Diane Sylvester is a multi-media storyteller, with a career as both a journalist and a filmmaker. As a newsroom leader Diane has worked as a senior manager and editor for large and small news organizations. She currently works with Futuro Media Group which produces Latino USA on NPR and the political podcast In The Thick as the Executive Producer for Investigative and Special Projects. She was previously a Senior Planning Manager in the Wall Street Journal's video department and oversaw coverage of the 2016 election and helped develop a new system of integrating the video department with other reporting desks. Having directed and produced works for CNN, ABC and MSNBC, she contributed to award winning coverage from Washington D.C., New York, New Orleans, and Kosovo, interviewing Kofi Annan, Hilary Clinton, the Dalai Lama and other newsmakers while telling the stories of those effected by large policy and political events. She worked on hour long biographical documentaries for MSNBC’s Headliners & Legends and Bravo’s series Profiles, and was co-director/producer for Jazz Lives Here an hour long special for NY1 which won a New York Press Award. Diane made her independent film debut in 2007, producing My Happy Faces, a narrative short that premiered at the Los Angeles International Women’s Film Festival and the Charlotte Film Festival.
Diane recently screened her work in progress experimental documentary installation piece Jesus Man at the Homesession Gallery in Barcelona. She is working currently on several multi-media works, including a multi-screen installation work Paral.lel, which will tell the stories of residents of the Poble Sec neighbhorhood in Barcelona while exploring the multiple dimensions that construct identity. Diane is also producing-directing Oye Cuba! A Journey Home a feature length documentary about the cultural connections shared between the United States and Cuba as evidenced through jazz and Grammy award winning jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill. Oye Cuba! is the recipient of an NEH Bridging Cultures Through Film grant as well as a New York State Council for the Arts grant. For more information about Oye Cuba! visit www.oyecubafilm.com
Diane recently screened her work in progress experimental documentary installation piece Jesus Man at the Homesession Gallery in Barcelona. She is working currently on several multi-media works, including a multi-screen installation work Paral.lel, which will tell the stories of residents of the Poble Sec neighbhorhood in Barcelona while exploring the multiple dimensions that construct identity. Diane is also producing-directing Oye Cuba! A Journey Home a feature length documentary about the cultural connections shared between the United States and Cuba as evidenced through jazz and Grammy award winning jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill. Oye Cuba! is the recipient of an NEH Bridging Cultures Through Film grant as well as a New York State Council for the Arts grant. For more information about Oye Cuba! visit www.oyecubafilm.com
