Director Tiffany Johnson has signed with multi-disciplinary creative studio Good Company for commercials and branded content in the U.S. This marks her first career production company representation in the advertising market.
Hailing from Compton, Calif., Tiffany made an impact with her first short film, Ladylike, which screened at multiple festivals, including the Diversity in Cannes showcase, where she won the Director’s Choice Award. Johnson then went on to graduate from the AFI Directing Workshop for Women program, where her second short film Marabou landed a spot in the official selection at Outfest LA and caught the eye of Lena Waithe. Joining forces shortly thereafter with Waithe’s production company ATTN to collaborate on “The Dove Self-Esteem Project,” Johnson created an exclusive five-part series, Girls Room, making a splash at Tribeca X that year and winning Best Episodic Series. It was the unique format of this series that caught the eye of the jury, as well as her genuine performances and captivating storytelling.
Tribeca served as a launching pad for Johnson’s eventual pivot into directing episodics for prominent platforms, including Solos (Amazon), Hunters (Amazon), Black Monday (Showtime), Dear White People (Netflix), The Last O.G (TBS) and most recently Mike (Hulu), Poker Face (Peacock) and The Big Cigar ( AppleTV+).
“Tiffany is a rapidly emerging talent,” said Ryan Heiferman, managing partner, executive producer at Good Company. “Her ability to craft content that feels fresh and thought provoking is quite impressive. Having already made waves in television, and dips in the branded content world, we believe her fearless ability to tell authentic, compelling narratives will lead to success in the ad space.”
Johnson returned to Tribeca this past year with her documentary The Beauty of Blackness. Created alongside Vox Creative and Sephora, this powerful film tells the story of Fashion Fair cosmetics–the first brand to create a line specifically for women of color, winning the TribecaX Award for Feature Film. It was immediately acquired by HBO Max and was featured as part of the Black Voices and Women’s History Month curated programming on the streaming service. The film also scooped up awards at the Clios, The One Show and the ADC Awards, LA Independent Women Film Awards, and AICP.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the wonderful Good Company roster for commercial representation,” said Johnson from a set in Columbia where she is shooting the season finale of The Big Cigar. “ I have long admired Good Company’s range of expertise and I love that they have their finger on the pulse of innovative storytelling and content.”
Upon Johnson’s return to L.A. next month, she will wrap up her latest short, The Applause, her first collaboration with Good Company, which she hopes will hit the festival circuit.
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