Commercial production company A Fresh Face in Hell, with offices in Seattle and L.A., has signed director Freshteh for spots and music videos in the U.S. This marks the first representation on a U.S. production house roster for the Swedish director who was born in Iran and educated in Australia. She continues to be repped in the U.K. by Park Village and was previously handled in Sweden via B-Reel Films.
Freshteh began her film career in Stockholm as a casting director and quickly became known for her ability to tap into youth culture. As a director Freshteh fused the urgency of her casting with her art school background to create a unique original aesthetic. Fresh Face owner/managing director Jason Botkin said of Freshteh, “Her directing style has always stood out for being bold yet intimate. It’s been exciting to watch her evolve the rawness of her early documentary work to a more sophisticated visual palette. Helping her develop her storytelling voice is a collaboration I really look forward to.”
Freshteh speaks four languages, is a choreographer, published writer, well known DJ, an activist and a ace surfer. The Swedish commercial Roy Awards competition honored Freshteh with its first ever “Bravest Director in Sweden” honor in 2019. Her work has been featured in the trade press and been Vimeo Staff picked. Freshteh has also been the Scandinavian ambassador for Free The Work for the last two years.
Freshteh said of her new U.S. roost, “Jason and his team are the inspiring kind, dismissing creative obstacles while pushing innovation in ways that few production companies do. That gets me fired up about our future work together. I never touch anything I don’t believe in and I’m all in! A killer match made in the right kind of hell.”
Freshteh will be represented in the U.S. market by A Fresh Face in Hell sales team consisting of Brooke Covington and Larisa Peters at RC&Company on the West Coast, Chiara Chung at CCCo. in the Midwest, and Anna Rotholz of Anna Rotholz Management on the East Coast.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More