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The NYC Chapter of Harvardwood is a fast growing community of professionals from the film, TV and entertainment community in New York.
We aim to host several formal and informal events every year to bring our members together to showcase the best in film, arts and entertainment that the community has to offer. We welcome your suggestions for events you would like to host.
Looking forward to meeting you all!
Meet your NYC Chapter Heads: Cornelia Ravenal and Uzma Hasan
Uzma Hasan, GSAS '03
Uzma Hasan is a producer who focuses on bringing subversive stories to global audiences who founded and runs independent production company Little House Productions. Her latest feature film CREATURE is directed by Academy Award winner Asif Kapadia (AMY) in a ground breaking, genre busting collaboration with Lawrence Olivier Award winning choreographer Akram Khan (DESH).
Current projects on her slate include an original musical with Ritesh Batra (THE LUNCHBOX) and Amazon Studios, a period sports drama with novelist Nikesh Shukla (THE GOOD IMMIGRANT) and the British Film Institute, and a contemporary reworking of Macbeth set between London and Karachi with playwright Rabiah Hussain (SPUN). She is next shooting Gautam Malkani’s cult novel LONDONSTANI for the BFI in Summer 2022. Previous credits include Nirpal Bhogal’s FIRSTBORN, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 ahead of a worldwide sale to Netflix, and THE INFIDEL which spawned a musical and Bollywood remake DHARAM SANKAT MEIN.
In addition to Little House Productions, Uzma is Chair of the Bush Theatre, home for new writing and talent, and sits on boards for Ffilm Cymru Wales, the development agency for Welsh film as well as Bird’s Eye View, a non profit that campaigns for gender equality in film. She was previously a non executive director on the board of public broadcaster Channel 4 and the first person of colour to have that role in the channel’s 37 year history. She sits on selection committees and juries for BAFTA, the British Independent Film Awards and Film London amongst others. Uzma has worked across four continents, for independents and studios, with companies including Focus Features, Doha Film Institute, and Tribeca Film Festival on the development, production and exploitation of feature films.
In 2010, she was nominated by HRH Prince’s Trust for a Mosaic Arts & Culture Award; in 2012, she was nominated for the Asian Woman of Achievement Award and became a Women of the Future Ambassador; and in 2013 she was awarded the British Muslim Award for Services to Creativity.
She graduated from University of Wales, Cardiff with first class honours in English Literature and went on to read Film and Literature at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where she was a Kennedy Scholar.
Cornelia Ravenal, AB '79
Cornelia Ravenal is an award-winning creator with work performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and regional theaters, published in Asia and the US, screened at 70+ festivals and distributed internationally. A co-founder of Wilderness Films, she has over thirty years experience writing and producing for stage and screen.
A writer of over 20 scripts, she has written screenplays for Lars von Trier's Zentropa and Oscar-winning producer Charlie Wessler ("Dumb & Dumber," "Green Book"). She also co-wrote the script for the upcoming "1947: Where Now Begins" based on the international bestseller.
Her scripts have been recognized by the Academy Nicholl Fellowship (Semi-finalist, top 2% out of 6,000+ submissions), Sundance Screenwriting Lab (two-time Second Rounder), and three times by The Writers Lab funded by Meryl Streep (2016: Semi-finalist, top 3%, 2017: Finalist, top 2%, 2018: Lab, top 1%).
As a producer, her projects include the off-Broadway hit, NY Times Critic's Pick, "Nirbhaya" (2015) and the award-winning feature documentary "Moving Stories" (2018) directed by Sundance winner Rob Fruchtman, for which she was also a co-filmmaker with Mikael Södersten.
Films and scripts she's consulted on include "Stockholm Stories" (Sonet), "The Tale" (HBO) and "The Brothers Lionheart" (Spark Film & TV)
Previously, she was a journalist and cultural critic with 60+ articles and opinions pieces published in The New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Verve, Art Asia Pacific and others. From 1996-98, she was a US Correspondent for India Today, India's leading news magazine.
In the 1990s, she also worked as a speechwriter, communications strategist and writer or producer of 40+ videos and events for Fortune 500 clients.
She began her career in musical theater, writing book, music & lyrics for the hit musical "Out of the Reach of Children," winner of the Seagram Award for New Music Theater and the longest running show in the history of DC's New Playwrights Theater. She also co-wrote book & lyrics for the off-off Broadway hit "Two's a Crowd" with Linda Semans, music by Zina Goldrich. More recently, she wrote lyrics for the Susan Seidelman musical "Boynton Beach Club" with composer Ned Ginsburg.
She cut her musical theater teeth in the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked") and in the Lehman Engel BMI Music Theater Workshop with Skip Kennon and Maury Yeston. ("Nine").
She also founded some of the first industry networking groups. In the 1990s and 2000s she founded and ran salons at the National Arts Club for arts & entertainment professionals. With Newsweek Europe's Managing Editor Mike Meyer, she ran a monthly networking event at Ismael Merchant's Pondicherry for diplomats and foreign correspondents.
In 2014 she founded the Women Producers Group, now WIP (Women Independent Producers).
She earned a BA from Harvard University, studied Dramatic Writing in the Graduate Program at NYU/Tisch, and was a fellow in the AFI Comedy Writers Workshop.
Cornelia's family comes from Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East and Scandinavia and embraces all five major religions, bringing a multifaceted perspective and diverse influences to everything she produces and creates.
She frequently works with Mikael Södersten, with whom she founded Wilderness Films.
Contact the chapter heads for more information about Harvardwood NYC!