Sebastian Doggart | |
|---|---|
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| Nationality | English-American |
| Alma mater | Eton College, King's College, Cambridge Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Occupation(s) | Television producer, Director, Writer, Journalist, Translator, Cinematographer and Human rights activist |
Sebastian Doggart is an English-American television producer, director, writer, journalist, translator, cinematographer and human rights activist. [1] [2]
Doggart was educated at Montessori-style primary schools; Haverford School; Horris Hill School; Eton College, where he won an Oppidan Scholarship and the Queen's Prize for French; and King's College, Cambridge, where he obtained the top First class degree in Social and Political Sciences, and an MA, and was elected a Scholar. [3] For many years, he claimed to be the last student in Eton's history to receive corporal punishment but it is now known that a boy at the school was beaten in 1987. [4] [5]
Doggart began his career as a journalist in Latin America, working as a reporter on the Lima Times during two years he took off before going to Cambridge. Within three months on the job, he was promoted to co-Editor of the newspaper. At 19, he was the youngest editor the paper had had. In 1990, he moved to Argentina, where he became Finance and Economics Editor for the Buenos Aires Herald , chronicling an extraordinary period of hyperinflation, wholescale privatizations, and deregulation under President Carlos Menem's neo-liberal government. [6]
Doggart parleyed his journalism work into a book, Investment Opportunities in Argentina, which had a foreword by Menem himself. [7] Published in 1990, a month after he went to Cambridge, Doggart's own tutor, David Lehmann, reviewed the book in Professional Investor: "As the first optimistic economic report on Argentina to have been produced for some 20 years, this study acts as a clear indicator of the international business community's growing interest in the region."
After leaving Cambridge, Doggart trained as a drama director at Central School of Speech and Drama. His production of Ms Lear –which radically re-interpreted King Lear as a neo-Thatcherite woman –performed at theatres in London and Amsterdam. On graduating, he directed productions for eminent British companies Cheek by Jowl (world tour of The Duchess of Malfi ); Actors Touring Company ( Ion by Euripides); Theatre Museum Covent Garden (Playing with Fire by August Strindberg) and Creation Theatre Company ( Romeo and Juliet , which Doggart set in 18th century Ireland, with English Capulets and Irish Montagues). [8]
Doggart established himself as the leading translator/director of Latin American plays on the British stage. [9] [ failed verification ] His production of Mistress of Desires, on which he collaborated directly with Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, premiered in 1993. He worked directly with Carlos Fuentes on the British premiere of Orchids in the Moonlight, a dream play about the love between two Mexican actresses exiled in Hollywood's maze of mirrors. Doggart rehearsed the play in Cuba and opened in the Teatro Nacional, Havana. The production went on to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. According to Scotland on Sunday, the production was "rich in language and movement, fantasy and reality, sensuality and cruelty; as iconoclastic as the magic realist boom of the 1960s." In 1994, Doggart translated and directed Night of the Assassins, by the Cuban author Jose Triana, staging it at the Technis theatre in London and at the Edinburgh Festival. According to The Scotsman : "Brilliant, at times almost unbearable to watch, the British premiere of this award-winning Cuban play is utterly compelling... The atmosphere of oppression is almost tangible as the audience feel themselves entangled in the hysteria and power games of three siblings enacting or re-enacting the murder of their parents." In 1996, Doggart translated and directed a double bill of plays at The Gate theatre: Saying Yes, by Griselda Gambaro and Rappaccini's Daughter , by Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz, with whom he collaborated on the translation. Sarah Alexander played the leading role of Beatrice. That same translation has been staged internationally, including a production by the Santa Fe Playhouse in July 2006. Doggart has since translated the only plays of two other leading Latin American writers: Diatribe of Love against a sitting man, by Gabriel García Márquez, and The Kings by Julio Cortázar.
