Bill Perna, executive producer of New York-headquartered Voyeur Films, waited patiently all year for Canadian director Floria Sigismondi to move to New York from London. Now that she has settled into her cozy downtown digs, Perna has succeeded in signing the filmmaker for exclusive U.S. commercial representation.
Sigismondis artistic pursuits arent confined to directing. She is a painter, a photographer, a sculptor and an opera singer. Formerly a fashion photographer, her elaborate visual style featured in music videos for David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Sheryl Crow and Barry Adamson won her broad recognition and in some cases awards in both North America and Europe, helping to launch her commercial directing career.
Sigismondi, who is repped in Canada for commercials by Toronto-based The Partners Film Company and for music videos through Toronto-based Revolver, Partners music video division, has been without U.S. spot representation for the past year. In December 97 Sigismondi left Los Angeles-based U Ground, where she had been repped stateside for commercials and music videos for two years.
It was her affiliation with U Ground that earned Sigismondi music video fame in the U.S. with the much-talked about video Beautiful People she directed for Marilyn Manson (produced in conjunction with Revolver), which was nominated for Best Rock Video at the MTV Music Video Awards in A97. She was then awarded a video with David Bowie titled Little Wonder, also a collaborative effort with Revolver, that was ultimately nominated for Best Video at the 1998 British Music Video Awards. She directed a dramatic PSA with U Ground for the Lupus Foundation of America called Box via Saatchi & Saatchi Business Communications, Rochester, New York as well as an Adidas spot titled Cynics via London-based Leagas Delaney that featured NBA player Kobe Bryant.
It was while in post production at Smoke & Mirrors, London, on the Adidas spot that Sigismondi decided to stay in London and search for U.K. representation. At the time I just wanted to be in London and I had started the process of looking for a production company there so I didnt really think about U.S. representation until I returned to the States, explained Sigismondi, who left U Ground during this time because of differences in opinion.
Subsequently Sigismondi signed with London-based Academy for commercial representation in the U.K. and Europe, and music video representation in the U.S. After spending a year in London and shooting her most recent commercial effort for Fanta titled Share the Fun via Leagas Delaney, London for the U.K. market, Sigismondi officially moved to New York where Perna was waiting to bring her on board.
Id been aware of Floria Sigismondis work for some time and I had been talking to her so when she moved back to New York, we finally felt that the time was right to move forward, said Perna, who met Sigismondi through Don McLean, an executive producer and the founding father of Partners.
Sigismondis work is disturbing and innovative. She has the ability to meld together haunting and sometimes grotesque images with a contrasting color composition that makes the work visually palatable. For instance, she often distorts human figures, replacing appendages with mannequin limbs and applying surgical appliances to mouths. Her recently published book Redemption is a photographic history of her past shoots and represents this style which she says she is ready to close the book on, so to speak. Meanwhile, a new style has emerged which is evident in the spot she directed for Fanta, where a series of youths have a go at posing in a photo booth. Although the colors she chose are similar to her earlier works, the mood of the piece is not what one has considered in the past to be typically Floria Sigismondi.
Her most recent music video credit is Sheryl Crows Anything But Down directed through Academy. At Partners, Sigismondis recent work includes the Coca-Cola spot Groove via MacClaren McCann, Toronto, and a commercial for Toronto-based cosmetics company M.A.C. titled simply M.A.C. Cosmetics. Both spots were chosen to be featured in a show of selected videos from various international directors called Home Screen Home at The Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid this spring. While M.A.C. accepted, Coca-Colas legal department declined the honor. Sigismondi also recently signed a feature deal with Los Angeles-based Ed Pressman Films.
