Owen was the Creator and Director of the Film Program at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, from 1973 – 2006. In 2004 he created the Syracuse International Film Festival and has been its Artistic Director ever since. He is also Associate Editor of Point of Contact, an international journal on the verbal and visual arts and has authored and co-authored many articles on film theory.

Since 1969 Shapiro has made over 30 films and a dozen videos on a wide range of subjects, all exploring the boundaries between documentary, narrative, and experimental genres. His latest work, Rain and a Woman (2005) is an experimental poetic expression about the movement and sounds of a woman alone in exterior and interior spaces. Prisoners of Freedom (2002) is a 90 minute film about the Holocaust refugees brought to Oswego, N.Y. in 1944. A short version of this project, Greta’s Story completed in January of 2001 was an award winner in the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. In 2000 he completed Trading Stories: The Czech Republic: 1996-1999 a 60 minute work that explores contemporary Czech perspectives on property; at stake is the shape of capitalism in post-socialist Eastern Europe.

Most recently Shapiro co-authored the script for Haim Bouzaglo’s (one of Israel’e most noted directors) feature film, Session (now in post-production), and also co-authored, with Mr. Bouzaglo Hotel Syracuse, a feature psychological thriller set to go into production in Fall of 2008. He has also begun collaborating and writing the script for a feature length docu/drama on Syracuse University basketball.

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