In 1998, Doggart produced Northern Stage's 'Lorca Fiesta', a major festival in Newcastle upon Tyne to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. [10] The event included an academic conference of international scholars and translators of Lorca and a dramatization of Lorca's Poet in New York, which Doggart adapted and directed. He was also producer and dramaturg for The Moon Comes Out, Federico, a collaboration between Northern Stage and the Seville-based company Octubre Danza, which fused story-telling, contemporary dance and live cante jondo to enact Lorca's long poem "Lament to Ignacio Sanchez Mejias". [11]
In 2000, Doggart co-founded the Gaia Arts Center in Havana, Cuba, dedicated to providing theater practitioners with a safe and inspiring place in which to create. In 2007, Doggart devised and co-directed the live performance piece, Balance of Ice, [12] which combined three elements: a piece of music by Canadian composer Andrew Staniland that was inspired by the sounds of ice sheets calving; a dance performance by acclaimed Cuban ballerina Viengsay Valdes that fragmented her usual balletic virtuosity; and edited moving images of the polar ice caps and the threats facing them. [13] [ better source needed ]
Between 2007–2008, Doggart translated and directed Cocinando con Elvis, a Spanish version of Lee Hall's play Cooking with Elvis, about food, sex, happiness, and Elvis Presley. The production opened at the Teatro Nacional in Havana, and was the first premiere of a British play in Cuba since An Inspector Calls opened in 1947. [14]
In 1999, Doggart branched into television production, where he produced and/or directed for the BBC (Tomorrow's World); Channel Four (Living on the Line), and worked as an associate producer on ITV series ( The South Bank Show and Two Thousand Years ). [15] The Financial Times wrote of Two Thousand Years: "Well made and highly informative, the first series truly to deserve the 'Millennium label'." His interview profiles included Germaine Greer, Kenneth Branagh and Nobel prize-winning Octavio Paz.
In 2000, Doggart moved to the United States where he produced/directed major TV series including:
After writing and directing two short fiction films, Hole in the Wall and Three and a Bed, Doggart set up Tribute Films, a company that produced films for individuals, their loved ones and their pets. His production of Carol Connors and Her Cats, launched a longstanding collaboration with Connors, a passionate ailurophile (cat lover), Elvis Presley's former girlfriend, and a twice-Oscar-nominated songwriter. The film was lauded by Charlene Tilton as "the funniest thing I have ever seen". The Los Angeles Times described it as the first pet hagiography film ever made, and as "the Cadillac of filmed pet memorials". [24]
In 2004, Doggart moved to New York City. From 2006, he spent three years making Courting Condi , the first musical docu-tragi-comedy in the history of cinema. The film won 26 awards on the festival circuit, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, [25] and was critically acclaimed. [26] [27] By combining screenings of the film with public debates about its subject, Condoleezza Rice's record in office, Doggart fueled calls for Rice to be investigated for human rights abuses and war crimes. [28]
In 2009, Doggart directed and produced another film about Rice, American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi. The investigative documentary explores in greater depth Rice's pursuit and alleged misuse of power, and it reveals the direct role she had in fabricating reasons for going to war in Iraq, and in ordering torture, especially in CIA black sites around the world. [29] The film won numerous awards on the festival circuit, and was broadcast on a raft of international stations, including Al-Jazeera.
In 2012, he completed a third feature film, True Bromance, an irreverent romantic comedy starring Jim Norton, Adrian Grenier, Frank Luntz, Devin Ratray and himself about the absurd role friends and family play when people fall in love. The film won 19 awards on the festival circuit, including Best Film at the Harlem International Film Festival, [30] and Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the Washington DC International Film Festival. [31] The Brooklyn Paper described it as "a bromance for the ages." [32] The Brooklyn Eagle wrote: "Starring possibly the most surreal comedy troupe ever... True Bromance is consistently unnerving, funny and surprising and features an original comic-book style".[ citation needed ]
Doggart has written two other screenplays, Casanova's Return and Clinton a Neuro-Musical. [33]
He is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
In 1993, Doggart led an Amnesty International campaign called Why the Silence? to investigate human rights abuses in Equatorial Guinea.
In 1997, Doggart was a campaign manager on Martin Bell's successful bid to become the first Independent MP to be elected to the British Parliament since 1945. [34]
In 2000, Doggart co-founded the Felices Los Normales program at the Gaia arts center in Havana, Cuba, raising awareness about HIV/AIDS through improvised theater.
