Global production house Partizan has brought director David M. Helman aboard its roster. Best known for his music video and short film fare, Helman had most recently been working independently prior to joining Partizan.
Helman made his first major mark with his debut video, Blu’s “Doinnothin’ which went on to be nominated for Best International Urban Video at the 2012 UKMVAs. Since then, the director has gone on to collaborate with such notable performers as Vince Staples, Joey Bada$$, Dillon Francis & Skrillex, James Vincent McMorrow, Glass Animals, Darkstar, Empress of, Shura, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
In his recent video for Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s “Killing Me To Love You,” Helman creates the visual analog to an ethereal song with mesmerizing shots of a girl hovering as she walks along a desolate road. The serene and empty scapes are a perfect evocation of the ambient musical palette of the track.
Helman’s endeavors outside of the music world have earned considerable recognition as well, including the short film A-Z of Lucky Blue Smith commissioned by i-D Magazine. The highly stylized piece features the teen model phenomenon listing the unique details of his life with rapid-fire pacing.
In 2013, Helman created the documentary short film Lily as part of the TRIBUTE film series for Mainline Films in partnership with Dazed. The portrait of a down-on-her-luck youth in Jamestown, New York, beautifully demonstrates Helman’s strength for telling authentic–and often heartbreaking–human stories.
Next on the books for Helman is another video for rapper Staples, following up their gravity-defying performance film for “Lift Me Up.” This is Helman’s first project released since signing with Partizan, where U.K. import Laura Jones was recently named executive producer of music videos. The addition of Helman since only just taking the reins demonstrates Jones’ knack for cultivating the most promising and cutting-edge talent coming out of the music video world today.
“Since the beginning, Partizan has been ingrained in music culture,” Helman remarked. “I’ve long looked up to iconic Partizan video directors like Michel Gondry so I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of that DNA.”
Partizan maintains offices in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, São Paulo and the Middle East.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More