Michael Korolenko

Michael Korolenko is a teacher, writer, and film-maker living in Washington state. Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, he did undergraduate work in English and film at Vassar College. He received his Masters of Science degree for his thesis film, "Since '45," a documentary on recent American history and the media. The film went on to win a special Academy Award for Best Documentary as well as the Focus Competition Award. It was screened at both FILMEX in Los Angeles and the New York Film Festival and was televised nationally on Showtime, the Discovery Channel, and Jim Lehrer's PBS series "U.S. Chronicle."

He also made numerous independent films, including "Chords of Fame, " a musical biography about American folk singer Phil Ochs and the 1960s, funded in part by grants from both The American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts. He made a short "electric folk operetta," "TAMLIN," based on an old Scottish ballad, as well as numerous corporate films.

He also appeared as an extra in the feature film "Somewhere In Time," but his big scene where he bumped into Christopher Plummer was cut.

His writing includes two short fantasy stories, published as part of collections based on author Terri Windling's shared universe, Borderland. His story "Arcadia" is in "The Essential Bordertown," and "Reynardine" is in "Life on the Border."

He currently teaches film studies at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington. His most recent projects at BCC were "Rocket Man", "Rocket Man II", and "Rocket Man III", three films created by students in his "Making Movies" class and written by Korolenko. The films are parodies of 1930s superhero serials and are available on DVD.

External links

* [http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/makingmovies/docs/Mike_Bio.doc Biography]
* [http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/makingmovies/ Bellevue Community College Film Department]
* [http://www.thejibsheet.com/read.php?volume=63&issue=5&number=3&show=arts The Jibsheet review of Rocket Man]