Russell Leigh Sharman is a writer, filmmaker and anthropologist. As a writer and filmmaker, he has written, produced, edited, and directed both narrative and documentary projects that have played in festivals across the United States and around the world. His documentary project, Sustainable Barbuda, produced in association with the United Nations Development Program, explores sustainability and resource management on the small island nation of Barbuda. He is currently in post-production on a documentary about the 200th anniversary of St. James Church in west Baltimore, the oldest African American Episcopal church in the southern United States. He is the writer/director of APARTMENT 4E, a feature adaptation of his stage play, as well as a number of award-wining short films. His latest stage play, THE INTERROGATOR, was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwriting Conference. He has also written for dozens of studios and production companies, including Warner Bros., Fox, Disney, MRC, DeLine Pictures, 21 Laps, Participant Media, Montecito Pictures and Real FX. As an anthropologist, he has a Ph.D. from Oxford University and has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Whiting Foundation and others. He has published and presented numerous essays on urban life, culture, cinema and aesthetics; and is the author of three books, THE TENANTS OF EAST HARLEM, NIGHTSHIFT NYC and MOVING PICTURES: AN INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA.
