SPEAKER: VIOLET FENG | ENTERTAINER: CRAIG RUBANO

Forty-five dollar admission includes a three-course lunch payable at the door by cash or check only

Violet Feng is an Emmy winning independent documentarian and a 2022 Sundance Creative Producing Advisor. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and an adjunct professor at the Journalism School of Columbia University. Violet directed and produced the most recent Oscar Shortlisted HIDDEN LETTERS which premiered in competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival followed by eight international festival awards and broadcast distributions in more than 15 countries. She directed PBS/CPB special program HARBOR FROM THE HOLOCAUST with music performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

She has directed, produced and executive produced 13 documentaries. Her producing credits include DEAR MOTHER, I MEANT TO WRITE ABOUT DEATH (2022), which received a Special Mention at Busan International Film Festival; SINGING IN THE WILDERNESS (2021), nominee of Golden Alexander Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival; CONFUCIAN DREAM (2019), winner of a Special Jury Award at Karlovy Vary International Festival and the Chinese Academy Award of Documentary Film; MAINELAND (2017), winner of a Special Jury Award at SXSW and PLEASE REMEMBER ME (2015), winner of three awards at GZDocs with a successfully theatrical release and impact campaign in China that resulted in policy changes. The film was awarded DocImpactHi5 of 2019.

Craig Rubano has followed the communicative power of the human voice: from his multilingual childhood in Perú and Argentina to world travels singing with The Whiffenpoofs, from the Broadway stage as would-be revolutionary young lover Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables to concert stages across the country, and from recording artist studios to the prophetic pulpit as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County in Lincroft, New Jersey. A graduate of Yale College (A.B.) and Columbia University (M.A.), Craig did his divinity, theological, and pastoral training at Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D.). Other theater: The Scarlet Pimpernel, I and II (Broadway original casts); Animal Crackers (Goodspeed). Recordings: Finishing the Act: Act One Finales from Broadway, Change Partners, The Night They Invented Champagne: Operetta and Its Musical Legacy. His new show, Take the Moment, debuts at the Laurie Beechman Theatre Friday March 15th at 7 PM, Saturday, April 13th at 7 PM, and May 19th at 2 PM.