Two-time Oscar nominated filmmaker and part-time SF State cinema lecturer Yasha Aginsky knew he wanted to make films, studying abroad during his junior year of college in Aix-en-Provence, France. It was then that he found his passion for filmmaking.

With more than 30 years of experience in film, Aginsky, 61, currently teaches a course called Intro to Filmmaking, while editing films and making his own personal documentaries. One of his finished editing projects, titled “Granny D. Goes to Washington,” will air on KQED, the local PBS station, Oct. 30 at 11:30 p.m. and Nov. 6 at 2 p.m.

Aginsky got involved in this project after the film’s director and producer, Alidra Solday, saw his work on the film “Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott," which is a film about a deaf, mute woman with Down syndrome.

“I was so moved by the sensitivity and seamless sensuality of the editing,” Solday, 65, said. “Because of that I knew that Yasha was the right person for the film.”

“Granny D. Goes to Washington” tells the story of an 89-year-old widow, Doris Haddock, who was inspired to walk across the country, from Pasadena, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to raise political awareness to restore representative government in America. She believed it wasn’t right for public money to be spent on special interest groups such as tobacco companies.

“I really liked the idea of this film, and I agree with the politics,” he said. “I really think that campaign financing needs to be reformed and that is what Doris is about. She is such an inspiring person.”

The film is mostly archival footage of Haddock when she was on her walk, in 1999, as well as footage, which was shot afterwards, Aginsky said. He then compiled all the footage together to complete what is now the finished product.

Aginsky was Oscar nominated for editing the documentaries “Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” in 1986 and “Forever Activists” in 1991.

He added that he mainly prefers to work on PBS feature-length documentaries, as opposed to feature films, because he feels that it allows more room for improvisation. He said documentaries allow for more freedom with the subject matter.

“In a feature film, everyone has a script to follow, even the editor,” Aginsky said. “In a documentary film, it is often true that there is no script and you have to make up the story as you go along. You have to improvise and a lot of the time you don’t know how your film is going to turn out.”

He graduated with a master's degree in cinema from SF State in 1969 and received his bachelor’s degree in French and comparative literature. In graduate school he realized that he wanted to tell stories, so he contacted the cinema department and changed his focus.

“I really always loved films, and when I was in graduate school studying literature, I just wasn’t into it,” Aginsky said.

Aginsky said one of his first projects, after graduating SF State, was directing and editing instructional films for the UC San Francisco Medical Center. These films were made for educational purposes for medical students.

“Anything you can imagine, I filmed it, from childbirth, to death, to putting screws in people’s hips, to prosthetics – I captured it all on film,” Aginsky said. “I learned a lot working there.”

He then began editing independent feature films, as well as short- and feature-length documentaries. To date, Aginsky has edited more than 50 films, he said.

Maria Komodore, a student working toward her master's degree in cinema and one of Aginsky’s graduate assistants, has seen some of the films Aginsky has worked on, citing “Putting Up the Pickles” as one of her favorites. The film explores the world of the Pickle Family Circus.

“I really liked the way Yasha edited the film around the moments of the rehearsal and the performance,” Komodore said. “Also, the comments on what lie behind a performance and the effort it takes to set it up was really intriguing.”

Currently, Aginsky is writing and editing a documentary about people in New Orleans and the outcome of Hurricane Katrina.

“I am focusing on how these people are putting their lives back together in the aftermath of the hurricane. It is a film about the real world, which always inspires me,” Aginsky said.

In addition to filmmaking, Aginsky also balances his time between lecturing at SF State. He has taught numerous cinema courses, including basic filmmaking, film theory, film history, and film skills to graduate students. The only class he wishes the cinema program offered is a film editing class.

“When I was in school, there were no film editing classes and it is still like that today,” he said. “There are classes on how to use the equipment because everything is digital now, but in terms of aesthetic editing, there is no class for that.”

Aginsky said he really enjoys teaching because it gives him a chance to share what he knows with the next generation of filmmakers.

“I like teaching, it keeps me open-minded, and it forces me to understand the subject better because I am teaching it,” he said. “Also, I like being around the students, they keep me young.”