Engages, Educates, and Empowers Student Filmmakers
Film industry professionals mentor students to step out of their comfort zone and tell their stories. We unleash untapped creativity and encourage the next generation of working filmmakers to transform the culture of the industry.
Our Staff
Cinema Ed staff members, volunteers and mentors work year round on various projects that seek to empower young filmmakers across many platforms.
Deborah Davis Ford
Chief Operating Officer
Deborah Davis Ford (she/her) brings an impressive 25-year record of corporate experience in the field of personnel training/development and client management to her civic engagements. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of South Orange Village in May 2007 and was appointed Clerk of the Board of Essex County Chosen Freeholders in 2009. Deborah is also a past member of the Newark Rotary Club (where she served as the first female president from 1993-1994), served on the Executive Board of North Jersey Jack and Jill,, and is a past member of the Regional Business Partnership, the NJ Transit Advisory Board, the Cancer Care Advisory Board, as well as a past President of the Greater Newark Chamber Small Business Council and Past Chairperson of Partners in Education and Quality. She attended Northeastern University and Rutgers University and is most proud of her family. She is married to her high school sweetheart and is the mother of a recent college graduate.
Nina-Simone Crawford
Support Manager
Nina-Simone (she/her) was one of the original students to participate in FilmBoot24! She now brings her filmmaking and organizational skills to Cinema Ed as our Support Manager and Cinema Ed's "Friday Mentor" at Orange High School. She works directly with Orange HS students to improve their filmmaking skills for future careers in film and other industries. She is an independent filmmaker originally from Orange, NJ who attended school in Orange. In 2020 she graduated from John P Stevens High School in Edison, then enrolled at The New School in New York. Nina-Simone first began making photo series in 2018 where she covered topics from motion sickness to self-expression, and deeper topics such as bullying and vulnerability in the black community. She then started to incorporate videography by writing and directing trailers for her series’. Her love for filmmaking grew over the years which led up to her writing and directing two independent short films, ‘The Cleaning Lady’ and ‘Vegan Diet’, which were featured at the 2022 SOMA Film Festival. Nina-Simone has proudly collaborated with Cinema Ed and Drew University where she’s mentored and worked on several short films.
Richard Stephen Bell
Executive Director
Richard (he/him) works directly with schools to help mentor students by providing expertise in the classroom to assist in film production and coordination with various Cinema Ed projects. In addition to his work at Cinema Ed, Richard is also a screenwriter, actor and filmmaker. His feature length scripts have placed in such prestigious competitions as the Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowships for Screenwriting, Austin Film Festival, Final Draft Big Break, BlueCat Screenplay Contest, Creative World Awards and Coppola’s Zoetrope. Most recently, he wrote and directed "Waiting for Aphrodite", a short film produced by LDR Creative and Cinema Ed Films. He has also written and starred in an award-winning short film, "Bartleby 2013", based on Herman Melville's short story, and was on the production team of “Shy Guys” a hilarious new short film that has appeared in over 40 film festivals. Written and directed by veteran actor Fredric Lehne (Tallulah, Zero Dark Thirty, Men in Black, among many others) it stars Tony Winner Reed Birney (The Humans, House of Cards and many more). Richard’s acting exploits can be seen on television, in film, on stage and on the internet. Richard is most passionate about his work with student filmmakers, who are our future creative leaders.