In This Issue:
- Message from Dona
NEWS
- Featured Member Posting: Production Travel Manager (Amazon) - LA
- Additional Film/TV memorabilia up for auction - through Jan. 8th
- Screening your film at Sundance 2020? Share with Harvardwood
- Recruit Harvard students to intern at your company in Summer 2020
FEATURES
- Exclusive Q&A with Producer & Documentary Filmmaker Jack Riccobono AB '03
- Industry Successes
- New Members' Welcome
- Alumni Profile: Abigail Hing Wen AB '99 (Author, Loveboat, Taipei)
CALENDAR & NOTES
- Calendar
- Kick off 2020 on the right foot: RENEW YOUR HARVARDWOOD MEMBERSHIP
Message from Dona
This Monday, Harvardwood welcomes 28 undergrads from Harvard University to sunny Los Angeles for our flagship 101 program! Over the course of the week, our 101ers will visit production companies, agencies, management companies, and studios, and they'll get to meet established Harvard alumni in the industry to learn about careers in entertainment. We can't wait to meet them all!
I also look forward to seeing many of you at Global Networking Night! Here in Los Angeles, there will be events on the east side and the west side. Harvardwood will also have reps in Boston and Toronto. If you're not in any of those cities, however, the Harvard Alumni Association has the full list of cities here.
Cheers to a happy and prosperous 2020!
- Dona
Featured Member Posting: Production Travel Manager (Amazon) - LA
The Production Travel Manager will assist productions in organizing travel, ensuring that Studio travel policies are adhered to. This role will develop and maintain relationships with travel agency vendors, and other housing facilitators to service our productions worldwide. The position will work closely with internal partners, including Production, Post-Production, Production Finance, Legal, Risk Management and Creative Development teams. You will also evaluate new production travel related offerings and provide advice on potential risks and issues in a wide range of travel management areas.
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
· Manage Studio and Office needs in areas of travel and travel strategy.
· Collaborate with show producers, line producers, production managers and creative executives and offer ideas about and assessments of production travel.
· Develop relationships with travel vendors to identify new business strategy as it relates to travel.
· Work with internal teams helping to develop budgets and schedules related to production travel and living estimates.
· Establishing travel strategy for productions.
· Analyze leases for productions and Amazon Studios
· Act as a liaison from Amazon Studios to Productions in the area of travel needs.
Additional Film/TV memorabilia up for auction - through Jan. 8th
Now through January 8th, Harvardwood is auctioning off more film/TV memorabilia autographed by Taylor Swift, Martin Scorcese, Nicole Fosse, Sterling K. Brown, and more! View all the items on Charitybuzz; these lots close on January 8th, and individual countdown timers can be viewed on each item's page.
All auction proceeds will go toward Harvardwod's programming and events in 2020. Harvardwood is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the mission of which is to celebrate and support lives in the arts, media, and entertainment for the Harvard community and beyond. Thank you for your support by participating in the auction!
Screening your film at Sundance 2020? Share with Harvardwood
Calling all Harvard-affiliated films and filmmakers traveling to Sundance or Slamdance this month! The 2020 Sundance Film Festival will run from January 23 - February 2, 2020 in Park City, Salt Lake City, and at Sundance Mountain Resort.
Among the films that will be screened at Sundance are I Carry You With Me, produced by Mynette Louie AB '97 (Swallow, The invitation); Dinner in America, produced by Nicky Weinstock AB '91 (Red Hour Films); Minari, produced by Jeremy Kleiner AB '98 (If Beale Street Could Talk, Moonlight, World War Z); and Four Good Days, co-written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia AB '82 (In Treatment, Nine Lives).
If you're attending Sundance this year and presenting one of your films, share the good news so the Harvardwood community can come out in support! Just email Harvardwood with information about your film, screening times, trailer links, and any other pertinent details.
Recruit Harvard students to intern at your company in Summer 2020
If your arts, media, or entertainment company offers summer internships and would like to receive applications from current Harvard College students, we invite you to participate in the 2020 Harvardwood Summer Internship Program (HSIP)! Companies can recruit current Harvard students directly by posting their internship opportunities to Harvardwood FOR FREE.
HSIP provides a list of internship opportunities in the arts, media and entertainment to Harvard undergraduates and also coordinates career-related events over the summer for program participants in LA, NYC and other cities. If your company would like to list an internship via HSIP, please fill out our brief participant form by February 15th to reach the largest number of potential candidates.
