Tuesday, December 6 – 7PM-10PM

After earning her BA in Biology from Harvard and her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, AMY AQUINO ‘79 spent five years in New York, appearing on- and off- Broadway, and in films like WORKING GIRL and MOONSTRUCK.  Moving to Los Angeles to star in the critically acclaimed BROOKLYN BRIDGE, she went on to make countless television appearances, including recurring roles on Harry’s Law, Curb Your Enthusiasm, ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, Brothers and Sisters, Big Love, Judging Amy, Picket Fences, Felicity and others, and was featured in the films BOYS ON THE SIDE, WHITE OLEANDER, A LOT LIKE LOVE and IN GOOD COMPANY.  She’s appeared onstage in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper, Geffen and South Coast Rep, and in NY in Wendy Wasserstein’s “Third” at Lincoln Center and last year’s Secrets of the Trade at Primary Stages.  Aquino has served as an officer of the Screen Actors Guild since 1994, and was recently re-elected as its national Secretary Treasurer.

PARIS BARCLAY ’79 is a two-time Emmy award winner and has directed over 120 episodes of television, including such notable shows as ER, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, In Treatment, House, Lost andGlee.  He has received virtually every major award in his profession, including three Peabody Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and 10 nominations for directing from the Directors Guild of America (with one win — for Jimmy Smits’ final episode of NYPD Blue).  He also directed the feature DON’T BE A MENANCE TO SOUTH CENTRAL… starring the Wayans Brothers, and the MTV and Billboard-winning music video Mama Said Knock You Out for LL Cool J.  He has written and composed 16 musicals (including two scores for the Hasty Pudding Show), as well as One Red Flower – a musical based on soldiers’ letters written during the Vietnam war that has been performed all over the country. He is currently serving his fourth term as the First Vice President of the Directors Guild, and is an executive producer and the principal director of FX’s highest rated series ever, Sons of Anarchy.

HOWARD COHEN ’81 is the Co-President of Roadside Attractions, a film distribution company that devises innovative strategies to bring audiences to specialty films.  Roadside, which is partially owned by Lionsgate, releases films that entertain, delight, and challenge the status quo.  Recent releases include the multiple Academy-Award-nominated WINTER’S BONE and BIUTIFUL as well as THE CONSPIRATOR, PROJECT NIM and THE FUTURE.  In its seven year history, the company has released numerous notable films including Academy-Award-Winner THE COVE, Academy-Award-Nominee SUPER SIZE ME, THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE, AMAZING GRACE, THE FALL, and EVERYTHING MUST GO.  Upcoming films are MARGIN CALL, ALBERT NOBBS and FRIENDS WITH KIDS.

JEFFREY DEITCH (HBS ’78) is Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Prior to his appointment, Deitch was a dealer in modern and contemporary art and an art advisor to private and institutional art collectors for over 30 years.  Earlier, Deitch ran his own art advisory firm and served as a Vice President of Citibank, developing and managing the bank’s art advisory and art finance businesses. In 1996, he opened a commercial gallery, Deitch Projects, which produced more than 250 projects by contemporary artists.  Deitch is a 1974 graduate of Wesleyan University and was a member of its Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1985.  Deitch has been active as an art critic and exhibition curator since the mid-1970s, contributing to “Arts,” “Art in America,” “Artforum,” and numerous other publications. He also served as the first American Editor of “Flash Art.”  He was awarded the Art Critic’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979.  Deitch’s first major curatorial project at MOCA, entitled “Art in the Streets,”opened in April 2011 and attracted more than 200,000 visitors.

JOSH GOLDSTINE ’90 was named President of Marketing for Universal Pictures in August 2011.  He oversees and orchestrates all aspects of Universal’s domestic feature film marketing activities.  Prior to Universal, he spent two decades with Sony Pictures, where he held a variety of marketing positions including his most recent role as Senior Vice President, Creative Advertising.  Goldstine began his career at Columbia Pictures in 1991 as executive assistant to the President of Marketing and worked his way up the ranks holding senior positions in both Creative Advertising and Marketing, guiding the campaigns of some of Sony’s most successful films. During his years at Sony, Goldstine spearheaded a number of marketing campaigns for films including the Academy Award-winning THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE KARATE KID AND BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, as well as the phenomenally successful Spider-Man franchise and eight pictures with Will Smith.  Goldstine has also personally overseen the creative team responsible for developing trailers, posters, television ads and other marketing materials that support the theatrical release of films from Columbia Pictures, Revolutions Studios and Sony Pictures Animation.  Since 2002, Goldstine and his colleagues have created marketing materials for more than 50 No. 1 films.  Goldstine has received dozens of advertising honors including numerous Key Art awards, gold medals from the New York and London Advertising Festivals.  He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles.

