Joan's visionary filmmaking workshops are unique in their exploration of all the art forms involved in filmmaking, from a deep study of character, story and script, to liberating and illuminating scene work with actors, to the investigation of visual personality of the film.  The workshop provides practical but profound tools for finding the essence of each aspect of the film, and maximizing it for its strongest, most realized expression.   Director Niki Caro said of Joan, "She brings insight and clarity to every project she works on. She has a deep understanding of the architecture of a story and is as rigorous with structure as she is with character. She is an invaluable partner.  Working with her is thrilling."

Since 1998, Joan has workshopped over 300 films in her labs and as a highly valued script doctor and directing coach. As of 2009 half of those films have been made or are in the works including: Little Miss Sunshine, Anvil: The Story of Anvil,  One Hour Photo, Jesus' Son, and Whale Rider. All together the films have earned a total of 450 award nominations and 262 awards including major wins at the Academy Awards, Cannes, Independent Spirit Awards, BAFTA, Cesar Awards, Producers' Guild of America, Writers' Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance among many others. Over 70 films are currently in production/development including projects with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Mark Ruffalo, Alison Maclean, Mike Mills, Miranda July, Sacha Gervasi, Bryce Dallas Howard, Lynn Hershman, and Mark Romanek.

As a screenwriter, Joan's work includes: Dolphin Song, co-written by Tom Richards and directed by Katja von Garnier, slated for production in 2010; Mirka, co-written by Berry Liberman; and The Vintner's Luck, co-written and directed by Niki Caro, which will be released in 2009.

A theatre actress since the age of three, Joan performed with some of the country's most visionary stage directors including Anne Bogart and Joanne Akalaitis. Joan has played over twenty leading roles at such theatres as the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. Her performances have been hailed as "visceral and vivid" by the New York Times, "powerful...tantalizing" by the Boston Globe, and the Village Voice "admitted to being stunned, laid out and shattered" by her work.

As a theatre director, Scheckel staged Pirandello's: I'm Dreaming...But Am I? at the Evidence Room Theatre; Gillian Plowman's: Me and My Friend at The Los Angeles Theatre Center; and Strindberg's: Miss Julie on a sound stage at Warner Hollywood.  It was in this arena that Scheckel refined her ideas about a new approach to directing, and the workshop was born.

Joan immediately gained support from the Sundance Institute and Film Independent (FIND).  Within a few short years Joan and her technique were internationally recognized, with invitations to give master classes at FIND, the Writer's Guild Screenwriting Conference, the Vancouver International Film Festival, Australia's SPAA/Writer's Guild Conference, and New Zealand's SPADA conference.  Her labs in Vancouver, Berlin, Amsterdam, Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Sydney, Los Angeles, and New York City have attracted thousands of participants.

These days, Joan is preparing to write her first book on the work.  She has also emerged as a photographer.  Her photos, developed through the rigorous feeling work in the lab, are on view throughout this site. The deep intimacy and fearless revelation of authentic feeling is palpable in these sensual and provocative images.  It is with great gratitude to all of her collaborators that she presents the work for the first time on this website. (All images here are Joan's work except the ones in which she appears.  For details see web-credits.)

With her reputation as a master of film craft firmly established, Scheckel believes passionately in the power of film:  "A great actor, a great director must find the courage and ability to reveal the consciousness of the story as well as the complex reality of a character. To do that, we must first connect to feeling, emotional depth, and to the music and rhythm of story.  I workshop films from this point of view.   A vital cinema illuminates life."