Exclusive Q&A with Producer & Documentary Filmmaker Jack Riccobono AB '03
Jack Riccobono AB '03 (The Seventh Fire, Killer) is a documentary filmmaker who produced upcoming feature Afterward, to be released January 10, 2020. Seen as a victim in Germany and a perpetrator in Palestine, Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch takes viewers on a deeply personal journey in order to make sense of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. See #Afterward in select theaters. afterwardthefilm.com/screenings. Be sure to catch a screening of Afterward in New York City or Los Angeles this month! (Photo by Helena Kubicka de Bragança)
Q. How did you become involved with Ofra Bloch's documentary, Afterward?
A. Ofra is a psychoanalyst whose work focuses on the transference of trauma between generations. She made several short films about survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants, including one about her husband, the artist David Bloch, who is a child survivor. In 2012, Ofra realized she was passing down her fear and hatred of Germans to her own grown sons and felt compelled to confront that reality. She decided to make a feature documentary about 2nd and 3rd generation Germans — the descendants of perpetrators — and engage with how they learned to deal with the legacy of WWII. She was looking for a filmmaker who could help her realize the project and got referred to me through two different sources. So we met for a coffee and Ofra struck me as someone whose background, life story and professional experience put her in a unique position to explore this terrain on personal terms. At first, Ofra did not imagine herself and her own story being included in the film. But over time, and with encouragement from me and our editor Michael Palmer, Ofra embraced a hybrid personal documentary form, which ultimately led us to expand the scope of the film to examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and trace her personal history back to her childhood in Jerusalem.
Q. Did you bring fellow alum Michael J. Palmer AB '03 on to the project? Have you two collaborated previously?
A. Yes, I brought Mikey onto the team early in the process, when we started to plan the first development sample. Mikey and I first met as fellow VES film concentrators and also worked together on several projects after graduating, including my 2016 feature documentary The Seventh Fire. Mikey has psychologists in his family and really understands that point of view. He immediately hit it off with Ofra and worked very closely with us in building the complex structure of the film, which weaves together Ofra’s present-day journey through Germany, Israel and Palestine with her personal story and the history of conflict and trauma in those regions.
Q. You and Michael, along with Ofra Bloch, are listed as co-writers on the documentary. Can you share what that collaborative writing process was like?
A. When it comes to writing a documentary, that process sometimes encompasses the early phases of imagining what the film could be and where it could go through discussion, written proposals and experimentation. In this project, we had periods of editing interspersed during production, and that helped inform our process of building out Ofra’s personal story, which serves as the narrative backbone of the film. Her dreams and memories are rendered through a combination of expressionistic sequences, recreations, archival materials, present-day footage and voiceover. We also had to calibrate how much historical information and detail to include so that audience members with different levels of background knowledge on these topics could all engage with the film. We had some healthy creative tensions along the way, and Ofra served as the ultimate arbiter!
READ THE COMPLETE Q&A WITH JACK
Industry Successes
Ian Maisel Ext. '06 started a video production company in San Francisco. He creative directs promotional films, event advertisements, and 4K video channels featured on large-scale video installations in high-tech office buildings and restaurants across the country. His clients include the founder of the commercial video production company Elevar Pictures and the co-Chief Executive Officer of Alexandria Real Estate Equities. View samples of Ian’s videos.
With the assistance of Harvardwood's professional development resources, Dario Guerrero AB '15 was able to secure several college screenings for his first feature-length documentary, ROCIO. Although initially he sought the traditional route of festival screenings en route to partnership with a distributor, he quickly learned through Harvardwood members’ diversity in experience that there are many ways to crack an egg: now ROCIO is on Amazon Prime and is a hit among college communities nationwide.
The Reposession, a horror script by Megan Amram AB '10 (The Good Place, Parks and Rec), was named to the 2019 Black List! Logline: Twenty years after a failed exorcism, a meek young woman becomes unlikely friends with the foul-mouthed demon that possessed her as a child. Founded in 2005 by Franklin Leonard AB '00, The Black List is an annual survey of Hollywood executives' favorite unproduced screenplays.
Julian Breece AB '03 is the co-creator/co-writer of Canceled, a half-hour dark comedy from Warner Bros. Television. From Deadline: "As the title suggests, Canceled will explore the timely topic of 'cancel culture.' The show description says the dark comedy will be told 'through the lens of a crew of middling black social media personalities who see their fortunes change when their takedown of a racist celebrity transforms them into woke icons. When things take an ironic turn, the friends’ newfound influence brings their messy personal lives into similar crosshairs.'”
Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the latest from author Tomi Adeyemi AB '15 (a Harvardwood 101 program alumna), is now out and available for purchase! The book is a sequel to Adeyemi's first novel, Children of Blood and Bone, which debuted at number one on The new York Times best-seller list for YA books.
Min-woo Park AB '16, a Harvardwood 101 program alum, has been selected for the 2019-2020 class of NBC's Writers on the Verge program. He was also a CAPE Fellow in 2019. Congratulations, Min-woo!
HBO has greenlit a five-part limited series, The White House Plumbers, to be directed by David Mandel AB '92 (Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm). The series will star Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux.
New Members' Welcome
Harvardwood warmly welcomes all members who joined the organization last month:
- Carolina Brettler, College, NY
- Patricia Correa Velasquez, GSD, NY
- Tyler Lewis, College, LA
- Megan Ward, Staff, Boston/On-Campus
- Cooper Williams, HBS, Boston/On-Campus
- Katherine Wright, A.R.T., NY
*FOH = Friend of Harvardwood
Alumni Profile: Abigail Hing Wen AB '99 (Author, Loveboat, Taipei)
By Joel Kwartler AB '18
Author Abigail Hing Wen AB ’99 is not Catholic, but the one time she observed Lent she gave up Fantasy books, just to see what it was like. She missed them. She came right back.
When it comes to storytelling, Wen knows that she’s “pretty obsessed.” It shows: on top of her thriving full-time tech law career, her debut novel, Loveboat, Taipei, comes out on January 7th.
Wen did not expect to end up a writer. At Harvard, she started as a chemistry concentrator before switching to government. Yet it was obvious, even in college, she loved stories: one time her roommate interrupted her raving about Harry Potter to admit, “I don’t love it as much as you do.” It was the first time someone had reflected her devotion to fantasy back to her. “I realized, okay, I guess I am really obsessed.”
Nonetheless, she did the DC circuit for two years, working on the presidential exploratory committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. She went to Columbia Law School – “I was wrestling between business and law school and ended up going to law school by default” – for finance law. Her first law article was about “an esoteric piece of law governing the servants of sovereigns in the United States.” In non-legalese? “It was as close as I could get to writing a fantasy novel.” Instead of ideas for future law articles, her head kept filling with stories.
So, when her husband’s Google job brought them to the Bay Area, it was a happy coincidence for both her law career and her writing obsession. She started in venture capital law at Intel, liking that tech has as much impact as politics. More importantly, becoming an in-house lawyer meant “stepping off the treadmill of a law firm” and getting the emotional time and space to write.
Her new novel, Loveboat, Taipei, tells the story of when high schooler Ever Wong is sent to a cultural immersion program in Taiwan by her strict parents, taking advantage of her new freedom for better and worse. The program is known as the Loveboat, for all the dating and drama that comes from putting a thousand young adults together in another country for a summer.
The Loveboat is a real program, run by the government of Taiwan since the 1960s to instill a sense of international community in overseas Chinese students. Wen attended the summer after her freshman year. Other alumni include Congressman Judy Chu (D-CA) and Fresh Off the Boat’s Eddie Huang. Yet, “No one’s written a book about it until now.”
Wen’s young-adult novel is fiction, “but the internal journeys are true.” Other true experiences slipped in: a typhoon the year she went; a typhoon in the novel. Drinking snake-blood sake. Clubbing.
“I love the young adult genre because there are no boundaries. You can combine all the genres.” She believes the genre is having its well-deserved moment: “This is the golden age of young adult literature, and I think that’s because it’s exploring a lot of firsts. It brings people back to that moment of firsts, like first love or first expression of identity.”
Loveboat, Taipei is an ‘overnight success,’ in the sense that it was written over nights for three consecutive years. “When the kids go to sleep and the tea kettle is on, that’s my trigger to start writing.” Before those three years were an additional seven years’ worth of nights writing two other novels and getting an MFA.
She spent the first three years writing a fantasy novel and sent it to agents. One sent it back for revisions, then passed. It nonetheless encouraged her. She wrote a second novel, got an agent, and almost sold it. After that, “I felt like I’d hit a wall where I just did not grow anymore.”
