Mindy and Paul Stekler Fund
The Moody College of Communication and the Department of Radio-Television-Film (RTF) are thrilled to announce the establishment of the Mindy and Burton Stekler Endowed Fund for Documentary Filmmakers to provide grants to RTF students engaged in making documentary films at The University of Texas at Austin. The fund is being endowed by Paul Stekler, longtime RTF faculty member and former department chair, in the name of his parents, Mindy and Burton.
The Stekler fund is dedicated to helping young RTF filmmakers at the start of their careers in documentary. Even a grant of a few thousand dollars can be crucial in allowing them to make their films and help launch them into the growing ranks of successful RTF alumni making documentaries today. Those names include Heather Courtney, PJ Raval, Michael O. Scott, Naiti Gamez, Chelsea Hernandez, Ben Steinbauer, Karen Skloss, Ya’Ke Smith, David Hartstein, Ivete Lucas, Laura Dunn, Cristina Ibarra, and many others.
"The gift named after Professor Emeritus Paul Stekler’s parents will continue Paul’s remarkable dedication not only to the documentary community but most importantly to our RTF students. This legacy will impact future generations of filmmakers. On behalf of the entire RTF Department, we are extremely moved and grateful for this generous gift."
–Cindy McCreery, RTF Department Chair
Dr. Burton Stekler and his wife Mindy met as members of the Jewish medical and nursing students’ organizations at NYU and Bellevue Hospital. Dr. Stekler, a popular family pediatrician, inspired well over a hundred of his former patients to become doctors. After Dr. Stekler’s death in 1988, Mrs. Stekler moved to Florida where she was a volunteer nurse for twenty years at a catholic church medical clinic for migrant workers. Today, she lives in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Paul Stekler is a nationally recognized documentary filmmaker; his films have won two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards, three national Emmy Awards and a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He was first recruited to the university in 1997 to help reorganize the RTF production program and under his leadership, the department overhauled its film production and media studies curriculum, completely turned over its faculty, established a new screenwriting MFA program, and secured a steady stream of funding for equipment and facilities. Stekler also taught documentary film production to hundreds of students and campaigned tirelessly (and continues to do so even after retirement) to provide them with the needed resources to support their work. Perhaps not surprisingly then, in 2014, Variety magazine named Stekler “Mentor of the Year.”
Throughout his time in RTF, Paul Stekler has been especially passionate and dedicated to his students. Upon his retirement, the Austin Chronicle published his farewell to the program, which included this quote, “I can’t imagine a better job than the one I got teaching at and helping to run UT’s RTF program. For over twenty-five years, I was inspired by the documentary work my students did, telling stories that reflected the diversity of their life experiences”.