The directorial team of Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing–whose documentary filmmaking has garnered both Oscar and Emmy nominations–has signed with aWHITELABELproduct for U.S. representation in spots and branded content. Grady and Ewing’s Jesus Camp, a look at Pentecostal children in America, earned a Best Feature Documentary Oscar nomination in 2007.
That same year their Boys of Baraka, which focused on struggling pre-teens in Baltimore, copped a News and Documentary Emmy nom. The directing duo’s 12th & Delaware, centering on the abortion rights controversy and its impact on a local community, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.
Currently Grady and Ewing’s docu short for HBO, The Education of Mohammed Hussein, is on the Oscar Short Subject Documentary shortlist, one of eight finalist films in the running for a 2013 Academy Award nomination. Their short explores an anti-Islamic preacher and his impact on children in Michigan, where the largest Muslim community in the U.S. resides.
Meanwhile Grady and Ewing’s feature length documentary, Detropia, about Detroit residents who have opted to stay in the Motor City despite adversity, is widely considered to be a contender for an Oscar nom. Detropia, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, recently earned a Gotham Independent Film Award nomination. (Winning the Gotham Award for Best Documentary Feature earlier this week was director David France’s How to Survive a Plague.)
Grady and Ewing’s body of work also includes notable TV profile pieces for CNN Heroes and Stand Up 2 Cancer.
Prior to aWHITELABELproduct, the directors were repped in the ad arena by production house Rabbit. Ewing explained what drew her and Grady to spotmaking and branded content, observing, “As a storyteller, I see that advertising has gone into more personal stories, more real people, more authenticity. Culture at large, especially younger viewers have become more cynical and skeptical when it comes to advertising. The demand for authenticity called out to us. Agencies and advertisers want to have a documentarian’s touch in profiling real people. We have something to offer–to bring more humanity and aspects of personal life to help brands connect with people.”
Ewing additionally sees ad fare as helping to diversify the nature of her and Grady’s work, noting that their documentaries reflect society’s “more sobering topics, but we have another side we want to express in our filmmaking. We are excited to bring a lighter and more humorous side to commercial projects. The idea of working our creative muscle in another emotional palette is extremely exciting to us.”
Ellen Jacobson, executive producer of aWHITELABELproduct, sees Grady and Ewing’s filmmaking prowess translating successfully into the world of commercials and branded content. The duo was first singled out as directors to watch in the ad arena by SHOOT‘s Spring 2010 Directors Series feature story on up-and-coming directorial talent.
Among Grady and Ewing’s other credits is a segment of the feature-length documentary Freakonomics based on the best-selling book of the same title. The directors turned out a 20-minute film segment on a chapter in the book revolving around teenagers who are being paid to get good grades in school. Also adapting different chapters of the book to film were documentarians Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight). Directing the interstitial glue that meshed these chapters into a unified film was Seth Gordon (The King of Kong). Freakonomics debuted at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More