wholesale manipulation of labor by heavy industry was curtailed by the National Labor Relations Act of 1933, which sought to protect labor's rights of collective bargaining. At the same time, with the blessings of the new administration, a drive was made by labor groups allied with it to unionize the masses of unskilled labor employed by heavy industry to prevent the latter from adopting any policy of mass layoffs or sharp and sudden wage reductions in any future period of decreasing demand. To this end a Committee for Industrial Organization was set up under the leadership of the one head of a mass labor union in the country, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, and a drive was put on to organize the workers of the steel, automobile, electrical, and other industries which had no unions.The New Deal Greatly Benefitted the BankersAll this served to create more highly organized and more self-conscious interest blocs in American life, especially among farmers and labor, but it did not represent any victory for unorthodox financing, the real key to either monopoly capitalism or to a managed pluralist economy. The reason for this was that the New Deal, because of President Roosevelt, was fundamentally orthodox in its ideas on the nature of money. Roosevelt was quite willing to unbalance the budget and to spend in a depression in an unorthodox fashion because he had grasped the idea that lack of purchasing power was the cause of the lack of demand which made unsold goods and unemployment, ... and had quite orthodox ideas on the nature of money. As a result, his administration treated the symptoms rather than the causes of the depression and, while spending unorthodoxly to treat these symptoms, did so with money borrowed from the banks in the accepted fashion. The New Deal allowed the bankers to create the money, borrowed it from the banks, and spent it. This meant that the New Deal ran up the national debt to the credit of the banks, and spent money in such a limited fashion that no drastic re-employment of idle resources was possible.A Failure to Grasp the Nature of MoneyOne of the most significant facts about the New Deal was Its orthodoxy on money. For the whole twelve years he was in the White House, Roosevelt had statutory power to issue fiat money in the form of greenbacks printed by the government without recourse to the banks. This authority was never used. As a result of such orthodoxy, the depression's symptoms of idle resources were overcome only when the emergency of the war in 1942 made it possible to justify a limitless increase in the national debt by limitless borrowing from private persons and the banks. But the whole episode showed a failure to grasp the nature of money and the function of the monetary system, of which considerable traces remained in the postwar period.Roosevelt's Theory of Pump PrimingOne reason for the New Deal's readiness to continue with an orthodox theory of the nature of money, along with an unorthodox practice in its use, arose from the failure of the Roosevelt administration to recognize the nature of the economic crisis itself. This failure can be seen in Roosevelt's theory of "pump priming." He ... believed, as did his secretary of the Treasury, that there was nothing structurally wrong with the economy, that it was simply temporarily stalled, and would keep going of its own powers if it could be restarted. In order to restart it, all that was needed, in New Deal theory, was a relatively moderate amount of government spending on a temporary basis. This would create purchasing power (demand) for consumers' goods, which, in turn, would increase the confidence of investors who would begin to release large unused savings into investment. This would, again, create additional purchasing power and demand, and the economic system would take off of its own power. The curtailment of the powers of finance and heavy industry would then prevent any repetition of the collapse of 1929.The Public Debt Rises Under Roosevelt's Erroneous TheoriesThe inadequacy of this theory of the depression was shown in 1937 when the New Deal, after four years of pump priming and a victorious election in 1936, stopped its spending. Instead of taking off, the economy collapsed in the steepest recession in history.The New Deal had to resume its treatment of symptoms but now ... the spending program could [never] ... be ended, ... since the administration ... lacked the ... [determination] to reform the system or ... to escape from borrowing bank credit with its mounting public debt, and the administration ... [decided not to] adopt ... really large-scale spending necessary to give full employment of resources. The administration was saved from this impasse by the need for the rearmament program followed by the war. Since 1947 the Cold War and the space program have allowed the same situation to continue, so that even today prosperity is not the result of a properly organized economic system but of government spending, and any drastic reduction in such spending would give rise to an acute depression.Germany and The Rise of The Third ReichWhen the economic crisis began in 1929, Germany had a democratic government of the Center and Social Democratic parties. The crisis resulted in a decrease in tax receipts and a parallel increase in demands for government welfare services. This brought to a head the latent dispute over orthodox and unorthodox financing of a depression. Big business and big finance were determined to place the burden of the depression on the working classes by forcing the government to adopt a policy of deflation—that is, by wage reductions and curtailment of government expenditures. The Social Democrats wavered in their attitude, but in general were opposed to this policy. Schacht, as president of the Reichsbank, was able to force the Socialist Rudolf Hilferding out of the position of minister of finance by refusing bank credit to the government until this was done. In March 1930, the Center broke the coalition on the issue of reduction of unemployment benefits, the Socialists were thrown out of the government, and Heinrich Brüning, leader of the Center Party, came in as chancellor.Because he did not have a majority in the Reichstag, he had to put the deflationary policy into effect by the use of presidential decree under Article 48. This marked the end of the Weimar Republic, for it had never been intended that this "emergency clause" should be used in the ordinary process of government, although it had been used by Ebert in 1923 to abolish the eight-hour day [this misuse of government power is reflected in the abuse of presidential executive orders in the United States or violation of constitutional rights such as free speech and the second amendment right to bear arms by municipalities and states].When the Reichstag condemned Brüning's method by a vote of 236 to 221 on July 18, 1930, the chancellor dissolved it and called for new elections. The results of these were contrary to his hopes, since he lost seats both to the Right and to the Left. On his Right were 148 seats (107 Nazis and 41 Nationalists); on his Left were 220 seats (77 Communists and 143 Socialists). The Socialists permitted Brüning to remain in office by refusing to vote on a motion of no confidence. Left in office, Brüning continued the deflationary policy by decrees which Hindenburg signed. Thus, in effect, Hindenburg was the ruler of Germany, since he could dismiss or name any chancellor, or could permit one to govern by his own power of decree.Brüning's policy of deflation was a disaster. The suffering of the people was terrible, with almost eight million unemployed out of twenty-five million employable. To compensate for this unpopular domestic policy, Brüning adopted a more aggressive foreign policy, on such questions as reparations, union with Austria, or the World Disarmament Conference.In the crisis of 1929-1933, the bourgeois parties tended to dissolve to the profit of the extreme Left and the extreme Right. In this the Nazi Party profited more than the Communists for several reasons: (1) it had the financial support of the industrialists and landlords; (2) it was not internationalist, but nationalist, as any German party had to be; (3) it had never compromised itself by accepting the republic even temporarily, an advantage when most Germans tended to blame the republic for their troubles; (4) it was prepared to use violence, while the parties of the Left, even the Communists, were legalistic and relatively peaceful, because the police and judges were of the Right. The reasons why the Nazis, rather than the Nationalists, profited by the turn from moderation could be explained by the fact that (1) the Nationalists had compromised themselves and vacillated on every issue from 1924 to 1929, and (2) the Nazis had an advantage in that they were not clearly a party of the Right but were ambiguous; in fact, a large group of Germans considered the Nazis a revolutionary Left party differing from the Communists only in being patriotic.In this polarization of the political spectrum it was the middle classes which became unanchored, driven by desperation and panic. The Social Democrats were sufficiently fortified by trade unionism, and the Center Party members were sufficiently fortified by religion to resist the drift to extremism. Unfortunately, both these relatively stable groups lacked intelligent leadership and were too wedded to old ideas and narrow interests to find any appeal broad enough for a wide range of German voters.“A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything – whether it be pebbles, stones or gold – as the same.”Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gitahttps://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/8/?query=Gold+pebble#bb1596Hare Krishna