Daniele Anastasion, whose critically acclaimed documentaries and television series have taken her from the track and the basketball court to postwar Liberia, has joined ContagiousLA (CLA) for exclusive representation on spot and branded content projects. This is her first roost in the commercial industry. Anastasion’s series Run Mama Run, currently available on espnW.com, follows an elite runner whose unplanned pregnancy occurs while training for the Olympic trials. Anastasion was also involved in writing and creative producing Belief, Oprah Winfrey’s tent-pole exploration of spirituality around the world. However, it was the filmmaker’s ESPN 30 for 30 Short I Am Yup’ik that brought Anastasion and CLA together.
“You meet a lot of people at festivals and in LA, and when I met Natalie I just trusted her,” said Anastasion of her first exposure to CLA founder/EP Natalie Sakai. “I sensed, this person is a straight shooter.” Sakai was at Sundance with CLA director Andrew Laurich, whose comedy short A Reasonable Request was screening in the same program as I Am Yup’ik. “I’m a big fan of Andrew’s work,” Anastasion said. “It’s bold and daring on a level rarely seen in any medium.”
Anastasion has earned her laurels in the bold department as well. Her first feature, The Redemption of General Butt Naked, follows a former Liberian warlord as he seeks forgiveness from his victims. The film received the Sundance award for Best Cinematography and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
“Daniele’s storytelling is courageous and deeply thoughtful. She takes great care in her visual choices and highlights the internal struggle of her subjects,” said Sakai. “Run Mama Run made me fall in love with her work; the way she can make our failures beautiful is inspiring. Advertising needs more authentic storytellers like her.” Sakai added, “Daniele’s not going to like me pushing this because she wants to win on merit and not the gender movement going on right now, but the fact that she’s a woman is an amazing win for us. I’m a staunch advocate for launching female voices in the industry.”
Over the course of seven 10-minute episodes, Run Mama Run follows runner Sarah Brown as she deals with the challenges of an unexpected yet welcome pregnancy, while continuing her attempt to make the U.S. Olympic team. The series asks whether anyone can really have it all and delivers an emotionally powerful ending. “I really like to make people cry,” Anastasion said with a smile.
In I Am Yup’ik, a 16-year-old Alaskan native teenager leaves his tiny village and travels across the frozen tundra to compete in an all-Yup’ik basketball tournament. Anastasion and co-director Nathan Golon spent weeks as a minimal, two-person crew in a remote Alaskan village. “A lot of documentary directors look at narrative projects and marvel at the scope and resources,” Anastasion observed. “But many of the best narrative filmmakers are trying to make things feel as real as documentary work.”
For Oprah Winfrey’s Belief, Anastasion experienced storytelling on an epic scale for the Planet Earth-style series. “Sometimes we had 30 people on set, which is gigantic for a documentary shoot,” she recalled. “There was this great tension between creating high-end visuals and preserving the intimacy of the storytelling.” It is a balancing act that prepared her both for narrative filmmaking and advertising work. She has directed work for O&M and currently is bidding several projects through CLA. “Regardless of size or platform, branded projects have to attract and keep an audience,” Anastasion observed. “That means giving people something real and meaningful.’”
Anastasion joins a CLA roster comprised of directors Laurich, Jeff Jenkins, Benjamin Arfmann, Ben Ketai and Andrew Renzi, and photographer Diana King.
Japan Celebrates Record 18 Emmy Wins For “Shogun”
Japan erupted with joy Monday as the samurai series "Shogun" won a record 18 Emmys for its first season.
It took home prizes including Outstanding Drama Series, as star and co-producer Hiroyuki Sanada became the first Japanese actor to win the Emmy for best lead actor in a dramatic series. Co-star Anna Sawai won best actress in a dramatic series, also a first for Japan.
"You did it. You did it. Congratulations," Takashi Yamazaki, director of " Godzilla Minus One," wrote on social media.
People followed the awards live as the wins made national headlines. Entertainment media Oricon proudly reported that a work whose spoken lines were mostly in the Japanese language "made Emmy history."
"The grand scale of Hollywood combined with the high quality of the production, including costuming, props and mannerisms; the collaboration between the Japanese professional team, headed by producer Sanada, and the local production team; as well as the acting that delivered a strong sense of reality, all came together," the report said.
Actor Kento Kaku, who starred in the 2024 series "Like a Dragon: Yakuza," said he was feeling inspired to pursue Hollywood dreams.
"After seeing how cool that was, who's not going to want to take up the challenge," he wrote on X.
Actress Tomoko Mariya said she broke into tears the moment Sanada's win was announced.
"What hardships you must have endured, choosing to leave your entire career behind in Japan and going to America alone. But it has borne fruit," she wrote, referring to Sanada's move to Los Angeles 20 years ago.
The accolades for "Shogun" reflect not only the growing diversity in American entertainment, but also the legacy of Japan's "jidaigeki" samurai films, which have... Read More