Filmmaker made his mark across commercials, music videos, shorts; RSA U.S. president Luke Ricci remembers him as a friend and a deeply talented, thoughtful artist
Douglas Avery, an accomplished commercial director known for his arresting visuals and affinity for capturing authentic performances, passed away last week (10/16) at his home in Los Angeles, after a multi-year battle with cancer. He was 54.
RSA Films U.S. president Luke Ricci, speaking on behalf of the company which was Avery’s commercial home, said: “We extend our deepest sympathies to Douglas’ family, his wife Pascha and children, Dalton and Lily. Myself and our team at RSA were lucky to work with Douglas and become his friends. He was a kind and thoughtful person who loved his family and friends very much. He had a remarkable talent, curiosity and passion for visual storytelling. His taste was impeccable; and reflected in his work with complex emotional landscapes, and an eye for beautiful composition with a rugged edge. Douglas also had a wicked sense of humor. We will miss him very much.”
Avery grew up in Boston, and began his career in New York as a photographer working with Richard Avedon, Steven Klein, Albert Watson and Annie Liebovitz. He also lived for a year in Japan, then went on to work in London and Paris as a fashion photographer for ID, The Face and Dazed & Confused. He left the fashion industry to pursue his affinity for narrative. His second short film–Hitch–was selected for Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase at Cannes. He followed this up with a Levi’s campaign for BBH London which won him Best New Director at the British Arrows. A year later he won a Clio Award for Direction for an Altoids commercial. And more accolades came with his music video for Pepe Deluxe, “Salami Fever,” which Bizarre Magazine named “Video of the Decade.”
Avery’s talent for gripping performances, cinematic visuals and compelling storytelling also shines in his recent work for Woody Creek Distillers campaign, with William H. Macy delivering his eccentric cool for the brand he is a partner in; and AXA’s “Kathmandu,” a candid portrayal of a heart wrenching true story from 2015’s devastating earthquake in Nepal.
In lieu of flowers, Avery’s family requests that donations be made to Stand Up To Cancer.
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