So, five years into “taking writing seriously,” she began the MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, a distance writing program, using money she’d set aside from her law school days. It gave her a full seven-tile scrabble-rack of degrees: AB, JD, MFA. “They taught me how to get to the heart of my scenes, my characters, how to hone my craft.” In a word, she found it “revolutionary.”
But the MFA taught her something even bigger: “I really did not think I was allowed to write an Asian-American main character. Only when I went to this program and I had conversations with people [did I believe] this was a story-worthy story.” In her earlier novels, she’d had Asian-American side characters or love interests. They got notes like “Oh, I don’t resonate with this character,” or “I’m not sure this is marketable.”
There’s a story from fifteen years ago, she says, about someone who tried publishing a novel with an Asian-American male character, who was told it would only be published if the character was changed to be white. “She was so close… So she did it. She agreed. She said it was like taking a spoon to her heart.”
Wen describes her book differently depending on the audience. There’s the young adult audience, drawn to the travel adventure and love triangles. There’s the Asian-American audience, especially the Loveboat alumni, drawn to the topic and characters. And there’s her parents – for whom she redacted some of the steamier pages before letting them read.
Even when talking about her success, she warns, “Don’t write unless you have to. It’s heartbreaking.” Why does she have to? She pauses. “I’ve always written.” She’s kept a journal since the fourth grade. She tells stories to her younger siblings, twins. She says – again, admirably, obviously – “I’m obsessed.”
For more proof: she wrote 31 drafts of Loveboat, Taipei. “It took me a while to figure out who’s supposed to be the main character on this journey.” She sent some of the drafts to old college roommates for feedback. Her drafting system comes from her clerkship for a judge; they’d go back and forth writing opinions, starting a new draft whenever changing something they might want to return to later.
Mostly, though, she had to unlearn her legal skills to write creatively. “Creative writing is so economical – you need to make your points crisp. Legal writing is about overwriting... for the purposes of future litigation.”
Her tech background is also absent from her writing, although she’s thought about how they might combine. “Will [AI] ever replace creatives? I think it’s a great tool. But I think art at its core is meant to express the human soul. And AI can’t do that – it’s not human.” Then again, that doesn’t stop humans from feeling like it can. “A big part of the artistic experience is the completion by the consumer...that is still true for AI art. What does it mean to capture the soul in AI art?”
People told her to quit her tech job when the book started to take off, but she loves it too much. Now that she’s embarking on a book tour, she balances her Intel work with the help of a “fantastic” manager (one who graduated from Harvard six years before she did) who believes, “if you’re happy outside of your job, you’re happy inside your job.”
In short, her split between tech and writing will continue. “We need creative people in every sector of society. I don’t think tech and arts are mutually exclusive at all.” Naysayers matter not. “‘You can’t do this; it’s never been done before:’ I hear that as a challenge.” So she’s working on a second spin-off novel while balancing a book tour and her Intel job. She is – obsessed.
Joel Kwartler AB ’18 is a stand-up comedian and aspiring TV writer who has been showcased at Boston’s The Comedy Studio, sold jokes to Funny or Die, and appeared in a Spotify Web Series. He has made the Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Best Joel Kwartlers for 5 of the past 8 years.
Calendar
FEATURED EVENT | Harvardwood Presents ANNETTE INSDORF on "Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes" (NY) - Wed., Jan. 15
The opening moments of a film are crucial. In a great movie, those first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. Like the opening paragraphs of a novel, they draw the viewer in, setting up the thematic concerns and stylistic approach that will developed throughout the movie. Annette Insdorf's new book, CINEMATIC OVERTURES: How to Read Opening Scenes, is an in-depth examination of those opening moments and how they work. In her talk for us, she'll focus in particular on three films-- Schindler's List, Apocalypse Now, and The Piano—showing clips and exploring how those opening sequences lay the groundwork for everything that will follow.
Annette Insdorf is Professor of Film at Columbia University's School of the Arts and is the moderator of the popular "Reel Pieces" series at the 92nd Street Y. Her books include Francois Truffaut; Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslawski; Philip Kaufman; and the landmark study Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust. She has been a jury member and a panel moderator at countless film festivals.
Sundance 2020
Harvardwood Heads To... Sundance 2020: DINNER IN AMERICA - Jan. 24-31
In a dreary Midwestern suburb, aggro punk rocker Simon (Kyle Gallner) finds himself on the run again after a bout of arson and a close call with the police. A chance encounter with the eccentric Patty (Emily Skeggs) provides him a place to hide, though she fails to realize that her new friend is the anonymous lead singer of her favorite band. As the two embark on a series of misadventures, they realize they have a lot more in common than they first expected.
