SPEAKERS
IRVIN KERSHNER
Affectionately
known as "Kersh" by his admirers and friends, Irvin Kershner's background
is a mixture of music and art. The study of music - violin, viola and composition
- was the most important activity of his early years. He attended Temple
University - Tyler School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Later, he went
to New York and Provincetown to study with the famous painting teacher
Hans Hofmann. He then moved to Los Angeles where he studied photography
at the Art Center College of Design. Mr. Kershner's accomplishments as
a painter, photographer and musician are all evident in his work as film
director.
He began
his film career at the USC School of Cinema teaching photography and taking
cinema courses under Slavko Vorkapich, the great montage artist and then
Dean of the School of Cinema. Kersh next accepted a job as still photographer
on a State Department film project in Iran under the Four Point Program,
which ultimately led to an assignment as a director and cinematographer
of documentaries in Iran, Greece and Turkey with the United States Information
Service.
When
he returned to the States, he and the late Paul Coates developed Confidential
File, a documentary television series. Kersh worked as writer, director,
cinematographer and editor. He later developed and directed the television
series The Rebel, as well as the pilots for Peyton Place, Cain's
One Hundred, Philip Marlow, and more.
He filmed
Stakeout
on Dope Street independently, and when it was bought by Warner Bros.
he was on his way. It also marked the debut of cinematographer Haskell
Wexler.
Some
of Kershner's best known films are The Hoodlum Priest which starred
Don Murray, The Luck of Ginger Coffey with Robert Shaw and Mare
Ure (this film in recent years has attained cult status), A Fine Madness,
showcasing the talents of Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward and Jean Seberg,
The
Flim Flam Man starring George C. Scott, Up the Sandbox with
Barbra Streisand, Return of a Man Called Horse starring Richard
Harris, the critically acclaimed TV movie, Rain on Entebbe which
was nominated for 9 Emmys, including Best Direction, The Eyes of Laura
Mars starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones, The Empire Strikes
Back, the second film in the original Star Wars trilogy and
one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, Never Say Never
Again, Sean Connery's return to the role of James Bond, the HBO film
Traveling
Man starring John Lithgow and Jonathan Silverman, for which Kersh was
nominated for an ACE award, and Robocop 2, co-written by legendary
Batman
scribe Frank Miller. Kershner also directed the pilot for the Amblin TV
series SeaQuest.
Currently
Kershner is working on a film for Largo Entertainment called The Coming
Of Eddie Lomax. He's also preparing a script based on John Hersey's
book A Single Pebble. It takes place in 1927 in Shanghai.
Kersh
continues to lecture at universities throughout the U.S.