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Assistant Professor and Director, Media Studies Program mforman@uab.edu
Heritage Hall 360E
(205) 934-8560

Research and Teaching Interests: Film history, documentary production and distribution, environmental and health media, cinematic representation of the other, animal theory

Office Hours: M/W 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Tues 12:15 - 1:15 p.m.

Education:

  • B.A., Harvard University, 1993
  • M.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009

Michele is a documentary filmmaker who got her start as an executive in feature films. As Director of Development at Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, she was responsible for the acquisition and development of new projects, including New Jersey Drive, Girl 6, Sula, The Jackie Robinson Story, and Summer of Sam. In addition, Forman served as associate producer on Mr. Lee's Academy Award-nominated film 4 Little Girls, a feature-length documentary for HBO about the bombing of the Sixteenth Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

Michele co-founded the UAB Media Studies Program in 2003 with the aim of using new media technologies to connect students with crucial community issues in the Greater Birmingham area. She loves teaching media and film history, as well as using the methods of documentary filmmaking, digital storytelling, oral history, and multimedia-based research to give students the chance to connect what they learn in the classroom with real-world experience.

Though she loves arthouse and non-fiction films, you can often find her checking out the latest heist movie at the multiplex.