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Associate Professor of Film, Clark Atlanta University

Dr. Herbert Eichelberger is one of the most important figures in American film. For over 30 years, Eichelberger has taught and mentored accomplished filmmakers such as Randy Marshall, Monty Ross, Bryan Barber, and Spike Lee. As the associate professor of film at Clark Atlanta University, Eichelberger is showing a new crop of filmmakers the secrets to becoming cinematic geniuses.

"Visual media is more popular than ever, and has become easier to get into," Eichelberger says. "I tell my students that they need to be committed to having new ideas. They must also be able to write those ideas and transform them to visual form." While Eichelberger continues to develop filmmakers of the future, he believes that the state of black film has progressed over the years.

"There are areas that can be improved, but there has also been a significant amount of good black films that have been produced over the last few years," he says. "I think Inside Man, Idlewild, and The Pursuit of Happyness have done a good job of creativeness and pushing forward with strong black images."

With technical advancements and the Internet, Eichelberger encourages aspiring filmmakers to take the necessary steps to tell their stories.

"You have to start by getting a journal and doing a lot of writing," he says. "Your journal writings will become the stories that you tell on film. And it doesn't have to be negative to be successful. We have so many stories that can be positive stories and entertaining." - amir shaw

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