Sorrel Brae of Humble directed this web campaign in which each spot features an LGBT adult in a classroom setting, not only relating his or her life story and lessons learned but writing a synopsis of the main lesson on a chalkboard.
In “Jana,” we meet a young woman who hid the fact that she was gay. She concluded, “Hiding didn’t work for me. Hiding worked for my family.” The camera then reveals the lesson she wrote on the classroom chalkboard: “I learned to shine without permission.”
A voiceover intervenes: “What you know now can make a real difference for LGBT teens’ today. Gay it forward.”
The “Gay it forward” slogan is a mantra for The Homecoming Project initiative in which successful LGBT professionals connect with LGBT teens, inspiring and empowering youth to realize and take pride in their identities. The online spots drive traffic to liveoutloud.info, a website where more can be learned about The Homecoming Project.
In another spot, titled “Matt,” his chalk-written lesson is simply, “I learned that my happiness makes my family happy.”
Agency is Deutsch New York.
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