From 2009-10, Doggart used the release of his documentary American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi to launch a campaign to bring to justice officials in the Bush Administration whom contributors in the film – including attorneys from the American Civil Rights Union, Amnesty International and Reprieve –allege are guilty of war crimes and torture. [35] Amnesty International screened the film at Stanford University on the eve of Rice's return to the Hoover Institution, [36] adding to pressure on Stanford authorities to expel her for allegedly dishonoring the college's Fundamental Standard to show "respect for order, morality, personal honor and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens." [37] Doggart teamed up with students at the University of Denver, where Rice was an undergraduate, by organizing a debate on the motion 'This house believes that Condoleezza Rice should stand trial for war crimes.' Proposing the motion was Rice's political theory professor, Alan Gilbert; defending Rice was Republican State Senator Sean Mitchell. [38] [ better source needed ] The event met fierce resistance from the University administration. Vice Chancellor Jim Berscheidt had already tried to shut down a shoot and denied the producers access to archive of Josef Korbel. Up until the last moment, Berscheidt sought to use bureaucratic obstacles and alleged intimidation of students to stop the event. However, the screening and debate did eventually take place, with a strong turn-out, and webcast on both Mogulus television [39] and through the Amnesty International website. [40]
At a screening at the Starz Denver film festival in December 2009, and again in an interview with Progressive Voice, Doggart called for the prosecution of ten Bush Administration officials: President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice (as NSA and chair of the Group of Principals who authorized the torture techniques), Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney, CIA bosses George Tenet and Porter Goss, General Geoffrey D. Miller (commander at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo), Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. [41] [42] In February 2010, Doggart presented a screening of the film at New York's Revolution Books with human rights organizations World Can't Wait and War Criminals Watch. Screenings in Minnesota were also organized by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI agent turned whistle-blower, who called the film "a must-see documentary". [43] The campaign continued through social networking sites [44] and interviews in the press, radio [45] and on PBS [46] but has so far failed to secure its objective of Rice's arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. Efforts to this end were escalated in May 2010, following the announcement that Rice was to play a concert with Aretha Franklin. [47] Doggart responded to this by corralling a group of human rights activists, including Rowley, War Criminals Watch, [48] and Down With Tyranny, [49] to pressure Franklin and the Philadelphia Orchestra to dump her from the concert billing, and to encourage either a citizen's arrest, or one instigated by Attorney General Eric Holder. [50] These protests continued at a Denver University awards dinner, where Madeleine Albright presented the 2010 Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni Award to Rice, while activists warned guests outside that "there's a war criminal in the area". [51]
In 2014 and 2015, Doggart was the chief judge on the annual Tackling Torture Video contest. [52] [ better source needed ]
In 2016, Doggart was appointed President of the New York Families Civil Liberties Union, and 2018 was made Executive Director of the national FCLU. [53]
Doggart has had three books published: Fire Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca focused on Spanish playwright and poet, Federico García Lorca. [54] The book included poems, translations and an essay by Doggart, as well as eminent Lorca scholars, and was published in a second edition in January 2010. [55] Stage Labyrinths: Latin American Plays included Doggart's translations of five Latin American dramatic works, as well as interviews with the writers and a history of Latin American theater [56] His third book is on the Argentine economy. [57] He has been a principal contributor to five other books – Stages of Conflict: A critical anthology of Latin American theater and Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2008), Purple Homicide: Fear and Loathing on Knutsford Heath (Bloomsbury, 1998), Raymond Chandler: A Biography (Atlantic, 1997), Reflections in a Family Mirror (Red House, 2002), and Time Out: Havana (Penguin, 2001, 2005, 2007) – and has written for New Statesman, The Guardian , [58] The Independent , The Observer , [59] The Telegraph , [60] The Huffington Post [61] and The Sunday Telegraph . [62]
In 2011, Doggart became a columnist for The Daily Telegraph , writing a twice-monthly column from New York on film, literary, political, family and comedic subjects. column He also worked as a film reviewer for The Guardian . . [63]
Doggart is the grandson of the eminent ophthalmologist and writer James Hamilton Doggart; son of the author/development economist Caroline Doggart and the international financier and philanthropist Anthony Doggart; [64] brother of the conservationist Nike Doggart; [65] nephew of the cricketer and educator, Hubert Doggart; and cousin of the co-abuser Simon Doggart in the John Smyth abuse of young men scandal that led to the resignation of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in November 2024 (see the Makin Review).
