Director Morgan Neville–whose Twenty Feet From Stardom won the Best Feature Documentary Oscar in 2014 and then the Best Music Film Grammy the following year, among other assorted honors–has formally joined global production studio RadicalMedia for commercial representation in North America.
Neville is well versed in the spotmaking realm, having to his directorial credit work spanning brands that include Google, Microsoft and Samsung. Also in the branded content arena, he helmed a 20-minute documentary for audio headphone and speakers company Bose.
Neville naturally gravitated to RadicalMedia for commercials in that he’s already enjoyed a recent string of successful collaborations with the production company, including an ad campaign for Audible that aired during last month’s Academy Awards. Neville additionally executive produced and directed two episodes of RadicalMedia’s eight-part documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design, which debuted last month on Netflix after its Sundance Film Festival world premiere, and he directed RadicalMedia’s Keith Richards: Under the Influence, also for Netflix.
Last week, Neville’s documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Mama and the Silk Road Ensemble premiered on HBO.
Neville has also made a major mark on the film festival circuit, perhaps most notably at Sundance with three of his features nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize–Troubadors in 2011, Twenty Feet From Stardom in 2013 (that year’s opening night film at Sundance), and Best of Enemies in 2015. He co-directed the latter with Robert Gordon, delving behind the scenes into the volatile 1968 televised debates between the conservative William F. Buckley and the liberal Gore Vidal.
Best of Enemies earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination in 2016 for Best Documentary, Neville’s second such nod in that competition–the first coming two years earlier for Twenty Feet From Stardom.
Prior to joining RadicalMedia, Neville was repped for spots by Saville Productions.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More