OLIVER STONE has won Oscars for directing Born On The Fourth Of July and Platoon , and for writing Midnight Express . He was nominated for director (JFK) and co-writer (Nixon). He´s also received three Golden Globes for directing (Platoon , Born On The Fourth Of July and JFK ), one for writing (Midnight Express ). He is director for the forthcoming Showtime 10-hour series Forgotten History of the United States.

Stone wrote a novel, published in 1997 by St. Martin´s Press, entitled A Child´s Night Dream , based on Stone´s experiences as a young man. He is a contributor of some 200 pages of essays on movies, culture, politics and history to the book Oliver Stone´s USA , edited by Robert Brent Toplin and published by the University Press of Kansas (2000). Stone wrote the afterword for a book of scholarly essays analyzing his film Alexander called Oliver Stone´s Alexander: Film, History, and Cultural Studies (2009).

Stone was born September 15, 1946 in New York, New York. Prior to his film career, Stone worked as a schoolteacher in Vietnam, a Merchant Marine sailor, taxi driver, messenger, production assistant, and sales representative. He served in the U.S. Army Infantry in Vietnam in 1967-68. He was wounded twice and decorated with the Bronze Star for Valor. After returning from Vietnam, he completed his undergraduate studies at New York University Film School in 1971.

*

TARIQ ALI is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than two dozen books on world history and politics, and seven novels (translated into over a dozen languages) as well as scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of New Left Review and lives in London. His website is http://tariqali.org/.