Sebastian Doggart
Encyclopedia
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
, director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, translator, cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
and human rights activist.
Education
Doggart was educated at Montessori primary schools; Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, where he won an Oppidan Scholarship and the Queen's Prize for French (and, in January 1984, suffered the last recorded caning at the school); and King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, where he obtained the top First class degree in Social and Political Sciences, and an MA, and was elected a Scholar http://www.cantabnyc.org/member.php?member=368.
Early writing career
Doggart began his career as a journalist in Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, working as a reporter on the Lima Times during two years he took off before going to Cambridge. Within three months on the job, he was promoted to co-Editor of the newspaper. At 19, he was the youngest editor the paper had had. In 1990, he moved to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, where he became Finance and Economics Editor for the Buenos Aires Herald
Buenos Aires Herald
The Buenos Aires Herald is an English language daily newspaper from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their slogan is A World of Information in a few words.-History:...
,http://www.allbusiness.com/finance/163850-1.html chronicling an extraordinary period of hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
, wholescale privatizations, and deregulation under President Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
's neo-liberal government.
Doggart parleyed his journalism work into a book, Investment Opportunities in Argentina, which had a foreword by Menem himself. Published in 1990, a month after he went to Cambridge, Doggart's own tutor, Dr. David Lehmann, reviewed the book in Professional Investor: "As the first optimistic economic report on Argentina to have been produced for some 20 years, this study acts as a clear indicator of the international business community's growing interest in the region."
Theatre career
After leaving Cambridge, Doggart trained as a drama director at Central School of Speech and DramaCentral School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
. His production of Ms Lear -- which radically re-interpreted King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
as a neo-Thatcherite woman—performed at theatres in London and Amsterdam. On graduating, he directed productions for eminent British companies Cheek by Jowl
Cheek by Jowl
Cheek By Jowl is a theatre company founded by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod in 1981. The company has performed across the world and, with their 1986 production of Twelfth Night, were the first to bring a Shakespearean play to The Swan....
(world tour of Duchess of Malfi); Actors Touring Company (Ion
Ion
An ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge. The name was given by physicist Michael Faraday for the substances that allow a current to pass between electrodes in a...
by Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
); Theatre Museum Covent Garden (Playing with Fire by August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
) and Creation Theatre Company (Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, which Doggart set in 18th century Ireland, with English Capulets and Irish Montagues).
Doggart established himself as the pre-eminent translator/director of Latin American plays on the British stage. His production of Mistress of Desires, on which he collaborated directly with Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
, premiered in 1993. He worked directly with Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
on the British premiere of Orchids in the Moonlight, a dream play about the love between two Mexican actresses exiled in Hollywood's maze of mirrors. Doggart rehearsed the play in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and opened in the Teatro Nacional, Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
. The production went on to perform at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. According to Scotland on Sunday, the production was "rich in language and movement, fantasy and reality, sensuality and cruelty; as iconoclastic as the magic realist boom of the 1960s." In 1994, Doggart translated and directed Night of the Assassins, by the Cuban author Jose Triana, staging it at the Technis theatre in London and at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. According to The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
: "Brilliant, at times almost unbearable to watch, the British premiere of this award-winning Cuban play is utterly compelling... The atmosphere of oppression is almost tangible as the audience feel themselves entangled in the hysteria and power games of three siblings enacting or re-enacting the murder of their parents." In 1996, Doggart translated and directed a double bill of plays at The Gate theatre: Saying Yes, by Griselda Gambaro
Griselda Gambaro
Griselda Gambaro is an Argentine writer, whose novels, plays, short stories, story tales, essays and novels for teenagers often concern the political violence in her home country that would develop into the Dirty War. One recurring theme is the desaparecidos and the attempts to recover their...
and Rappaccini's Daughter
Rappaccini's Daughter
"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1844 concerning a medical researcher in medieval Padua. It was published in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse.-Plot summary:...
, by Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
, with whom he collaborated on the translation. Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander is an English actress, known for her roles in various British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing....
played the leading role of Beatrice. That same translation has been staged internationally, including a production by the Santa Fe Playhouse in July 2006. Doggart has since translated the only plays of two other leading Latin American writers: Diatribe of Love against a sitting man, by Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, and The Kings by Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
.
