U.K. house Thomas Thomas Films, founded by director Kevin Thomas and managing director Philippa Thomas in 2000, is opening a New York office. Kevin Thomas has been directing an increasing amount of American work, which proved to be a prime catalyst behind the company decision to launch a stateside shop. Additionally, plans call for the New York operation, headed by executive producer Jenny Gadd, to serve as a springboard into the U.S. market for new talent that the London office is developing such as director Jim Gilchrist…..Brazilian director Joao Daniel Tikhomiroff has signed with Saville Productions, Beverly Hills, for commercial representation in North America….Roland Gauthier has been promoted from senior technical director to CG manager for LAIKA/house, the Portland, Ore.-based division specializing in animated commercials and shorts. LAIKA/house is under the aegis of president/executive producer Lourri Hammack….Michael Pardee has joined Sway Studio, Los Angeles, as executive producer. He will work alongside the visual effects company’s exec producer Shira Boardman. Pardee comes over from Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., where he had served as head of production….Editor Curtis Schmidt has returned to the staff of Crush Editorial, Santa Monica. He originally worked as an editor at Crush from 2000-’03 before moving on to freelance. His credits span spots (K Swiss, Apple, Yahoo, Toyota, Nokia, Earthlink) and music videos (for such performers as James Blunt, Red Jumpsuit, Anti-Flag, Deep Dish)……
Lucy Walker Made A Searing Documentary About Wildfires In 2021; Now, People May Be More Inclined To Listen
When Lucy Walker debuted her harrowing documentary about California wildfires, "Bring Your Own Brigade," at Sundance in 2021, it was during peak COVID. Not the best time for a film on a wholly different scourge.
"It was really hard," the Oscar-nominated filmmaker says now. "I didn't blame people for not wanting to watch a film about the fires in the middle of the pandemic, because it was just too much horror."
And so the film, though acclaimed — it was named one of the 10 best films of the year by the New York Times – didn't reach an audience as large as Walker had hoped, with its urgent display of the human cost of wildfires and its tough, crucial questions for the future.
That could change. Walker thinks people may now be more receptive to her message, given the devastating wildfires that have wrought havoc on Los Angeles itself the past week. Firefighters were preparing on Tuesday to attack new blazes amid warnings that winds combined with severely dry conditions created a " particularly dangerous situation."
"This is probably the moment where it becomes undeniable," she said in an interview.
She added: "It does feel like people are now asking the question that I was asking a few years ago, like, 'Is it safe to live in Los Angeles? And why is this happening, and what can we do about it? And the good news is that there are some things we can do about it. What's tricky is that they're really hard to accomplish."
Documenting the human cost, confronting complacency
In "Bring Your Own Brigade" (available on Paramount+), Walker portrays in sometimes terrifying detail the devastation caused by two wildfires on the same day in 2018, products of the same wind event — the Camp Fire that engulfed the... Read More