Production studio Florence has added director Will Niava to its roster for commercial and branded projects as well as music videos. This marks his first commercial signing.
Splitting his time between West Africa and Montréal, Canada, Niava has turned out work for clients including Amazon Music, MTV, CBS, and artists such as Billie Eilish and H.E.R.
With his first film, Zoo, Niava explores the tenuousness of social order when a troubled man has a chance encounter with three outcasts. Dynamic camerawork and rhythmic editing mirror the emotional state of the film’s characters as their encounter escalates from a misunderstanding to all-out conflict. Zoo is a powerful and timely commentary on power, alienation, and how we treat our fellow man. The film has garnered 10 awards from international film festivals, as well as a spot in the Criterion Collection. Currently Niava is developing his next project, which he is co-writing alongside the Oscar-nominated director Jeremy Comte, and finalizing his second film, Element.
“Filmmaking for me is an immersive, lived experience” said Niava. “Florence has created a space in which I’ll be able to grow as an artist, honing my craft through commercial storytelling while also staying true to my voice.”
Jerad Anderson, founder/EP of Florence, said, “Will is a visionary and master storyteller. He grabs your attention from the first image and keeps you spellbound up until the very end.”
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