In 1998, Doggart produced Northern Stage's 'Lorca Fiesta', a major festival in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
. The event included an academic conference of international scholars and translators of Lorca and a dramatization of Lorca's Poet in New York, which Doggart adapted and directed. He was also producer and dramaturg for The Moon Comes Out, Federico, a collaboration between Northern Stage and the Seville-based company Octubre Danza, which fused story-telling, contemporary dance and live cante jondo
Cante jondo
Cante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
to enact Lorca's long poem 'Lament to Ignacio Sanchez Mejias'.
In 2000, Doggart co-founded the Gaia arts center in Havana, Cuba, dedicated to providing theater practitioners with a safe and inspiring place in which to create. In 2007, Doggart devised and directed the live performance piece, Balance of Ice, which combined three elements: a piece of music by Canadian composer Andrew Staniland that was inspired by the sounds of ice sheets calving; a dance performance by acclaimed Cuban ballerina Viengsay Valdes that fragmented her usual balletic virtuosity; and edited moving images of the polar ice caps and the threats facing them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlLQOBBQ0Jw
Between 2007-08, Doggart translated and directed Cocinando con Elvis, a Spanish version of Lee Hall
Lee Hall (playwright)
Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...
's play Cooking with Elvis, about food, sex, happiness and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. The production opened at the Teatro Nacional in Havana, and was the first premiere of a British play in Cuba since An Inspector Calls opened in 1947. http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/10/21/cultura/artic02.html
Television career
In 1999, Doggart branched into television production, where he produced and/or directedTelevision director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
(Tomorrow's World); Channel Four (Living on the Line), and worked as an associate producer on ITV series (The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
and Two Thousand Years). The Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
wrote of Two Thousand Years: "Well made and highly informative, the first series truly to deserve the 'Millennium label'." His interview profiles included Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
and Nobel prize-winning Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
.
-Wife Swap
Wife Swap
Wife Swap is a reality television program, originally produced by UK independent television production company RDF Media and created by Stephen Lambert. It was first broadcast in 2003 on the UK's Channel 4. Since 2004, a US version has also been broadcast on the ABC network...
for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and RDF Media
RDF Media
Zodiak Media is a Anglo-American television production company. It was formed in 2010 when RDF Media Group was acquired by, and merged with Zodiak Entertainment...
, an Emmy-nominated show http://www.rdftelevision.com/news.aspx?newsid=55&yearid=01/01/2004 in which two families from vastly different social classes and lifestyles, swap wives/mothers for two weeks. Doggart's film, about a New Jersey woman who treated her plastic dolls as her own children and went to the Alabama countryside to live with a man whose favorite food was armadillo with ketchup, was described as "the strangest season premiere ever" http://abc.go.com/shows/wife-swap, received an A+ critical rating, http://www.shakefire.com/reviews/tv-show/wife-swap-season-6-preview and clocked a robust 3.57mn viewers. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/04/03/tv-ratings-miami-medical-wins-on-a-slow-night-jamie-olivers-food-revolution-falls-far-fast/47202
-Project Runway
Project Runway
Project Runway is an American reality television series on Lifetime Television, previously on the Bravo network, which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by model Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme...
for Bravo, described by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as "the Prada of reality shows", and nominated for a 2005 Primetime Emmy,;
-15 Films About Madonna for A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
-- a one-hour one-off film, notable because Doggart directed and co-wrote 15 short films of totally different genres: animation, documentary, drama, mock political campaign ads, mock infomercial, comedy, mock 1950s PSA, and music video. The film was chosen to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Muestra de Jovenes Realizadores http://www.cubacine.cu/muestrajoven/index.html in Havana, Cuba and played at the prestigious Cine Charles Chaplin.
Damage Control (TV series)
Damage Control is a reality TV series produced by MTV. Hosted by Simple Plan frontman Pierre Bouvier, and directed by Sebastian Doggart, the show was a real-life version of the movie Risky Business. It first aired on MTV on March 6, 2005...
for MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, directing celebrities including Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
and Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
,;
-30 Days for FX, hosted by Oscar-nominated Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
and nominated for a Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...
award,;
-Things I Hate About You for Bravo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418437/fullcredits, a show where spouses identified a number of irritating traits in their partner, and then revealed them on camera, so that a panel of relationship experts could vote which was the better partner.
