Little Minx has added director Rodney Lucas to its roster for commercial and content representation. Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Lucas is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who has directed short documentaries, commercials and branded content for the likes of Nike, Amazon, Beats by Dre, NOWNESS, Vice, Upworthy, Dicks Sporting Goods, Facebook, Clarks Originals and Toms, among many others.
“Nothing like losing a couple of jobs to a director to pique my interest in him,” said Little Minx president Rhea Scott. “That guy was Rodney Lucas. And then we met; and now it feels like home with him. I know as clearly as two and two equals four that he will make great leaps forward with us.”
Lucas’ body of work is notable for its focus on social themes and issues. For example, his unique collaboration with Toms Shoes involved an initiative that financially empowered artists around the globe to make social changes in their respective communities, while a national ad campaign for Best Buy’s Teen Tech Centers that aired throughout the NBA playoffs earlier this year features teens and their mentors telling their stories and showing the power and lasting impact of mentorship. His latest work, a newly released PSA for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, features former NFL star Shannon Sharp bringing awareness of the disease to the Black community.
“My work is rooted in making the everyday person a messenger of optimism,” said Lucas who had most recently been at Even/Odd Films prior to joining Little Minx. “The spirit of my work is based on capturing the honest, and at times, vulnerable energy of the people and transforming that energy into love, essentially. And I learned that from my mother. I saw the care and detail she would put into braiding my little sister’s hair on Sunday mornings as like my first classes of film school and lessons of theater. Those moments created my cinematic language.”
A proud child of the South Side of Chicago, and survivor of an unstable childhood that included bouts with homelessness, Lucas credits the city’s culturally rich soil as the hand that shaped his style and visual aesthetic. His work is celebrated for an ability to capture global communities with a high level of sensitivity, care, artistic expression and emotional depth. With an extensive background in the music industry–that includes releasing works with the London-based, platinum-selling group, Bastille–Lucas attributes the poetic tonality and rhythmic flow of his films to the time he spent touring the world as a performance artist and award-winning songwriter.
“Signing with Little Minx is the second biggest moment of my career,” he said. “My first was having a child. And that’s being totally transparent. This is the first time I’ve had this level of support and instruction. My career is a perpetual evolution, and I look at what Little Minx has achieved from a legacy standpoint with artists and directors and I’m in awe. I want to put something together with them that’s not just commercial, but also poetic and accurate. I’m grateful for the opportunity and to all the people who have helped me build to this moment.”
Other recent work from Lucas includes “What is Love?–a collaboration between the Ad Council and Amazon that records the voices of real people in Chicago and their definition of what love is, and then integrates these voices into Amazon’s Alexa system. He also recently worked with Anthony Coleman, creative director, brand creative, Nike Chicago, helping build-out the Nike studio in the city. And he is currently working on Black Hercules, a short doc that celebrates the Black body-building culture of the 1980s in Los Angeles.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More