RSFF2024 Director of Programming | Betsy McLane

We are pleased to announce that Betsy McLane is the Director of Programming for RSFF2024!

Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. is the author of A New History of Documentary Film published by Bloomsbury, now in its Third Edition. She was Executive Director of the International Documentary Association for eight years.  Betsy taught at Loyola Marymount University, Emerson College, The University of Vermont, and Southern Oregon University. Betsy was Vice President of Marketing and Promotion for Direct Cinema Ltd., an independent distribution company, for over 15 years. 

She is a voting member of the Documentary Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was the first woman President of the University Film and Video Association where she is a Life Member. She is the first person to receive a University Film and Video Foundation Scholars Grant.  

She served at the founding, and for 15 subsequent years, on the Advisory Board of the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress, advising then Librarian Dr. James Billington on the selection of 25 films each year for inclusion in the National Film Registry. 

Betsy was interviewer/researcher/writer for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Visual History Program, Individuals researched/interviewed for the Program include: filmmakers Michael Apted, Joan Churchill, Robert Drew, Marina Goldovskaya, Barbara Hammer, Barbara Kopple, Lynne Littman, Terry Sanders, Fred Wiseman, Greg MacGillivray, Bill Pympton, along with film professionals Beverly Wood (Deluxe labs-E Film), Dan Peri (title designer), Bob Heiber (Chase Sound), Volker Bahneman (Arriflex), Irwin Young (DuArt), Garrett Brown (Steadicam inventor), Pablo Ferro (title designer), among others. 

Betsy holds a BSc. in Cinema and Photography from Ithaca College and an MA, and Ph.D. in Cinema from The University of Southern California. Originally from Erie, PA, she now resides in Oregon.