Havana is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. It is the most populous city, the largest by area, and the second largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region. The population in 2012 was 2,154,454 inhabitants, and its area is 728.26 km2 (281.18 sq mi) for the capital city side and 8,475.57 km2 for the metropolitan zone.
Condoleezza "Condi" Rice is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th United States secretary of state from 2005 to 2009 and as the 19th U.S. national security advisor from 2001 to 2005. Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state and the first woman to serve as national security advisor. Until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008, Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, were the highest-ranking African Americans in the history of the federal executive branch. At the time of her appointment as Secretary of State, Rice was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States to be in the presidential line of succession.
"Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US" was a President's Daily Brief prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency and given to U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday, August 6, 2001. The brief warned, 36 days before the September 11 attacks, of terrorism threats from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, including "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for a hijacking" of U.S. aircraft.
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Gary Lucas is an American guitarist, songwriter, and composer who was a member of Captain Beefheart's band. He formed the band Gods and Monsters in 1989.
Ropa vieja is a dish with regional variations in Latin America, the Philippines, and Spain. It normally includes some form of stewed beef and tomatoes with a sofrito base. Originating in Spain, it is known today as one of the national dishes of Cuba. The name ropa vieja probably originates from the fact that it was often prepared using food left over from other meals.
Intimate Stories is a 2002 Argentine-Spanish drama film directed by Carlos Sorín and written by Pablo Solarz. The film was produced by Martin Bardi, Leticia Cristi, and José María Morales. It features, among others, Javier Lombardo, Antonio Benedicti and Javiera Bravo.
The Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Latin American filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, and in English as International Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana. It takes place every year during December in the city of Havana, Cuba.
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Eduardo Oscar Machado is a Cuban playwright living in the United States. Notable plays by Machado include Broken Eggs, Havana is Waiting and The Cook. Many of his plays are autobiographical or deal with Cuba in some way. Machado teaches playwriting at New York University. He has served as the artistic director of the INTAR Theatre in New York City since 2004. He is openly gay.
Courting Condi is a 2008 documentary and mockumentary film written, produced and directed by British filmmaker Sebastian Doggart and starring Devin Ratray, Adrian Grenier and Jim Norton. The film uses a pastiche of styles and genres to portray the "life quest" of a love-struck man, actor Devin Ratray, who plays himself as a man who wants to win the heart of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and that makes plans to meet her while learning about Rice's life and career before George W. Bush's administration.
Chilean cinema refers to all films produced in Chile or made by Chileans. It had its origins at the start of the 20th century with the first Chilean film screening in 1902 and the first Chilean feature film appearing in 1910. The oldest surviving feature is El Húsar de la Muerte (1925), and the last silent film was Patrullas de Avanzada (1931). The Chilean film industry struggled in the late 1940s and in the 1950s, despite some box-office successes such as El Diamante de Maharajá. The 1960s saw the development of the "New Chilean Cinema", with films like Three Sad Tigers (1968), Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969) and Valparaíso mi amor (1969). After the 1973 military coup, film production was low, with many filmmakers working in exile. It increased after the end of the Pinochet regime in 1989, with occasional critical and/or popular successes such as Johnny cien pesos (1993), Historias de Fútbol (1997) and Gringuito (1998).
Chico and Rita is a 2010 adult animated romantic drama film directed by Tono Errando, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. The story of Chico and Rita is set against backdrops of Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unite them, but their journey—in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero—brings heartache and torment. The film was produced by Fernando Trueba Producciones, Estudio Mariscal, and Magic Light Pictures. It received financing from CinemaNX and Isle of Man Film. It won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film at the 25th Goya Awards and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 84th Academy Awards.
A Useful Life is a 2010 Uruguayan drama film about the love of film, directed by Federico Veiroj and shot in black-and-white. The film was selected as the Uruguayan entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards but it did not make the final shortlist.
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The Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) is a film festival, based in New York City, that screens cinema from across Latin America with a special focus on Cuba and its film industry. It is a project of The American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with the mission of building cultural bridges between the United States and Cuba through arts projects.
The Substitute is a 2022 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Diego Lerman and starring Juan Minujín and Bárbara Lennie alongside Alfredo Castro, Rita Cortese, and María Merlino. It is a Latin-American and European co-production among companies from Argentina, Spain, Italy, Mexico, and France.
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