Stinkfilm has added Salomon Ligthelm to its global roster of directors (excluding France where he continues to be handled by Gang).
Salomon is a self-taught filmmaker, with a background in music and sound design. His textural and experimental work finds new ways of exploring visual storytelling, and seeks to blur the lines between narrative and documentary filmmaking. He served as creator and co-director (with Dan DiFelice) of Anomaly, a story about relationships that intertwine around an unprecedented astronomical event set in the 1960s; this short film was born from a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Other Ligthelm credits include Rocket Wars, a short documentary following behind the scenes a holy tradition of rockets fired between two Orthodox churches. Rocket Wars went on to earn Salomon a Gold Young Directors Award. This was followed by a second YDA recognizing his direction of Audi’s “Rainmaker.”
Ligthelm, who was earlier repped by Variable in the U.S., said he was drawn to the people at Stink who share with him a “powerful emotion and vision when it comes to storytelling.
Jeff Baron, managing director of Stinkfilm in the U.S., said, “Salomon came to our attention almost a year ago. He encompasses all the elements of a great filmmaker and fits seamlessly into the culture at Stinkfilm. He has tremendous energy, strong family values and is incredibly self-motivated.”
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 โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ 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 โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ 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