TBD has brought on board art director Leila Moussaoui and copywriter Sara Uhelski. Having previously worked together for several years in San Francisco at Intel and Pereira & O’Dell, the pair brings a shared history of creativity to the growing team at S.F. agency TBD.
A native of Morocco, Moussaoui began her career at Pereira & O’Dell as art director, where she initially met TBD founder and chief creative officer Rafael Rizuto who was creative director at the time. The two worked closely together on projects for brands such as Ad Council and Airbnb. Most recently art director with Intel’s in-house creative team, Moussaoui was instrumental in developing Lady Gaga’s 2017 Super Bowl halftime show. This choreographed aerial performance used 300 Intel “Shooting Star” drones to light up the sky and was the first-ever drone integration during a televised event. At TBD, Moussaoui will oversee the conception and creation of meaningful projects and bring her global brand experience to the team.
Uhelski also hails from Intel where she worked on projects such as Conflict Free, a partnership between Intel and YouTube influencers which highlighted the company’s commitment to sourcing conflict-free materials to make electronic devices. Like Moussaoui, she also met Rizuto at Pereira & O’Dell where she began her advertising career as copywriter, and has worked with brands such as Ad Council, Hyatt Regency, 1-800 Contacts and Purex. Having worked at one of the largest newspapers in Brazil before moving to the U.S., Uhelski will at TBD work closely with Moussaoui on the development and production of creative materials for ad campaigns.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More