Chelsea Pictures, which earlier this week was named The One Show’s Production Company of the Year, has added London-based director Dumas Haddad to its U.S. roster. This marks his first-ever branded representation in the American market.
Aside from his commercial work for Guerlain & Footlocker x Fifa, Haddad has directed promos and music videos for Ghetts, Anaïs, and Lonepsi. Most recently, Haddad directed rising star Priya Ragu’s vibrant music video for her song “Chicken Lemon Rice” celebrating her Sri Lankan heritage.
“From the first time we saw Dumas’ body of work, we knew we wanted him at Chelsea,” said Lisa Mehling, president of Chelsea. “We are drawn to filmmakers whose singular point of view just grabs you–and Dumas’ potent blend of humanity and classic composition and lighting is outstanding.”
Haddad is a director, writer and photographer with a focus on storytelling and dramatic action. He has developed his craft from the worlds of fashion, music and bleeding edge culture.
Dumas earned a Vimeo Staff Pick for his work directing Anaïs’ music video “Lost My Faith,” securing himself a slot on the shortlist at Berlin Commercial for Best Emerging Talent. For his powerful documentary short film Fathers, which interrogates and challenges stereotypes surrounding the role of the Black father in modern society, Haddad also received a Vimeo Staff Pick as well as landed on the Shortlist at the Kinsale Shark Awards. In 2019, Haddad was highly commended by the 1.4 Awards as an On The Cusp of Greatness new director selection. His surreal short film, The Gift, premiered on Film 4 and was commissioned by Random Acts.
His next short film, Things I Never Told My Father, was written by Letitia Wright exploring the dynamic of grief. Haddad is also set to release work he directed for Gucci.
“I’m truly honored to start this new and exciting journey in the U.S. with such an amazing family,” said Haddad, “The U.S. is a market that most excites me and the team’s dexterity and astuteness in the space is beyond impressive.”
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