Bicoastal production company Honor Society has signed director Molly Schiot for U.S. commercial representation. Schiot has most recently been working consistently as a freelancer; earlier she had been on the rosters of such production companies as Über Content (as an individual director) and RadicalMedia (half of a duo with Mariah Garnett). Schiot has helmed spots for brands including Kiehl’s, Charter Communications, Nokia, JCPenney and Levi’s. In her recent ESPN 30 for 30 short, Our Tough Guy, Schiot deftly dismantles the myth behind one of the NHL’s most fearsome players, John Wensink.
Raised in small-town New Hampshire, Schiot’s innate artistic calling led her to the prestigious Glasgow School of Art, and then on to Brown University. Following her studies, she leaped energetically into the world of commercials, music videos and film and never looked back. Schiot’s diverse creative endeavors have led to sold-out exhibitions of her paintings and drawings, music videos for the likes of Mark Ronson and The Raveonettes and commercials for Miu-Miu and Converse. Her Check You Out series for Paper Magazine, a collection of short films, features comedy duo Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstien doing spoken word renditions of Danzig songs in front of Danzig’s house, A-list actress Malin Akerman getting her make-up done by a Swedish toddler, and somber singer Devendra Banhart pretending to pitch comedic pilots to a television network. Schiot is also the creative force behind the Instagram account “theunsungheroines,” which has been adapted into the forthcoming book "Game Changers." The book, published by Simon & Schuster, is a celebration of the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the 20th century that features rarely seen photos and new interviews with past and present gamechangers including Abby Wambach and Cari Champion.
“Molly is driven by creativity in every single aspect of her life and that really shines through in all of her work,” said Honor Society EP Megan Kelly. “She is a passionate artist and director, and brings an authentic emotive element that really resonates in any genre or style.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More