Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult

Composer
DANIEL LESSNER

Executive Producer & Director
CECILIA PECK

MODERATED BY MEGAN MCLACHLAN (Awards Daily)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A:
Wednesday, June 23, 1:00 PM PT

This four-part documentary series chronicles the extraordinary and harrowing journey of India Oxenberg — the daughter of a Hollywood actress and a descendant of European royalty — who was seduced into the modern-day sex-slave cult NXIVM, where she spent seven years. Over 17,000 people, including India, enrolled in NXIVM’s “Executive Success Programs,” a front for the cult and a hunting ground for its leader, master predator Keith Raniere. Women in DOS, a secret master-slave society within NXIVM, were sex-trafficked and branded with a cauterizing iron. Both about recovery from trauma and about a mother trying to save her daughter, the series follows India’s seduction, indoctrination, enslavement, and ultimately her escape. It candidly explores how India and a chorus of other women are still grappling to make sense of their experience. TV-MA | 60min

Daniel Lessner is an award-winning composer and producer who has composed main themes and soundtracks for more than 100 TV shows, films, and documentaries. Lessner began scoring shortly after he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School in New York City. His first projects in New York were composed in a wide variety of styles, including scores for CBS’ 48 Hours, ABC’s Monday Night Football, The New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and themes for The Phoenix Suns, and NFL Films as well as numerous Worldwide and National commercial campaigns including IBM, Citibank, American Express, and Gillette. Subsequent to moving to Los Angeles in 2002, his music has appeared on all the major broadcast and cable networks, including the Main Theme and all music for 500 Questions on ABC, America’s Greatest Makers on TBS, and America’s Next Weatherman for Funny Or Die, on TBS. He is especially proud that his last six projects have all been headed and driven by female directors including Kelly Duane de la Vega for Remastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke on Netflix, and Cecilia Peck for her 4-part series, Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult on Starz. Daniel is currently at work on a feature film starring Bob Odenkirk and Danny Huston for director Cecilia Miniuchi, edited by the famed Coppola collaborator, Anne Goursaud. In addition to composing, Mr. Lessner is a concert pianist who has performed as a soloist throughout five continents, in venues that include Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall.  

Emmy®-nominated Cecilia Peck is the director, writer, and executive producer of Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, an upcoming four-part STARZ documentary series that tells the dramatic story of one young woman’s perilous experience in the dark and criminal world of NXIVM, the notorious self-help group turned abusive sex-slave cult. Peck directed and produced the Netflix Original feature documentary Brave Miss World, the story of former Miss World Linor Abargil’s journey to break the silence around rape. She also directed and produced Shut Up & Sing, a film about country music superstars the Dixie Chicks and the backlash resulting from their outspoken stance against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Shut Up & Sing won Best Documentary at the Sydney, Aspen, and Woodstock Film Festivals — along with numerous critics’ awards — and it was shortlisted for the Academy Awards® for Best Documentary. Peck produced A Conversation With Gregory Peck, about her actor and humanitarian father, and she directed and produced the documentary short Justice for All, an examination of capital punishment. She was associate producer of Defending Our Daughters, a nonfiction film about women’s human rights for Lifetime Television, which was honored with the Voices of Courage Award by the Women’s Refugee Commission.

As an actress, Peck was nominated for a Golden Globe® Award for her performance in The Portrait. Among other roles, she played the lead in Torn Apart. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives with her husband, writer Daniel Voll, in Los Angeles. Peck speaks around the world about rape awareness and prevention as well as overcoming trauma with the #IAmBrave educational screening series for Brave Miss World. She also manages the website www.bravemissworld.com, a safe place for survivors of rape and assault to share their stories and seek support and resources. The website serves over 10 million survivors worldwide. Peck is a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she sits on the board of the San Diego International Film Festival. She is in preproduction for a documentary about President Nixon’s infamous Enemies List. 

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Wednesday, June 23, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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