Richard is the Founder and Executive Director of CINEMA ED , a non-profit, education based film and media company located in the greater New York metropolitan area. Cinema Ed not only produces films, but provides professional skill training in filmmaking for students, particularly those at-risk, and shows them how to harness the storytelling power of today’s technologies in all of their classes. Programs include a Young Filmmakers Track which provides high school students with a platform to screen their films in theaters before live audiences, and FilmBoot24, a weekend filmmaking bootcamp for high school students.
For more information on CINEMA ED, check out their website: www.CinemaEd.org
Richard is also a screenwriter and an actor. His feature-length screenplay, “The Tale Collector” is an Academy Award Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist, and his feature script “It’s All About the Beans” is a Nicholl Fellowship Quarter-Finalist. It was also chosen by the Austin Film Festival as a Second Rounder, as a Finalist by the Creative World Awards and as a Semi-Finalist in the Family/Animated Category of the Final Draft Big Break competition. In addition, his one-hour pilot “Kiss Construction” was chosen as a Quarter-Finalist in the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Richard’s original screenplay, “Winkle”, was a Semi-Finalist at the Austin Film Festival, a Top Ten Finalist at the Creative World Awards, and a Semi- Finalist in the StoryPros International Screenwriting Competition.
Richard has also been a reader and judge for the Austin Film Festival and has done coverage for scripts submitted through AFF’s Coverage Program.
Richard adapted “Bartleby,” a screenplay based on Herman Melville’s well-known story as part of a collaboration with abstract painter Gerard Amsellem. The short film, produced by New Waves Productions and Cinema Ed Films, was awarded a “Director’s Citation” by the Black Maria Film Festival. You can now watch the entire film.
Most recently, Richard wrote and directed “Waiting for Aphrodite”, a short film produced by LDR Creative LLC and Cinema Ed Films. It will be playing at film festivals across the world in 2025 and 2026.
The film’s production was part of Cinema Ed’s programming where underserved HS students were hired as PAs and crew members, along with Cinema Ed mentors, and they shadowed the professional crew to learn skills as part of Cinema Ed’s pathway to jobs in the film industry.
Stay tuned for more info on “Waiting for Aphrodite”!
Here is the poster and a link to Bartleby on Imdb:
Check out the trailer …
Richard’s acting exploits can also be seen on television, in film and on the internet. Feel free to contact Richard about his availability as an actor or screenwriter, or just contact him for no reason at all … he loves to hear from everyone …
For starters, though, watch Richard portray Paleontologist Andrew Vaughn in this Onion episode which has received over 2.5 million views:
Richard Stephen Bell 