Sumner
Jules Glimcher,
now professor emeritus from NYU, began his career as a page at NBC after
graduating from college, and spent his first six years there in a variety of
jobs ranging from production manager to assistant director to manager of network
operations.  He spent three years in Munich at
Radio Free Europe, returned to the US and created the first independent
voiced international news service, the precursor of CNN. He became manager of
foreign news for WOR & RKO General; associate producer in charge of
international acquisitions at National Educational Television (the precursor of
PBS),manager of the Center for Mass Communication at Columbia University; and president of Mass
Communications, Inc. In 1988 he was appointed director of the Dept of Film,
Video & Broadcasting at NYU’s School of Continuing
Education, and served until his retirement in
1996. He started Westminster Productions, Inc., dedicated to creating
independent documentaries, and has produced a number of films since. His
academic career includes service as deputy chair of the Dept of Film at
Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts for ten years, and also
taught at Harvard, his alma mater. His text book, “MOVIE MAKING: A Guide to Film
Production,” was adopted at many universities and became a
best-seller. He served the president of Harvard as a film consultant and was
also a consultant to the UN, and for twenty years, to the Consulate General of
Japan. His films have been awarded more than three dozen major national and
international awards.