Danny Glover, a noted actor who made his directorial debut in 2002 with the Daytime Emmy-nominated children’s special Just A Dream, is back in the helmer’s chair with a short entitled Second Line. Glover also stars in the short, portraying a wealthy and frustrated businessman who is forced to walk to work after his car will not start. The man is too busy and self-consumed to notice the people and places he passes along the streets of San Francisco.
Several of those he has either ignored or failed to help join him in his walk to work. As he reaches the office building where he works, Glover realizes what he has missed during his commute. His facial expression changes and he suddenly becomes aware of his surroundings as he helps a homeless man in front of the building. The film ends as the businessman enters his office building, turns around and notices another “lost soul” speeding by–also to be accompanied by those she has failed to notice.
Second Line was written by Nicole Middleton and produced by Moving Parts, Inc. The film’s DP, Michael Chin, was nominated for an Emmy® in Outstanding Cinematography for The American Experience, a series of documentaries on American history. Editor of Second Line was Steve Edwards. The film’s creators and artists were inspired by the collective spirit of street parades or “second lines,” a longstanding cultural tradition in New Orleans that celebrates family and community.
Second Line is the latest entry in The Responsibility Project, which was created by Liberty Mutual and ad agency Hill Holliday, Boston. The Responsibility Project uses entertainment content to create a forum for people to discuss personal acts of responsibility. Through short films, online content and television programming, The Responsibility Project is a catalyst for examining the decisions that confront people trying to “do the right thing.” Individuals can participate in online conversations about personal responsibility and also review film shorts, including Second Line, on the project’s online community found here.
The initiative sprung from a Liberty Mutual television commercial which debuted on air in 2006. Directed by Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films and conceived by a Hill Holliday creative team, the spot–titled “What Goes Around/Home”–showed people performing good deeds and how one gesture of kindness begets another and another before completing a circle which brings us back to the original good deed.
The centerpiece of a campaign built on the mantra, “Responsibility. What’s your policy?, the commercial struck a responsive chord with the public, so much so that Liberty Mutual and Hill Holliday knew they had something special. So they built on that pay-it-forward spirit by launching The Responsibility Project.
See the short Second Line below:
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More