Larry E.Budner, PhD
GDI Associate
GDI Associate—Mass Media Analysis and Communications Theory
Lawrence Budner brings expertise to GDI through production of documentaries that address social and community patterns ranging from teenage drug use to gender preference to the decline of industrial corporations. He brings a keen eye to the analysis of mass media, as well as to sharper understanding of internal communication within organizations.
As Professor of Communications and Film Studies at Rhode Island College, Providence, Budner served as chair of the department and the Film Studies Program. He created and taught over 30 communications and film studies courses, held various coordinator positions, and created campus television and radio stations. Prior to his career at Rhode Island College, he taught mass communications courses at William Paterson College, Dowling College, The New School, University of Rhode Island, Bloomfield College, and Pratt Institute.
Key documentary productions include:
Wonder of the World
Documentary on the longest strike in American history at the Brown and Sharpe company, and the strike’s impact on industrialism in Rhode Island
Who is Harry Fish?
Documentary on the archaeology of South Providence, RI, focusing on Jewish and African American students together discovering its history
The Edge of Life
Four-part drama on teen drug abuse produced for the City of Providence and the Rhode
Island State Commission on Drug Abuse
Uncertain Changes
An anthropological look at five years of a Providence, RI community garden. The gardeners were members of recent immigrant groups
Hypergraphics
Documentary on the Hypergraphics art movement
Eddie Was Here
16mm film docudrama on adolescent drug abuse
Bountiful Harvest
Documentary on the archaeology of the Narragansett Indians of Rhode Island
Choice of Dress
Documentary on an 80-year-old transvestite
Budner has presented papers at the Northeast Communications Conference, Society for Cinema Studies, Ohio University Film Conference, Speech Communications Association, New England Popular Culture Association, International Studies Association, and the National Association of College Broadcasters. His work has been funded through over 30 grants, including from the Directors Guild of America West, National Science Foundation, International Radio-TV Society, Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, Rhode Island Committee for the Arts, Shawmut Bank, and the Rhode Island College Faculty Research Fund.