AMV BBDO has promoted Kelly Knight to serve as its first chief diversity and HR officer. She will work with senior leadership at the agency to ramp up its efforts building a culture which is inclusive, celebrates and recognizes diversity. Her responsibilities also include ensuring that AMV’s services and strategy are aligned to the agency’s cultural goals. She reports to Sarah Douglas, CEO.
Knight has spent her career working in human resources and was appointed by AMV as HR director in 2006. As well as championing HR initiatives at AMV, Knight is active in industry-wide campaigns to make careers in advertising more accessible to people who are under-represented.
She was part of the IPA’s Creative Skillset Working Party, which developed the first advertising apprenticeship in 2012, and is now a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Apprenticeships. Knight also sits on the IPA’s Creative Pioneers Board and is a member of the association’s Future of Talent Strategy Group.
Earlier this year she was included on the inaugural IPA iList, which recognizes individuals for their game-changing dedication to improving the diversity and inclusivity of the advertising industry.
Knight said, “Diversity, equality and inclusion is in my DNA. From the moment I started at AMV I worked with the IPA to address the lack of diversity in our industry. I’m delighted that this is being formally recognized and I will strive to continue to work with my agency and the wider industry in the pursuit of equality.”
Douglas said, “Kelly is the consummate human resources professional. Along with that, she has a vision for how our industry in general, and AMV in particular, can build a more diverse workforce and a culture that is truly inclusive, as well as the skills to make her vision a reality. This promotion is recognition of her achievements as well as signifying the continuing commitment AMV has to building the best possible workplace.”
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