Glenn Holsten

Position @ UArts
Communications faculty, UArts’ College of Media and Communication

Alma Mater
The University of Pennsylvania

Current Project
Glenn, who is new to UArts faculty, is a filmmaker teaching documentary production.  “It’s a really small class,” he says, “it’s really intimate and I’m loving it because I get a chance to really find out about each person.”

Latest Accomplishment
Glenn traveled to China to make The General’s Daughter. The documentary captures the journey of Lily Yeh as she attempts to reconcile the controversial decisions her father made in life after his death. It will be released in spring 2008.

How did you arrive at UArts?
”Last Spring I screened my full length film, Saint of 9/11, at UArts and it was nicely received by the audience. And afterward Jeff Ryder [chair of UArts’ WFT program] asked in an email ‘Would you be up for teaching?” I thought about it and it’s a place I love and it’s right in the community here and it seemed like the right time.”

What is Saint of 9/11 about?
“It’s the biography of Father Mychal Judge, who was the chaplain to the fire department in New York, who died in 9/11. He was an amazing human being who also happened to be an out gay priest.”

What’s your most incredible teaching experience?
”My most glamorous teaching engagement was about eight years ago when I taught a workshop in Mongolia for television professionals. I had one translator and 12 students and the goal of producing a mini-documentary. It was a wonderful, life-changing experience.”

You spent 15 years working at WHYY. What did you learn?
“This period was so important because I tried every kind of production possible – I did science shows, I did kids shows, I did live television. And more than realizing what I wanted to do, I realized what I didn’t want to do. I like to have the time and engage the talents of talented professionals to craft films that are beautiful to look at and are really strong message films.”

Can you describe some of your early films?
”When I went to PBS a lot of my films were about Philadelphia. I did The Truth About Philadelphia, First Person Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Diary. These were very large-scale projects that engaged a lot of artists, looked at the city in very clever ways, and helped the audience see the city through different eyes.”

How did your films change when you became an independent filmmaker?
“When I went independent seven years ago, when we adopted our first son, I wanted to make personal films. Films of smaller stories about lives that make a difference.”

What was your first ‘personal’ documentary?
“I did something called Jim in Bold, which comes from the name of a poem that this young man wrote and about being young and gay in America and it tells two very different stories. One is this heartbreaking story of this kid named Jim Wheeler who grew up in a small town outside Harrisburg and who ended up taking his life. He kept a diary and he wrote a beautiful book of poetry and so we used his poems as the framework for the film.”