Alain Groenendaal, president and CEO of Grey Latin America, announced the promotion of Diego Medvedocky to VP, regional creative director. Medvedocky will continue his creative leadership of Grey Argentina, splitting his time between the agency and Grey’s 13 offices throughout the region.
Medvedocky joined Grey Latin America in 2013 as general creative director of Grey Argentina. In 2014, under his creative leadership, the agency won several distinguished awards, such as a Grand Prix and the title of “Agency of the Year” at the Argentina Creative Circle Diente festival, one of the most prestigious local advertising awards. In addition, the agency took home four Lions in 2014 and six more at the 2015 Cannes Festival. Diego is also a valued figure in the global network for his contributions to the Grey Global Creative Council, and last year was named Chairman of the Latin America version of the Council.
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