Meet the Instructors

Lyntoria Newton

Documentary Producing & Directing Instructor

Lyntoria Newton is an independent documentary filmmaker, producer and arts educator based in Chicago. Her work has been shown at festivals across the U.S and internationally. She has produced award-winning content for outlets such as The Boston Globe, Google, The Ford Foundation, and others.

Lyntoria currently serves as an Impact Producer on the award-winning documentary, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall and the critically-acclaimed Tribeca If/Then short film, Status Pending. She holds a B.A. from Hampshire College and an M.F.A. in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University.

Jeremiah Birnbaum

Documentary Directing and Editing Instructor

An educator and filmmaker for over 30 years, Jeremiah was educated at Wesleyan University and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He spent the first ten years of his career working as an editor and producer on social issue documentaries.

In 2005, Jeremiah founded Fog City Pictures, which has produced and co-produced more than a dozen independent feature films and documentaries. His work has screened in theaters, TV, VOD and at dozens of film festivals around the world. He is also a founder of the San Francisco Film School, a nationally accredited college that teaches the art and craft of filmmaking to an international student body.

Morgan Butler

Mobile Filmmaking, Editing & Social Media Instructor

Morgan Butler is a social media expert, photographer, videographer, and creative director, currently serving as the Engagement and Outreach Manager for Public Policy at Twitter. She began her career as Communications Coordinator for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. From there, she made the jump to Capitol Hill where she worked as a digital and creative director for the Joint Economic Committee, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Caucus, and House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. She also serves as an adjunct instructor at San Francisco Film School, teaching digital media production and management.

Morgan holds a Master of Communications degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication from Grambling State University.

Loren Graves

Cinematography & Lighting Instructor

Loren Graves is a Bay Area based filmmaker, educator and artist. With a decade of experience writing, directing and producing for his commercial production company he has created content for Apple, Google, Toyota and Genentech as well as for the non-profit organizations Women Who Code, Girls, Inc. and Kiva. He also runs the SF Filmmakers collective and is a painter and active member of the Oakland art community.

In 2019, Loren partnered with Matt Damon's Pearl Street Films developing documentary projects to drive awareness toward diversity in the tech world and the tangled politics of gun control in the US.

Steve Romanko

Audio Instructor

Steve Romanko is a Writer, Sound Designer and all around artistic jackdaw, living and working in San Francisco and Los Angeles. His thirty years of experience in entertainment cover feature film work at Skywalker Sound through independent films & television. This work informs his two decades of arts education.