welcome, 2024 winner

Your sounding board

As the faculty’s chosen award winner of the David Henry Hammer Award in Film you’re welcome to contact folks on the sounding board for one-off conversations. Bring questions, conundrums, or curiosities.The offer is time for and attention on you — focused on your aspirations or obstacles.When you sound us out, the hope is that both participants feel the conversation was time well-spent and it’s been worthwhile connecting.Down the road, you are welcome to join the sounding board, and offer support to subsequent winners.

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Seeking creative courage, creative camaraderie or intel?

Here's what we thought might be useful to a gifted filmmaker embarking after grad school....Talking to an interested stranger about artistic risks can be simpler than talking with friends and family. We bring an open mind. We’re not predisposed to endorse your status quo because we don’t know about it!Nurturing creative ideas in their infancy can be lonely. A conversation with someone new may energise or reassure you.

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Maybe you want to learn about a profession, walk of life, location, or body of knowledge - for a project you’re developing or a life path you’re considering. So ask us. We’ll tell you what we know, and where we can point you onwards. For example, sounding boarders know a thing or two about:

  • Teaching in universities

  • Breaking into corporate communications

  • Freelancing

  • Career changes

  • Failing and starting over

  • Bouncing back

  • Moving countries

  • Getting married

  • Getting divorced

  • Raising children

  • Losing loved ones

  • Writing PhDs

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Who's here

An array of people have offered to join the sounding board to support filmmakers embarking or extending their working lives after completing the Columbia MFA in Screenwriting & Directing.They’re here because they knew David Hammer or they know his sister Kate, who established the award. Or they knew someone who heard about the award and offered their time & expertise in service of our shared aim: supporting your flourishing in work and life.

  • Kate Hammer, David's sister

  • Indy Neogy, David's brother-in-law

  • Birtu Belete, David's cousin

  • Gustavus Stadler, David's cousin

  • Faye Lane, Kate's friend

  • Justin Hunt, Kate and Indy's friend

  • Mark Smith, Birtu's friend

  • Salima Bhatia, Kate and Indy's friend.

Scroll down to read more about us.

Existential therapist

Meet award founder Kate Hammer, your first point of contact at the sounding board.Kate is David’s younger sister and only sibling. She’s lived in London, England for over 30 years, making her a foreigner everywhere. Her livelihood now is existential therapy and coaching psychology. She used to consult for corporations on workplace creativity and innovation. Two unfinished novels are tucked in Kate’s desk drawer and she’s published a smattering of poems.Alumna of Brown University
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Time to Think Coach

Meet Indy Neogy, once a photographer and aerospace engineer, Indy was David’s brother-in-law for nearly 15 years. As a futurist, Indy curated over 50 editions of IdeaKeg, a 3-D “magazine” of objects used for framing questions and generating innovative ideas. He teaches, writes and speaks about AI, complexity, and culture.Alum of M.I.T.
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Psychotherapist & organizer

Meet Birtu Belete, David's cousin. Birtu (she/her) is a psychotherapist, organizer, and Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW).Birtu views her work through an anti-oppressive lens and affirms less-traditional family structures. As a Black, queer woman, Birtu is passionate about assisting clients from diverse backgrounds navigate different components of their identities.Her first degree was in Classical Civilizations from University of California, Los Angeles.Alumna of Columbia University
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Writer & teacher

Meet David's cousin Gustavus Stadler. He is author of Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life (Beacon Press, 2020) and co-organizer of The Graterford Archive, a community memory project documenting the homegrown anti-carceral activism inside what was the main maximum security prison in the Philadelphia area until 2018. He lives in Philadelphia and is Professor of English at Haverford College.Alum of Duke University
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Writer & performer

Meet Faye Lane, a multiple award-winning writer and performer whose unique blending of story and song moved New York Magazine to gush, “She had them gobbling from the palm of her hand. They were howling, crying, falling in love with her.” Her award-winning solo musical Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories, a chronicle of her childhood in a Texas beauty salon, received rave reviews during its two-year residency off-Broadway and played to sold-out houses around the country and the world. Faye is a featured performer with the Moth, the nation's premiere storytelling organization and her stories can be heard on NPR and PRX. She has been published in Reader’s Digest and in the New York Times bestseller, The Moth: 50 True Stories.Timezone: Eastern

Producer, coach & teacher

Meet Justin Hunt, a producer, coach, and teacher. He has studied and worked in the USA and UK, focussing on bringing new ideas to communities who regularly engage with culture. His research is on the after effects of cultural engagement: how we collect and distribute the lived experience of consuming cultural artefacts like theatre, dance, film, and nightlife. Justin loves opening up space for ideas to flourish. His recent work has enabled him to launch funding programmes, research AI ethics, develop a creative MBA programme, and open two new models of adult education.Alum of New York University
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Filmmaker & production company owner

Meet Mark Smith, director and owner of Curfew, a creative production company based in Brooklyn, NY. After starting his career producing science videos and directing promos for MTV Networks, Mark founded Curfew in 2014 to foster a community of like-minded filmmakers. With an emphasis on short-form work, Curfew has made commercials for brands like AT&T, Nike, and MoMA, music videos for artists including Paul McCartney and The Strokes, and PSAs for non-profits like Doctors Without Borders and the YMCA.CurfewAlum of Vassar College
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Arts producer & coach

Meet Salima Bhatia, friend of the London Hammers and someone who enjoys being in relationship with a multitude of individuals and communities. Currently, Salima earns a living as a Communications Consultant, whilst training to be an Integrative Psychotherapist. As an Independent Arts Producer – in film, theatre, exhibitions and live events - for 25 years, Salima continues to develop creative projects with storytellers and artists. Delivering Personal Development Coaching is her source of current satisfaction.Alumna of Cambridge University
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Want to join the Sounding Board?

If you can offer support, encouragement, or wisdom to a filmmaker with artistic ambition and a generous spirit, we welcome you. Drop an email to Kate.