Skeggs and Gallner are the perfect unconventional couple in this off-the-wall, daring comedy boosted by a generous helping of absurdity and instantly quotable dialogue. Skeggs’s vulnerability and unassuming charm seamlessly offset Gallner’s no-nonsense recklessness and unwavering scowl. Without compromising his surprisingly sweet touch, writer-director Adam Rehmeier explores how two misfits find each other through music and chaos. Set to the beat of brilliant original songs, Dinner in America is an empowering and wild ride through the places and people of suburbia—in all their peculiar forms.
Produced by Nicky Weinstock AB '91
Harvardwood Heads To... Sundance 2020: FOUR GOOD DAYS - Jan. 25 - Feb. 1
When Deb (Glenn Close) gets a surprise visit from her daughter Molly (Mila Kunis), she is less than thrilled. She is, in fact, terrified. At first, it may seem like Deb is being cruel, initially refusing to let Molly into her house. But Molly is a drug addict with a decade-long history of failed detox programs, who repeatedly swore she wanted to get better but then lied to and stole from the family. Deb’s refusal to give Molly yet another chance gradually fades when she sees glimpses of the child she knew in this deeply broken young woman. Something about this time feels different—or does she just want it to feel different?
Rodrigo Garcia AB '82 is a master of empathy, whose confident direction guides two exceptionally nuanced performances by Close and Kunis in this tense story of hope and codependency. A true emotional rollercoaster, Four Good Days showcases the desperate decisions of a family destroyed by Molly’s addiction to drugs and her mother’s guilt-ridden compulsion to save her.
Rodrigo Garcia’s award-winning films include Nine Lives, Albert Nobbs, Mother and Child, and Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her. His television credits include the pilots of In Treatment, Carnivàle, Big Love, Bull, and the upcoming Party of Five series reboot. Garcia is co-CEO of the digital studio Indigenous Media, which produced the series Five Points, Lauren, and Blue.
Harvardwood Heads To... Sundance 2020: I CARRY YOU WITH ME - Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
As a young aspiring chef in Mexico, Iván works at a restaurant, hoping to land a spot in the kitchen while supporting the mother of his child. One night he meets Gerardo, a handsome teacher who, unlike Iván, is out as a gay man. Their chemistry is instant. The discovery of their romance, however, causes conflict, and he is told he can no longer see his son. In despair, Iván makes the arduous decision to cross the border to advance his culinary career, promising his son and newfound love he will return.
After co-directing many award-winning documentaries, many of which have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Heidi Ewing returns with her solo directorial narrative debut. This bittersweet American Dream is based on an acclaimed New York City chef, whose cuisine pays homage to his beloved country. Lensed by the impressive and fast-rising Mexican cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramírez, Iván’s memory is rendered indelible, making Iván’s predicament of not being able to return to Mexico all the more heartrending. The film is a tender romance and a complicated journey beautifully captured.
Produced by Mynette Louie AB '97
Harvardwood Heads To... Sundance 2020: MINARI - Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
It’s the 1980s, and David, a seven-year-old Korean American boy, is faced with new surroundings and a different way of life when his father, Jacob, moves their family from the West Coast to rural Arkansas. His mother, Monica, is aghast that they live in a mobile home in the middle of nowhere, and naughty little David and his sister are bored and aimless. When his equally mischievous grandmother arrives from Korea to live with them, her unfamiliar ways arouse David’s curiosity. Meanwhile, Jacob, hell-bent on creating a farm on untapped soil, throws their finances, his marriage, and the stability of the family into jeopardy.
Inspired by his own upbringing, writer-director Lee Isaac Chung creates a gorgeous, delicate American Dream story by infusing it with Korean melodrama and the playful charm of a Yasujiro Ozu film, as the Yi family embraces their highs and endures their lows. Each character is drawn with loving authenticity and depth, while Steven Yeun shines as Jacob, a man determined to achieve his dreams at all costs.
Produced by Jeremy Kleiner AB '98
Los Angeles, CA
Harvardwood Heads To... The Ivy Plus Society's 2020 Kickoff - Thurs., Jan. 9
Get out of cruise control and drive into some new experiences this new year. Kickoff 2020 with The Ivy Pus Society at the modern Westwood Village space, Fellow. For the first time ever, we'll be networking the night away with LA's finest and brightest achievers at their upstairs private Mezzanine, which overlooks Fellow's entire dining room. There, you will find the intimate Respite Room, exclusive for our guests. Let's make some memories we won't forget for the rest of 2020.
