Bicoastal production house Valiant Pictures and branded content production company FreshFly have entered into a partnership for cross-promotional directorial representation. Valiant Pictures will utilize the FreshFly directorial roster for non-scripted branded content projects, while FreshFly will turn to the Valiant directorial roster with scripted commercial projects. The partnership allows both companies to remain independent while also offering further support to top brands and agencies with double the wide-spanning branded content offerings, for longstanding clients including PepsiCo, Labatt Blue Light, CarMax, Seagram’s Escapes, AstraZeneca, Breastcancer.org, and Vanguard. Valiant directors include the multi-award-winning Em Weinstein and Tiffany Frances, as well as co-founder Vincent Lin and the most recently signed director/DP Danny Corey, who helmed the viral CarMax “Call Your Shot” campaign starring Stephen Curry and Sue Bird. Among FreshFly’s roster directors are co-founder Sean Maher, who helped launch the shop in 2008, as well as Scott Whitham, Charles Morabito, and documentary filmmaker Glenn Holsten….
Carissa Clark has joined HARBOR as its director of sales on the West Coast for feature and episodic. Rochelle Brown also comes aboard to serve in the same capacity on the East Coast. A global company with operations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London, HARBOR is engaged in the moving image-making process spanning live-action, dailies, editorial, design, animation, visual effects, CG, sound and picture finishing. Clark is a seasoned postproduction expert with 10+ years of multidisciplinary experience. With a background in DI, production, and sales at Modern VideoFilm, Chainsaw (SIM) and EFILM, she has worked closely with a host of filmmakers such as Wes Anderson on Grand Budapest Hotel, Amy Poehler on Wine Country, Sam Esmail on Comet, and Emmanuel Lubezki on Knight of Cups. Brown joins HARBOR from her role as executive producer with The Mill Group, New York, where she played an integral part in the growth and development of the color department for both long and short-form projects. Her feature film credits include An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, Arizona, Waves, The Adventures of Wolf Boy, Uncut Gems, Zola and Let Him Go. She has supported major brands such as Nike and PlayStation. A successful 10-year tenure with Company 3 New York preceded her role with The Mill….
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