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About
Marist Commencement
Celebrating the Class of 2025
• The graduate ceremony will be on Friday, May 23.
• The undergraduate ceremony will be on Saturday, May 24.About
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Academics
Marist Commencement
Celebrating the Class of 2025
• The graduate ceremony will be on Friday, May 23.
• The undergraduate ceremony will be on Saturday, May 24.Academics
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Admission & Financial Aid
Marist Commencement
Celebrating the Class of 2025
• The graduate ceremony will be on Friday, May 23.
• The undergraduate ceremony will be on Saturday, May 24.Admission & Financial Aid
-
Student Life
Marist Commencement
Celebrating the Class of 2025
• The graduate ceremony will be on Friday, May 23.
• The undergraduate ceremony will be on Saturday, May 24.Student Life
- Athletics
Two students participating in a psychological study
Amy Finkel
Assistant Professor of Photography
Bio
Amy Finkel is an award-winning lens-based artist, recognized for her photography and documentary film work, as well as a designer, writer, and educator. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Marist University. Previously, she spent two decades teaching at Parsons School of Design, NYU, and CUNY Hostos Community College. At Parsons, she earned Multi-Year teaching status in 2018 and later served on the Multi-Year Review Committee. She received NYU's Teaching Excellence Award in 2023.
Finkel's work has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and on CNN and MTV. Amy's documentary short, Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, was nominated for the Pare Lorentz Award by the International Documentary Association (IDA). Her first feature-length documentary, FUREVER, premiered at Hot Docs and has since screened in over 50 film festivals worldwide, winning several awards. It has been broadcast on television in multiple countries, shown on airlines worldwide, and included in veterinary and sociology curricula throughout the U.S. and Canada. Its distributors are PBS and Gunpowder & Sky.
Finkel was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts and the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation as one of six directors to conduct a lecture tour of universities and cultural centers along the Eastern Seaboard. Her Gothamist photo essay on prison reform was voted one of the “Best of Gothamist,” drawing the attention of Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's Lockup, The Doe Fund, and NAACP's Sherrilyn Ifill. She served as a judge for IDA's Documentary Achievement Awards, IFP, and New York Festivals, and as a 'Doctor' for New York Foundation for the Arts' "Doctor's Hours for Filmmakers." Born and raised in Seattle, Finkel now lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
Education
MFA, Design & Technology, Parsons School of Design, 2004
BA, Theater, English, and Music, Connecticut College, 1998
Research Interests / Areas of Focus
Analog and Digital Photography, Historic and Alternative Darkroom Processes, Sustainable Darkroom Methods, Documentary and Social Reportage, Portraiture, Vintage Cameras, Woodworking, Digital Fabrication, Medicine, Human Rights, Feminism, Social Issues/ Inequity, History, Democracy, Politics.
Creative Work
Work, interviews, or profiles published by: The New York Times; HBO; Comedy Central; The Believer; The Washington Post; Gothamist; IndieWire; The Wall Street Journal; CNN; Film Threat; The Hill; Mediaite; Dogster; Cleveland Magazine; HuffPost Live; KIRO News; WKQN; Playboy; Jezebel; Gizmodo; NewYork.Com; Time Out NY; The SF Weekly; Film Threat; Exclaim!; Indiewood/Hollywouldn't; Seattle Weekly; The Stranger; Toronto Film Scene; Toronto Star; Seattle Times; Pretty Clever Films; Giant Freakin’ Robot; Kickstarter; The Oklahoman; The Stranger: Line Out; Lost & Fond; Moviefone; /Film; Denver Post; Banjo Times; the Oklahoma Gazette; and the Memphis Flyer; among others. Work also featured in auctions/benefits and in private collections.
Film & Video:
Furever (Feature-Length Doc)
Prosciutto of Happiness: The Making of La Quercia (Promo/Doc Short)
The Seguine House of Staten Island (Doc Short)
Takka Takka: Silence (Music Video)
Uncommon Schools (Promo/Doc Short)
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart: The Banjomaniacs of Guthrie (Doc Short)
Selected Presentations
PANELS: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival; Seattle International Film Festival; Napa Valley Film Festival; Brooklyn Film Festival and BFF Exchange; Cleveland International Film Festival/School of Communication at Cleveland State University; Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF); Kickstarter; DC Independent Film Festival; Monmouth University; Christopher Newport University; Black Rock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD; Lake Placid Center for the Arts; The Institute for Arts & Culture at Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA; North Country SPCA; International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association (ICCFA) Convention, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV; Northside Film Festival; Salem Film Fest; DocUTAH; and Salt Lake City Film Festival; On Screen/In Person Tour.
Awards and Honors
Recipient of the 2023 NYU Teaching Excellence Award
FILM FESTIVAL WINNER (Furever, Feature Doc): Brooklyn Film Festival (Audience Award, Best Documentary); Las Vegas Film Festival (Best Feature Documentary); iD FEST, Winner (Best Feature); DocuWest, Winner (Best of Fest, Emerging Filmmaker Award); Kingston Film Festival, Winner (Best Feature Documentary); Delta Film & Video Festival (Best Feature Documentary); DocuFest Atlanta (Best Director, Feature Documentary); Nevada International Film Festival (Best Feature).
Awarded Multi-Year Faculty Appointment at Parsons School of Design, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2024. Appointed in 2022 to the Multi-Year Review Committee.
Served on Parsons Summer Intensive Studies Scholarship committee
Nominated by students for New School University's "Distinguished Teaching Award."
Gothamist story and Photo Essay, "10 Hours On A Bus With Newly Released Prisoners," picked as one of Gothamist's "Best of 2014." Garnered the attention of Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's Lockup, The Doe Fund, Osborne Association, and other journalists and prison reform/re-entry organizations.
Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart nominated for the "Pare Lorentz Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award" by the International Documentary Association (IDA).
Furever picked up for Distribution by PBS International and Gunpowder & Sky; Broadcast on Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Poland’s TVN Style, Australia's SBS TV, and in other territories.
Chosen as one of six directors for the 2013/14 "On Screen/In Person" film tour, funded by
the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation and the N.E.A.'s "Art Works" Regional Touring Program.
Full annual conference travel grant by the International Cemetery, Crematory, and Funeral Association (ICCFA), Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
"Top 25" award winner for Tribeca Film Festival + Amex's "My Life/My Card" Campaign.
Served as a judge for: IDA's 2009 Documentary Achievement Awards, New York Festivals’ TV documentary division, and Film Independent’s Independent Spirit Awards.
Served as documentary "doctor," New York Foundation for the Arts' "Doctor’s Hours for Filmmakers."
