Brian Fitzhugh is a graduate of Columbia University in New York where he received his MFA (2000) from the Film Division in Screenwriting. He began his career in the arts as a lighting designer and performer, for Theatre and Dance while living in Arizona where he was raised. After studying Technical Theatre at Glendale Community College, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1984 and received his B.A. in Communication Arts from Loyola Marymount University. In addition to his studies in filmmaking at LMU, he participated in the dance program where he was able to stretch his creative talents by both performing and choreographing original works for the stage. He credits his dance experiences with the success of his early filmmaking efforts, recognizing that different forms of artistic expression can positively influence each other. While attending LMU he produced and directed 3 short films. His short film, Tumbleweed, was honored with the Jack Haley, Jr. Award for Outstanding Filmmaking and selected by the faculty for a screening at the Director's Guild of America in Los Angeles. While living in Los Angeles, he worked as a Sound Engineer mixing sound for short films and as an Assistant Model Maker for Stetson Visual Services, a special effects contractor in Los Angeles, working on such films as: Total Recall, Dick Tracy, and Edward Scissorhands. He also continued dancing, working with choreographers Sarah Elgart, Gary Bates, Anthony Balcena and Michelle Broussard. He subsequently performed as a member of Young Ae Park and Dancers, the Present Tense Dance Company and Desert Dance Theatre. In 1995 he moved to New York City to pursue his MFA at Columbia University. He has written and directed five short films, and his short script A Puzzlement was produced in 1996. As a documentary filmmaker, he produced Money + Politics: People Change the Equation, in association with Dr. Michael Delli Carpini, of Barnard College. In addition to his short scripts, his feature Cities of the Dead, was presented in a staged reading at the Homegrown Theater in Manhattan (September 1999). He is currently in pre-production for his documentary, Tulsa's Burning: Ghosts of Intolerance, about the Tulsa race riot of 1921 and its legacy, which begins shooting in October of this year. Mr. Fitzhugh received his MFA from Columbia University in 2000 and is currently employed as a Media Services Coordinator for the School of the Arts and continues his efforts as a screenwriter and filmmaker.