ALFRED GUZZETTI is a filmmaker and Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Arts at Harvard University.  Guzzetti’s films include the feature-length FAMILY PORTRAIT SITTINGS, the first in an autobiographical cycle that continued with SCENES FROM CHILDHOOD and BEGINNING PIECES. Guzzetti collaborated with Susan Meiselas and Richard Rogers on the documentaries LIVING AT RISK: THE STORY OF A NICARAGUAN FAMILY and the feature-length PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION and with anthropologists Ákos Östör and Lina Fruzzetti on SEED AN EARTH and KHALFAN AND ZANZIBAR.  He has also worked in more experimental modes, creating the short films Air and Evidence, as well as a series of videotapes, including The Tower of Industrial Life,Calcutta Intersection, History of the Sea, and Still Point.  In collaboration with composers Earl Kim, Ivan Tcherepnin, and Kurt Stallmann he has made visual elements for concert pieces, films and installations.  The author of the book Two or Three Things I Know about Her: Analysis of a Film by Godard, he has recently completed the video component of Moon Crossings, a piece for chamber orchestra and electronics by Kurt Stallmann, and collaborated with Susan Meiselas on a DVD updating the story of the Nicaraguan family told in LIVING AT RISK.

ROBERT KRAFT ‘76 has been the chief executive of Fox Music Inc. since 1994, supervising the music for Fox Filmed Entertainment, including 20^thCentury Fox Films, Fox Searchlight, Fox Animation, and Fox 2000. Highlights include the scores and soundtracks from AVATAR, TITANCI, WAITING TO EXHALE, MOULIN ROUGE, ROMEO + JULIET, GARDEN STATE, WALK THE LINE, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, JUNO, ONCE, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and RIO.  In 1992, Kraft was nominated for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for co-writing “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” from THE MAMBO KINGS. In 1999, Kraft was nominated for a second Golden Globe for co-writing the song, “How Can I Not Love You” from ANNA AND THE KING.  In 1994, he was nominated for a Grammy Award as the producer of “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”  He also co-wrote the theme song for “Who’s The Boss.”  In 1989, Kraft co-produced all of the Grammy Award-winning songs on the multi-platinum soundtrack, THE LITTLE MERMAID, including the Academy Award-winning song, “Under The Sea.” As a solo artist and with his band, Robert Kraft and The Ivory Coast, he has released four albums. His songs have been recorded by Bette Midler, Roberta Flack, Diane Schuur, Manhattan Transfer, Bruce Willis, Los Lobos, and Kermit the Frog.  Robert Kraft graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1976.

Emmy-award winner JEFF MELVOIN has worked on a dozen one-hour television series, currently as Executive Producer of the Lifetime series Army Wives.   Prior writer-producer credits includeAlias, Picket Fences, Northern Exposure, Hill Street Blues, andRemington Steele.  Awards include an Emmy, two Golden Globes, a Television Critics Association award, a Peoples’ Choice award, and a Mystery Writers of America award.  A graduate of Harvard University, Jeff worked as a Time magazine correspondent before entering the television industry.  A past board member of the Writers Guild of America, in 2004 Jeff co-authored a WGA booklet, Writing for Episodic TV.  In 2005, he proposed the creation of the WGA Show Runner Training Program and has moderated the program since its inception in 2006.  He has taught screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and UCLA Extension and was a Visiting Lecturer in Dramatic Arts at Harvard in 2008.  He and his wife, Martha Hartnett Melvoin, live in Los Angeles and have two sons, Nick and Charlie.

