Stephen Ujlaki

Stephen Ujlaki (born 16 June 1943) is an American documentary filmmaker, producer, and professor, known for the documentary Bad Faith. He served as Dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television from 2010 to 2018, and previously chaired the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University, where he founded the Doc Film Institute.

Early life and education

Stephen George Bela Vladimir Ujlaki was born on 16 June 1943, in Washington, D.C., to Marina de Staël and György Újlaki. His mother, born Baroness Marina Vladimirovna Staël von Holstein , and her two younger siblings, the future painter Nicolas de Staël and Olga, were exiled from St. Petersburg and soon orphaned following the Russian Revolution. His father György, a hyperpolyglot, emigrated from Budapest to the United States during the White Terror and later served in intelligence as a translator during World War II.

Ujlaki grew up in Rochester, New York, and graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in French and English History and Literature.

Early career

While studying at IDHEC, Ujlaki landed an informal internship with director Jean-Luc Godard. which premiered in competition at the 29th Venice International Film Festival in 1968, and was later presented at the inaugural Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. In the wake of the student uprisings of May 1968, Ujlaki was arrested and held at La Santé Prison before being deported from France.

Returning to the United States, Ujlaki taught film for one term at Brandeis University During this period he made a series of documentaries on prison reform, anti-war activism, and the environment. These included Patriotism, Inc. (1971), an anti-Vietnam War film about patriotic indoctrination of youth through Revolutionary War reenactment, and Three Thousand Years and Life (1973), filmed inside Walpole State Prison during the prisoner takeover. Its companion film, With Intent to Harm (1973), shot inside four Massachusetts state prisons, was called "the best prison documentary ever made" by ABC News. With Hands and Hearts (1975), a dramatized history of the Kentucky Shakers narrated by Helen Hayes, was called "the best local historical documentary in some time" by the critic Howard Rosenberg. A Watersnake in Coney Valley (1974), a 15-minute animated satire on Nixon, his advisors, and the impeachment process, premiered in competition at the 10th Chicago International Film Festival in 1974, and was later distributed to universities and community libraries by Carousel Films. Ujlaki also organized a documentary film symposium at Brandeis that became the model for the later Doc Film Institute at SFSU.

Hollywood career

Ujlaki began his Hollywood career as a writer before being hired as an executive at Mace Neufeld Productions in 1981. He subsequently became Head of European Feature and Television Production for The Stone Group (1988–1991), a production company founded by Michael Douglas. His feature credits include Courage Mountain, The Hot Spot, Loch Ness, Ripley Under Ground, and The Cry of the Owl.

He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Academic career

San Francisco State University (2001–2010)

Ujlaki joined San Francisco State University in 2001 as Chair of the Cinema Department. During his nine-year tenure, he founded the Doc Film Institute, which sponsors documentary film festivals and honors leading documentary filmmakers, with advisory board members including Martin Scorsese and Errol Morris. While dean, SFTV rose to rank among the top film schools in the United States, and eighth in The Hollywood Reporter.

In 2013, he launched The Hollywood Masters, a student interview series produced in partnership with Stephen Galloway of The Hollywood Reporter, The student interviews were subsequently produced as a Netflix series. Guests have included Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Amy Adams, Michael Caine, Pedro Almodóvar, Willem Dafoe, Jordan Peele, and Ava DuVernay.

He also organized international film series at SFTV, including Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour, an annual festival of restored films from the Cineteca di Bologna, and Caméras d'Afrique: The Films of West Africa, a series of 21 West African films co-presented with Film Independent at LACMA and curated by Elvis Mitchell. Caméras d'Afrique was the first film festival in the United States dedicated solely to African films by African directors. for which LMU received the Big Brothers Big Sisters Innovator Award in 2016. He also established SFTV exchange programs in Bologna, with the University of Bologna, and in Budapest, with Eötvös Loránd University.

After stepping down as Dean of SFTV in 2018, he has continued at LMU as a Professor of Film.

Bad Faith (2024)

Ujlaki wrote, produced, and directed Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy (2024). The film traces the history of the Christian nationalist movement in the United States from the Moral Majority through the 2021 United States Capitol attack and Project 2025. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called it a "powerful and timely film, filled with the dread this moment engenders; the cynical misuse of religion to advance aims diametrically the opposite of Christianity's mission," and Variety'''s Owen Gleiberman named it among the best films of 2024. Writing for The Christian Post, columnist Jerry Newcombe criticized the film as propaganda from the religious left and defended Christian involvement in politics.

Ujlaki has continued to screen and promote the film through an ongoing national tour of university and community screenings.

Personal life

Ujlaki has three children from his first marriage to Silvia Formenti. He lives in France with his second wife, artist Jackie Clark Mancuso. 1996 Oulu International Children's Film Festival Best Film Loch Ness 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival Best Documentary

2024 Washington, DC International Film Festival