Jack Sholder was born in Philadelphia where he studied to become a classical trumpet player. While still in high school, he performed under such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy.
After studying at Drexel Institute of Technology, the University of Edinburgh and L'Université de Besançon, he graduated from Antioch College with a degree in English literature.
Jack began his career as a film editor, working on the feature documentary King: From Montgomery to Memphis which was nominated for an Academy Award. He won an Emmy for his editing work on 3-2-1 Contact. After writing and directing several award-winning short films, Jack directed Alone In The Dark for New Line Cinema with Martin Landau, Jack Palance and Donald Pleasence. He then wrote Where Are The Children starring Jill Clayburgh for Ray Stark and Columbia and directed Nightmare On Elm Street II.
His next feature for New Line, The Hidden, won many awards including the Grand Prix at the Avoriaz Film Festival, Jury Award at the Sitges Film Festival, and Best Director at Fantasporto. Premiere Magazine called it "one of the ten most underrated films of the '80s." This was followed by Renegades with Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips and By Dawn's Early Light for HBO with Martin Landau, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Rebecca de Mornay, and Powers Boothe.
Jack has directed movies and television for MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warners, Fox, United Artists, Lionsgate, HBO, Showtime, NBC, Discovery, and others.
In 2004, he founded the Film & Television Production program at Western Carolina University where he was Professor and Director of the FTP program until 2017. Jack is currently prepping a new feature, Night Rose, to be shot this spring.

Joshua Russell is an artist, entrepreneur, and academic. As an artist, he is a highly awarded independent film producer and screenwriter, having won awards ranging from “Best Producer” to “Best Picture” at multiple international film festivals. His work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Time-Out, and Variety Magazine. As an entrepreneur, Joshua is co-founder of Local Cinema Studios, a non-profit dedicated to connecting higher education to the film industry, and is a partner at Iris Indie International, an independent film financing and production company. As an academic, Joshua is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting and the Film and Television Production Program Director at Western Carolina University in Western North Carolina.