Having worked as a screenwriter (St. Elmo's Fire) and TV writer/producer (Saved By the Bell) in Los Angles for two decades, Carl Kurlander came to teach screenwriting at the University of Pittsburgh for what he thought would be a one year Hollywood sabbatical. Instead, the journey has led to him staying in Pittsburgh where he continues to write and produce films and television shows, often in collaboration with his students, and teach a variety of courses from screenwriting to "Making The Documentary."
In 2005, Carl and a group of students filmed the 50th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine which led to a feature documentary The Shot Felt Round The World that aired on the Smithsonian Channel as A Shot to Save The World and won the CINE Golden Eagle Award for best scientific program. A recut version also aired on the BBC in prime time as "The Polio Story: The Vaccine That Changed The World." Burden of Genius which Kurlander produced about transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl has won several Best Documentary prizes and continues to screen around the world. Both films began with the involvement of Pitt students as part of "Making the Documentary" courses Carl has taught. Similar classes have led to the student-produced documentary on George Romero and Pittsburgh: The Early Years and Becoming August Wilson about the playwright's life and The Hill District which inspired his ten play Century Cycle. A short "work-in-progress" excerpt of that was shown in March 2023 at the opening of the August Wilson archive. In May 2023, Kurlander led a team of students and film professionals as they documented the production of August Wilson play Jitney in Vicenza, Italy, the first production of the playwright's work in that country.
Kurlander's passion for filmmaking and storytelling are reflected in the courses he teaches which have included Screenwriting and Narrative, Elements of Screenwriting, Intermediate Screenwriting, Making The Documentary, Introduction and Intermediate Fiction Writing, Freshman Composition as part of the Film Community, Introduction to Film, Film Analysis, Film Comedy, Pittsburgh and Film, Producing, The Business of Entertainment, and the American Film and Television Industry.
Carl is the founding director of the Pitt in LA program which gives students exposure to a variety of film and television professionals and potential career paths in the entertainment industry. He is also the founding producer of the Pittsburgh Lens space at the Center of Creativity. There he has produced and directed the film Chasing Covid and worked on a project about young people, mental health, and their families. He has also helped developed programs such as the PITTch story initiative to give students hands-on, learning opportunities with mentoring film professionals.
He is the faculty adviser of the student organization SCENE (Steel City Entertainment Networking Entity) formerly Pitt in Hollywood, which has brought to campus scores of leading film and television professionals and created networking opportunities which have led to students getting jobs and internships and established the Pitt Stars Award which honors Pitt alumni who have given back to the University of Pittsburgh community. Kurlander is proud of the fifty-plus former students of his who have worked professionally in film and television in Pittsburgh, L.A, and New York.
Additional screen credits can be found on imdb.com, but to get a further sense of Carl's journey from Hollywood to Pittsburgh, you can watch the film "My Tale of Two Cities" on youtube.com which documents his own comeback story along with that of the city of Pittsburgh. The film which played 25 cities across North America features many iconic Pittsburgh neighbors including Franco Harris, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Joanne Rogers and Mister McFeely (David Newell), U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O' Neil, his old gym teacher Bob Grandizo and Pittsburghers from Broadway to Beverly Hills singing the city's unofficial theme song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
Kurlander is the co-author with comedian Louie Anderson of The F Word: How to Survive Your Family and has written numerous articles which have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and The Conversation which have been reprinted around the world.
For more about Carl, please visit www.carlkurlander.com.