Production company JOJX has added director Per-Hampus Stålhandske, professionally known as Per-Hampus, to its diverse and growing roster for commercials and branded content in the U.S. Per-Hampus has established himself as an international directing talent in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, among other markets.
Per-Hampus discovered filmmaking through his passion for snowboarding, lensing his daredevil friends as they took to the slopes near his village in northern Sweden. Before long, he was following top athletes around the world and creating some of the earliest branded content for snowboarding films in his wake.
His years in the snow culminated with the creation of Nike’s 2014 flagship film, Never Not. Starring Olympic Gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg, this groundbreaking sports documentary reached the top of the iTunes charts worldwide. Much like the Nordic landscape that shaped him, Per-Hampus has a uniquely beautiful vision for the world.
Per-Hampus has helmed films for global brands including Porsche, Simplehuman, Royal Bank of Canada, Cisco, Nike, and Coca-Cola. His brand film for Ecco was shortlisted for the Young Director Award at the Cannes Lions.
“We have been following Per-Hampus’ work since 2015 and have always been in total awe of everything he creates,” said Jackson Morton, partner and executive producer at Los Angeles-based JOJX. “How he manages to capture such a beautiful vision for the world through such an authentic style is unique to him. Per has an approach to filmmaking we don’t see mastered very often, the effortless ability to explore the wonder of life through elevated cinematic visuals. And that is just the beginning of his talent.”
“This new partnership with JOJX is the perfect fit for me because we share the same views on advertising and filmmaking in general,” said Per-Hampus who earlier was repped by production house Variable in the U.S. ad arena. Per-Hampus continues to be partnered in the Stockholm and Oslo-based production company ATLAS.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More