Summer 2014 Commencement speaker Charles E. Richard is an English professor and director of the Moving Image Arts program.
Under his leadership, students have produced award-winning documentaries shown in the U.S. and at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Richard, the Joseph P. Montiel/BORSF Professor of English, teaches what he’s learned as a screenwriter, director and actor whose work has earned national recognition.
In addition to many commissioned film projects, he has written, directed or produced more than a dozen documentaries through Louisiana Public Broadcasting about Louisiana culture and history. Richard was an associate producer of a one-hour documentary, An American Utopia, which PBS distributed nationally in 1996.
His 2003 book, Louisiana: An Illustrated History, now in its third printing, is a companion to a documentary series he wrote for LPB celebrating Louisiana's bicentennial. The acclaimed documentary, Louisiana: A History, won an Emmy Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, seven Telly Awards and a New York Film Festival Award.
Richard’s peers also have recognized his commitment to excellence in the classroom. The UL Lafayette Foundation honored him earlier this year with a Distinguished Professor Award. The award, which was established in 1965, is given each year to two professors who are nominated and selected by their colleagues.
A Louisiana native, Richard earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing at Georgia State University and a master’s degree from LSU. In 2005, he helped to create the interdisciplinary Moving Image Arts program at UL Lafayette. It focuses on the study and production of film and television, animation and computer games.