Crisis Cocktail Hour: Overcoming the Challenges Facing Film & Media

Diana Peralta, A&S '11  is a Dominican-American writer, director, and creative producer from New York City. Her debut feature film, DE LO MIO (Criterion Collection), had its world premiere as the closing night film of BAMcinemaFest in 2019 and was initially distributed by HBO. Diana was featured in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film". She currently teaches directing at Columbia University's Film MFA program. 

Alexandra Byer, KSAS '11 (BA) is a Brooklyn-based producer and co-founder of the production company Rathaus Films. She recently completed production on Noah Pritzker's film MEN OF DIVORCE starring Griffin Dunne (AFTER HOURS), James Norton (LITTLE WOMEN), and Miles Heizer ("13 Reasons Why"). She was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards for her work on Tom Quinn’s COLEWELL (Gravitas Ventures). Previously she produced Tim Sutton’s fifth feature FUNNY FACE (Gravitas Ventures), Cedric Cheung-Lau’s debut film THE MOUNTAINS ARE A DREAM THAT CALL TO ME (Sundance 2020), Diana Peralta’s DE LO MIO (HBO), Matt Porterfield’s SOLLERS POINT (Oscilloscope Laboratories), and Tim Sutton’s DARK NIGHT (Sundance Film Festival 2016; Arbelos Films). Byer also participated in the 2016 Cannes Producer’s Workshop as well as the 2015 Berlinale Talents lab.

Liz Hodes is an Emmy-winning documentary television and film producer. Over the past 15 years, Liz has produced content for major networks including HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu and FX. Liz began her career working in production management for television shows, including: This American Life and Frontline. Liz then transitioned into a creative role as a Producer, working on television series and feature films; including, The Vow, The Circus, and The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears and Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano. 

Juliette Eisner A&S '11 is a Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker. She is currently directing a three-part series for National Geographic about the Stanford Prison Experiment, and developing a feature film with Jigsaw Productions and Media Res Studio about a young journalist who embarks on a risky journey to a forbidden island that is surrounded by a family of white sharks. Her directorial debut and first feature film, LIL BUB & FRIENDZ, about an adorable kitten's unlikely rise to fame, won the Best Online Documentary award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Most recently, she Produced Amazon's four-part documentary series SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE about the controversial reality TV family, the Duggars. She also Co-Executive Produced an upcoming documentary pilot with the Oscar-winning studio A24, and developed numerous series and feature films with the studio.

Previously, while working at the Oscar-winning company Jigsaw Productions, she produced Netflix's five-part series, THE FAMILY, about an underground religious organization infiltrating halls of government, as well as the Netflix series, DIRTY MONEY, about white collar crime, and National Geographic's feature film WATER & POWER: A CALIFORNIA HEIST, about water politics in California.

She also produced the premiere episode of Disney +'s 616 Series, about the women of Marvel comics. Early in her career, Juliette directed a number of web episodes for vice.com, and produced multiple segments of the Emmy-winning news magazine series, VICE on HBO. Juliette currently lives in Los Angeles, and is an avid surfer and lover of animals and ocean.