Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Lorenzo DeStefano is producer/writer/director of the upcoming feature film “Hypergraphia” (www.hypergraphiafilm.com) starring Oscar-nominated actor John Hurt. It is based on and inspired by “The Inman Diary” by eccentric Boston diarist Arthur Crew Inman (1895-1963), published by Harvard University Press.

DeStefano’s feature documentary on the same subject, “From A Darkened Room – The Strange Life & Times of Arthur Crew Inman” (www.darkenedroomfilm.com) is in production.

“Los Zafiros / The Sapphires – Music From The Edge Of Time” (www.loszafirosfilm.com), his award-winning music feature about the Beatles of 1960s Cuba, was released theatrically in 2007 and on DVD by Shout Factory / Vivendi Filmed Entertainment.

DeStefano is producer/director/editor of the PBS feature documentary “Talmage Farlow”, a portrait of the great American jazz guitarist (MVD Visual 2006 - (www.talfarlowfilm.com).

He is a Director member of the Directors Guild of America and an Editor member of the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild.

His screenplays include the originals "Lads", “Deep Inside” and “The Most Beautiful”. Adaptations include “Creeps” from the play by David E. Freeman, "Cropper’s Cabin" from the novel by Jim Thompson, and “Appointment In Samarra” (co-writer), from the novel by John O’Hara. DeStefano is author of the novel “Chettipattu Dreams”, an investigation into a startling case of murder and modern slavery in North London, as well as the plays "Providence" (from the screenplay by David Mercer), and “Camera Obscura”, a dramatization of The Inman Diary. Developed at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2001, “Camera Obscura” received its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2002, both productions helmed by the celebrated English director Jonathan Miller. (www.cameraobscurplay.com)

“The Inman Diaries”, a chamber opera based on this play, received its world premiere in Boston in September 2007 at the Intermezzo Opera Company. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inman_Diaries) .

NON-FICTION includes "Diary of a Nobody" (The Guardian), the photographic memoir "La Hora Magica / The Magic Hour - Portraits of a Vanishing Cuba", and "Calle Cero - An Encounter with Cuban Film Director Tomas Gutierrez Alea" (Cuba Update).

FILM EDITING includes "Dreamscape", "Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, "The Killing Time" and “Gingerale Afternoon". Supervising Editor and a Producer and Director on the ABC/Warner Brothers drama series “Life Goes On”.

THEATER DIRECTING includes the 25th anniversary production of William Inge's "Natural Affection", Horton Foote's "The One-Armed Man", the world premiere of Robert Schenkkan's "Conversations with the Spanish Lady", and the world premiere of "Twisted Twain", the one-man show by Bill Erwin.

PHOTOGRAPHY - DeStefano’s first thematic photographic series was "REST HOMES - HAWAII". He continued to freelance in California before switching his attentions from still photography to film. He credits his many journeys to Cuba starting in 1993 with reawakening the photographer in him. His traveling exhibition, "LA HORA MAGICA/THE MAGIC HOUR - Portraits of a Vanishing Cuba", has been shown extensively in Cuba as well as in New York, London, Havana, Los Angeles, and Vancouver.

DeStefano has also licensed many of his photographs to soundtrack cds, television and films, including the HBO series "SIX FEET UNDER" and the Warner Brothers feature “QUEEN OF THE DAMNED”.

He is founder and director of The Ventura Film Society in Ventura, California, an alternative cinema cooperative whose mandate is “Discover The World Around You”. (www.venturafilmsociety.com)

Anwen Rees-Myers graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music in the U.K. and worked extensively as an actress/singer in repertory and in London's West End. After a sideways step into production, she produced over 300 television and cinema commercials for clients such as Toyota, L'Oreal, Mars, Subaru, Dove, Coca Cola and Cadbury.

Anwen is producer of the UK feature "In Love with Alma Cogan" (Capriol Films 2011), and is developing "Regret Not Speaking" with writer/director Richard Kwietniowski, and "Hypergraphia" with writer/director Lorenzo DeStefano.

BRICKYARD FILMWORKS of Boston specializes in visual effects and computer-generated imagery for feature films. The bi-coastal firm was founded in 2008 by the originators of Brickyard VFX, a ten year-old commercial visual effects studio with offices in Boston, Ma. and Santa Monica, California. Brickyard’s first class reputation as a visual effects producer is now expanding into original production through their partnership on “Hypergraphia” with Lorenzo DeStefano’s Productions A-Propos. The deep experience that Brickyard principals Dave Waller, Geoff McAuliffe and Michael McCarthy bring to the short & feature projects extends not only to the visual effects component but to the role of key production partner and on-the-ground representative of “Hypergraphia” in Massachusetts, where significant State production incentives and funding opportunities are available to a locally-produced and set production like ours.

Click cover to purchase "The Americanist by Daniel Aaron

Daniel Aaron is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American History, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He spent eight years (1977-1985) as editor of “THE INMAN DIARY-A PUBLIC & PRIVATE CONFESSION”, published by Harvard University Press, and is the author of many varied works including “EDGAR ALLEN POE”, “MARK TWAIN: A BIOGRAPHY”, “THE BOSTONIANS”, “STUDIES IN BIOGRAPHY”, “WRITERS ON THE LEFT”, “THE UNWRITTEN WAR - AMERICAN WRITERS & THE CIVIL WAR”, and “AMERICA IN CRISIS - FOURTEEN CRITICAL EPISODES IN AMERICAN HISTORY.” His memoir, “THE AMERICANIST”, will be published by the University of Michigan Press in 2007.

Professor Aaron has been a dedicated advisor to Lorenzo DeStefano from the inception of both the theatre and film projects based on THE INMAN DIARY and continues to provide solid historical guidance and personal support. He attended the Seattle Repertory Theatre workshop production of DeStefano’s stage adaptation of the diary and participated in post-performance discussions with the audience on the editorial process. He has read every draft of DeStefano’s play and screenplay and served as a consultant to “The Inman Diaries”, a n opera based on DeStefano’s play that was produced in Boston in September 2007.  Aaron is also on-camera interviewee and narrator of DeStefano’s documentary-in-progress, “FROM A DARKENED ROOM-THE STRANGE LIFE & TIMES OF ARTHUR CREW INMAN”. He also filmed a segment of “CHRONICLE”, an evening magazine series from Boston’s WCVB Channel 5, covering his ten years of work on The Inman Diary.

At 98, Professor Aaron is a vital link in the chain that binds himself, Arthur Inman and Lorenzo DeStefano in the ongoing legacy that is The Inman Diary.



DEC 2, 2010
“Scholars Venerable”
Harvard’s emeritus faculty operate, in many ways, as the University’s living memory”
By Corydon Ireland
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/12/scholars-venerable/