B-Reel has signed comedy director Roderick Fenske for both the US and UK markets.
Before joining B-Reel, Fenske directed through Hungry Man for five years. His brand of comedy has been recognized in such competitions as D&AD, Cannes and Eurobest for brands that include Coca-Cola, Honda, Alfa Romeo, The European Union and Las Vegas Tourism.
In 2001, Fenske started directing comedy in London as a creative director at TBWA. After perfecting a unique style that was driven by subtle and sharp performances from quirky characters for clients such as Sony Playstation and FCUK, Roderick was invited to join the Swedish directing collective ACNE in Stockholm, Sweden.
During his time in Sweden, Fenske developed a fresh visual aesthetic combined with practical special effects that became a signature of his character-based comedy. He sticks to the comedic themes that apply to all cultures by creating material everyone can relate to. In addition, Fenske has the ability to master several different sub-genres of comedy while maintaining a strong and distinctive voice throughout.
Fenske has also directed short films that have been recognized at such shows as the Palm Springs and Santa Fe International film festivals.
Raoul Peck Resurrects A Once-Forgotten Anti-Apartheid Photographer In “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”
When the photographer Ernest Cole died in 1990 at the age of 49 from pancreatic cancer at a Manhattan hospital, his death was little noted.
Cole, one of the most important chroniclers of apartheid-era South Africa, was by then mostly forgotten and penniless. Banned by his native country after the publication of his pioneering photography book "House of Bondage," Cole had emigrated in 1966 to the United States. But his life in exile gradually disintegrated into intermittent homelessness. A six-paragraph obituary in The New York Times ran alongside a list of death notices.
But Cole receives a vibrant and stirring resurrection in Raoul Peck's new film "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found," narrated in Cole's own words and voiced by LaKeith Stanfield. The film, which opens in theaters Friday, is laced throughout with Cole's photographs, many of them not before seen publicly.
As he did in his Oscar-nominated James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," the Haitian-born Peck shares screenwriting credit with his subject. "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is drawn from Cole's own writings. In words and images, Peck brings the tragic story of Cole to vivid life, reopening the lens through which Cole so perceptively saw injustice and humanity.
"Film is a political tool for me," Peck said in a recent interview over lunch in Manhattan. "My job is to go to the widest audience possible and try to give them something to help them understand where they are, what they are doing, what role they are playing. It's about my fight today. I don't care about the past."
"Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is a movie layered with meaning that goes beyond Cole's work. It asks questions not just about the societies Cole documented but of how he was treated as an artist,... Read More