Biscuit Filmworks has added Ben Strebel to its roster of directors in the U.S. and the U.K. for commercials and branded content.
Working across music videos, short film and commercials, Strebel has developed a stunning portfolio of critically acclaimed work, picking up awards including Gold and Bronze Lions at Cannes, Ciclope and Kinsale Sharks honors, a Young Directors Award and D&AD pencils. His commercial campaigns include spots for Nike, Samsonite, Lexus, Nissan, Apple, Adidas, BMW and Jägermeister. His Guy Cotton film “A Trip To Sea” alone earned assorted accolades, including a Cannes Gold Lion, four Bronze Lions, five D&AD pencils, Clio, One Show and Webby honors.
Prior to joining Biscuit, Strebel was repped by production house Skunk in the U.S. and U.K. He is known for blending cinematic realism with a surreal twist, commanding a vivid filmic canvas with which to tell human stories—changing and diversifying the viewer’s perception of the world.
“I’ve admired Ben’s commercial and music video work for a long time and we’re already developing a great creative partnership,” said Rupert Reynolds-MacLean, managing director at Biscuit U.K.
Strebel studied History of Art in Edinburgh, and created fashion films for Vivienne Westwood and AllSaints early in his production career.
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