Assembling A Vassar Crew!

When director Raul Gasteazoro ’04, above left, set out to do the seemingly impossible—make a world-building cli-fi action flick for under $500,000 that looks like it cost $5 million—he knew just whom to call: his Vassar friend circle from his campus days. The Protector (2025), now available for streaming on Apple and Amazon, was a team effort among Gasteazoro, actors Marguerite Moreau ’99 and April Lee ’02, business partner and Producer Casey Unterman ’03, and Executive Producer Jesse Lloyd Estrin ’06. The late Graham Greene, a noted Native American actor, rounds out the cast of this cautionary tale of where disregard for the planet could lead.

“That’s been a theme I’ve been working with for a really long time,” said Gasteazoro, who made his first feature film just out of college with the help of a grant from Vassar. (That film is available on Amazon as Black Pearl [2008].)

“The Protector was informed by not only that first feature experience at Vassar, but also 20 years of being a commercial director and feeling like I had made a lot of beautiful work that didn’t really matter,” he said. The combination of a near-fatal snowboarding accident and the COVID pandemic brought Gasteazoro to a “big come to Jesus” moment that led him to ask, “What am I leaving behind?” It was time to make his passion project a reality. To do so, he mortgaged his house and then rounded up his Vassar friends. “We decided to double down and just do the thing in hopes of getting this important message out: that we can still make a difference and help to protect what is left for future generations,” he said. The results speak for themselves. “It was awesome” working with fellow alums, said Gasteazoro. It made it easy to trust in the cast and crew, because “everybody’s super smart and talented.”

Veteran casting director Cassandra Kulukundis ’93, left, pictured with film producer Jason Blum ’91, made history at the Academy Awards in March by winning the inaugural Best Casting Oscar for her work on One Battle After Another. The 2025 film was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, with whom Kulukundis has worked on many other films, including Licorice Pizza and There Will Be Blood. The two hugged when her name was called out, and then Kulukundis joyously sprinted to the stage to receive the trophy from actor Chase Infiniti—a One Battle cast member.

Phyllis Klaus ’57, P’82, below, a therapist and social worker who helped establish the role of the doula in childbirth, was named to the Prenatal Sciences Research Institute 2025 Hall of Honor this past November. Said the institute on its website, “Some pioneers lead with a megaphone. Phyllis Klaus led with attention—the kind that notices a laboring woman’s breath, a newborn’s gaze, and the subtle shift in a room when someone feels truly safe. From hospital wards to international trainings, she transformed bedside observations into a worldwide standard of compassionate care: the doula.” Klaus is pictured with her husband Marshall.

Soprano Amanda Forsythe ’98, below, won a Best Classical Solo Vocal Album Grammy Award for her work on the Boston Early Music Festival recording Georg Philipp Telemann: Ino; Opera Arias for Soprano. The cantata Ino stars Forsythe in the title role of a desperate mother trying to save herself and her child after her husband descends into madness. The story is based on a myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and musically bridges the Baroque and Classical eras. Said one critic, “Amanda Forsythe, one of the great sopranos of our time, captures the wide range of emotions packed into this 11-movement cantata with dramatic conviction and a silvery yet warm soprano, packed with a range of colors and clear, full high notes.” —Section by Kimberly Schaye