Johnathan Brownlee has been appointed CEO and president of the Dallas Film Society and executive director of the Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF).
A transplant from Canada, Brownlee is an award-winning Canadian/American entertainment veteran with a diverse international body of work, spanning more than 20 years. Three of Brownlee’s feature films, “Occupy, Texas,” “Three Days in August” and “Decoding Annie Parker,” have screened at DIFF. Brownlee created DIFF’s first screenwriting competition whose winner, “Three Days in August,” was produced in Texas, premiered at DIFF and was released nationwide at Studio Movie Grill.
“I’m extremely honored to lead DFS and looking forward to growing our education and community initiatives and leading DIFF’s transformation into a festival that reflects the incredible diversity of Dallas Fort Worth and the ever-changing landscape of entertainment,” said Brownlee, “There is nothing like watching a film in the theater, but we are also fortunate to be living in a time when television, streaming content and virtual reality are leaders in creative storytelling and our mandate at DFS is to present all of these experiences to our audience.”
Brownlee’s career highlights the symbiotic relationship among entertainment, art and commerce as he has created television series sponsored by Home Depot, HSBC, Ford, British Airways and Club Corp, to name a few. He has also produced content for The Salvation Army, Amnesty International, World Wildlife Fund, Toronto Humane Society, and KIPP Schools to support their fundraising campaigns. Brownlee has taught both creative and “the business of the business” workshops at Harvard, MIT, Vancouver Film School, LA Film School, Brandeis University, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts, and served as the LA representative for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Cinematographer Pepe Avila del Pino Discusses Residente’s “313,” Winning An ASC Award
Pepe Avila del Pino’s second career nomination for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award earned him his first win earlier this week in Los Angeles--for outstanding achievement in music videos on the strength of the Residente-directed “313” featuring performances by Residente, Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Penelope Cruz. The cinematic, stirringly beautiful “313” opens with Penelope Cruz narrating in Spanish, reflecting on the meaning of life and the passage of time. She is joined by ballet dancers who are said to represent time while Cruz represents life itself. The ethereal music video brings us the essence of time in our lives. Residente’s life and time are seemingly controlled, respectively, by Cruz and the dancers from the outset. But towards the end of the video, Residente starts to orchestrate his own time and life. What can’t be denied, though, is that time is fleeting as Cruz and Residente begin to disappear before our eyes. Avila del Pino, AMC, is best known for his work in television and features. In fact, his alluded to first ASC Award nomination came in 2018 on the basis of the TV pilot for The Deuce, directed by Michelle MacLaren. Over the past seven years, Avila del Pino has lensed select music videos--all for his friend, Residente (a.k.a. Rene Perez Joglar). The Residente videos have thus become passion projects, done out of “pure love” with the same close-knit team. The “313” song and video were especially personal to Residente in that they were both inspired by a friend who had died about a year earlier. To win an ASC Award for this particular project is most gratifying for Avila del Pino--not only because of the video’s significance to Residente, but also the deep feelings the DP has for the ASC.... Read More