-American Candidate for Showtime Network, a reality show about aspiring presidential candidates
-Hollywood Vice for E4, a documentary series following the lives of policemen and criminals on both sides of the moral divide in Los Angeles. According to The Express: "This warts-and-all series gives a shocking insight into what goes on after dark on the back streets of LA."
-Raid Gauloises
Raid Gauloises
The Raid Gauloises or The Raid is considered by many to be the first modern adventure race and was first held in 1989. Its creator, Gerald Fusil, took the existing concept of long distance endurance races, and focused on the team aspects, requiring each competitor to be part of a five person co-ed...
for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
/TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
, an adventure race over Vietnam
-History of Movie Genres for Film4
Film4
Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
/Bravo
Film career
After writing and directingFilm director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
two short fictional films, Hole in the Wall and Three and a Bed, Doggart set up Tribute Films, a company that produced films for individuals, their loved ones and their pets. His production of Carol Connors and Her Cats, launched a longstanding collaboration with Connors, a passionate ailurophile (cat lover), Elvis Presley's former girlfriend, and a twice-Oscar-nominated songwriter. The film was lauded by Charlene Tilton as "the funniest thing I have ever seen". The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
described it as the first pet hagiography film ever made, and as "the Cadillac of filmed pet memorials" http://articles.latimes.com/p/2002/nov/28/news/wk-verini28.
In 2004, Doggart moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. From 2006, he spent three years making Courting Condi
Courting Condi
Courting Condi is a 2008 film by British filmmaker Sebastian Doggart that portrays the quest of a love-struck man, actor Devin Ratray, who wants to win the heart of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.-Plot:...
, the first musical docu-tragi-comedy in the history of cinema. The film won 26 awards on the festival circuit, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, http://www.cinando.com/DefaultController.aspx?PageID=FicheFilm&IdC=14240&IdF=60489 and was critically acclaimed. http://sociallysuperlative.com/2008/12/15/courting-condi-review/ http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=2874 By combining screenings of the film with public debates about its subject, Condoleezza Rice's record in office, Doggart fueled calls for Rice to be investigated for human rights abuses and war crimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O59Y6JLtXCY
In 2009, Doggart directed and produced another film about Rice, American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi
American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi
American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi is a documentary film by British filmmaker Sebastian Doggart that portrays the life and career of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.-Style:...
. This investigative documentary explored in greater depth Rice's pursuit and alleged misuse of power, and revealed the direct role she had in fabricating reasons for going to war in Iraq, and in ordering torture, especially in CIA black sites around the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFGLtvVWO8 The film won numerous awards on the festival circuit.
In 2011, he completed a third feature film, True Bromance, an irreverent romantic comedy starring Jim Norton
Jim Norton
James Norton may refer to:* James Norton , solicitor, company director, farmer, pamphleteer and protectionist politician in colonial New South Wales* James A. Norton , U.S. Representative from Ohio...
, Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.-Early life:...
, Frank Luntz
Frank Luntz
Frank I. Luntz is an American political consultant and pollster. His most recent work has been with the Fox News Channel as a frequent commentator and analyst, as well as running focus groups after presidential debates...
, Devin Ratray
Devin Ratray
Devin D. Ratray is an American actor, singer and songwriter. He is most famous for his roles in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.-Biography:...
and himself about the absurd role friends and family play when people fall in love. The film is scheduled for release in September 2011. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bromance-Over-Condi/105694192794820?ref=ts
Doggart has written two other screenplays, Casanova's Return and Clinton a Neuro-Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQJJBBrW5PU.
He is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
.
Political & Human Rights career
In 1993, Doggart led an Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
campaign called Why the Silence? to investigate human rights abuses in Equatorial Guinea. http://www.amnesty.org/
In 1997, Doggart was a campaign manager on Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
's successful bid to become the first Independent MP to be elected to the British Parliament since 1945.
In 2000, Doggart co-founded the Felices Los Normales program at the Gaia arts center in Havana, Cuba, raising awareness about HIV/AIDS through improvised theater.
