Associate Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film
Film Professor
Vikram Channa serves as Associate Dean of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film. In the professional industry, as Warner Bros. Discovery Networks Vice President and Head of Content & Products for East and South East Asia, Vikram Channa leads all Discovery content, productions, broadcasts, and curation for the region. Since joining Discovery in 1995, he has taken on various roles within the company from on-air promotions to programming and production. Together with his team, he executive produced over 1,200 documentaries, several of which garnered accolades at events such as the Asia Television Awards, New York Festival, Omni Intermedia, and the Academy Awards. In addition to having a Master’s in Film and Television Production and a Master’s in History, he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago.
Read more: Vikram Channa, Master's in Film & Television Production
Undergraduate Professor
For over 30 years, Eric Van Hamersveld has been involved in all creative, technical and business phases of the entertainment industry. He has been an animator for Warner Bros. Studios, J. Ward Productions, and Hanna Barbara Studios. His credits include: “The Pink Panther,” “Road Runner,” “Speedy Gonzalez,” “George of the Jungle,” and numerous TV series and commercials. As an Imagineer for the Walt Disney Company, he produced visual special effects for EPCOT, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland theme park projects. He has created children’s games and direct-to-videos for Mattel Toys, Fisher-Price Toys, and McGraw/Hill Publishers, and he has both written and illustrated several children’s books. Mr. Van Hamersveld has a BFA Degree in Television & Film Production from Texas Christian University, and he is a member of the ASIFA Educators Forum (the International Animation Film Society). For 10 years, he taught animation for the Art Institute of California, and he is now a Senior Animation Instructor for the University of California San Diego and the John Paul the Great University. He also conducts intensive Video Production Workshops for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Professor
Robert Jones has been teaching and making award-winning films for over 50 years. He has an MFA in Film Producing from UCLA, as well as an MS in Film Production and a BA from Boston University. He has taught film at Loyola Marymount University and California State University Northridge, in Los Angeles, and at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. His films can be seen at vimeo.com/manage/videos/410748357
Undergraduate Instructor
Douglas Montgomery has over 20 years of experience as a leading entertainment business developer. He served for 13 years as the Vice President for Category Management at Warner Bros. in Burbank, where he worked with key Warner Bros. retailer partners around the world as a strategic advisor. Clients included Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft, Sony and others. Mr. currently works as CEO for the media consultancy firm, Global Connects. He has an International MBA from the University of Southern California. He also lived in Japan for 12 years and remains active in the Japanese community in Los Angeles as a Board of Director for the Japan-America Society of Southern California.
Professor
Henryk Cymerman was born in Poland and immigrated to New York in his mid-teens. He moved to Jerusalem to study sculpture at Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Henryk discovered his interest in film through his exploration of mixed media art which prompted him to pursue his Masters in film at Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, he made the transition into feature films as a Director of Photography and earned a spot in the International Cinematography Guild. In 1993, he moved with his family to Los Angeles to continue his work in feature productions. His films include, but are not limited to the following titles: “April Rain,” “Brothers Three an American Gothic,” “Scared,” “Soap Girl,” “Placebo Effect,”(for which he won an award) “Home Fries” [Second Unit,] “To the Limit,” “Dream Boat,” “Star Trek First Contact”[Second Unit.] Kodak, In Camera, and Fujifilm profiled him over the years. He traveled all over the world to visually record testimonials of over 300 Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s “Survivors of the Shoah, Visual History Foundation.” Henryk’s professional teaching career started after graduate school when he was recruited by Dr. Annette Insdorf (Director of the Columbia University Graduate School of Film). This initial teaching experience prompted his future endeavors in university settings. The creativity and independence he fosters in his students fuels his love of teaching. Today Henryk lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.