Director Amber Park has signed with Believe Media for content creation worldwide. Believe becomes the first production company to represent Park who has collaborated with brands such as Sony and Tatras, and directed music videos for artists Camila Cabello, Madison Beer and Ty Dolla $ign. Park’s latest piece is a short film for Apple Music celebrating Asian Pacific Heritage Month.
“Undoubtedly our business is changing at warp speed and I certainly feel the pressure to ensure not just a relevance in the marketplace, but a fresh vision that not only encompasses direction but an end-to-end understanding of the zeitgeist,” said Liz Silver, Believe Media co-founder/executive producer. “There are so many incredibly talented filmmakers out there but it has to be the right fit.”
Marc Benardout, Believe Media’s L.A.-based EP, views Park as the right fit, adding, “When I first saw Amber’s work, I instinctively knew this was someone special. Someone that was wise beyond her years, who had amassed a formidable future-facing body of work.”
An up-and-coming talent, Park already has extensive experience as a creative director and director on music videos and digital media, working with brands and artists to craft content ready-made for the chosen platform that’s seemingly pre-destined to trend.
“I have always been so inspired to work with amazing collaborators that not only challenge my creative thinking, but also push me out of my own boundaries and help me learn through experience,” shared Park. “Under the guidance of Marc, Liz and the Believe Media team, I’m excited to grow and shake up the industry by creating content that has purposeful intention and lead by refreshing, artistic innovation. I am incredibly excited to join their insane roster as well as humbled and thankful for their belief in me as a young, Asian, female creative to really create timeless magic alongside them, push all limits and share my voice.”
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