Hilan Warshaw is a filmmaker and writer based in New York City. Through his production company, Overtone Films, he produces and directs independent projects as well as videos for organizations including Carnegie Hall and the League of American Orchestras. He recently produced, directed, and wrote Wagner’s Jews, Overtone Films’ new documentary for WDR and ARTE. The film was broadcast in May 2013 to mark the bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth, and will be screened at various US and European venues in autumn 2013. In addition to his producing/directing work, Hilan’s writing credits include the PBS documentary A Workshop for Peace; his video editing credits include PBS films such as Shadows in Paradise: Hitler’s Exiles in Hollywood (PBS/ARTE), In the Key of G, and the miniseries Great Conversations in Music. His writings on film and music have been published by McFarland Press, The Wagner Journal, Wagner Spectrum, and Cambridge University Press (forthcoming), and he has lectured at venues including New York University, Hofstra University, Wagner Society of New York, Wagner Society of America, and Boston Public Library. He recently taught a course on Romanticism and Film at Barnard College, Columbia University. He holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. An experienced violinist and conductor, he studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School. Hilan lives in Manhattan with his wife, Katya Stanislavskaya, a musical theater writer and musical director. |
Risk, regulation and red tape
"I was impressed by the intensity of the debate and the high level of intellectual engagement, not least by the audience. It was an invigorating, even exhilarating experience to be part of a festival based on the conviction that disagreement is good. The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic concept, may it spread epidemically to the rest of the world. I am already looking forward to next year's event."
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; novelist