Ross McLaren, a pivotal figure in Fordham University’s Department of Visual Arts and New York and Canada’s filmmaking community, passed away on Nov. 28, 2023 at age 69 due to medical complications after suffering a stroke in July.
Born on Dec. 4, 1953, McLaren spent his early life in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In 1976, he received his MFA from Ontario College of Art and was a visiting artist at Cooper Union in6 201, as well as a technical assistant in the film/video department. He also instructed at Pratt Institute and Millennium Film Workshop, before beginning his tenure in the visual arts department at Fordham University in 1986, where he taught for over 40 years.
Students of McLaren’s shared that they are forever grateful for his commitment to teaching film and media production. They reflected on how his passion for the art of filmmaking intersected with his inspiring teaching methods, both of which led him to challenge his students — them included — to think outside of the box and “film everything.”
“He would accept anything you handed him because he knew there was no one way to make art”Caroline Schladenhauffen, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’26
“Ross was a passionate filmmaker, and he taught me the importance of starting small, that all the great filmmakers started somewhere,” Caroline Schladenhauffen, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’26 and a student in McLaren’s introduction to film and video I class, said.
Ada Holmes, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’26 and another student of McLaren’s introduction to film and video I class, shared her gratitude and appreciation for McLaren, noting that he helped shape her passion for film.
“He has taught me so much about the art form, but he has also taught me a lot about life,” Holmes said. “He was adamant that we make whatever we want to make, no matter anyone else’s thoughts or opinions. He encouraged us to unapologetically be ourselves.”
Schladenhauffen cherished McLaren’s teaching style, which, according to her, was contrarian in nature and embraced different interpretations of art.
Schladenhauffen wrote, “He would accept anything you handed him because he knew there was no one way to make art,” she said. “He would try to say anything that would make people argue with him because he knew that thinking differently is the way to get inspiration.”
McLaren’s contrarian philosophy on filmmaking emphasized experimental filmmaking, which set him apart from the “Hollywood sort of style films,” Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, head of Fordham’s visual arts program at the Lincoln Center campus noted.
Apicella-Hitchcock taught alongside McLaren for 27 years at Fordham, remembering his one-of-a-kind film style that did not follow traditional filmmaking, but instead took on a punk attitude. He saw McLaren’s films as a window into his persona.
A showcase of films from Fordham’s visual art classes, is set to be rebranded as the Ross McLaren Film Festival in his honor
“If you have a sense of humor, and you don’t take everything so seriously, particularly in the art world where things could get overwhelmingly serious, his films were a breath of fresh air in their kind of sense of abandon, that they embodied humor as well,” Apicella-Hitchcock said.
McLaren’s work included punk elements shown through his films, “Weather Building” in 1976, “Crash ‘n’ Burn” in 1977, and ‘Sex without Glasses” in 1983, as screened by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, an artist-run non-profit organization based in New York City.
McLaren’s dedication to filmmaking poured into his study-abroad courses where he taught film courses in study abroad programs in Rome, Italy, where he continued to teach alongside Apicella-Hitchcock.
Apicella-Hitchcock reminisced on the warm European nights when the pair would pin a bed sheet against an easel outside and project film for their students under the stars with drinks and snacks. The two took advantage of being abroad with their film students by organically connecting with them outside of the classroom.
“In Italy, we would go out and break bread with students in the evening,” Apicella-Hitchcock said. He added that the two were interested in educating students, but they also wanted to know the “students as humans.”
McLaren connected with his students inside and outside of the classroom, whether it was attending his students’ birthday parties near his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or supporting his current students and alumni through film festivals they showcased their work in.
“He was in the corner backing the student on whatever it was, from film festivals in other countries projected on bedsheets to show up at birthday parties,” Apicella-Hitchock said. “I think he really understood the power of showing up by being there.”
According to Apicella-Hitchcock, the Fordham Student Film Festival, a showcase of films from Fordham’s visual art classes, is set to be rebranded as the Ross McLaren Film Festival in his honor.
“Ross allowed me to find it within myself to create ideas and voice them”Maya Khosla, FCLC ’26
McLaren’s support of his students and alumni, as well as his dedication to teaching film itself, is evident in his willingness to stay after classes to instruct students how to thread the film through projectors, mixing film chemicals, and discussing ideas in efforts to inspire them.
Maya Khosla, FCLC ’26, another former student of McLaren’s introduction to film and video I class, shared the times McLaren stayed two hours after the class ended to help his students develop film. She noted that he was adamant about not wasting the film and wanted to build onto new film ideas.
Kholsa expressed her gratitude for the freedom of creative expression McLaren gave his students, as he inspired them to pursue experimental filmmaking and to become confident in their work.
“Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness,” Khosla said, recounting McLaren’s advice. “Do it if it’s gonna get you in trouble and forgiveness will come later on with consequences.”
Similar to many of his students, Khosla was one to have been forever inspired to pursue studying visual arts.
“It was his class that kickstarted my interest in film,” she said. “I was always interested in film, never had ideas, Ross allowed me to find it within myself to create ideas and voice them.”
A memorial for McLaren’s will be held on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. at Fordham Lincoln Center’s Lipani Gallery. Members of the university community are invited to watch several of McLaren’s films, celebrate his legacy and to commemorate his love for filmmaking.