From 2009-10, Doggart used the release of his documentary American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi
American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi
American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi is a documentary film by British filmmaker Sebastian Doggart that portrays the life and career of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.-Style:...
to launch a campaign to bring to justice officials in the Bush Administration whom contributors in the film —- including attorneys from the American Civil Rights Union
American Civil Rights Union
The American Civil Rights Union is a civil liberties organization founded by former Reagan Administration official Robert B. Carleson in 1998. It was founded in response to views that the most prominent civil liberties organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, was too leftward leaning; ACRU...
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and Reprieve -- allege are guilty of war crimes and torture. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sebastian-doggart/condoleezza-rices-smoking_b_380634.html Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
screened the film at Stanford University on the eve of Rice's return to the Hoover Institution, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/philip_sherwell/blog/2009/02/03/waterboarding_doco_welcomes_condoleezza_rice_back_to_stanford adding to pressure on Stanford authorities to expel her for allegedly dishonoring the college's Fundamental Standard to show "respect for order, morality, personal honor and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-trounstine/stanford-anti-war-protest_b_195364.html Doggart teamed up with students at the University of Denver, where Rice was an undergraduate, by organizing a debate on the motion 'This house believes that Condoleezza Rice should stand trial for war crimes.' Proposing the motion was Rice's political theory professor, Alan Gilbert; defending Rice was Republican State Senator Sean Mitchell. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49944843138&ref=mf The event met fierce resistance from the University administration. Vice Chancellor Jim Berscheidt had already tried to shut down a shoot and denied the producers access to archive of Josef Korbel. Up until the last moment, Berscheidt sought to use bureaucratic obstacles and alleged intimidation of students to stop the event. However, the screening and debate did eventually take place, with a strong turn-out, http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/post/misspronounced/C2Sk and webcast on both Mogulus television http://www.livestream.com/courtingcondi and through the Amnesty International website. http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/condis-former-professor-argues-she-should-be-tried-as-war-criminal-tonight/ At a screening at the Starz Denver film festival in December 2009, and again in an interview with Progressive Voice, http://progressivevoice.org/ Doggart called for the prosecution of ten Bush Administration officials: President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
(as NSA and chair of the Group of Principals who authorized the torture techniques), Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
, Vice-President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, CIA bosses George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
and Porter Goss, General Geoffrey D. Miller (commander at Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
and Guantanamo), Secretary of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, and Attorney Generals John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
and Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
. http://www.epaperflip.com/aglaia/viewer.aspx?docid=077a3a36129948628d5dc1b35118546b http://www.denveropenmedia.org/project/loop-filmmaking-colorado/show/09-starz-film-festival-colorado-filmmaking-part-2-loop In February 2010, Doggart presented a screening of the film at New York's Revolution Books with human rights organizations World Can't Wait and War Criminals Watch. Screenings in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
were also organized by Coleen Rowley
Coleen Rowley
Coleen Rowley is a former FBI agent and whistleblower, and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota in 2006...
