Multidisciplinary creative studio Los York has added director, DP and visual artist Julia Pitch to its talent roster. Pitch’s visual sensibility is heavily influenced by her love of painting and fine art, which she studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work juxtaposes beautiful, well-composed imagery with the raw emotion of deeply intimate character studies, often challenging gender and cultural norms subtextually.
“I got into film because I love collaboration,” said Pitch. “I love assembling a crew and bringing a creative vision to life, from casting to production design to edit. More and more, we’re seeing brand films that reflect the people and the world around us–both the good, and the spaces where we need to grow and evolve. My approach has always been to find different angles to every story, challenging prevailing narratives by drawing on the emotion and humanity of each person I portray.”
Pitch has worked with brands including Coca-Cola, Nike, Disney, Walmart, Adidas, Nickelodeon, VANS, Benefit Cosmetics, and Daily Harvest. Her editorial clients include Vogue, LADYGUNN, Them, Refinery29, GQ, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. Pitch completed her first feature film as a DP, The Country Club, in fall 2019.
In "Nike x Sisterhood Fall 2020," Pitch flips the script on the brand’s notable athlete-driven anthems, demonstrating that Nike’s appeal goes beyond the world of athletics to play within the world of fashion and lifestyle. With a diverse cast of women, the film marries function and form with visual metaphors that underscore Nike’s functional and fashion appeal. "Patron x The Real Ones" blends emotionally resonant, sincere storytelling with vibrant cinematography, inviting viewers to see love, family, and gender through the perspective of the lead character, who prefers her people like she prefers her tequila–straight-up and real. In "For Our Veterans: Gender Nation," Pitch draws upon the deeply felt, raw emotions of her subjects and sets them against beautifully composed imagery to tell the stories of U.S. veterans who identify as trans. Through a series of seamlessly interwoven vignettes, she connects the universally human desires for love, connection, and acceptance through each individual’s unique story.
“Julia’s work is a thrilling combination of light, composition, and stunning visual imagery that evoke unvarnished emotions with real-life resonance,” said Los York founder/ECD Seth Epstein. “Her voice and her work speak to our times.”
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