Harvardwood LA East: Global Networking Night - Wed., Jan. 15
The Harvard Alumni Association invites you to join fellow local alumni for Global Networking Night in Pasadena. Register here to reconnect with classmates and make new connections. Traveling on January 15? Check out the Global Networking Night event in the city of your choice. The registration form allows you to connect your LinkedIn profile and other social media accounts to the guest list to more easily connect with other attendees before, during, and after the event. You will also be given the opportunity to sign-up to learn more about HAA Shared Interest Groups. Check it out to start networking now!
Harvardwood LA West: Global Networking Night - Wed., Jan. 15
The Harvard Alumni Association invites you to join fellow local alumni for Global Networking Night in Los Angeles, together with Harvardwood, the Harvard Club of Southern California, and all SIGs with local presences! Register to attend via the HAA here. The registration form allows you to connect your LinkedIn profile and other social media accounts to the guest list to more easily connect with other attendees before, during, and after the event. You will also be given the opportunity to sign-up to learn more about HAA Shared Interest Groups. Check it out to start networking now!
Harvardwood Heads To... Afterward Screenings + Q&A | Los Angeles, CA - Jan. 20-21
Q&A with Director Ofra Bloch and Julia Turner moderator on Monday 1/20 following the 7:30pm screening.
Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch forces herself to confront her personal demons in a journey that takes her to Germany, Israel and Palestine. Set against the current wave of fascism and anti-Semitism sweeping the globe, AFTERWARD delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, through testimonies ranging from the horrifying to the hopeful. Seen as a victim in Germany and a perpetrator in Palestine, Bloch faces those she was raised to hate as she searches to understand the identity-making narratives of the Holocaust and the Nakba, violent and non-violent resistance, and the possibility of reconciliation. The film points towards a future – an “afterward” – that attempts to live with the truths of history in order to make sense of the present.
Produced by Jack Riccobono '03 and edited by Michael J. Palmer AB '03.
Harvardwood Heads To... The Winter Getaway by TIPS - Thurs., Jan. 23
Get away this winter with The Ivy Plus Society by networking with LA’s finest and brightest achievers at the upscale Beverly Hills Marriott. We’ll be taking over their lobby lounge and, if the weather is just right, be sitting poolside like the true Angelenos we are. Give yourself a reason to break away from the same ol’ day-to-day, get your tickets today and network the night away.
Harvardwood Heads To... Book Talk & Signing with Gregg Hurwitz AB '95 - Mon., Jan. 27
Gregg Hurwitz AB '95 is the New York Times, #1 internationally bestselling author of 21 thrillers, including INTO THE FIRE (January 2020), and two award-winning thriller novels for teens. His novels have won numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been published in 32 languages.
Gregg has written screenplays for or sold spec scripts to many of the major studios (including THE BOOK OF HENRY), and written, developed, and produced television for various networks. He is also a New York Times bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin). He has published numerous academic articles on Shakespeare, taught fiction writing in the USC English Department, and guest lectured for UCLA, and for Harvard in the United States and internationally. In the course of researching his thrillers, he has sneaked onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swum with sharks in the Galápagos, and gone undercover into mind-control cults.
New York, NY
Harvardwood Heads To... Afterward Theatrical Premiere + Q&As | New York City - Jan. 10-16
See Ofra Bloch's deeply personal documentary about the psychological barriers to peace in the Middle East when Afterward premieres at NYC's Village East Cinema Jan. 10-16th. Q&A's with director Ofra Bloch on Friday 1/10 and Sat 1/11 following the 7pm screenings.
Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch forces herself to confront her personal demons in a journey that takes her to Germany, Israel and Palestine. Set against the current wave of fascism and anti-Semitism sweeping the globe, AFTERWARD delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, through testimonies ranging from the horrifying to the hopeful. Seen as a victim in Germany and a perpetrator in Palestine, Bloch faces those she was raised to hate as she searches to understand the identity-making narratives of the Holocaust and the Nakba, violent and non-violent resistance, and the possibility of reconciliation. The film points towards a future – an “afterward” – that attempts to live with the truths of history in order to make sense of the present.
Produced by Jack Riccobono '03 and edited by Michael J. Palmer AB '03.