, a former FBI agent turned whistle-blower, who called the film "a must-see documentary". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/american-faust-from-condi_b_393618.html The campaign has continued through social networking sites http://www.facebook.com/pages/American-Faust-From-Condi-to-Neo-Condi/73789637249?v=app_2344061033&ref=nf#!/pages/American-Faust-From-Condi-to-Neo-Condi/73789637249 and interviews in the press, radio http://www.blackradioisback.com/2010/04/fusebox-radio-broadcast-for-week-of.html and on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/voices/2010/02/choosing-power-over-love-condoleezza-rice-as-american-faust.html but has so far failed to secure its objective of Rice's arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. Efforts to this end were escalated in May 2010, following the announcement that Rice was to play a concert with Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
. http://www.manncenter.org/events/2010-07-27/aretha-franklin-and-condoleezza-rice-philadelphia-orchestra Doggart responded to this by corralling a group of human rights activists, including Rowley, War Criminals Watch, http://warcriminalswatch.org/index.php/news/40-recent-news/514-5-10-10-condi-the-queen-of-no-soul and Down With Tyranny, http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/05/queen-of-no-soul-guest-post-by.html to pressure Franklin and the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
to dump her from the concert billing, and to encourage either a citizen's arrest, or one instigated by Attorney General Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
. http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/051010c.html These protests continued at a Denver University awards dinner, where Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
presented the 2010 Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni Award to Rice, while activists warned guests outside that "there's a war criminal in the area". http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-rice-albright-du-txt,0,6269744.story
Writing career
Doggart has had three books published: Fire Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca focused on Spanish playwright and poet, Federico García LorcaFederico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
. The book included poems, translations and an essay by Doggart, as well as eminent Lorca scholars, and was published in a second edition in January 2010. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fire-Blood-and-the-Alphabet/Sebastian-Doggart/e/9780719081828 Stage Labyrinths: Latin American Plays included Doggart's translations of five Latin American dramatic works, as well as interviews with the writers and a history of Latin American theater His third book is on the Argentine economy. http://www.allbusiness.com/finance/163850-1.html He has been a principal contributor to five other books – Stages of Conflict: A critical anthology of Latin American theater and Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2008), Purple Homicide: Fear and Loathing on Knutsford Heath (Bloomsbury, 1998), Raymond Chandler: A Biography (Atlantic, 1997), Reflections in a Family Mirror (Red House, 2002), and Time Out: Havana (Penguin, 2001, 2005, 2007) – and has written for The New Statesman
The New Statesman
The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/7074112/Picking-a-fight-with-Condoleezza-Rice.html, The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sebastian-doggart/sundancing-into-the-apoca_b_447775.html and The Sunday Telegraph.
In 2011, Doggart became a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, writing a twice-weekly column from New York on film, literary, political, family and comedic subjects.
Family
Doggart is the grandson of the eminent ophthalmologist and writer James Hamilton DoggartJames Hamilton Doggart
Dr. James Hamilton Doggart was a leading ophthalmologist, lecturer, writer, cricketer, and a member of the Cambridge Apostles and the Bloomsbury Group.- Early life :...
; son of the author/development economist Caroline Doggart
Caroline Doggart
Caroline Doggart, M.A., MSc, is a development economist and author.Born in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, and educated at Girton College, Cambridge and Imperial College London, she began her career at the Economist Intelligence Unit. In 1970, she wrote Tax Havens and their Uses...
; brother of the conservationist Nike Doggart
Nike Doggart
Nike Doggart is a conservationist, environmental activist, and writer.Doggart, MA, MSc, was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and at University College, London. Doggart began her career as a marine conservationist in Belize...
; nephew of the cricketer and educator, Hubert Doggart
Hubert Doggart
Hubert Doggart, O.B.E., MA was an English administrator, cricketer and schoolmaster...
; cousin of the headmaster, Simon Doggart
Simon Doggart
Simon Jonathon Graham Doggart is an English cricketer and headmaster.He was educated at Winchester and Cambridge University. He represented Cambridge University as a left-handed batsman in thirty-five first-class matches between 1980 and 1983...
; partner of the filmmaker Emily Kunstler
Emily Kunstler
Emily Kunstler is an activist and a documentary filmmaker. Kunstler grew up in New York City's West Village neighborhood.- Education :...
; http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/06/28/100628ta_talk_stevenson and father of Orson Doggart and Alma Doggart Kunstler.
