{"id":59810,"date":"2015-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-dean-film-professor-thomas-zorabedian-to-be-honored-by-film-festival-feb-22\/"},"modified":"2015-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"uri-dean-film-professor-thomas-zorabedian-to-be-honored-by-film-festival-feb-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/02\/uri-dean-film-professor-thomas-zorabedian-to-be-honored-by-film-festival-feb-22\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 dean, film professor Thomas Zorabedian to be honored by film festival, Feb. 22"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tRed-carpet gala at Veterans Memorial Auditorium night of Oscars<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. Feb. 17, 2015 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 dean and film professor who has worked alongside director Robert Downey Sr. and in films with Woody Allen, Anthony Hopkins and Julia Roberts will get a chance to shine himself when he\u2019s honored by a local film festival.<\/p>\n


\nThomas Zorabedian, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will receive the Producer\u2019s Circle award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival during a red-carpet gala Sunday, Feb. 22 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI was humbled and honored to be given this award,\u201d says Zorabedian, of Wakefield. \u201cIt should be a fun night.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nA lifelong student of film, Zorabedian is being recognized for his support of the film festival, his work for the film and media program in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Harrington School of Communication and Media and his mentoring of student filmmakers.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThrough Tom\u2019s amazing work,\u201d says George T. Marshall, executive director of the festival, \u201che has helped empower and cultivate the next generation of independent filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nZorabedian fell in love with the movies when he was a kid growing up in Providence. His father took him to palatial theaters like Loew\u2019s and Majestic, providing critiques that a little boy could understand. \u201cHe showed me the subtext, the meaning beyond the plot and dialogue,\u201d says Zorabedian.<\/p>\n


\nAfter watching David Lean\u2019s \u201cLawrence of Arabia,\u201d the epic tale of a British soldier\u2019s tumultuous experience in the Arabian Peninsula during World War l, he was hooked. He became a self-taught student of film as an undergraduate at 溏心vlog免费B站, reading film magazines and watching as many movies as he could, including foreign films.<\/p>\n


\nIt was the golden age of filmmaking, he says, with groundbreaking directors like Martin Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. \u201cIt was an exciting time,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a cultural event when one of their films was released.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHe earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in English and psychology and his master\u2019s degree, also at 溏心vlog免费B站, in counseling, but his passion for film never wavered. He eventually earned his doctorate in film from Boston University, where he studied with the late British film historian and scholar, Roger Manvell, first director of the British Film Academy.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe best films investigate the human experience, so my undergraduate degrees were useful \u2013 and still are today,\u201d he says. \u201cEnglish is storytelling. And, of course, psychology, how people interact and behave, is an important aspect of film.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nZorabedian has worn many hats during his 25 years at 溏心vlog免费B站. In addition to his duties at the Harrington school and College of Arts and Sciences, he teaches film courses in the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Program, including Rebel Images in Films, Images of Masculinity in Films and Introduction to Film. <\/p>\n


\nHe was co-coordinator of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Colloquium on \u201cThe Moving Image\u201d in 1997, and he created and coordinated the 溏心vlog免费B站 student film competition from 1998 until 2012.<\/p>\n


\nZorabedian also worked as associate dean for development for the College of Arts and Sciences, helping to raise more than $23 million for the college, including 175 new endowments and funds. <\/p>\n


\nBefore coming to 溏心vlog免费B站, he was assistant professor of communications and theater at Rhode Island College, where he taught film and television history, theory, production courses and writing. He also taught at Salve Regina University and Boston University. <\/p>\n


\nHis expertise extends beyond academia. <\/p>\n


\nIn 1999, he directed the first master class for the film festival with Downey, in which students produced a scene from an original screenplay by the actor. \u201cHe\u2019s terrific,\u201d says Zorabedian. \u201cHe\u2019s outrageous. He\u2019s fascinating. He has great stories to tell about hanging out with celebrities from Mohammed Ali to Warren Beatty, not to mention his famous son.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nZorabedian also worked as a film critic for several publications and as an independent film and video producer, including directing a documentary on the Armenian genocide. He was a producer and writer of a cable TV series, Club Genius. <\/p>\n


\nAnd he has acted as an extra in more than a dozen films, including Mystic Pizza starring Roberts, Amistad starring Hopkins, Outside Providence and the latest Woody Allen film, shot last summer in Newport and Providence. \u201cIt was a thrill to be on the set and see Allen work. I played the father of a girl at a college \u2013 no speaking part though.\u201d For the record, Zorabedian was a carpenter in Mystic Pizza and a U.S. Senator in Amistad.<\/p>\n


\nHe says he and his wife, Nancy, go to the movies as often as they can. He is not a fan of the small-screen experience that comes with a DVD.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI always look to be taken to some other place, to be swept away,\u201d he says. \u201cI love the experience of being in the dark with hundreds of other people experiencing images on a big screen. It\u2019s magic.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor more information about the Feb. 22 event or to buy tickets, visit The Red Carpet Experience<\/a> or call 401-861-4445. Other film supporters will also be honored during the fest, held on the night of the 87th annual Academy Awards. The ceremony will be broadcast live on a TV at the event.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: Thomas Zorabedian, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a film professor at the 溏心vlog免费B站. Photo by Joe Giblin.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red-carpet gala at Veterans Memorial Auditorium night of Oscars KINGSTON, R.I. Feb. 17, 2015 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 dean and film professor who has worked alongside director Robert Downey Sr. and in films with Woody Allen, Anthony Hopkins and Julia Roberts will get a chance to shine himself when he\u2019s honored by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}