Filmmaker, actor and writer Patrick Brice has joined GenPop’s directorial lineup, marking his first career representation in spots and branded content.
Brice was first exposed to different ways to approach narrative storytelling while getting his BFA in Film and Video at the California Institute of the Arts. Creep, his first feature film as director/writer/actor (with Mark Duplass) premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival and was distributed by Netflix and iTunes. A horror movie shot in found footage-style, Creep was nominated for several awards by SXSW, the Chicago International Film Festival, and earned a Special Mention at the Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival.
His second feature as director/writer, The Overnight (starring Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling and Jason Schwartzman) world premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The Overnight made rounds on the festival circuit that year, winning Best Narrative Feature at the deadCENTER Film Festival, and earning a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, as well as for an Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Liberating is how Brice describes the opportunity to create commercial work with GenPop, “Being used to projects that take several years from conception to completion,” said Brice, “the chance to focus on a very specific story and explore the narrative within the short format feels like the world is opening up.”
Brice is currently writing a movie for Netflix–produced by the Duplass Brothers–which he will also direct. This marks Patrick’s third project with Mark Duplass.
“Patrick’s record in features shows just how much he thrives in collaborative environments. People truly enjoy working with him,” said Alex Anderson, managing director of GenPop. “He’s a brilliant creator and a peer, and that combination is a great indicator that he’s going to do amazing things in the commercial world.”
Genpop was launched this year as a content creation studio and production company by creative/director Ben Conrad. Key staffers include Anderson, EP Pierre Nobile, and Nick Moceri who heads up the film and TV department.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More