Cut+Run has brought Unique Hammond on board as head of sales and development for its Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin offices. Hammond brings a wealth of industry knowledge to this new role. Hammond’s previous roles span various leadership positions in the advertising industry, from EP at Aero Film, to partner of SCOUT and co-creator of HUM Music. In each, she was heavily involved in developing teams to put compelling and original work on the screen…..
LightHouse Films, headquartered in New York, has signed Sharon Lew of NY-based indie talent management firm Lew & Co for representation in the Northeast U.S. The LightHouse directorial roster includes Ray Zablocki, Anthony Pellino, Romain Quirot, Antoine Pai, Camille de Galbert, and Pepe Lansky….
Ortana Media Group, a London-based provider of media asset management and media orchestration products and services, has promoted Harry Sheen to sales manager. He reports to Ortana Media Group sales director Adam Welsh. Sheen studied music and audio technology at Bournemouth University from 2010 to 2014, graduating with a Bachelor of Science honors degree before joining Belden Grass Valley as a technical account manager. He progressed in July 2015 to Ortana’s project engineering team….
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