Bobby Yan Lectureship in Media and Social Change featuring Christine Vachon

The inaugural Bobby Yan Lectureship in Media and Social Change will feature Christine Vachon, producer of the film Boys Don't Cry, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.   

Christine Vachon is an Independent Spirit Award-winning producer.  She has been lauded for her career filmaking with the Producer Award from the Gotham Independent Film Awards.  She co-founded, with Pamela Koffler, the impactful independent film and television production company Killer Films in 1995.  Killer's Oscar-winning films have included Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry and Richard Glatzer and Wash Westermoreland's Still Alice.  Its Oscar-nominated films have included Todd Haynes' Carol, I'm Not There, and Far from Heaven.  The latter swept the Independent Spirit Awards, winning five including Best Actress (Julianne Moore), Best Director, and Best Feature.  In her capacity as producer, Ms. Vachon has most recently been nominated in the Spirits' Best Feature category for First Reformed; the film also garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, among other honors.  Ms. Vachon is also the Artistic Director of the MFA program at Stony Brook University.

Bobby Yan is a veteran of the television and music video industry, having directed more than 100 music videos and commercials, and produced several sports-related shows that garnered six Sports Emmy Awards. His recent short film, Marz, appeared in over 50 festivals worldwide. Mr. Yan also was selected as one of the directors in the ABC Disney Directing Program, a two-year professional directing program that recruits experienced directors on the cusp of making the transition into episodic directing. Mr. Yan received his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Tulane in 1995. He founded Tulane’s Asian American Student Union.