Trivia
Since 2008, Doggart has been the manager and captain of Manhattan United Football Club, which won both the 2009 and 2010 Quitena League of New York http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manhattan-United-Football-Club/124468499151?ref=ts and now plays in the Gotham League. http://www.gothamsoccer.com/index.phpPublications
- Fire, Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca, Sebastian Doggart & Michael Thompson, 1999, University of Durham, ISBN 0-907310-44-3, second edition 2010
- Stage Labyrinths: Latin American Plays, edited, translated and introduction by Sebastian Doggart, 1996, Nick Hern Books, ISBN 1-85459-249-1
- Time Out: Havana, Sebastian Doggart (contributor), 2001, ISBN 0-14-100029-5
- Time Out: Havana, Sebastian Doggart (contributor), 2005, ISBN 1904978-83-5
- Time Out: Havana, Sebastian Doggart (contributor), 2007, ISBN 9781846700149
- Stages of Conflict: A critical anthology of Latin American theater and Performance, Sebastian Doggart (contributor), University of Michigan Press, 2008, ISBN 9780472050277
- Investment Opportunities in Argentina, Sebastian Doggart, 1991, Southern Development Trust, ISBN 0951714406
- Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Graham McCann, 1998, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-10885-0
- Raymond Chandler: A Biography, Tom Hiney, 1999, Grove Press, ISBN 0802136370; ISBN 978-0802136374
- Purple Homicide: Fear and Loathing on Knutsford Heath, John Sweeney, 1998, Bloomsbury Press, ISBN 0747539707d
Newspaper & Journal articles
- 'Why I love reality TV', by Sebastian Doggart, The Observer, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/27/broadcasting.bigbrother
- 'Bellissimo! How we won Tatton', by Sebastian Doggart, New Statesman, pp. 28–30
- 'Ultra-patriotic USA is dreaming of a star-spangled Christmas', by Sebastian Doggart & Oliver Poole, The Daily Telegraph, December 24, 2001
- 'The new Millennium starts here', by Sebastian Doggart, The Sunday Telegraph, December 12, 1999, p. 19
- 'Talking Latin', by Sebastian Doggart, Scotland on Sunday, August 30, 1992
- 'All rise for a girl king', by Sebastian Doggart, The Guardian, March 3, 1997
- 'Innocent Erendira', by Sebastian Doggart, Time Out, Sep 29-Oct 6, 1993
- 'Foxed by the Carnival,' by Sebastian Doggart, The Guardian, August 28, 2000, p. 15
- 'The relentless rise of offshore centres', by Caroline Doggart & Sebastian Doggart, Impact, Jan/Feb 1998, issue 5, pp. 4–5
Reviews of work
- 'Awards and Controversy for Courting Condi', by Rachel Heller, Haute Living, February 24, 2010 http://www.hauteliving.com/blog/awards-and-controversy-for-courting-condi/
- 'Catwalks and Catfights', by Sean Smith, Newsweek, February 28, 2005, p. 61
- 'Hemlines on the Stand', by Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times, February 16, 2005, p. 1
- 'Opportunities in Argentina challenges a few investors, International Herald Tribune, March 23–24, 1991
- 'Argentinian investment, anyone?', ABA Banking Journal, American Bankers Association, June 1991, p. 9
- 'Argentina's great investment potential', The Independent, April 27, 1991, p. 22
- 'El lector como Edipo Rex,' by Jorge Lagos, Cronica Latina, March 1997,
- 'Review: Fire, Blood and the Alphabet', Forum For Modern Language Studies 37/3, 2001
- 'Reviews', by Sarah Leggott, A.U.M.L.A., May 2001
- 'Steps Argentina towards stability?', Friso End't Business Report, Vol VI, Apr 19, 1991
- 'Few takers for lone venture', The Daily Telegraph, March 20, 1991
- 'Investing in the gaucho club', by Dr. David Lehmann, Professional Investor, 1991
- 'Argentina steps towards stability', by Martin Barrow, The Times, March 18, 1991
- 'Argentina: petrochemical paradise?', Chemistry and Industry, number 10, 20 May 1991
- 'Night of the Assassins', by Thea Jourdan, The Scotsman, August 29, 1994
- 'Orchids in the Moonlight', Scotland on Sunday, August 23, 1992
- 'Love, Fidelity and cats', by James Verini, Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2002
- 'Hollywood Vice', Metro, January 24, 2002, p. 22
- 'Two Thousand Years', Financial Times,, April 28, 1999, p. 22 (Arts)
- 'How we became what we are', by Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph,
- 'TV review: Living on the Line', by Sue Greenway, Western Daily Press, December 31, 1999, p. 22
- 'Time to forget those old TV acquaintances', by Paul Hoggart, The Times", December 31, 1999
- 'Living on the Line (C4)', by Christopher Matthew, Daily Mail, December 31, 1999
- 'Hollywood Vice', by Charlotte Civil, The Express, August 8, 2002, p. 49
- 'Hollywood Vice', Daily Record, August 8, 2002, p. 37
- '30 Days', Hollywood Reporter, June 15, 2006
- 'A search for self in the secret garden', The New Mexican, July 21–27, 2006