Documentary Filmmakers And Sensibilities Are Well Represented In This Year's Field of Profiles.
By Robert Goldrich
What’s up, doc? Actually docs. are up, way up, in SHOOT’s fall edition Directors Series. Indeed documentary filmmakers are well represented in this year’s field of profiles and even in our feature on up-and-coming directors.
In terms of profiles, our lineup includes Albert Maysles, Alex Gibney, Nanette Burstein and Doug Pray. Maysles, considered by many to be the dean of documentary-making, shared his thoughts on the viability of “direct cinema” sensibilities in the ad arena. He just joined Nonfiction Unlimited for spots and new media ad projects.
Director Gibney, whose Taxi to the Dark Side earlier this year earned the best documentary Oscar, has signed with Chelsea for spot representation.
Also recently entering into a commercialmaking affiliation is Nanette Burstein who came aboard Hungry Man this past spring. Burstein’s American Teen garnered her the best documentary director award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
And Doug Pray scored with The Reverse Graffiti Project mini-documentary for Clorox’s GreenWorks out of DDB San Francisco. Pray’s spotmaking roost is Oil Factory.
Meanwhile gracing our list of up-and-coming directors is documentary filmmaker Maro Chermayeff who recently joined Workhorse Media for spot representation.
SHOOT didn’t plan on a documentary bent for this Directors Series. We just gravitated towards the most interesting work and stories. Yet in a sense this mini-theme could be a reflection of how documentary filmmakers’ stock is rising in the ad sector–perhaps due to a heightened awareness of the need to engage audiences in an age of growing media choices and fragmentation. And indeed real people and their stories–in spots and longer form content–can constitute a viable means toward attaining the nirvana of viewer engagement.
Still, this Directors Series goes far beyond the documentary realm. Also in the mix are such notables as multimedia collective ACNE, David Shane of oposi+ive who directed this year’s primetime Emmy Award-winning “Swear Jar” for Bud Light, Andrew Douglas of Anonymous Content, Dave & Rory of Mekanism, and Outsider’s James Rouse whose viral path led to high-profile diversification into TV spots this year.
Our lineup of up-and-coming directors too is quite diverse, including a directing team that has its roots in web fare for Nike, a still photographer who’s taken flight in commercials, a Honolulu-based helmer whose short film has been a festival circuit hit, and a multimedia director whose work evaporates before our eyes.
And then our Cinematographers & Cameras Series looks at Claudio Miranda, Anghel Decca and Jack Green, ASC.
So read and enjoy. And as always, we welcome your feedback.
–Robert Goldrich, Editor
rgoldrich@shootonline.com
Links To Profiles
ACNE by Robert Goldrich
Nanette Burstein by Millie Takaki
Dave & Rory by Christine Champagne
Andrew Douglas by Christine Champagne
Harold Einstein by Christine Champagne
Alex Gibney by Robert Goldrich
Albert Maysles by Robert Goldrich
Doug Pray by Robert Goldrich
James Rouse by Millie Takaki
David Shane by Millie Takaki
Jason Smith by Robert Goldrich
Links To Features
Up-And-Coming Directors:
New Fall Collection by Robert Goldrich and Millie Takaki
Cinematography & Cameras:
Putting Art & Craft Into Focus by Robert Goldrich and Millie Takaki
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More