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    Director Dawn Porter Lands 1st Spot Representation, Joins Saville

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2204 Views
    Dawn Porter
    VENICE, Calif. --

    Saville Productions has signed Emmy-nominated documentary director Dawn Porter for commercials and branded entertainment in the U.S. This marks her first representation in the ad arena. She is repped for all other content, including feature-length fare, by ICM.

    Porter selects cultural stories that hold strong public perceptions and strips them of their preconceived notions, revealing fresh perspectives and insights. She has revealed impactful truths in documentaries such as: Gideon’s Army (2013), which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Editing Award; Spies of Mississippi (2014); and Trapped (2016), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won the prestigious 2017 Peabody Award, among other honors. 

    Porter honed her ability to draw forth stirring, honest narratives through her experiences litigating in law and managing ethical practices for such television networks as ABC and A&E. Drawn to projects that present clarity, Porter lifts the curtain on often political and controversial topics to provide insight into her subjects’ earnest motivations. 

    Rupert Maconick, Saville’s EP, noted, “Porter brings an authentic approach to her beautifully constructed stories that will benefit the commercial and branded entertainment world. She is a strong asset to Saville and will continue to shine with fantastic narrative-driven productions.”

    Porter said of Maconick, “I had other documentarian friends, including Morgan Neville and Dan Krauss, who worked with him and liked him very much. Saville is flexible, creative and really tries to match their filmmakers with clients who appreciate their original style.”

    After graduating from Swarthmore College and Georgetown Law Center, Porter practiced with Baker & Hostetler, before serving as director of standards and practices at ABC News and A&E Television Networks. Porter segued her career into filmmaking with her debut HBO documentary Gideon’s Army, which in addition to the Sundance recognition garnered the Tribeca All-Access Creative Promise Award, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and News & Documentary Emmy Award. Other noteworthy laurels include her nationally-televised interview with President Obama for her film Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper, which was broadcast on The Discovery Channel and The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in 2015.

    Saville Productions is an established entertainment company that has produced hundreds of content projects for major brands with high- profile filmmakers, including: Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), Paul Haggis (Crash), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) and Fernando Meirelles (City Of God).

    Saville produced the award-winning Herzog feature-length documentary Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World for NetScout. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired for worldwide distribution by Magnolia Pictures. Saville co-produced Eddie The Eagle, starring Hugh Jackman distributed by Fox and Lionsgate. Saville’s cinematic short film Out There, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis, won the Cannes Gold Lion.

    Saville is currently developing a slate of scripted series, documentaries and feature films in collaboration with major brands.

    Category:News
    Tags:Dawn PorterGideon's ArmySaville Productions



    Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95

    Tuesday, January 21, 2025

    Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.

    Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.

    Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."

    Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.

    As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."

    Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.

    "My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."

    Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More

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