Girl Culture Films has signed Brazil-born director and visual artist Juliana Curi to its roster for representation in the U.S. and Canada spanning commercials, branded content and music videos. From the start of her career, when she developed social-awareness campaigns around climate justice and HIV for MTV Brazil, Curi has engaged audiences in urgent cultural causes with cinematic and artistic flair. Her joining Girl Culture Films advances the company’s mission to bring underrepresented stories and perspectives to advertising and entertainment.
Curi has created category-defying spots for Visa, Avon, Sony, and Dove. For Facebook Creative Shop client Mastercard, she wrote and directed an emotionally resonant short film series of portraits of small-business owners in Latin America, including a fruit seller in Brazil, an indigenous weaver in Mexico, and a traditional cook in Colombia. Curi also received the U.N. Women’s Award for a P&G commercial named the best in Latin America that defies gender stereotypes.
Curi’s work, which highlights the universal by training a compassionate eye on everyday people from all walks of life, is notable for its rapturous color and narrative use of light, and she has been praised for the naturalistic, radiant performances she inspires. Prior to joining Girl Culture Films, Curi had been represented by Honor Society in the U.S. ad market.
Girl Culture Films’ co-founder Lauren Greenfield said of Curi, “She brings purpose, meaning, and a sophisticated, dynamic visual style. Adding another layer to the social commitment of Girl Culture, Juliana has been influenced by decolonial and social cinema school and is recognized for portraying bodies and cultures that defy the hegemonic narrative and create powerful underrepresented stories. She is a phenomenally exciting young artist and director, and we are so excited to be able to collaborate with her at Girl Culture.”
Seeking to personally effect change within the audio-visual industry and lift all voices, Curi is also the founder of Mombak Social Program, a free mentoring project designed to support young Black, indigenous, LGBTQIAP+, and female filmmakers, with special priority given to socioeconomically vulnerable communities in Brazil.
“I’m a Latin American woman living in the United States, and a white woman living in Brazil. I recognize the structural system that has historically privileged me while simultaneously producing inequalities,” Curi noted. “As a director and artist, I make choices that contribute to the creation of visuals and culture where anti-racist values and equal-rights practices are the norm. Through these stories, we can collectively imagine new ways to harmoniously coexist and mutually flourish.”
Girl Culture also announced that it has signed New York-based Champion as its East Coast sales team. Champion was formed earlier this year by J. Patrick McElroy, Joanna Margilaj, and Julie Margilaj. After years of working with some of the top directors in the industry, the three ventured out on their own.
The addition of Champion expands Girl Culture’s reach at a pivotal time in broadcast, digital, and theatrical content creation.
“Champion excels at facilitating opportunities for iconoclastic creators,” said Girl Culture co-founder Frank Evers. “As demand for genuine, truly representative content becomes ever more critical, we’re excited to work with Patrick, Joanna, and Julie to connect under-served audiences with our original content and brand collaborations.”
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More