In 2000 DIANE NABATOFF founded Tiara Blu Films. Since then she has produced TAKE THE LEAD, and NARC, and Executive Produced THE BRASS TEAPOT and GRAY MATTERS.  In TV she Executive Produced Knights of the South Bronx for A&E and Racing For Time for Lifetime as well as the seriesAfter Hours with Daniel for Mojo now on Ovation.  She also Co-Executive Produced the pilot for the HBO series Baseball Wives and is currently Co-Executive Producing the pilot, Scent Of The Missing for TNT.  The feature GIRL SOLDIER will shoot in 2012.  For theater, she is developing several Broadway musicals, including one based on her film TAKE THE LEAD.  She is also producing three documentarie:s DANCING IN JAFFA with Morgan Spurlock now in post, CANCER with Stanley Tucci and Morgan Spurlock and ORCHESTRA OF EXILES with Josh Aronson.  In addition, Diane produces the annual Human Rights Watch production, Cries From The Heart in Los Angeles.  Prior to founding Tiara Blu Films, Diane was a Producer at Interscope Communications, where she produced films that include: VERY BAD THINGS, THE PROPOSITION, OPERATION DUMBO DROP, SEPARATE LIVES, HOLY MATRIMONY, and BODY LANGUAGE.  Earlier in her career, Diane was the Senior Vice President of Production for Henry Winkler’s Fair Dinkum Productions and Vice President of Vestron Pictures where she Executive Produced HIDER IN THE HOUSE and FEAR.  She began her film career as Vice President at The Feldman-Meeker Co. working on THE GOLDEN CHILD and serving as Associate-Producer of THE KINDRED and Kathryn Bigelow’s NEAR DARK.  Prior to receiving a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, where she was the first female producer of Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the founder of The Radcliffe Pitches, the first Harvard female vocal group.  Diane is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.

BENNETT SINGER ’86, a New York-based filmmaker and writer/editor, is currently at work on ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION, a feature-length documentary that uses irreverent humor to show why America’s voting system is broken — and how it can be fixed.  Hosted by Daily Show veteran Mo Rocca ’91, the film is slated for theatrical release and national PBS broadcast in 2012.  With Nancy Kates ’84, Singer directed BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN, which premiered at Sundance, was broadcast on PBS’ P.O.V. series and Logo/MTV, and won 20 international awards.  Described as “a mesmerizing eye-opener” (SF Film Society), the film has been screened for members of Congress, at The United Nations, and by numerous corporations and law firms as part of their diversity initiatives.  Singer was an Associate Producer on the Emmy-winning EYES OF THE PRIZE II and co-authored The Student Body, a “wry, insider thriller” (Village Voice) written collaboratively by four Harvard classmates and published by Random House.  With Ellen Gordon Reeves ’83, he is writing Gerda’s Lieutenant, a play based on the love letters of Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein and Kurt Klein.  This project received a 2010 development grant from Harvardwood and the ART Alumni Lab.

DAN STURMAN ’89 is a Los Angeles-based director, writer, and producer of Emmy, Peabody, and Academy Award®-winning documentary films.  He recently completed work on THE HOLLYWOOD COMPLEX, a feature doc about aspiring child actors.  His previous films include the Sundance award-winning documentary NANKING, about the rape of Nanking; SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION, about the music of the civil rights movement; and the World Trade Center documentary TWIN TOWERS, which won an Oscar in 2003. Sturman’s films have screened at festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance, and Tribeca, and his work has appeared on ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, VH1, Channel 4, Cinemax, and NBC, where he produced three seasons of the primetime series Law & Order: Crime & Punishment.

BARATUNDE THURSTON ’99 is a politically-active, technology-loving comedian from the future.  He’s the author of How To Be Black (Feb 2012) and serves as Director of Digital for The Onion.  He has written for Vanity Fair and the UK Independent, hosted Popular Science’s Future Ofon Discovery Science and appears on cable news regularly to say smart things in funny ways.  Then-candidate Barack Obama called him “someone I need to know.”  Baratunde travels the world speaking and advising and performs standup regularly in NYC.  He resides in Brooklyn, lives on Twitter and has over 30 years experience being black.  His first book, How To Be Black, will be published in February 2012 by Harper Collins.