Dennis Conway currently works as an Associate Professor at Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia.   He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, 7 miles west of New York City. Dennis started Cornell University as a Chemistry major and graduated as a Government (Political Theory) major.   He later graduated from New York University’s Film & Television Production Graduate school.

After years of working in corporate media, public TV, video production houses, and independent film, Dennis wrote, directed, edited and produced a feature film, “Garden,” a screwball comedy which played at film festivals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Afterward, he took his first college teaching job at Sam Houston State University near Houston, Texas.   Since then, Dennis has taught 23 different college classes, including writing, performance, audio, studio, and field production classes, as well as history, theory and graduate school courses.

Dennis has written 14 screenplays: 7 shorts and 7 feature - length.   His script, “Her Gentle Touch,” won Honors, and was the only screenplay accepted into the UFVA’s (University Film and Video Association) Journal of Media Education “Creative” issue, in October, 2017.   His script, “Multicultural,” won 1st Place in the Short Story category from the UFVA (University Film and Video Association) Writing Division in 2012.   Conway’s script, “Second Look,” won an Award of Excellence from the BEA Writing Division in 2011.   His feature – length script, “Violent Nature,” won another Award of Excellence from the BEA in 2008.   It also won a Chesterfield Contest award as a Semi-Finalist.

Dennis has been published 10 times in academic journals in the last 10 years, three of which researched film festivals, and one of which researched U.S. State Film Board incentives.   That last piece, “Are Incentives from U.S. State Film Offices to Media Productions Worth the Money?,” won honors from the BEA (Broadcast Education Association), and was included in their 2013 “Scholar-to-Scholar” poster board session by the PAC (Production, Aesthetics, and Criticism) Division.

Dennis has written, directed and produced other films: “Good Country People,” an adaptation of a famous American comedic short story, “Advised,” a short comedy about an ambitious student, “Undertones: Music from the New York City Subways", a documentary exploring the diversity of musical subway performers, and “New York City Christmas Windows,” a musical child’s – eye view of department store windows.   “Time Machine,” a documentary about the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, a living airplane museum and air show, is in progress.

Education

Favorite Authors:

Thomas Mann
Flannery O’Connor
John Gardner
Arthur C. Clarke
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
Edgar Allen Poe
Graham Greene

Occupation

Associate Professor, Valdosta State University, Communication Arts Department, Mass Media Area Head

Favorite Films:

Death in Venice
Sunset Boulevard
Vertigo
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Nosferatu
Blade Runner
Local Hero
Annie Hall
Fight Club
The Seventh Seal
Lawrence of Arabia
On The Waterfront
Metropolis