Toronto, CA
Harvardwood TOR: Global Networking Night - Wed., Jan. 15
The Harvard Alumni Association invites you to join fellow local alumni for Global Networking Night in Toronto. Register to reconnect with classmates and make new connections. Traveling on January 15? Check out the Global Networking Night event in the city of your choice. The registration form allows you to connect your LinkedIn profile and other social media accounts to the guest list to more easily connect with other attendees before, during, and after the event. You will also be given the opportunity to sign-up to learn more about HAA Shared Interest Groups. Check it out to start networking now!
Boston, MA
Harvardwood BOS: Global Networking Night - Wed., Jan. 15
Save the date for Global Networking Night 2020! This year it will be held on Wednesday, January 15, 2020. Global Networking Night is a great opportunity to explore and expand your Harvard Network, with last year's program drawing more than 8,000 registrants in over 100 cities. Register for the Boston Global Networking Night at the Harvard Alumni Association's city directory.
Harvardwood Heads To... The Writers’ Room: A Comedy Workshop with VEEP’s David Mandel ‘92 - Thurs., Jan. 23
Emmy Award-winning writer David Mandel AB '92 (Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep) takes students into the writers’ room for two days, during which students will attempt to create a comedy pilot, while learning about structure and joke writing. No experience necessary. All ideas welcomed! Lunch included.
The January Arts and Media Seminars – JAMS! – offer students the time and space to try something new that would not be possible during the fall or spring semesters. Visit the Dean of Students Office for more information about college-wide offerings during Wintersession.
Harvardwood Heads To... Holding Up a Mirror to Society: Playwriting Discussion-Workshop with Antoinette Nwandu ‘02 - Fri., Jan. 24
Antoinette Nwandu’s play Pass Over, a mashup of the biblical Exodus story and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, premiered in 2017 at Steppenwolf in Chicago and sparked a national conversation about bias in the theater community. In this discussion-workshop, students will attend one of three performances of Pass Over at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston (7:30 p.m. January 22; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 23), and then, on Friday, January 24, join Nwandu for a conversation about the play and a workshop on writing what she calls “confrontational and deeply unsettling plays” to do “healing work.” Lunch included.
Harvardwood Heads To... Bach and the Art of Imagination: A Performance Workshop with Joseph Lin ‘00 - Fri., Jan. 24
Spending time with the music of Bach is both a privilege and a humbling experience. It challenges us to listen deeply, open our spirits, and imagine infinite possibility through sound. Joseph Lin AB '00, formerly of the Juilliard String Quartet, will be joined by four Harvard student string players for this workshop, exploration and reflection on of some of the most essential works in the violin canon. This is event is open to all Harvard students as well as the general public. Experience in music not required! All are welcome.
Also, in a separate event, Joseph Lin will be performing Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin on January 31 at Jordan Hall.
SF/Bay Area, CA
Harvardwood Heads To... Loveboat, Taipei: Abigail Hing Wen AB '99 with Sabaa Tahir - Mon., Jan. 6
Join us to celebrate the launch of Abigail Hing Wen’s highly anticipated, romantic, and layered debut, Loveboat, Taipei, praised as “an intense rush of rebellion and romance” by Stephanie Garber (NYT bestselling author of the Caraval series). This dazzling, fun-filled romantic comedy of our dreams is “Fresh as a first kiss” (Stacey Lee, author of The Downstairs Girl), “a story about finding your place—and your people—where you least expected." (Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Picture Us in the Light) Think Crazy Rich Asians meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Abigail Hing Wen AB '99 holds a BA from Harvard, a JD from Columbia Law School, an MFA from the Vermont School of Fine Arts. Loveboat, Taipei is her first novel. Abigail will be in conversation with Sabaa Tahir, NYT bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes, A Torch Against the Night, and A Reaper at the Gates.
Kick off 2020 on the right foot: RENEW YOUR HARVARDWOOD MEMBERSHIP
What are your new year's resolutions? Are you going to quit your day job and get serious about the hunt for your industry dream job? Are you determined to connect with fellow alumni in the arts, media, and entertainment to collaborate and share resources? Is this the year you finish that feature screenplay you've been rewriting? Whatever your goals, make sure you are a Full Member of Harvardwood. As a part of the Harvardwood community, you can take advantage of all our educational and professional resources, whether it's attending an acting masterclass, getting targeted advice from Harvardwood leaders in the quarterly Lowdown, or applying to join the Harvardwood Writers Program. Become a Harvardwood member today!
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