Meet Corbin Doyle | Filmmaking teacher at Greenhill School for 25 years & Maker & Partner & Father

We had the good fortune of connecting with Corbin Doyle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Corbin, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Following your gut is real advice. That was a skill that took a while for me to trust. I don’t think I had a real thought of my own in my head until about my third year of college. I just did what I was told or what I perceived was right. I had done well in school. I felt good about being a good student. So people said you have to do something smart like being a doctor. I took every science class I could in high school. I found no joy from them. I worked all four years of high school as a volunteer at Presbyterian Hospital. The fulfilling part of that wasn’t the science but being with and helping people. But we were literally told in classes to never say you wanted to be a doctor to help people. I was very good about doing what I was told to do. But what brought me joy was making things. I didn’t have art classes. I would literally just wander up on and find materials and make things. I drew all of the time. I would sit in my science classes in college as a PreMed major and just draw. A classmate said I should show people at Meadows what I drew. My father saw my anxiety and told me to take an art class too. So I walked into Meadows and just wandered into the art building, humbly and nervously introducing myself to a person that looked like an art teacher. That person by chance was Barnaby Fitzgerald, and he said I should take a class with him. That changed everything. I would take my science classes in the morning, and art classes all evening. One was a duty, and one was magical and joyous. My plan was to apply to med school without finishing my undergrad degree. I was paying for my way through school so that seemed like a smart plan. They tell you not to drive yourself to the MCAT exam. Trish, my partner in crime since we were 17, picked me up. Slumped in the passenger seat I had that clear ringing thought and I said out loud to her that I had taken my last science class. She let the car roll down the road for a mile and then said that I had taken my last science class until the medical school I was applying to. I literally had never had that thought. I had just since grade school been doing what I was told. You’re good in science, so be a doctor. That only became real in that moment in the car. It came down to me making a decision for the thing I was supposed to do or the thing that brought me joy and blossomed amazing thoughts and connections all day. So even though I got into med school I didn’t go. No one was happy with this. But drawing that line in the sand echoes to this day in a very positive way.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
SMU Meadows saved my life. Without a doubt. The city of Dallas gave me all of the tools. As a kid my parents would drive me to the downtown library and I would just read books. I found the arts floor and that was it. One Saturday I would just leaf through art books, xeroxing pictures that jumped out. The next Sunday I would read film scripts all afternoon. I started doing research on artists and films. I started going to local art shows. I remember clearly Barry Whistler inviting me to talk to him one day about a show he had up. He didn’t have to do that. I would take lists of movies I was finding, and have my parents drive me to Starlight Video, Forbidden Video, or Premiere Video to look for the makers and titles. Then on Saturday nights my friends and I would meet at John’s house and watch films that I had found. It was everything I looked forward to during the week. After I was firmly inculcated in Meadows, the Painting department sent a body of my work to the Yale Norfolk program and I was accepted. It was the first time I really got to leave the south. It was the first time I wasn’t working jobs full time while going to school. It was just 30 people working together. It was a tremendous gift. At the end of that program, they said I had won a spot in the Painting/Printmaking MFA at Yale. They gave me a piece of paper with a map for the next six years of my life. I thought I was the luckiest person in the world. But without knowing it I had just fallen into the same trap of doing what I was told to do. My time at Yale during my MFA was rough to say the least. Trish and I had given up so much to be there. But she always trusted me, so we left after a year. No MFA. No prospects. But on bad days in New Haven I would go into the city and just be there. On one of those visits I met the filmmaker Robert Benton. Raised in Waxahachie, TX, so we had that TX bond. And his film The Late Show was one of those films I researched in my library days so for whatever reasons he was a very kind mentor to me. Through his connections I was able to work in the TX film world while making art and showing at galleries. All of this led to Greenhill.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well we’d full go to Cattleack BBQ. We’d wait in line for an hour but those conversations are pure joy anyway so that would be part of it. We’d go hiking at Cleburne St. Park or Cedar Ridge Preserve. We would go to all of the great museums and galleries we have in town. Nasher, DMA, Kimbell, Talley Dunn, Cris Worley, Site 131, 12.26. Trish and I cook a lot, so we would probably smoke some pork butts for a day, make tortillas and smoked salsas, make a grilled corn salad, and grill some oysters. Depending on the time of year we would catch a Sunday matinee of the Dallas Opera, or go to the Granada to see a show. Trish and I have been going to Ft. Davis a lot since I first went to the Chinati Artists Weekend in 1990. So a weekend camping, seeing art, hiking, and swimming in Balmorhea is pretty much as good as it gets.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It has to be the 25 years of film and art students at Greenhill School that I have taught. I started the filmmaking program my first year. I start teaching students in 7th grade. The ultimate class is the yearlong, invitational AVP squad. There are about 40 tenth to twelfth grade students a year in that group. What’s really beautiful is seeing alums who took my class up to 25 years ago shepherding the newest students today. When you are in my classes you are literally part of a family of makers. That is a powerful force. That means you are never alone.

Image Credits
alum photo – Katie Young b&W photos – Sofia Valli Dallas photos – Grace Doyle