Rudy Strukoff has been a film teacher and digital arts educator in California public and private schools since 2016. He is currently teaching guitar and digital arts at Old Town Artisan Studios (OTAS) in La Quinta California.

In the 2017-18 school year, Rudy led thirty-two 7th and 8th grade boys on a year-long film project entitled DARTH VADER GOES BACK TO SCHOOL. In this film, the Star Wars universe collides with our own world due the explosion of the Death Star at the end of A NEW HOPE (Episode IV) and the simultaneous use of a Flux Capacitor by a teenager here on Earth.

The premise for the film is that the tear in the space-time continuum that resulted from these two events created a worm-hole that grabbed Darth Vader's out of control ship which sends him “back to the future.”

After Darth crash lands on the campus of Bernice Ayer Middle School (BAMS) in San Clemente, California, he experiences kindness from the students he meets alone his journey, softening his heart and creating permanent change in his life going forward.

The 85-minute feature length film promotes the idea that we should show kindness to those who are different looking than us, or dress differently than us, or come from somewhere else. The film promotes anti-bullying by showing the positive effects of kindness and is an example for all ages. The film was premiered at BAMS at the end of the school year and shown to faculty, students and parents. The film can be viewed at www.rudystrukoff.com

Rudy has also taught students how to create TV commercials for products that don't exist, and led them in the film production and editing of plays, concerts and football games that were aired school wide.

Rudy is currently working with teens and adults at OTAS teaching photography, film production and editing using his old cameras and Final Cut Pro on the iMac's in his classroom.

Before moving to California, Rudy was a touring musician based first out of Albuquerque, NM, then Baltimore, MD and finally Las Vegas, Nevada, over the period 1994-2013