Contact Information

About

Drew Ayers teaches courses in film theory, film history, film criticism, narrative analysis and occasionally video games. Before arriving at EWU in 2015, Ayers received his BA in Classical Languages from Carleton College in 2003, his MA in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas-Austin in 2007 and his PhD in Communication (Moving Image Studies) from Georgia State University in 2012. Drew’s research interests are focused on cinema, visual culture, digital technology, visual effects, and nonhuman theory. His book, Spectacular Posthumanism: The Digital Vernacular of Visual Effects, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic. His work has been published in animation, Configurations, Film Criticism, and various edited anthologies. Drew also serves as a board member and programmer for the Spokane International Film Festival.

About

Chase Ogden teaches film production, film theory and film history. Holding an MFA in film production from Chapman University, Ogden has been a part of 100s of different film projects over the years. In 2006 he co-created a magazine style outdoor sporting show called “Outdoor Storytellers” and continued to serve as the show’s co-producer, cinematographer and editor until 2009. He has worked on dozens of commercials for major clients such as Microsoft, Cisco, General Electric, the FDA, the National Park Service and Mammoth Mountain. He has also had short films in over 50 festivals around the world.

Ogden has also served as Director of SpIFF, the Spokane International Film Festival and as a commissioner for the Spokane Arts Commission.

About

Malcolm Pelles is a writer and director. He was the winner of the Outstanding Production & Outstanding Direction awards at AACTFest 2023. He’s a Humanitas New Voices Finalist. He was a writer for the 2016 CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase. He’s written scripts for the US Army, NFL, and Ubisoft Entertainment. His stage productions have been performed in Spokane, Off Broadway in New York City, and in Washington, DC at places like the Kennedy Center. Additionally, he’s a member of the Board of Directors and an Equity Committee co-chair with Washington Filmworks. Pelles has an MFA degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an undergraduate degree from Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts.

About

Pete Porter teaches Film Criticism and Screenwriting.

Dr. Pete Porter is a Professor of Film and Digital Media and Chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts.  He specializes in nonhuman animal representation in film and media, cognitive-analytical film theory, Menippean satire in film, film festival studies, and animation studies.  His dissertation From Menippus to the Movies (2003) was one of the first scholarly works to take The Big Lebowski (1998) seriously.  He currently serves as Film Review Editor for Society & Animals, an international journal of Human-Animal Studies. Porter also does applied research as President of the Contemporary Arts Alliance, which oversees the Spokane International Film Festival. From 2022 to 2023, Porter was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Groningen. In 2021, Porter became the inaugural Chair of Fine and Performing Arts, a new department combining programs in Art, Film, Music, and Theatre.  From 2018-2021, Porter served as Interim Dean and co-Dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Education.  From 2017 to 2018, Porter was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Amsterdam.

Dr Porter is finishing the book From Marching Penguins to Octopus Teachers, which describes how films express animal interests and perspectives. The book shows how recent films invented strategies for representing ethical and aesthetic matters of concern for both humans and nonhumans. As we ponder how to achieve sustainability, we must move beyond instrumentalist and anthropocentric conceptions of others, both human and nonhuman, in order to achieve a more just, equitable, and biodiverse world. His upcoming work is about Animals, satire, and the movies.

His publications include articles and film reviews in Society and Animals, The Journal of Moving Image Studies, and The Michigan Academician, as well as invited chapters in Lebowski 101 and Teaching the Animal: Human-Animal Studies across the Disciplines. His presentation “Against Anthropocentrism: The Menippean Animal” was awarded Best Presentation at Minding Animals 4, an international conference in Animal Studies, and merged his two central research areas of animals in media and Menippean satire.