Filmmaker Bryan Fogel–whose documentary Icarus won the Orwell Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah–has joined Supply&Demand for commercial representation. He comes to Supply&Demand as Icarus was recently released by Netflix, acquired by the streamer for some $5 million at Sundance. Among other honors earned by Icarus was it being selected to open the AFI Docs festival back in June in Washington, D.C. Additionally the sport espionage thriller won the first-ever Audience Award at the Sundance Film Fest in London.
Icarus is a wild ride that follows Fogel as he takes performance-enhancing drugs, investigating if they will strengthen his endurance as an amateur bike racer. Fogel’s filmmaking mission showcasing the effects of doping in the world of cycling quickly escalates when he meets Grigory Rodchenkov, a Russian scientist with shocking information that blows the lid off Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program, effectively revealing what some have billed as the biggest scandal in sports history.
“Icarus was a long four-year journey,” said Fogel after the film's premiere on Aug. 4. “I’m excited to tell stories in a short amount of time, and to explore creative boundaries in the advertising world as I continue to grow as a filmmaker.”
Fogel explains that he is open to all types of creative briefs, referencing how Icarus is anything but classic documentary-style work. “The film is layered with animation, extensive CGI and graphic works,” he explained. “Different media is combined in every possible way, from verité filmmaking to archival footage, as well as extensive use of music and sounds.”
Now that Icarus has been released, Fogel looks forward to entering the advertising market with Supply&Demand.
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