Chris Wallace has joined AKQA as client partner of media in the San Francisco studio. Wallace has 15 years’ experience in a variety of digital strategy and global client leadership roles focused on data-driven decision making, innovation and business transformation. His track record spans diverse sectors–consumer packaged goods, retail, luxury, finance, insurance, healthcare, education, telecom and B2B.
Prior to joining AKQA, Wallace held leadership positions for WPP in Chicago, London and San Francisco. He has spent the last six years working within the group where he earned his “WPP MBA” while working at Mindshare as head of digital for EMEA, global digital lead on Unilever and CHANEL.
On joining AKQA, Wallace said, “As the opportunities to bring media, data and creative closer together for our clients continues to grow, I look forward to working with an inspiring team to continue to shape this ever-evolving world through the lens of digital.”
Scott Symonds, AKQA managing director of media, said, “As we speed forward into a digital, mobile, and programmatic majority media world, we want to provide our client’s the best in strategy, leadership and communication. Chris’ history of delivering deep audience insights for his clients, leading account teams, offices, and global client relationships for top brands, gives him precisely the skillset that we are looking to future-proof our client team leadership.”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More